Genetic Memory versus Past Life Memories

[WayFarer]

I wasn't sure where else to put this so I thought 'they'll move it if this isn't the right place'. (I appreciate that some people do not believe in reincarnation or genetic memory - this post is about the possibility of one posing or being perceived as the other and not an argument for or against the existence of either.)

Some cultures/religions believe you reincarnate along family lines. Some cultures/people believe in genetic memories being passed down through generations. It seems to me that one may be mistaken as the other. Is anyone aware of a difference that could be used to say that a pre-existence memory is either one or the other? Thank you.

 

[Onkara]

Hi WayFarer
My guess is that movement and bodily postures or expressions might fall under genetic memory, of course one could argue they are just learnt. People might say, "oh the way you said/did that, reminds me of old uncle you never met" for example.

 

[WayFarer]

Hi WayFarer
My guess is that movement and bodily postures or expressions might fall under genetic memory, of course one could argue they are just learnt. People might say, "oh the way you said/did that, reminds me of old uncle you never met" for example.

Good morning Onkarah. Thanks for your reply.
Maybe I could have used a better term. The memory that I meant by "genetic memory" has sometimes been referred to as "racial memory". Some argue it is related to instinctual reactions. For example, you had a memory that was of a castle. You could smell the castle, feel the air/atmosphere within its walls: that could be argued that it was genetic/racial (one of your ancestors lived there or in a similar one) or past life (you lived there yourself). Of course some may argue other theories (delusional may be one, misplaced memories another) but of the options between past life and genetic/racial how could you tell?

 

[Kathryn]

I believe in genetic memory. My father and I have had some experiences that really enforce that belief in us.

I don't believe in reincarnation because I see no point in recycling souls, so to speak. It is also not a part of my religious and philosophical beliefs. But genetic memory makes sense to me and like I said, I've had several incidents in my life that reinforce that belief.

 

[Thief]

In high school, it was still required to have one semester of shop class.
Last semester of senior year, my counselor suggested wood shop.

When everyone else was making ping pong paddles, chess boards....
I was building a round bellied stringed instrument.

I was possessed. I worked until my fingers bled.

At one point, I did ask the instructor for advise.
But he replied that I was on my own, having exceeded what he could do.

I took the industrial award that year. My fellow classmates were not amused.
Some of them had taken shop classes all through high school.
It seemed inappropriate to them, that someone with only one semester of shop should have the recognition as graduation approached.

But I couldn't help it.
As if I knew what and how, I took to the work.
As if I had some 'previous experience'.

 

[luvuyesua]

In the bible it speaks of, blessings and punishments, passed down the blood line. Certain organ problems are also passed down, every organ reflects a type of emotion, such as liver-upsetness, lungs depression, etc. the culture line is a base formula (I never knew my mothers blood line till recently, but my bones have always moved to music from spain, as if I have danced it, but I in reality I dont know how. all of this influence the memory cells. well that is how I see it.

 

[wmjbyatt]

Disregarding, for a moment, underlying spiritual frameworks that would leave on towards a predisposed belief towards one or the other, I see no way to tell "Racial memory" from "past-life experience." The fact is that they both involve experiencing things that the experiencer's biological corpus was not alive in order to experience. In order to determine, personally, in which category an individual's own past memories belong, one would have to develop and understand a framework that would drive such understanding. So far as I can tell, the only other way to determine which source drove an individual's memories would be divine revelation, but the veracity of one's own revelatory experiences is up to the agent in question.