Genetic Memory

Between 2013 and 2015 there were a handful of articles about genetic memory that made news on various online sources, including Scientific American, BBC Health, and Discover Magazine. These articles focus on the fact that perhaps you, living in this generation, carry genetic memories from your grandparents, great-grandparents, and even great-great grandparents, in what is called transgenerational epigenetic inheritance.

In the Discover Magazine article author, Dan Hurley, tells of the research that is being conducted on the epigenetic expressions of genes in the brain, which plainly stated means it is believed that some of your psychological traits can be inherited from your great-grandparents, and passed on to your children. If your ancestors’ had a tendency towards anxiety, depression, and a low tolerance for stress, due to a traumatic event in their life, we are now discovering that these traits can affect you today.

Here are a few things you will need to know before reading further and this information will be helpful when you read the Discover Magazine article:

DNA - Deoxyribonucleic acid - is the double-helix code, which is the master code residing inside the nucleus of every cell. It is considered the blueprint of the cell, much like the hard drive of a computer for each cell.

RNA - Ribonucleic acid - makes the proteins that are the workhorses of the cell, and transcribes the code to build whatever proteins the cell needs. RNA is the cells computer software, as it were.

Methyl group - a common structural component of organic molecules *the methyl group works like a placeholder in a cookbook, attaching to the DNA within each cell to select only those recipes, or genes, necessary for that particular cell’s proteins.

Genetics - the branch of biology concerned with the study of heredity and variation in organisms.

Epigenetics - the study of heritable changes that occur without a change in the DNA sequence. *Methyl groups are attached to the genes, residing beside but separate from the double-helix DNA code, [this study of] the field was dubbed epigenetics, from the prefix epi (Greek for over, outer, above).

Photo from HERE on the interwebs

“Originally these epigenetic changes were believed to occur only during fetal development. But pioneering studies showed that molecular bric-a-brac could be added to DNA in adulthood, setting off a cascade of cellular changes resulting in cancer. Sometimes methyl groups attached to DNA thanks to changes in diet; other times, exposure to certain chemicals appeared to be the cause. Szyf showed that correcting epigenetic changes with drugs could cure certain cancers in animals.

Geneticists were especially surprised to find that epigenetic change could be passed down from parent to child, one generation after the next.

According to the new insights of behavioral epigenetics, traumatic experiences in our past, or in our recent ancestors’ past, leave molecular scars adhering to our DNA. Jews whose great-grandparents were chased from their Russian shtetls; Chinese whose grandparents lived through the ravages of the Cultural Revolution; young immigrants from Africa whose parents survived massacres; adults of every ethnicity who grew up with alcoholic or abusive parents — all carry with them more than just memories”.


It is interesting to me that the progress science has made in the last 45 years, now brings to light something that ancient texts from around the world talk about in the form of inheriting the sins of your father, and also the shamanistic beliefs of many aboriginal and native cultures, that the deeds of our ancestors can have an effect on our lives, that these sins or good deeds can actually be inherited. 

These studies might also help to explain the functioning of what is called the family constellation, and alter our therapeutic methods for working with children and families. Using this old, yet newly discovered again information, I have hope that each generation can be stronger, and that all children are given the best possible scenarios for living a successful life.