When I had a heart attack – caused by the blockage of a coronary artery (it looked like a knotted rope) – I lost my memory for many faces (but not all faces). Assuming that memories are stored somewhere in the brain (I think of it as my memory bank), had part of that bank been damaged, or destroyed, for good? Or, had only my memory-retrieval system been affected?
Just a passing thought – the retrieval system must have a memory too – to know where to look. Or, is the retrieval process simply a search program? When some of my lost memory came back, it seemed that it was my retrieval process which had been affected by the heart attack.
Yet another thought – is the heart involved in memory? Some people who have had heart transplants have displayed likes, preferences, and some memories not previously associated with, or reflective of, the transplant recipient.
Then, there is that Hindu view that the human soul resides in the ‘heart space’; and that the soul carries memories relevant to its future moral progress through time. (This refers to the process of reincarnation.) When, as a sceptic, I was confounded by the arrival of the spirit of one of my maternal uncles (the second-most important man during my formative years), I had to accept that souls are real, that the soul retains its mind (but obviously without a physical brain), and its memories. Everything my uncle said (in silent communication with my clairvoyant) made sense to me.
What impressed me most was his ability to hear (without ears?) what I said to the clairvoyant and to respond to that. Since only a fool would reject or even challenge such a real experience, I modified my scepticism; the unknown unknowns are overwhelming!
Another interesting thought. The’ higher beings’ who had sent my uncle to offer me advice (so my uncle said) clearly knew that I am a sceptic; my uncle had therefore been told that he is the one that I was ‘most likely to accept.’
Isn’t our Earthly existence more significant than we might realise? And how relevant is the human brain in relation to those of our attributes which we refer to as mind, consciousness, and so on?
RAJA ARASA RATNAM 