Memory Is Stored Outside the Body

Science News Magazine February 3, 2018, “People tend to think of memories as deeply personal, ephemeral possessions-snippets of emotions, words, colors and smells stitched into our unique neural tapestries as life goes on.” One of today’s most entrenched explanations puts engrams (memories) squarely within the synapses, connections where chemical and electrical messages move between nerve cells, or neurons. However, Tonegawa and colleagues in 2015 in the Journal Science concluded that “The memory was stored in something that isn’t related to the strength of the synapses.” “The cellular machines that are required for calling up memories are not necessarily the same machines that store memories.” Ryan, Tonegawa, and Glanzman (Noted scientists) all think that… bulked-up synapses, are important for retrieving memories, but not the thing that actually stores them… Levin and Tal Shomrat reported in 2013 in the Journal of Experimental Biology ‘The fact that memory somehow survived decapitation experiments hints that signals outside of the brain may somehow store memories, even if temporarily’.” “For now, the field hasn’t been able to explain memories in tangible terms.”

Hypothesis: There is a human spirit that each person inherits from their parents at birth that stores that person’s memory.

If we look at the complete article from Science News Magazine quoted above and the research behind the article, one concludes that the brain is the mechanism to retrieve memories into consciousness, but not to store them, and that memory is not only not stored in the brain, but perhaps it is not stored in the body. So where is memory stored? This is the question I address in this article.

Look around the room you are sitting in then look away. Can you remember what you saw? Do you believe that it is likely that the brief glimpse you just took has caused the brain to physically change that quickly, that any part of your body has immediately altered to store that glimpse and all the glimpses and senses you have experienced in your life? Do you believe in life-after-death? If so, wouldn’t you think you would retain your memory when the body passes away? While science does not normally address spiritual issues, I believe that the search for the location of memory will help us to understand the nature of the human spirit and more than that.

Theory: To discuss the human spirit one must look beyond science for the theory then try to use scientific methods to see if the theory may be true. I don’t believe mathematics will help us find a proof. I draw my theory from revelations from the Christian Bible and personal experience because it is only through revelation and personal experience that the spirit can be understood and cognitively sensed.

Personal Experience: While the spirit cannot currently be scientifically proven it can be sensed through emotional energy. If we think about what might be detected from the human spirit the most obvious one is love. Love cannot be directly detected from the senses yet everyone knows that it exists. This is also true of hate, anger, envy, and other emotions. Think of how your energy level rises when you experience any of these emotions. The energy rise that we experience results from chemicals in the brain that are reacting as a result of information received by the brain from the spirit. The concept is like cloud computing where the information is stored outside the computer. Under this concept, the window on the spirit is emotion. The theory is that all memory is stored in the spirit and we can detect this through emotion, a direct link between the spirit and cognition.

We Know of the Human Spirit from Revelation: I propose that each of us is the result of the combining of the physical and spiritual “DNA” of our parents. If we believe in God, we are told that men and women are created in God’s image. (We have a spirit and a physical form like Jesus). However, we not only resemble Him, but God has created us so that we can also reproduce. The man’s sperm impregnates the woman’s egg and another human being is formed. That human being is “begotten” by two humans and has its own physical body and, in addition according to my theory, a human spirit from its mother and father. I propose that the human spirits of the mother and father join to form the human spirit of their baby. I propose that each of us is the result of the combining of the physical and spiritual “DNA” of our parents. This human spirit feeds your consciousness and has the free will to seek God or turn away.

I further propose that the human spirit is the spiritual egg of a spiritual person. From a human spiritual perspective, we are all females. If a person seeks God, God impregnates their human spirit with the Holy Spirit to form a spiritual person, like the father’s sperm impregnates the mother’s egg to form a physical person. Under this theory, the two spirits (God’s and the individual’s) become a spiritual embryo and eventually are actually born as a spiritual person, a child of God at the time of a person’s physical death. If you think back to the story of the Virgin Mary we see this described, in part, in the birth of Jesus.

Luke 1:35 (NASB)

35 And the angel said to her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be holy; he will be called Son of God.”

Jesus only had half a human spirit because Mary was a virgin. She had to be a virgin under this theory. Human spirits only result from the union of human parents. Jesus, therefore, had Mary’s half of a human spirit and the full Spirit of God within his miraculously conceived human body. He was tempted and felt sorrow showing Mary’s half, yet he overcome his human desires because of God’s Holy Spirit. He had both a physical and Holy Spiritual body while He was alive on earth. The Apostles saw His spiritual body during His transfiguration. When He was crucified, his physical body passed away and His spiritual body remained. He is the first Son of God.

Under this theory, the spiritual person is born after the physical death of the physical person. We are literally born again in the spirit as a child of God. With all the memories that we gathered while we were physically alive. This would be you with all your memories, skills and abilities yet in a recognizable spiritual body. As Paul says in Romans 8 Verse 23, we only have the first fruits of the Spirit now and are awaiting our full adoption / birth as God’s children. These first fruits include all our memory. This makes us spiritual embryos throughout our physical lifetime and the earth the womb of God. The human spirit has the choice to love God or turn away. If the choice is to love God, then the Holy Spirit comes upon us as he did with Mary and creates a spiritual embryo by joining our human spirit and the Holy Spirit. In this way, God creates a true loving spiritual family comprised of “children of God” who truly love him. And, Jesus is the first fruit, so we will be like him. Here is what Paul has to say:

1 Corinthians 15:42-46 (NASB)

42 So also is the resurrection of the dead. It is sown a perishable body, it is raised an imperishable body;

43 it is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory; it is sown in weakness, it is raised in power;

44 it is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body. If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body.

45 So also it is written, “The first MAN, Adam, BECAME A LIVING SOUL.” (Human spirit) The last Adam (Jesus Christ) became a life-giving spirit. (Holy Spirit)

46 However, the spiritual is not first, but the natural; then the spiritual.

Romans 8:14-17 (NASB)

14 For all who are being led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God.

15 For you have not received a spirit of slavery leading to fear again, but you have received a spirit of adoption as sons by which we cry out, “Abba! Father!”

16 The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are children of God,

17 and if children, heirs also, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him so that we may also be glorified with Him.

We will be born again as sons of God.

Our spirit in the quote above is our human spirit that contains the seat of our memory throughout our lifetime before and after our death. Memories are retrieved by the brain.