Science Forced to Confront Creation, Asking; Do Heart Transplants Also Transport Part of the Donor's Soul?

Teresa Neumann : Apr 12, 2008
Dr. Danny Penman - The Daily Mail

"Modern biology...has, as yet, no viable theory to explain how we store memories and how we produce consciousness. In fact, scientists haven't even managed to define what exactly consciousness is, let alone managed to pin down where it comes from and where it is to be found within the body. So maybe, just maybe, the poets, romantics and mystics throughout the ages were right: the heart really is the seat of our emotions and of our souls. And if we can transplant hearts, then perhaps it's not so fanciful to suggest that some part of the spirit goes with them."

(United Kingdom)—American Claire Sylvia underwent a heart transplant in 1988; the donor, an 18-year-old boy who had been killed in a motorcycle accident. Years later Sylvia wrote a book called, A Change of Heart, in which she recorded the bizarre changes in her personality following the transplant, including tastes for foods she hadn't liked before and a new sense of aggressiveness in her nature.

Sylvia isn't the only heart transplant patient who has come forward with concerns about personality changes after a heart transplant. As recently as last week, another American, Sonny Graham of Georgia, made headlines when he killed himself after his heart transplant from a man who had killed himself in identical circumstances. Not only that, but the 69-year-old man was said to have tracked down the donor's wife after his surgery and fallen in love with her.

"When I first met her," Sonny told a local newspaper, "I just stared. I felt like I had known her for years. I couldn't keep my eyes off her."

Dr. Danny Penman, writing for The Daily Mail, notes there are more than 70 documented cases of marked personality changes in organ recipients and "every single one is a direct challenge to the medical status quo," which he concludes, raises the question of the human soul's connection to the heart.

In his article entitled, Can We Really Transplant a Human Soul? Penman writes, "Virtually every doctor and scientist will tell you the heart is a mere pump." But now, "A few brave scientists have started claiming that our memories and characters are encoded not just in our brain, but throughout our entire body. Consciousness, they claim, is created by every living cell in the body acting in concert...Our whole body, they believe, is the seat of the soul; not just the brain.

Penman refers to studies of such donor recipients by Professor Gary Schwartz of the University of Arizona. Many of the cases are indeed inexplicable. "It's a targeted personality change," says Professor Schwartz. "If this is the result of drugs, or stress, or coincidence, none of those would predict the specific patterns of information that would match the donor."

Surmises Penman, "If Professor Schwartz and his ilk are right, it would destroy one of the foundation stones of modern biology. But then again, modern biology has a guilty little secret: it has, as yet, no viable theory to explain how we store memories and how we produce consciousness. In fact, scientists haven't even managed to define what exactly consciousness is, let alone managed to pin down where it comes from and where it is to be found within the body. So maybe, just maybe, the poets, romantics and mystics throughout the ages were right: the heart really is the seat of our emotions and of our souls. And if we can transplant hearts, then perhaps it's not so fanciful to suggest that some part of the spirit goes with them."

While as Christians we know how God created man in His image, it is nevertheless fascinating to see the scientific world confront the mysteries of life in a way that points to the power of an Almighty God.