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that transplant recipients would be open to receiving cellular 10 illustrates this expressly. A 56-year-old college professor memories from the transplanted organs in the first place. The recipient experienced dreams not only of white flashes in his face same belief would decrease the likelihood that family members but just before the flash he sometimes "would get a glimpse of and friends, as well as surgeons and health care providers in gen- Jesus". Fearful of this potential hallucination and its possible eral, would be open to hearing from transplant recipients about diagnostic significance, he did not share this information with his cellular memories. Hence, it is not possible to determine what the doctors (though he did tell them about the flashes). The donor actual percentage is of personality changes; underreporting was a 34-year-old police officer who was shot in the face while appears to be the rule rather than the exception. attempting to arrest a drug dealer. According to the donor's wife: Case 4 illustrates this point expressly. When a 47-year-old "They never caught the guy, but they think they know who it is. white male foundry worker received the heart of a 17-year-old I've seen the drawing of his face. The guy has long hair, deep black male student, he presumed that the black youth would pre- eyes, a beard, and this real calm look. He looks sort of like some fer "rap" music. Hence, he dismissed the idea that his new radical of the pictures of Jesus." change in preference for classical music could have come from Can such reports be explained by statistical coincidence? The the heart of the donor. However, unbeknownst to the recipient, parallels in names reported in cases 1, 8 and 9 could potentially be the donor actually loved classical music, and died "hugging his explained as coincidences. In case 9, for example, the young violin case" on the way to his violin class. recipient's choice of the name Tim (for the Since completing this paper, Schwartz and donor he never met) may have been related Russek interviewed a patient of Dr Copeland to his personal preference. who received a heart transplant and experi- The recipient stated: "I like Tim Allen on enced a large set of personality changes. He Tool Time, so I called him Tim." However, received a woman's heart, and his many per- the statistical coincidence explanation is sonality changes include a passion for the strained by the observation of this recipient's colour pink (a colour he disliked prior to The cases reported perception: "He [the donor] likes Power surgery), anda preference for perfumes here are unusual Rangers a lot, I think, just like I used to. I (which prior to his surgery he could not tol- . don't like them any more, though." The erate and would not allow his wife to wear). (but not unique) donor purportedly died "trying to reach a fagences | dn that clear changes | jjs¢'sre window". The findings span- His daughters tease him, and he is afraid were observed by ning the 10 cases appear too coincidental to to share these experiences with his e accidental (the statistical coinci- recipients that were subsequently verified by recipient family members or friends. doctors. He shared them with Schwartz and Russek because he learned they were open to these changes and would help him discover if they were related to the donor (efforts are currently underway to con- tact the donor's family). His case is interesting because he was pronounced dead twice and revived prior to his transplant. He had a near-death experi- ence that, according to the patient and his wife, transformed him and led him to be more open. cally to examine biophysical measures Recipients may vary in their open- of heart—brain synchrony." ness to receiving cellular information as well as in their clarity in The research is testing predictions derived from dynamical experiencing and reporting changes. One reviewer of the manu- energy systems theory applied to the heart. Termed "energy script asked: "Do recipients have any control over this? If all cardiology", the basic hypothesis is that information and energy recipients were open to it, would they all receive?" This is an are transmitted electromagnetically between the brain and heart, dence hypothesis) Future research is necessary to inves- tigate the recipient-donor coincidence henomenon systematically. Research is underway at the University of Arizona on a sample of over 300 trans- lant patients to estimate the incidence of such coincidences using semi-struc- tured interviews and _— systematic questions. In addition, a subset of the transplant atients is being monitored physiologi- important question, one that can be addressed in future research. and that through electromagnetic resonance the brain may process Theoretically, more individuals should be able to retrieve infor- information derived from the donor's heart.'? Other forms of mation if they are encouraged to be open and receive the informa- energetic communication are also plausible and should be tion. Hypnosis could be considered as a possible clinical research considered in future research." tool. Pearsall has informally observed that in addition to heart The cases reported here are unusual (but not unique) in that recipients, kidney, liver and other organ recipients also indicated clear changes were observed by recipients that were subsequently changes in sense of smell, food preference and emotional factors. verified by recipient family members or friends. Moreover, in However, they were usually transitory and could be associated each case, information about the donors was specifically verified with medications and other factors of transplantation." from donor family members or friends. In each case, personal The findings for heart transplants appear more robust and were changes in the recipients preceded any contact with donor family more strongly associated with the donor's history. If this members or friends. observation is verified in future research, the implications for The recipients reported here would not receive psychiatric diag- basic physiology as well as clinical medicine could be substantial. noses. They were not suffering from extreme depression or anxi- - . . Continued on page 76 ety, though some reported anxiety about their experiences. Case (but not unique) in that clear changes were observed by aaa --a- aba --e recipients that were subsequently verified by recipient family members or friends. 32 = NEXUS APRIL — MAY 2005 The cases reported here are unusual Continued on page 76 www.nexusmagazine.com