Evolving conditions of earthly life will always bring new predicaments to explore. Examples of this are found in published statements of Heart transplant recipients about personality changes. Heart and lung transplant recipient Claire Sylvia's autobiography A Change of Heart (1997) offers anecdotal evidence of this. At the beginning of her memoir, Sylvia commented: "I began to wonder if my transplanted heart and lungs had somehow arrived with some of their own inclinations and memories. I had dreams and experienced changes that seemed to suggest that some aspects of my donor's spirit and personality now existed within me."
Sylvia had been a dance major in college when she was diagnosed with a kidney disease. Despite her doctor's advice, she began a dancing career and gave birth to a daughter in 1972. In 1983 she was in her 40s when she was diagnosed with primary pulmonary hypertension and realized how serious her condition was when she read an article about Mary Gohlke, who had been diagnosed with the disease before becoming the first person to survive a combination heart-lung transplant.
In the hospital one of her nurses told her that the donor was an 18-year-old boy from Maine who was killed in a motorcycle accident. Sylvia soon became aware of having a new fondness for certain foods such as green peppers and chicken nuggets. Throughout her book she described a variety of occurrences involving psychic phenomena including prophetic dreams and considered if new masculine traits were perceptible in her behavior. She participated in a therapy group for Heart Transplant recipients and commented: "In different ways, we all believed that receiving a new heart had affected and even changed our identities."
A visit to a Boston library to research Maine newspaper microtext enabled her to find the obituary of her donor, Tim Lamirande, who was 18 when he died in a motorcycle accident. When Sylvia became acquainted with her male donor's family, many of her new personality traits were seemingly confirmed as having been characteristic of him.
A May 27, 2008 article by Constance Gorfinkle in The Patriot Ledger included commentary by Sylvia as the 20th anniversary of her operation approached.
In the article, Sylvia was also quoted about now having a lasting relationship with the Lamirande family. Sylvia mentioned in her autobiography that she had spoken with Paul Pearsall, who was writing a book about heart recipients. The Heart’s Code by psychoneuroimmunologist Paul Pearsall, Ph.D. was published in 1998. The book was presented as involving 'energy cardiology . . . the heart is not just a pump; it conducts the cellular symphony that is the very essence of our being.' In the Introduction he wrote that he recorded the reports of 73 heart transplant patients and their families, 67 other organ transplant recipients, and 18 donor family interviews.
Sylvia had been a dance major in college when she was diagnosed with a kidney disease. Despite her doctor's advice, she began a dancing career and gave birth to a daughter in 1972. In 1983 she was in her 40s when she was diagnosed with primary pulmonary hypertension and realized how serious her condition was when she read an article about Mary Gohlke, who had been diagnosed with the disease before becoming the first person to survive a combination heart-lung transplant.
In the hospital one of her nurses told her that the donor was an 18-year-old boy from Maine who was killed in a motorcycle accident. Sylvia soon became aware of having a new fondness for certain foods such as green peppers and chicken nuggets. Throughout her book she described a variety of occurrences involving psychic phenomena including prophetic dreams and considered if new masculine traits were perceptible in her behavior. She participated in a therapy group for Heart Transplant recipients and commented: "In different ways, we all believed that receiving a new heart had affected and even changed our identities."
A visit to a Boston library to research Maine newspaper microtext enabled her to find the obituary of her donor, Tim Lamirande, who was 18 when he died in a motorcycle accident. When Sylvia became acquainted with her male donor's family, many of her new personality traits were seemingly confirmed as having been characteristic of him.
A May 27, 2008 article by Constance Gorfinkle in The Patriot Ledger included commentary by Sylvia as the 20th anniversary of her operation approached.
Now, she said, she feels like she and Tim are one person. "After a lot of struggle and a lot of psychotherapy, and working on my dreams, and writing in my journal about what was happening, and meditating, and talking to a lot of people like me, who had had transplants," she said.
In the article, Sylvia was also quoted about now having a lasting relationship with the Lamirande family. Sylvia mentioned in her autobiography that she had spoken with Paul Pearsall, who was writing a book about heart recipients. The Heart’s Code by psychoneuroimmunologist Paul Pearsall, Ph.D. was published in 1998. The book was presented as involving 'energy cardiology . . . the heart is not just a pump; it conducts the cellular symphony that is the very essence of our being.' In the Introduction he wrote that he recorded the reports of 73 heart transplant patients and their families, 67 other organ transplant recipients, and 18 donor family interviews.
I recently spoke to an international group of psychologists, psychiatrists, and social workers meeting in Houston, Texas. I spoke to them about my ideas about the central role of the heart in our psychological and spiritual life, and following my presentation, a psychiatrist came to the microphone during the question and answer session to ask me about one of her patients whose experience seemed to substantiate my ideas about cellular memories and a thinking heart. The case disturbed her so much that she struggled to speak through her tears.Sobbing to the point that the audience and I had difficulty understanding her, she said, "I have a patient, an eight-year-old little girl who received the heart of a murdered ten-year-old girl. Her mother brought her to me when she started screaming at night about her dreams of the man who had murdered her donor. She said her daughter knew who it was. After several sessions, I just could not deny the reality of what this child was telling me. Her mother and I finally decided to call the police and, using the descriptions from the little girl, they found the murderer. He was easily convicted with evidence my patient provided. The time, the weapon, the place, the clothes he wore, what the little girl he killed had said to him . . . everything the little heart transplant recipient reported was completely accurate."
Pearsall reminded in the second chapter "Unraveling the Mystery of the Fifth Force": "The basic unit of all life, the cell, exists only because it is held together by energy. The atoms and molecules that make up a cell also exist because their various parts are held together by bonds of energy." Terms such as 'cellular memory' and 'nonlocality' suggest that semantics is always an issue when one expresses mysterious circumstances in words. Pearsall appraised:
Quantum physics suggests that we are all a part of and contributors to a subtle energy field that operates by the rule of timeless connection and not the mechanical limits of miles and walls. Nonlocality refers to the energetic intelligence field of which all that is or has ever been or will be is forever a part.
Pearsall cited reports from ancient cultures regarding the existence of a "subtle life force." The term he himself used was "L" energy and the following are some of the characteristics of this energy that he noted.
16. So pervasive is "L" energy that indigenous peoples and ancient religious systems have given it over one hundred different names and base their healing systems on it. In India and Tibet, this energy is called "prana." Polynesians call it "mana," and the Sufis called it "baraka." Jews in the cabalistic tradition call it "yesod," the Iroquois call it "orendam," the Ituraea pygmies call it "megbe" and Christians call it the "Holy Spirit."
17. Many modern psychologists have dealt with and named "L" energy. They have used names such as "the fifth force" and "X" energy. Psychologist Wilhelm Reich called it "organum," Sigmund Freud called it "libido," Franz Anton Mesmer (like biologist Luigi Galvani) called it "animal magnetism." Karl von Reichenbach called it "odic forcem." Psychologists in Russia used to call it "biplasma."
Also available to read online is the report (PDF) "Changes in Heart Transplant Recipients that Parallel the Personalities of Their Donors" by Paul Pearsall, Ph.D., Gary E. R. Schwartz, Ph.D. and Linda G. S. Russek, Ph.D. from the Journal of Near-Death Studies (Spring 2002). The following passage is an example of the ten case descriptions in this report.
Case 1The donor was an 18-year-old boy killed in an automobile accident. The recipient was an 18-year-old-girl diagnosed with endocarditis and subsequent heart failure. The donor's father, a psychiatrist, reported:My son always wrote poetry. We had waited more than a year to clean out his room after he died. We found a book of poems he had never shown us, and we've never told anyone about them. One of them has left us shaken emotionally and spiritually. It spoke of his seeing his own sudden death. He was a musician too, and we found a song he titled "Danny, My Heart is Yours." The words are about how my son felt he was destined to die and give his heart to someone. He had decided to donate his organs when he was 12 years old. We thought it was quite strong, but we thought they were talking about it in school. When we met his recipient, we were so . . . we didn't know like what it was. We don't know now. We just don't know.
The recipient reported:When they showed me pictures of their son, I knew him directly. I would have picked him out anywhere. He's in me. I know he is in me and he is in love with me. He was always my lover, maybe in another time somewhere. How could he know years before he died that he would die and give his heart to me? How would he know my name is Danielle? And then, when they played me some of his music, I could finish the phrases of his songs. I could never play before, but after my transplant, I began to love music. I felt it in my heart. My heart had to play it. I told my mom I wanted to take guitar lessons, the same instrument Paul [the donor] had played. His song is in me. I feel it a lot at night and it's like Paul is serenading me.The recipient's father reported:My daughter, she was what you say . . . a hell raiser. Until she got sick, they say from a dentist they think, she was the wild one. Then, she became quite quiet. I think it was her illness, but she said she felt more energy, not less. She said she wanted to play an instrument and she wanted to sing. When she wrote her first song, she sang about her new heart as her lover's heart. She said her lover had come to save her life.
(Some correlating previous articles at this blog include "Estimations of 'the God Force' During Ancient Civilizations", "India's Wisdom Traditions, Sages and Cosmogenesis Mythology", "Andrija Puharich and Miraculous Trance Healer Pachita", "Excerpts from The Call of the Trance" and "George Lucas Popularized 'The Force' in 'Star Wars' Movies".)
The anthology Stories of the Heart (1999) edited by Nancy Siemers offers many brief articles by transplant recipients yet only a couple mention possible personality changes following the operation. Owen Mark Waxman was transplanted July 31, 1993 at the age of 17. Like Claire Sylvia, Waxman stated that he had a vision that he met his donor: "I have shadows of memories of the kid who gave me his heart. In a vision, he told me his name and a lot of creepy stuff, but this is probably weirding you out, so I'll talk about something else . . . but I feel us both."
An article by Carla McClain in the February 27, 2005 edition of Arizona Daily Star includes two profiles of heart transplant recipients to consider. Twenty-eight year old Jaime Sherman stated three years after her transplant that she had a new affinity for Mexican food and now loved football, baseball and basketball. When she met her heart donor's family, she learned that he'd been a sports fan who loved Mexican food. Twenty-nine year old Scott Phillips had died of a head injury after a fight at a Phoenix bar. Scott had played on several Kansas State University teams and the article mentioned that Sherman's obsession with Kansas State began after meeting Scott's family.
McClain's article also reported the case of Bill Wohl who was a businessman pursuing a jet-setter life before his heart transplant at the age of 53.
Six months after the transplant, Wohl learned that his heart donor had been 36-year-old Michael Brady who used the stage name Brady Michaels during his career as a stuntman for Universal Studios. Upon meeting Brady's brother, Wohl learned the stuntman had loved the songs of Sade.
More information about Wohl was provided in the article "A Change of Heart" by Abraham Verghese in the January 7, 2005 Life magazine supplement for newspapers. Before receiving his heart transplant in 2000, Wohl lived for 159 days on the SynCardia Cardio West Temporary Total Artificial Heart. During the surgery where his old heart was cut away, Dr. Jack G. Copeland and his team sewed in the two separate chambers that constituted the Cardio West heart and closed his chest, leaving small openings for the air hoses connected to what Verghese described "a big blue washing machine-sized contraption that drives the chambers." After the surgery that lasted about four hours, Wohl was in a coma for nearly a month. He awoke to find himself one of eight patients with the newly FDA-approved artificial heart.
The Life article reported that Wohl began cycling competitively after getting out of the hospital. He was shown on the magazine cover holding his bicycle and wearing eight Transplant Games medals. Verghese wrote, "I ask him if he is conscious of the heart being Brady's. After all, he keeps framed photos of the actor. No, he says, to my amazement. It feels like his heart. It has become his heart."
In the article Verghese commented, "I may be a physician, but I'm still in awe of heart transplants, no matter how often they're done. To me, they're still a miracle."
Recent news headlines about heart transplantation include "Medicare Policy Change Could Increase Inequity in Heart Transplant Access, Study Finds," "UChicago Medicine performs 66 heart transplants in 2022, sets new state record for 2nd consecutive year," "Alaska man misses heart transplant due to flight cancellations at Sea-Tac," "GoFundMe Set Up For Warren Teacher, Dad Awaiting Heart Transplant" and "Scottish sisters look forward to ‘normal’ festive season after heart transplant ops."
The anthology Stories of the Heart (1999) edited by Nancy Siemers offers many brief articles by transplant recipients yet only a couple mention possible personality changes following the operation. Owen Mark Waxman was transplanted July 31, 1993 at the age of 17. Like Claire Sylvia, Waxman stated that he had a vision that he met his donor: "I have shadows of memories of the kid who gave me his heart. In a vision, he told me his name and a lot of creepy stuff, but this is probably weirding you out, so I'll talk about something else . . . but I feel us both."
An article by Carla McClain in the February 27, 2005 edition of Arizona Daily Star includes two profiles of heart transplant recipients to consider. Twenty-eight year old Jaime Sherman stated three years after her transplant that she had a new affinity for Mexican food and now loved football, baseball and basketball. When she met her heart donor's family, she learned that he'd been a sports fan who loved Mexican food. Twenty-nine year old Scott Phillips had died of a head injury after a fight at a Phoenix bar. Scott had played on several Kansas State University teams and the article mentioned that Sherman's obsession with Kansas State began after meeting Scott's family.
McClain's article also reported the case of Bill Wohl who was a businessman pursuing a jet-setter life before his heart transplant at the age of 53.
Today, at age 58, he works part time and spends most of his new-found energy winning speed and performance medals in swimming, cycling and track. It's a passion matched only by the good he wants to do with his charitable foundation.
And he surprises himself by crying when he hears Sade, a singer he'd never heard of — and a reaction unimaginable before his transplant.
Six months after the transplant, Wohl learned that his heart donor had been 36-year-old Michael Brady who used the stage name Brady Michaels during his career as a stuntman for Universal Studios. Upon meeting Brady's brother, Wohl learned the stuntman had loved the songs of Sade.
More information about Wohl was provided in the article "A Change of Heart" by Abraham Verghese in the January 7, 2005 Life magazine supplement for newspapers. Before receiving his heart transplant in 2000, Wohl lived for 159 days on the SynCardia Cardio West Temporary Total Artificial Heart. During the surgery where his old heart was cut away, Dr. Jack G. Copeland and his team sewed in the two separate chambers that constituted the Cardio West heart and closed his chest, leaving small openings for the air hoses connected to what Verghese described "a big blue washing machine-sized contraption that drives the chambers." After the surgery that lasted about four hours, Wohl was in a coma for nearly a month. He awoke to find himself one of eight patients with the newly FDA-approved artificial heart.
The Life article reported that Wohl began cycling competitively after getting out of the hospital. He was shown on the magazine cover holding his bicycle and wearing eight Transplant Games medals. Verghese wrote, "I ask him if he is conscious of the heart being Brady's. After all, he keeps framed photos of the actor. No, he says, to my amazement. It feels like his heart. It has become his heart."
In the article Verghese commented, "I may be a physician, but I'm still in awe of heart transplants, no matter how often they're done. To me, they're still a miracle."
Recent news headlines about heart transplantation include "Medicare Policy Change Could Increase Inequity in Heart Transplant Access, Study Finds," "UChicago Medicine performs 66 heart transplants in 2022, sets new state record for 2nd consecutive year," "Alaska man misses heart transplant due to flight cancellations at Sea-Tac," "GoFundMe Set Up For Warren Teacher, Dad Awaiting Heart Transplant" and "Scottish sisters look forward to ‘normal’ festive season after heart transplant ops."
More information regarding heart transplant energy cardiology is provided in the two preceding blog posts: "What Occurred When Claire Sylvia Awoke Following the Transplant of a New Heart" and "Heart Transplants and the Soul: A Current Perspective".
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