Ezekiel 36:26 - A New Heart

Scripture Ezekiel 36:26

A new heart I will give you, and a new spirit I will put within you; and I will take out of your flesh the heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh.

Comment

There is much written in scripture about the human heart.

But recent studies indicate there is more to this than I first thought, as I recently found out how actual heart transplants have affected the recipient after they have been given a “new heart”.

(one example of what I am referring to is in the text below, taken from http://au.news.yahoo.com/thewest/lifestyle/a/-/lifestyle/6704106/organ-transplants-and-hidden-memories/)

The phenomenon, which has its ardent critics and proponents, has been widely documented and was given some credence in a book called The Heart's Code in which author Paul Pearsall, a clinical neuropsychologist, provided evidence of heart transplant recipients reporting that they attained memories and personality traits of their donor.

The operation has also had an impact on his personality. "I am a lot more outgoing," he says, adding that he used to stay home while his wife went out. "I wouldn't socialise with people at all. Now, to my son's embarrassment sometimes, I will engage anyone in conversation."

He is also much more inclined to consider phenomena that are inexplicable but appear to have merit.

"Before I was extremely analytical and scientific," he says. "Anything that didn't fit into a nice, neat little box was silly. Now I have expanded the way I look at things."

Paul Barrett used to love full-bodied and old red wines. So, to celebrate his heart and double-lung transplant five years ago, he and his wife cracked open a Grange hermitage. "I took one taste and said to my wife, 'This is off'," he recalls. "She said, "No, no, it is lovely'." From being such a connoisseur of fine red wines that he could pick the year and area of origin, his preferences have taken a 180-degree turn. "Now I can't stand the stuff," he says. "I actually think alcopops and Vodka cruisers taste pretty good. And I am on to the sweet white wines now, which I would not even have looked at before."

It is one of many changes in his tastes, behaviour and personality that occurred immediately after his transplant, some of which he believes may be the result of cellular or organ memory contained within the donor organ and transferred via the transplanted tissue.

His hair has become curly and thicker and is growing faster while before it was "dead flat". He also now tolerates some foods, including mushrooms, sultanas, muesli and yoghurt, whereas before he detested them because they made him ill. He can't stand fast food whereas before he ate it whenever he got the chance.

Another radical change is his new-found love of pushbike and motorbike riding, which has replaced his passion for tenpin bowling. "Before you couldn't get me on a two-wheeler or a motorbike either," he says.