This study, published in Nature Magazine, goes so much further.

In this study, mice were exposed to a pleasant aroma - but they were shocked with an electric shock. (Yes it was cruel. You and I wouldn't have done this to mice. But we can still learn from their results.)

Obviously, after a while, the mice shuddered in fear whenever they smelled the particular pleasant aroma.

Now comes the amazing part of the study. After a while the mice were allowed to mate. Their offspring were also exposed to the same pleasant aroma. But they were never exposed to shocks.

They shuddered!

This same method was done for the third generation. Pleasant aroma but no shock.

They shuddered!

This study was done to males, and separately to females. It was also done using in vitro fertilization, so there was no bonding between the different generations of offspring.

The mice were all sacrificed and their neurons were examined. Sure enough, the neurons for that odor were markedly different and much more developed in the mice of all three generations where the first generation (the grandparents?) were shocked when exposed to the aroma compared to 1st generation mice - and their offspring - that were exposed to the aroma but not shocked.

The study stopped after three generations. Otherwise the same results might have been found to continue even further.

So what does this mean?

It means that the traumas of our parents and grandparents get passed down to us.

Conversely, the positive memories would also be passed down. When you take a positive action and have a positive memory, it multiplies through the generations.

If you have three children and they each have three children, one positive action can have 12 positive effects. If you have six children and they each have six children, your one positive memory can have 42 positive effects!

Mothers understand that they are always connected to their children for life regardless of where they are. So it would seem that this effect can be passed on after birth as well.

Thanks for sharing this coco. This helps explain why there is so much fear in our society.

great points