Passing on achievements through "genes"

[froggie]

Does anyone think that the practise that you do now, and the results that you may achieve, will also for a part be passed on to your children? Without teaching them i am speaking of now, simply by doing chi gong now and getting children later. Would they inherit some qualities of this from you, you think?

[Gats]

Does anyone think that the practise that you do now, and the results that you may achieve, will also for a part be passed on to your children? Without teaching them i am speaking of now, simply by doing chi gong now and getting children later. Would they inherit some qualities of this from you, you think?

 

I've wondered about this question as well. It seems to me that if one was very advanced in qi gong or something, it would be natural to think that their sperm would kind of be super-charged in a way (perhaps a spiritual way) and that it would bring some sort of benefit to a potential child.

 

I'm also pretty convinced that unresolved karmic issues can be passed on through generations and perhaps even lineages. This even applies without the reincarnation model as these unresolved issues can come through cellular memory.

 

But I'm under the impression that you won't get the same child no matter what. For example, I don't think you would get the same soul in a child when you're 18 as when you're 35 and have had 17 years of chi gong experience. I think you would be a totally different person after 17 years of chi gong and thus would attract a different soul to be your child.

 

My 2 cents anyway....

[Standingpost]

Well, a very interesting question.

 

There was a theory in anthropology (competing with Mendel/Darwin) way back in the day by LaPlace that more or less attributed genetic mechanisms as being transmitted by things done in life. This was generally discredited on rather obvious prima facie grounds, like if you cut off a limb your children would be born without that same limb under this idea.

 

However, given that the interaction between such concepts as qi with DNA is just now even being thought about, let alone thoroughly investigated, there is certainly a possibility of some sort of genetic effect of high level qigong or yoga.

 

While mainstream scientific circles may find the idea ludicrous, there has been a strain of thought of every level of esoteric mysticism throughout history that the keys to our transformation as a species lie within such practices transforming us on an evolutionary level.

[Taiji Bum]

I was under the impression that you passed it on for several generations if you got spiritual achievements.

[Yoda]

with epigenetics, even eating onions can pass down traits that your grandkids will get, so how much more with spiritual practice?

 

Beyond genetics, spiritual practices benefit both descendents as well as ancestors.

[asanjuan2008]

Does anyone think that the practise that you do now, and the results that you may achieve, will also for a part be passed on to your children? Without teaching them i am speaking of now, simply by doing chi gong now and getting children later. Would they inherit some qualities of this from you, you think?

 

Lamarkism as a whole had been discredited awhile back. However, there is evidence to suggest that various forms of adaptive mutagenesis is possible in microorganisms, where the organisms may actively alter their genes in response to outside stimuli.

 

If one can somehow change one's germline cells in response to various practices, then it would be theoretically possible. The question is how would one accomplish this so that directed macrochanges can be passed to offspring ;-)

Edited November 29, 2008 by asanjuan2008

[karen]

I agree with Yoda - look at epigenetics, and read Bruce Lipton's book, The Biology of Belief, a wonderful book and actually a fun read.

[markern]

I have wondered about this myself. I think even if nothing is transmitted in the way we speculate here, at least the sperm will often be of a very high quality and quantity (more competition equals a better sperm wins). Retention would play a lot into this. That should lead to the children having all round more favourable genes than without any energetic practice.

 

I also think that the mothers practice during pregnancy should have a lot to say. The benefits to the mothers body should translate over to better development for the child in an extremely vital period. Just think about the good hormones and other stuff scientificaly proved to be produced during pregancy. It also makes sence to think that a mother who practices has quite a bit more of chemicals and hormones in her body that are more linked to love and spirituality. Stuff like oxytocin and melatonin (I think I read that melatonin is produced by the pituary gland during meditation but I might have confused it with something else). Having a larger amount of those chemicals and hormones floating around in the mothers system should influence the child somehow. Anyway just by being extreemly healthy happy and by having strong feelings of love and very little stress the baby should benefit a good bit. However, all of this is reduced in importance by the fact that the baby is prioritized over the mother during pregnancy so that if the mother does not eat enough of certain vitamines the body prioritizes to give those to the baby and "eat of" the mothers suplies and weakening her. Often when the motehr has gotten to little of certain things or been quite sick the baby does not get much damage because of this mecanism. This presumably means that for the most part the baby takes what it needs and not so much is to gain from being extreemly healthy during pregnancy although I am sure a lot is still to be gained