Podcast Summary: The Observable Unknown – "Interlude VI: Inherited Shadows: Memory, Time, and Biology"
Host: Dr. Juan Carlos Rey
Episode Date: September 25, 2025
Episode Overview
In this interlude, Dr. Juan Carlos Rey explores the enigmatic interplay between memory, time, biology, and inheritance. He weaves together cutting-edge science and ancient wisdom to question how much of our cognition, trauma, and intuition are truly ours—and how much are echoes of ancestral experiences encoded in our very biology. This episode journeys from evolutionary biology and epigenetics, through the psychology of archetypes, to the mysteries of psychic phenomena, examining how the shadows of the past shape not just our bodies but also our deepest decisions and intuitions.
Key Discussion Points and Insights
1. The Mysteries of Memory and Cognition
- [00:02] Dr. Rey introduces the episode by referencing a discussion on three "mysterious dimensions":
- Retrocognition: Knowing the past without having learned it.
- Metacognition: The mind observing itself thinking.
- Precognition: Sensing events before they happen.
- He questions: Could these mysterious capacities be rooted in biology and even in DNA, not just the mind?
2. Evolutionary Inheritance and Phylogenetic Inertia
- [01:38] Explanation of phylogenetic inertia—how evolutionary traits persist even after their purpose fades (e.g., the human spine’s design; instinctive fears of snakes/spiders).
- Quote:
"The observable unknown here is that our choices may not be choices at all, but the shadows of adaptations laid down millions of years ago."
—Dr. Rey [02:01]
3. Epigenetics: How Experience Gets Written Into Biology
- [03:00] Conrad Waddington's work on how life experiences leave cortical marks on genes—epigenetics.
- Key examples:
- Dutch Hunger Winter (1944-45): Famine led to metabolic changes in children born to starving mothers.
- 2013 Diaz & Ressler Experiment: Mice conditioned to fear cherry blossoms produced descendants also afraid of the scent, despite never experiencing it.
- Rachel Yehuda’s Research: Descendants of Holocaust survivors show altered stress hormone regulation.
- Quote:
"These scars of trauma ripple forward in unseen ways, the observable unknown. Here is inheritance beyond story. Pain, fear, and adaptation carried as whispers in our biology."
—Dr. Rey [05:45]
4. Archetypes: Patterns Beyond Personal History
- [06:10] Carl Jung's archetypes—universal motifs such as "the hero, the mother, the shadow" existing beyond any single biography.
- Rupert Sheldrake's Morphic Resonance:
Discusses (with caveats regarding controversy) the idea of behavioral fields persisting across generations. - Examples in nature:
- Spiders weaving webs, birds navigating continents, startle responses in newborns—all suggest inheritance beyond experience.
5. Psychic Phenomena as Cognitive Extensions
- [08:30] Psychic phenomena (retrocognition, metacognition, precognition) may be natural extensions of how the mind processes time and information.
- Carl Friston’s Predictive Brain Theory:
The brain is a prediction machine, always forecasting, updating, and learning from the difference between expectation and reality. - Quote:
"Precognition, then, may be sensitivity to subtle cues, unnoticed details that allow us to guess what will happen. Retrocognition may be the mind reconstructing the past from hidden fragments, but in experience they feel like transgressions of time, insights beyond what we could possibly know."
—Dr. Rey [09:41]
6. The Interwoven Nature of Memory, Trauma, and Choice
-
[10:45] Synthesis:
- Darwin and Gould: Inherit physical design and evolutionary baggage.
- Waddington, Diaz, Ressler, Yehuda: Inherit trauma and adaptation in physiology.
- Jung & Sheldrake: Inherit archetypes and behavioral patterns.
- Friston: The brain predicts and stretches through time.
-
Quote:
"We are shaped by inheritance, shadowed by trauma, carried by archetype and pulled toward future futures our brains already anticipate."
—Dr. Rey [11:48] -
The "observable unknown" is the pervasive presence of invisible inheritance and memory influencing our most intimate decisions and perceptions.
Memorable Moments & Notable Quotes
-
Inherited Instincts Example:
"These behaviors are not taught. They are remembered by the body. The observable unknown here is that some of our most private experiences may not be our own. They may be borrowed, ancestral echoes speaking through us from biology."
—Dr. Rey [07:55] -
Haunted by Inheritance:
"In every decision, in every recollection, in every hunch of the future, we are constantly haunted by what we did not live but still carry within us."
—Dr. Rey [12:48]
Timestamps for Key Segments
- 00:02: Introduction of memory dimensions: retrocognition, metacognition, precognition
- 01:38: Phylogenetic inertia and evolutionary echoes
- 03:00: Epigenetics and intergenerational trauma—famine, mice, Holocaust
- 06:10: Jungian archetypes & Sheldrake's morphic resonance
- 08:30: Psychic phenomena as brain prediction
- 10:45: Integrative synthesis—inheritance, trauma, archetype, and prediction
- 12:48: The ever-present shadows of inheritance in everyday life
Closing
Dr. Rey concludes by inviting listeners to reflect on their own inherited memories or struggles and to share these thoughts via his podcast's communication channels. He frames this as a way of collectively "shaping the inheritance of thought together," thus weaving individual memory into a broader, collective narrative.
This episode is a call to curiosity and reflection—urging listeners to consider the profound, often hidden, influences shaping both our biology and consciousness, and to see the "observable unknown" not as something foreign, but as an intimate and ever-present companion.