There is a field of research gaining increasing popularity called epigenetics. I remember as a young student studying biology, participating in a discussion on whether we were more affected by our environment or by our genetics. At that time the debate was between “nature” or “nurture,” I remember having the definite opinion that it was neither one nor the other but a combination of both. And finally, we are beginning to realize a child is as much a product of his/her environment as the genetic inheritance. We are now finding the genetics of future generations can be affected by what happens within the environment today.
At one time we believed a child was “tabula rasa”, a blank slate. The English philosopher, John Locke, argues that the human mind, at birth, is like a blank slate, with no innate ideas, and that knowledge is gained through sensory experience. We also believed, at one time, that infants, and young children had no memory of their experiences, that there was no concern as to how they were treated. We are becoming increasingly aware of how incomplete both of these notions are.
Genetics focuses on the study of genes, their structure and how they are handed down while epigenetics focuses on how the environment and other factors affect gene expression without altering the underlying gene structure. However, we are now beginning to understand that the underlying sequence may indeed be affected by what we experience. Trauma indeed does affect our gene sequence and can permanently alter brain chemistry
This field of study called epigenetics is gaining greater understanding but it is not fast enough. We are gaining a greater understanding of mirror genes or rather a group of neurons that fire when an individual is performing an action or seeing another perform the action. The body reacts as if it experienced the action itself.
I remember as a child hearing and reading fairy tales. This was something I, like so many other children, loved these stories and they never created any particular fear in me. I then remember going to my first movie to see my first horror file, “Dracula”. This movie made a significant impression on me and I slept with a cross beside my bed for quite a while after seeing this movie. I also remember having to consciously remind myself that I had not experienced the movie. The images were so vivid it was difficult at themes to distinguish fact from fiction.
It was when I was older that I learned that images viewed make a much deeper and lasting impression than those we create in our mind, in situations like hearing a story or reading a book. We create the images and moderate these images to suit our personalities a s opposed to seeing the image predefined for us as in a movie. Another example that comes to mind, is reading the story of “The Sorcerer’s Apprentice” and imagining it to my satisfaction and then seeing the Disney representation of it. I am stuck forever remembering the apprentice as MIckey Mouse.
We tend to easily forget how fragile and susceptible to suggestion our minds can be. And if we seriously consider the implications of visual experiences on the neural network of the body, then we have to care about what we are feeding our psyche. With the advent of television, the cruelties of the world become a daily visual experience. We see it on the news and we see it in children’s programming and we see it on the general television network. I, myself, have begun to be careful of the choices I make for television watching. For example, many years ago, I watched a crime show that increasingly developed plots that stayed with me. One example was of a criminal who glued the eyelids of his victims open so they were forced to watch what he was going to do to them or others. Without going into detail, I realized my whole body was reacting as if it was an experience and it became necessary to eliminate this show.
I was able to consciously make this decision for myself. Children often do not have this luxury. Children are often forced to watch horrifying shows or to watch scenes within the family that create a neural reaction within their body. These experiences assist in shaping them as children and as adults. Locke was correct. Where he was incomplete was in assuming a child is a blank slate when born. As we know an infant is highly affected by what it experiences within the womb. But have we given enough thought to what a child experiences after birth and to what we all experience in our everyday lives.