Retrotransposons as Engines of Human Bodily Transformation
Colm A. Kelleher, Ph.D.
National Institute for Discovery Science
Las Vegas, NV
First published in the Journal of Scientific Exploration,
13, no. 1, Spring 1999, pp. 9–24
Abstract — The historical literature suggests that there are unusual
physical, as well as psychological, consequences in humans to the attainment
of the exalted state of mind known as enlightenment, nirvana or samadhi.
These reported changes include, but are not limited to, sudden reversal
of aging, emergence of a light body and observed bodily ascension into
the sky. This paper proposes a "jumping DNA" or transposon-mediated
mechanism to explain rapid and large-scale cellular changes associated
with human bodily transformation.
Only 3% of human DNA encodes the physical body. The remaining 97% of
the 3 billion base pair genome contains over a million genetic structures,
called transposons, that have the capacity to jump from one chromosomal
location to another. Transposons that jump to a new location via an
RNA intermediate are known as retrotransposons.
The three main classes of documented or putative retrotransposons in
human cells are SINEs, LINEs and HERVs. SINEs and LINEs have been unambiguously
shown to transpose in humans and there is indirect evidence that HERVs
are active. A 1700 base pair DNA sequence was isolated from purified
activated human T cells (Kelleher et. al, 1996). The sequence of this
DNA contains a novel combination of all three transposon families (SINEs,
LINEs and HERVs) arranged like "beads on a string." I describe it's
structure and I propose that this DNA sequence, because of its cassette
like configuration and its transcriptional expression and regulation,
would be an effective participant in large scale transposon mediated
genetic change that eventually results in transformation of the human
body.
The hypothesis is testable by using the DNA sequence as a molecular
probe to monitor transposon activity in the blood cells of individuals
undergoing profound psychological transformation as a result of advanced
meditation, near death experience (NDE) or close encounter experiences
with UFOs. The relevance of these proposed experiments to the study
of survival of human consciousness after death is discussed.
In the future, attention undoubtedly will be centered on the genome,
with greater appreciation of its significance as a highly sensitive
organ of the cell that monitors genomic activities and corrects common
errors, senses unusual and unexpected events, and responds to them,
often by restructuring the genome.
- Barbara McClintock, Nobel prize acceptance speech.
Keywords: mobile DNA - transposon - HERV - Alu - line - NDE
- enlightenment
