12 – The Neurobiology of Fate

There is an emerging body of scientific research indicating that the human brain is impacted by social experience in ways we did not realize previously. In the last several decades we learned that the brain is malleable, a discovery that continues to influence how the brain responds to trauma and other types of insult. But, beyond this, it now appears that social relations, all aspects of interpersonal experience, become imprinted on the brain, impact neurologic and physiological functioning, and ultimately linger as a kind of neurologic aura which sends signals to others in the social world. Essentially, experience changes the wiring of the brain and the nervous system, and this rewiring is unconsciously and inadvertently communicated. Somewhat eerily, what happens to a person relationally is not concealed within memory but revealed from one mind to another.