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Dr. Oz says some recollections may be explained by déjá vu. "I have patients that have chronic déjá vu," he says. "They won't go see their doctor because they think they've actually been there. It's a true syndrome. ... We actually know that you can stimulate some kinds of memories."
When Dr. Oz meets people who seem to have emotional and intellectual connections to places they've never visited, he says he starts looking for paranormal explanations. "I think it's very healthy for us to take a crowbar, which is what we're doing on this show, and just pry the lid off our belief that everything around us is so rational," he says. "We are hardwired to deal with very real things in front of us because that kept us alive 100 years ago, 1,000 years ago and last year, but I think we're able to go past that."
Recent innovations have allowed researchers to study human DNA strands, but Dr. Oz says we still don't know what most of our genetic makeup means. "[Roughly] 97 percent of our DNA is called junk DNA. Believe me, it's not junk," he says. "There's no reason for you to have DNA strands that don't have any meaning. There is meaning there. We just don't know it, and some of that may actually be hereditary memories—the insights into events our species has collected."
Dr. Oz says if you condition an earthworm to respond to stress and then cut it in half, both the part with a brain and the part without a brain continue to react to the same stress. "You begin to think, 'Is our mind where it is all at?'" he says. "Now I admit, as a heart surgeon I've always focused on the heart, but the poets might be right...maybe the spirit is there."
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