Stories, Epigenetics, and the Pursuit of Truth

The Big Magic that reshapes our past and future

“I felt the way I had so many years earlier, as if these stories lived in my blood, even the ones I’d never heard before” ~Tae Keller, Author’s note from “When You Trap a Tiger”

Can stories live in our cells? Can the stories that we hear and tell ourselves affect our bodies and our DNA? Could stories of events that we have never directly experienced, but were lived by our ancestors, impact how our body feels and responds to the world? Research in epigenetics reveals that the answer to these questions is likely “Yes”.

Epigenetics refers to how our behaviors and environment can change the expression of our genes. I learned about epigenetics in college and medical school, but first heard about passing on of trauma responses in Dr. Tanmeet Sethi’s book Joy is My Justice. Dr. Sethi shares compelling research on the biological legacy of trauma, such as studies on Holocaust survivors that reveal DNA changes passed down at least two generations and manifesting as higher stress and vulnerability in their descendants. A 2013 study further illustrated this concept. Laboratory mice exposed to a cherry blossom fragrance while receiving electric shocks were quickly conditioned to panic with this fragrance. Surprisingly, future naive generations of mice inherited this aversion and panic response to the fragrance despite never experiencing the shocks. The aversion was not present in fostered offspring, suggesting that the trauma altered the DNA of the mice and was passed down through their genes.

Dr. Sethi discusses epigenetics not just as a mechanism of inheritance but as an opportunity for healing: “The things that happen to us change us and possibly our lineage…What you perceive, feel and do about the things that happen to you change you as well.” She beautifully conveys how we can rewrite our own stories—and by extension, the stories of our extended family and ancestors—embarking on a journey of healing. Through her practical exercises, Dr. Sethi invites us to explore the truths our bodies hold and the narratives we can reshape for ourselves and future generations.

What Is Truth?

Is truth the same as reality? No—truth can vary between individuals. In our human nature to simplify complexities, we often seek a singular, universal truth. Yet the world is too intricate for one perspective to encompass it all. In our sometimes naive and simplistic view of the world, we seek a truth that accurately represents reality. However, the world contains many viewpoints. We cannot capture all aspects of a story or event in our retellings. Epigenetics adds another layer to this complexity. If the experiences of our ancestors shape us, then their untold stories may explain feelings and reactions we don’t fully understand. Why does a particular narrative move us so deeply? Why do some moments feel uncannily familiar?

Reading the author’s note in Tae Keller’s When You Trap a Tiger, I found myself wondering if fiction writers have a superpower—a connection to ancestral stories that lets them tap into multiple versions of reality. Keller’s When You Trap a Tiger is a moving story from the perspective of a twelve-year-old girl of Korean ancestry who feels deeply tied to her grandmother’s stories. In the author’s note, Keller describes her feelings of connection to her ancestral stories. As she switched between writing this fictional tale and researching Korean history and folklore, she stumbled upon many uncanny coincidences between her story and traditional Korean tales she had never heard before. The biggest one being that she had written about a tiger girl without realizing that this was part of a Korean origin story.

Where Do Ideas Come From?

Elizabeth Gilbert, author of Eat, Pray, Love and Big Magic, believes that “creativity is a force of enchantment—not entirely human in its origin.” She describes ideas as “disembodied, energetic life-forms” that seek human collaborators to bring them to life. When writers describe the act of creation, I’m in awe at how they speak about seizing creative ideas like grabbing onto a tiger’s tail. We sometimes call this process “flow” or “Big Magic,” recognizing its mysterious nature. Could stories that live in us, passed down through generations, contribute to this magic? Jamie Ford explores this idea in his historical fiction novel The Many Daughters of Afong Moy. Like Dr. Sethi, Ford imagines a world where rewriting our stories helps us heal. His novel spans several generations of Chinese women, each carrying the weight of inherited trauma until future descendants, living in 2045 and 2086, break the cycle by crafting new endings for their ancestral stories.

The Stories We Carry

Regardless of how we come by our stories, we all have some beliefs or stories that we tell ourselves and they profoundly shape our bodies and actions. When I read stories of South Asians, especially Bangladeshis, I feel a deep connection. Reading Tanaïs’s memoir In Sensorium, for example, evoked powerful emotions as they recounted their parents’ experiences and stories of our shared Bangladeshi ancestry. I think of my mother, a survivor of the 1971 Bangladesh Liberation War. Living under the threat that at any moment that you and your family could be slaughtered or raped by Pakistani army men. Knowing that you narrowly missed being on the train that was bombed killing your friends who asked you to come with them to seek shelter elsewhere. Then, living in the US with the knowledge that the US government ignored pleas for aid in Bangladesh even when submitted by US ambassador Archer Blood. Such experiences leave imprints—not only on individuals but on entire generations.

Reminders of those inherited fears surface in unexpected ways. Walking along a trail near my home in Seattle, I was accosted by a man who threatened to report me and repeatedly called me an “ISIS jihadi bitch”. That moment echoed a deep-seated reality: the weight of being othered and unsafe. As Donald Trump was recently re-elected as US president, I have been thinking about the rise of populism globally and the impact of the stories and rhetoric of those in power. Images of Riz Ahmed in Oscar-winning live short action film “The Long Goodbye” pass through my mind like a waking nightmare. The short film explores questions of identity and belonging and reveals the worst fears and nightmares of South Asian Muslims with the rise of Islamophobia, far-right political groups, and anti-immigration rhetoric.

The Power of Stories to Heal

As the world grapples with the rise of populism and divisive rhetoric, we need to remember the profound impact of stories—those we tell ourselves and those told by others. In a 2022 interview, Riz Ahmed reflects on the power of storytelling “Stories are how we imagine ourselves into other people’s lives. It’s almost like a magical kind of body swap technology…It’s a really profound spiritual kind of mysterious thing...When you open up a kind of world where certain stories are pushed to the side, certain experiences are not thought of as important or human, really dangerous things can happen, in fact the kind of dangerous things that we portray in “The Long Goodbye.” So, I think stories are a place for us to all realize that we’re all essentially one.” Ahmed’s reflections on the power of storytelling remind us that stories are not just entertainment; they are the scaffolding of our shared humanity. Stories shape our perceptions, actions, and legacies. By reclaiming and rewriting them, we honor the past, transform the present, and create a brighter future.

What stories have been passed down in your family? What truths do they reveal—or obscure? In exploring and rewriting these narratives, we might not only understand ourselves better but also shape a more compassionate and connected world.

References:

1. Keller, Tae, When You Trap a Tiger. New York, Random House, 2020.

2. Sethi, Tanmeet, Joy Is My Justice: Reclaim What Is Yours. New York, Hachette Go, an imprint of Hachette Books, Hachette Book Group, 2023.

3. Gilbert, Elizabeth. Big Magic : Creative Living beyond Fear. New York: Riverhead Books, 2015.

4. Ford, Jamie. The Many Daughters of Afong Moy: A Novel Atria Books, 2022.

5. Islam, Tanwi Nandini. In Sensorium: Notes for My People Harper, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers, 2022.

6. Riz Ahmed - The Long Goodbye (Best Live Action Short - Oscars 2022)

7. Riz Ahmed talks about his Oscar-nominated short film, 'The Long Goodbye,' ABC new interview, March 24, 2022.

Further reading:

1. Breton, C.V., Landon, R., Kahn, L.G. et al. Exploring the evidence for epigenetic regulation of environmental influences on child health across generations. Commun Biol 4, 769 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1038/s42003-021-02316-6