Genetic memory in fiction

Film/Television

*In the classic anime film "Akira" the character Kei ponders the dangerous consequences of awakening the dormant memories that are passed genetically from being to being since the beginning of the universe.
*The alien species in the "Alien" films possess genetic memories.
*The film (and the book) "Altered States" features incidents of "physical regression" of a scientist (William Hurt as Dr. Edward Jessup) based on a fictitious quality similar to genetic memory, with the difference that the ancient information is encoded not at the cellular level (DNA), but at the atomic level. There is an apparent progression of concepts implied in the film's science:

1. individual person-based memory (neural system, or possibly even whole organism),
2. cell-based memory (genes),
3. atom-based memory (matter),
4. …?

The implied suggestion seems that memory could be present at every scale of matter, down to the very energy, innate to it—to the universal, primordial "substance" that everything in existence is made of. This way, the film advances the seminal idea behind the concept of genetic memory to a completely new level. The story is loosely based on actual research done by Dr. John C. Lilly.
*In "The Devil Take the Hindmost", an episode of the television series "Andromeda", a group of genetically engineered humans possesses genetic memory. Tiama, a Hajira, forcibly extracts Rev Bem's genetic material and uses it to infest herself with parasitic Magog larvae, resulting in her death. These "Hajira-Magog" inherit the Hajira's genetic memory, retaining Tiama's memories.
*In the animated series" Ben 10", Ectonurites such as Ghostfreak have their entire consciousness present even in a few strands of DNA.
*In the "Doctor Who" serial "Doctor Who and the Silurians", humanity is revealed to possess a racial memory of the (misnamed) Silurians, humanoid reptiles who ruled Earth in prehistoric times. Since the "Silurians" treated primitive humans as at best pets and at worst vermin, the racial memory is one of abject terror, and the sight of a "Silurian" can drive a person mad.
*In the movie" The Eye", the main character receives paranormal aspects of vision due to her newly transplanted eyes via a similar concept known as cellular memory.
*In" Jekyll "(2007 TV series), 'Hyde' recalls memories from the original Doctor Jekyll. He is described by the scientist Dr. Gilligan as having race memory that works unlike that of 'normal humans'.
*In the anime series "Macross 7", the Zentradi, a cloned species, are revealed to have a racial memory of the Protodeviln, so terrible that they (and those of mixed human/Zentradi blood) are driven into wild rages by their close presence.
*In the" " episode "Catspaw", the idea of racial memory is central to the plot.
*The Goa'uld, an alien race featured in the "Stargate SG-1" television series, possess a genetic memory. In the sister series, "Stargate Atlantis", the whale species "flagisalis" also possess a genetic memory.
*An episode of "The X-Files" deals with genetic memory. A police detective has visions of crimes committed by a rapist. It turns out she was the offspring of one of the rapist's surviving victims and in turn was his biological daughter. The urge to kill the surviving woman nearly overtakes her.

Print/Novels

*In Douglas Adams' "Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" a distant descendant of Genghis Khan shows attributes of his ancestor: He likes axes, and often has visions of angry men, horses, and war when he becomes angry.
*In Adams' novel "Life, the Universe and Everything", an ancient series of terrible wars known as the Krikkit Wars manage to affect most civilizations in the universe, including the one which would eventually become Earth. Vague racial memories of the events of the war lead the humans to create the sport cricket, forgetting what they're basing it on. The rest of the universe, noting how shameless it is to create a sport based on such horrible events, chose to shun Earth due to its tactlessness, which is why Earth still remains uncontacted by aliens.
*In Jean M. Auel's Earth's Children series, the primitive Neanderthal people who adopted and raised the Cro-Magnon main character had ancestral memories that they could draw upon at will as adults. Children were born with these ancestral memories and needed only a "reminder" to be able to recall this knowledge. This ability was necessary for communication and survival due to their undeveloped verbal abilities. These ancestral memories were important because they grasped new ideas only with great difficulty. It was far easier to recall what had already been done than to work out new ways.
*Stories of Dr. Zeus Inc. by Kage Baker feature a race of small humanoids who have shared memory, apparently genetic in origin.
*In Pierre Boulle's novel "Planet of the Apes", important exposition is given by a primitive human who has been hypnotized into revealing subconscious racial memories.
*Arthur C. Clarke's novel "Childhood's End" incorporates genetic memory as a plot device.
*The idea of racial or genetic memory is central to the" Dune "series by Frank Herbert. In the" Dune "universe, women called Reverend Mothers are capable of accessing the memories of all their female ancestors, and seek a male equivalent who can access both male and female past lives.
*In the StarCraft novel series" StarCraft: The Dark Templar Saga" by Christie Golden, it is said that the Protoss retain a racial memory of the Xel'Naga abandoning them.
*In Robert Jordan's "The Wheel of Time" fantasy book series, wolves are sentient and innately retain the memories of their wolf ancestors. Mat Cauthon, even before gaining memories by passing through the" ter'angreal "in Rhuidean, retained memories of his Manetheran ancestors and was consequently able to sometimes speak the Old Tongue.
*The Jack London book "The Call of the Wild" deals with a tame dog rediscovering his wolf heritage. As this occurs, he vividly remembers one of his ancestors living alongside a cave man. Interestingly, at the time the book was written, very little was understood about genetics and the idea of genetic memory did not seem to have been introduced. London appears to have been ahead of his time.
*In the science fiction stories of Larry Niven, there are frequent references to memories being stored in RNA, and being transferable from one person to another. This plot element was based on actual research with flatworms, which was later discredited.
*Stel Pavlou uses genetic memory as the central theme in the novel "Gene" (2005). The debate over nature versus nurture is embodied in the two central characters, whose revelations of past lives through genetic memory stretch back from the modern day to the Trojan War.
*Terry Pratchett uses the idea of race memory in his "Discworld" book "Sourcery", when antihero Rincewind confronts the monsters of the Dungeon Dimensions, where race memory (accessed by a sorcerer, Coin), tells him not to use magic against them as it only makes them stronger.
*J. R. R. Tolkien explores the idea of a linguistic race memory in "The Lost Road" and "The Notion Club Papers", and speculates about the real world in "English and Welsh".
*The Superman villain Doomsday was cloned thousands of times by his father, Burtron, who was trying to make him into the ultimate being. Every time the baby was killed by the vicious fauna on ancient Krypton, Burtron harvested the remains to make the next clone more powerful. Doomsday possesses the genetic memories of all of his deaths, causing him to hate all life.

Games

*The video game "Assassin's Creed" is about accessing the memories of an ancestor of the main character, and reading his genetic memory in a machine called the "Animus".
*In the video game "Psychonauts", Fred Bonaparte, head orderly turned inmate of Thorney Towers, is haunted by a genetic memory of his ancestor, Napoleon Bonaparte, who won't leave until Fred finally beats him at a game of Waterloo.
*In the "Star Control" series of games, a race called the Mycon can pass on memories to their offspring, thus achieving a state which they term "shared immortality".
*In the" Warhammer 40,000 "universe, genetic memory is present within Space Marines, such as the Blood Angels who remember the tragic death of their founder, with whom they share genetic material. One of the Marines' super-human abilities is to consume genetic material of living things to absorb their memories via the victims' DNA.