The God Gene; What It Means

 Nadene Goldfoot                                                   

 We zone in on protein that plays a crucial role in the transport and storage of neurotransmitters in the brain to learn about the G-d Gene.

The idea has been proposed by geneticist Dean Hamer, graduate of Harvard Medical School, b: 1951,  in the 2004 book called The God Gene: How Faith is Hardwired into our Genes.  Dean Hamer is an Emmy Award winning filmmaker, New York Times Book of the Year author, and NIH scientist emeritus with a long history in communicating complex and controversial ideas to diverse publics. He formed Qwaves with partner Joe Wilson to produce insightful and provocative documentaries about often overlooked social issues. Their films have screened and won awards at film festivals across the world including Tribeca, Berlin and Toronto, viewed on PBS, Netflix, and international broadcasts, won awards at film festivals across the world including Tribeca, Berlin and Toronto, viewed on PBS, Netflix, and international broadcasts, won support from Sundance, the Ford Foundation, ITVS and Pacific Islanders in Communications, and used as outreach and educational tools by a range of community and educational organizations.

The God gene hypothesis proposes that human spirituality is influenced by heredity and that a specific gene, called vesicular monoamine transporter 2 (VMAT2), predisposes humans towards spiritual or mystic experiences.  

In the beginning, mankind had become polytheistic.  The people were frightened, as I would be, of earthquakes, volcanoes erupting, storms, etc, that were happening that they did not understand.  So they invented gods controlling each frightening experience and wanted to appease them, to stop their frightening acts.  They even went so far as to sacrifice their own beloved people, and sometimes others,  in order to stop the fright. 

 We even see this practice continuing with the Aztecs with their human sacrifice practices.  "The Aztecs were the Native American people who dominated northern Mexico at the time of the Spanish conquest in the early 16th century. A nomadic culture, the Aztecs eventually settled on several small islands in Lake Texcoco where, in 1325, they founded the town of Tenochtitlan, modern-day Mexico City.  The Aztecs practiced human sacrifice to honor their gods, ensure the world's survival, and intimidate enemies.                               

Along came Abram/Abraham who introduced to his own family the idea of a single power controlling the universe; One G-d, as it were.  The family continued with this knowledge through time until it came to Moses, a Prince of Egypt, who also discovered that he was of this family, and also believed in the same idea which he re-taught to  the people on the Exodus, 600,000 strong.  

The polytheism of the rest of the world continued until Jesus, a Hellenized Jew, came along, teaching an upgrade version of Judaism, which caused his followers not to understand as they did, but turned around thinking he was a G-d instead.  Yes, it's found that some of the first Christians considered Jesus as a god according to floor excavations in Israel.  Certain aspects of polytheism was still practiced even though people did become monotheistic to a point with many accepting a trio of a belief of the father, the son, and the holy ghost, which Jewish people could not agree with.  Everyone involved had mystic experiences which were spiritual in nature.                                                               

Moses had experience with the burning bush for one,  that he recorded.  

The major arguments of the hypothesis are: 

(1) spirituality can be quantified by psychometric measurements; 

(2) the underlying tendency to spirituality is partially heritable; 

(3) part of this heritability can be attributed to the gene VMAT2; The vesicular monoamine transporter 2 (VMAT2) gene, also known as SLC18A2, encodes a protein that plays a crucial role in the transport and storage of neurotransmitters in the brain.                                                 

(4) this gene acts by altering monoamine levels; and Monoamine levels can be altered by a number of factors, including diet, stress, and injury. These changes can affect mood, behavior, and cognition.         

Milk and its products okay but not eaten with meat; way before or way after;  Milk products that are allowed on a kosher diet include milk, butter, cheese, and yogurt. 

  Perhaps that is why following kashrut (diet that is kosher eating only specific animals (protein) were considered to be okay.  It interfered with the ability of the G-dgene to act or not.  

(5) spirituality provides an evolutionary advantage by providing individuals with an innate sense of optimism.  

I like this last one, being a real optimist.  That person could be carrying the gene.  " According to the God Gene hypothesis, spirituality has a genetic component, of which (VMAT2) comprises one component by contributing to sensations associated with mystic experiences, including the presence of God and feelings of connection to a larger universe." The question we all ask if we think we are optimists  is, "Do I carry the G-d gene?  

The research uses the self-transcendence scale developed by psychologist Robert Cloninger to quantify spirituality using three sub-scales: 3 studies by Lindon Eaves and Nicholas Martin's findings  demonstrated that approximately 40% of the variation in self-transcendence was due to genes, so it's inherited.  

"self-forgetfulness" (as in the tendency to become totally absorbed in some activity, such as reading); 

"transpersonal identification" (a feeling of connectedness to a larger universe); and 

"mysticism" (an openness to believe things that remain unproven, such as ESP). 

Cloninger suggests that taken together, these measurements are a reasonable way to quantify (make measurable) an individual's propensity to be spiritual.

Neurotransmitter diseases are neurological and psychological disorders caused by imbalances in neurotransmitters. Neurotransmitters are chemical messengers that carry signals in the nervous system.   Diseases similar to Parkinson's disease, which also involve imbalances in brain neurotransmitters, include: Multiple System Atrophy (MSA), Progressive Supranuclear Palsy (PSP), Dementia with Lewy Bodies, Corticobasal Degeneration, and Dystonia, all of which can manifest with Parkinson-like symptoms due to disruptions in dopamine levels or other neurotransmitters in the brain. Jewish people are studied for these.  Three important dominantly-inherited neurological diseases were discovered to be particularly common among various Jewish ethnic groups. For idiopathic torsion dystonia (ITD), previously thought to be recessively transmitted among Ashkenazi Jews, we have established an autosomal dominant mode of inheritance. 

The Catholic Church has many spiritual people known as Saints.  They are an outgrowth of the original Christians who attended Constantine the Great's meeting in 325 CE in Rome when they made many decisions about Jesus and what he was.  "In 325 AD, Roman Emperor Constantine I convened the First Council of Nicaea, a meeting of Christian bishops in the city of Nicaea. The council was held to address issues that threatened the unity of the church and empire." 

My question now is:  how is it that there are so many saints in the Catholic Church who are not following our Jewish law of kashrut?  Who are our spiritual Jews today?Could it be that once the gene was developed as being spiritual, it has been handed down ever since like the other genes?  We Jews, following kashrut, should become more spiritual, and maybe they are.   

What I find out is that too much or too little of something affects the neurotransmitter.  We can either inherit the spirituality or the Parkinson's disease.Wow!  Our brain causes both!  The brain is affected by what we eat or don't eat.  We can realize that drugs, meds, smoking do affect us.  It no doubt has affected our G-dgene as well.  

I don't know if Dr. Hamer knows it or not, but his surname, Hamer, can also  be a Jewish (Ashkenazic) and German: variant of Hammer.  It's more likely to be Pennsylvania Dutch or English from the Normans.  If Dutch, well,there were lots of Jews in Holland at one time, too.  

Resource:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dean_Hamer

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/God_gene

https://www.imdb.com/name/nm1581205/bio/?ref_=nm_ov_bio_sm

https://www.ok.org/consumers/kosher-basics/meat-dairy-pareve/

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC8234057/#:~:text=Imbalances%20of%20these%20neurotransmitters%20can%20lead%20to,and%20in%20the%20peripheral%20organs%20may%20yield

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/0753332294900574#:~:text=A%20focus%20of%20myotonic%20dystrophy,offspring%20in%20this%20ethnic%20group. *****

Could Prophecy Be An Autistic Gift?

 Nadene Goldfoot                                              

Einstein's official portrait after receiving the 1921 Nobel Prize for Physics

Many Jews have gone into the fields of science.  We tend to be a logical people, needing proof before believing in things.  The Nobel Prize, the most prestigious award in the life sciences, has been awarded annually since 1901 for breakthrough research in medicine, chemistry and physics, and for literature and peace.  Jews comprise only 0.2% of the world's population, meaning their share of winners is 100 times their proportion of the world's population. Jews have been awarded all six of the Nobel Foundation's awards: 

Chemistry: 36 (19% of total).

Physics: 56 (25% of total)

Physiology or Medicine: 59 (26% of total)

 It's caused many to take their leave from Orthodox Judaism and it's list of accepted beliefs to be classified as such.  There are as many different levels of accepting Judaism as there are flavors of ice cream.  Alan Dershowitz is of one level, my brother another level, and myself a 3rd level and so on. Maybe I should say there are as many as there are of Jews.  But we all have one thing in common and that is that G-d is an unseen force, and cannot be a human, and the human cannot be half-god and half-man as many Greek and Romans had accepted.  So that's where scientific  thinking has stepped in. 

Now, what's shaking people up a little, Jews and Gentiles, is that there is the prophecy that Jews would be returning to Israel.  The return has actually happened.  Something so far back in the past has already taken place and continues to do so.  Jews from all corners of the earth have returned since May 14, 1948 when Israel was again created, this time by the League of Nations in the 1920s and again in the 1940s by the United Nations that clinches it. Israel 2023 population is estimated at 9,174,520 people at mid year. Israel population is equivalent to 0.11% of the total world population. Israel ranks number 98 in the list of countries (and dependencies) by population. Or better yet, Former President Bush said that Israel could fit into his ranch's driveway.  It's a tiny country, 10% of the original promise of a Jewish Homeland to be recreated out of the ancient homeland.   And out of that number of 9+million are 20% Arabs, mostly Muslims.  So Jews alone stand at about 6 million.  This is a figure before October 7, 2023.  

The next thing prophesied that's coming true is the War of Gog and Magog and all the people turning against Israel. The Gog prophecy is meant to be fulfilled at the approach of what is called the "end of days", but not necessarily the end of the world. Jewish eschatology viewed Gog and Magog as enemies to be defeated by the Messiah, which would usher in the age of the Messiah.  So the Moshiach, as Jews say the word--- a general or president of Israel, will have to fight against another leader and his minion (men/country/countries), like a final battle;  World War III, perhaps.  

Kiryat Shimona in the north, at the Good Neighbor Fence that I visited in in 1982.  They had a department store and I felt I was back at Meier and Franks shopping for a dress.  It's now being hit by rockets from Hezbollah, or is it from Hamas?  

 Since October 7, 2023, this is something that is developing and smells, looks and tastes an awful lot like that. This attack on Israel was different from all previous attacks that they have had to defend themselves from.  This is what I call the final straw that broke Israel's back.  It was atrocious; inhumane. Hamas was savage, and now Hezbollah from Lebanon is also testing the waters and is joining in somewhat, waiting to see what Iran says.  People  at first were sympathetic towards Israel, but as soon as Jews started to defend themselves, crowds have turned against them and cheer for the Palestinians and demonstrate against Israel. Their anti-Semitism is like like neon lights blinking in the dark. 

The Gog and Magog people being walled off by Alexander's forces.–Jean Wauquelin's Book of Alexander. Bruges, Belgium, 15th century.  

 Christianity has also used Jewish writers in their religion and the difference is in the interpretation and understanding and sometimes even a written change, which Islam also did in who Isaac was going to sacrifice, Isaac or Ishmael.  In Ezekiel 38, Gog is an individual and Magog is his land. By the time of the New Testament's Revelation 20:8, Jewish tradition had long since changed Ezekiel's "Gog from Magog" into"Gog and Magog".

 Jewish eschatology viewed Gog and Magog as enemies to be defeated by the Messiah, which would usher in the age of the Messiah. One view within Christianity is more starkly apocalyptic, making Gog and Magog, here indicating nations rather than individuals, allies of Satan against God at the end of the millennium, as described in the Book of Revelation. For Jews, Satan is usually translated as "opponent" or "adversary", represent the impulse Yetzer hara, a sinful feeling and not a being.  

It's coming at a time when religious leaders that are Jewish, Christian and Muslim have been talking and saying that the time is near for the end of times when they expect the Moshiach/Messiah/Mahdi to appear.  For Jews, the Moshiach is a man, like a general.  For Christians, the Messiah is Jesus, and for Muslims, the Mahdi is said to be the future Final Leader in Islamic eschatology who is believed to appear at the end of times to rid the world of evil and injustice.  They also believe that Jesus is a Messiah which confuses me.  The Mahdi  is said to be a descendant of Prophet Muhammad who will appear shortly before the Prophet ʿĪsā (Jesus Christ) and will lead the Muslims to rule the entire world.  That's how they incorporate both religions; with their feet in both camps. 

      How prophets differ from the rest of us  

Memory is the ability to take in information, store it, and recall it at a later time. Eidetic memory and photographic memory are two types of memory in people. Eidetic memory is the ability to recall an image for a brief period of time with high precision, while photographic memory is the ability to recall an image for a much longer period with high precision. Thus, this is the key difference between eidetic memory and photographic memory. 

I'm not a scientist but my hobbies are genealogy and the study of DNA, which is a science  I'm a teacher and have taught children from Kindergarten to junior high. People that have a photographic memory usually become PhD's of something. 

In reading about memories, then a prophet who saw into the future might have a problem remembering what they saw, too, and might not even have the words to describe what they saw.   

Idiot Savants:  Savants are people who display extraordinary abilities, sometimes far exceeding what we might think of as normal. These abilities can include exceptional memory recall, lightning calculation ability and uncanny artistic skill. Certain cases have attracted the attention of the media, even the 1988 film Rain Man was inspired by a real figure, and the field is subject to constant scientific research and debate.

Among the most amazing cases in this area are “acquired savants”, individuals left with extraordinary abilities following a brain injury or central nervous system trauma. The leading American authority on savant syndrome, Dr Darold Treffert, believes that there are probably fewer than fifty living prodigious savants, that is, those whose gifts would appear incredible in anyone. Yet, while some of these acquired abilities continue to amaze and baffle, Dr Treffert is not alone in thinking that such cases may point to untapped abilities in all of us. Read on to find out what these might be.

Kim Peek was renowned for his exceptional memory, he was able to recall zip codes or calendar dates in seconds, but the root cause of his abilities syndrome is believed to have been damage to his corpus callosum: the loss of the bundle of connective nerves between the two hemispheres of his brain. Scientists have speculated that the resultant unusual connections in his brain physically created an extraordinary memory capacity.  

Hyperthymesia, also known as hyperthymestic syndrome or highly superior autobiographical memory (HSAM), is a condition that leads people to be able to remember an abnormally large number of their life experiences in vivid detail. It is extraordinarily rare, with only 62 people in the world having been diagnosed with the condition as of 2021. One who has hyperthymesia is called a hyperthymesiac.

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a neurological and developmental disorder that affects how people interact with others, communicate, learn, and behave. Although autism can be diagnosed at any age, it is described as a “developmental disorder” because symptoms generally appear in the first 2 years of life.

  I didn't have any autistic students but hear about it more and more.  I've seen movies and read stories of autistic people and their capabilities.  It suddenly dawns on me that autism could be the cause of someone seeing into the future. There are amazing things that autistic people have been found to do.  

The world’s preeminent scientists – both and past and present – are often known for their quirks and eccentricities. It’s widely held that having a singular focus on a field of science effectively drowns out the desire to fit in, and results in a sort of general social obliviousness. This kind of thing has long been believed to be just an artifact of the scientific mind.  But could there be more to it than that?

According to a Cambridge University study that looked at 500,000 people, engineers, mathematicians, physicists, and inventors —some of the world’s brightest thinkers—often exhibit some autistic tendencies, even if they haven’t received an official diagnosis.

Some scientists have observed that individuals with autism or autism spectrum disorders, such as Asperger syndrome, may occasionally exhibit exceptional memory that resembles eidetic or photographic memory.

The brain is a marvelous and amazing organ.  Is it possible that only a few people in the world, like the hyperthymesiac, have been born who could view the future?  

Then again, there is DNA.  It's probably a gift given to us through our DNA, and how it works causes the brain to receive the same way that Schizophrenia's  visions and sounds come to the mentally disturbed with this condition. including:  Psychological: hallucination, paranoia, hearing voices, depression, fear, persecutory delusion, or religious delusion.

Schizophrenia usually involves delusions (false beliefs), hallucinations (seeing or hearing things that don’t exist), unusual physical behavior, and disorganized thinking and speech. It is common for people with schizophrenia to have paranoid thoughts or hear voices. For example, they may believe that someone is controlling their mind or going to cause them harm. These psychotic episodes are often frightening, confusing, and isolating.  Schizophrenia can be extremely disruptive to a person’s life, making it hard to go to school or work, keep a schedule, socialize, complete daily tasks, or take care of oneself. However, with consistent treatment—a combination of medication, therapy, and social support—people with schizophrenia can manage the disease and lead fulfilling lives.  

Schizophrenia tends to run in families, but no single gene is thought to be responsible. It's more likely that different combinations of genes make people more vulnerable to the condition.  Then there could have been a grouping of DNA segments for the condition of hearing voices, but not succumb to Schizophrenia as it presents today as a mental condition.(my thought).      

Studies of people with schizophrenia have shown there are subtle differences in the structure of their brains.  These changes are not seen in everyone with schizophrenia and can occur in people who do not have a mental illness. But they suggest schizophrenia may partly be a disorder of the brain.

This doesn't fit the descriptions of prophets, who were socially very acceptable people and leaders in their community.  Only when they heard voices that others didn't or thinking that G-d was telling them these things is there a connection. Prophecy came to an end as far as Jewish history acknowledges. 

Einstein determined that space and time are like a fabric and massive objects can warp space-time.  

Isaac Newton (1642- 1726)  said space and time were fixed and gravity was a force pulling objects together.  My brain is still set on Newton's watch.                                   

We know that Albert Einstein (1879-1955)   discovered something about time, that it was not linear but wave-like. "In the Special Theory of Relativity, Einstein determined that time is relative—in other words, the rate at which time passes depends on your frame of " reference". What is Albert Einstein known for? Albert Einstein is best known for his equation E = mc2, which states that energy and mass (matter) are the same thing, just in different forms. He is also known for his discovery of the photoelectric effect, for which he won the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1921.

My musings about prophets and their gift of seeing into the future leads me to the brains of Samuel, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah and Malachi. 

Ezekiel, the prophet of the 6th century BCE was a member of the priestly family of Zadok, a Cohen.  He may even had served in the Temple before its destruction in 586 BCE.  Ezekiel was among those exiled before that date to Tel Abib on the river Kebar in Babylonia where he prophesied over a period of at least 22 years from 592 to 570 BCE.  He foresaw the destruction of Jerusalem, after which, he maintained, the people of Israel would rehabilitate itself.  Jerusalem was destroyed by the Romans in 70 CE.  His prophecy came true.  

He does have a gift.  Not everyone can see into the future.  Science has this to work on.  We can get to the moon, but how does the technical work  of the brain show us the future?  This is why the religious believe that G-d gave certain people the gift of prophecy.  Aside from G-d, how does the brain comply and allow this to happen?  It looks like certain things aren't meant to be discovered.  It's complicated.  

Resource:

Just watched 60 minutes on youtube from January 2012 on genius/autism;  fantastic !  

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gog_and_Magog

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albert_Einstein

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mahdi#:~:text=The%20Mahdi%20(Arabic%3A%20%D9%B1%D9%84%D9%92%D9%85%D9%8E%D9%87%D9%92%D8%AF%D9%90%D9%8A%D9%91%2C,world%20of%20evil%20and%20injustice.

https://www.britannica.com/biography/Albert-Einstein/Nazi-backlash-and-coming-to-America

https://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/topics/autism-spectrum-disorders-asd#:~:text=Autism%20spectrum%20disorder%20(ASD)%20is,first%202%20years%20of%20life.

https://wonderopolis.org/wonder/do-you-have-a-photographic-memory#:~:text=Some%20scientists%20have%20observed%20that,resembles%20eidetic%20or%20photographic%20memory.

https://www.pinterest.com/diffbw/

https://www.differencebetween.com/what-is-the-difference-between-eidetic-memory-and-photographic-memory/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyperthymesia

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Jewish_Nobel_laureates#:~:text=Jews%20comprise%20only%200.2%25%20of,proportion%20of%20the%20world's%20population.&text=Jews%20have%20been%20awarded%20all,36%20(19%25%20of%20total)

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1369179/#:~:text=Nobel%20Prize%20The%20Nobel%20Prize,and%20for%20literature%20and%20peace.

The Jewish Brain of Einstein

Nadene Goldfoot                                                                 

  Young Albert Einstein b: March 14, 1879 Ulm, Germany; d: April 18, 1955 Princeton, New Jersey

History 2 had a program on October 31st about Einstein's brain.  His brain was definitely different from most of the people on earth.
                                                                           

 He had a thickness of corpus callosum where nerves cross from one side to the other.  He had a unique prefrontal cortex.  Einstein had an IQ figured at 180, the highest ever recorded.  He was able to think in terms far better than most people in math concepts.  When he died at age 76 in 1955, Thomas Harvey, pathologist, did the autopsy (something not really desired by the Jewish laws- but being who he was, it happened. His parents were not observant Jews. Many  German  Jews had become very reformed, and his family had gone even a step farther away.   Harvey cut Einstein's brain into pieces and preserved it in formaldehyde.  His brain size was normal.  It weighed less than the average adult male brain by 1/3 of a pound.  However, his "muscles" were in his brain, "which were that he had greater than normal numbers of glial cells, which are needed to nourish high-performance neurons and are believed to help the hippocampus and cerebellum work more efficiently."

The middle portion of his brain, known as the inferior parietal lobes, which influence mathematical and music ability and help process visual images were 15% wider and the neurons here were packed tighter than in other people.  The sulcus groove that we have early in life  didn't extend all the way and so didn't shrink because he used his brain a lot.
                                                                               

                     Albert Einstein and friend David Ben Gurion, 1st President of Israel

The program thought that perhaps he had outside space alien help in this somehow.  At no time did they ever mention that Albert Einstein was Jewish, from Jewish parents that go back to the time of the Exodus.  They never gave it a thought that he came from people who had developed a lot of intelligent people somehow, which was very disappointing to me.  They couldn't give any credit to the Jewish people and his family tree..To understand how Einstein had such a high IQ of 180, one must look at his inherited DNA as well as the physical characteristics of his brain.  .
                                                                             

                   Theoretical Physicist and Philosopher of Science of 20th Century, known of his Theory of Relativity 

Albert Einstein came from a people whose priority was knowledge and thinking skills.  His father, Hermann,  was an engineer. His mother was Pauline Koch before marrying Hermann.   Physical prowess was not the guiding light in selecting a mate.  Intelligence has been the mark of achieving the right mates and from the right families for many generations.  "Genes circumscribe human possibility."  The question has always been debated as to which factor decides intelligence, genes or environment.  The evidence shows that genes make these decisions.  You must remember though, that our parents carry many genes to be passed on from all their ancestors, and each child grabs a handful and his handful may be different ones than his siblings.   Einstein had one younger sister.   He still may have been the only genious in his family, but chances are that the other siblings he might have had would be very bright, too, though not as bright as he was.  He lucked out.  In this case, environment and DNA affected Maja, his sister, in reaching 180 IQ.  Females have not reached the heights of IQ's found in men as yet.  We are more stable, though in having a good high IQ without having the extremes at both ends of the curve.  Scientists have also discovered that it is the female who passes on the DNA of intelligence, so you inherit this IQ from your mother's genes, though I'm sure, that you get it from your father, too.

Also, Jews  have been found to be distantly related to their spouses and many can go back 5 generations to see their two families were connected.  DNA testing is proving this fact.  In fact, the latest test result is that all of the Jews are at least 30th cousins to each other.  We Jews have been marrying Jews, and we're only 0.02% of the world population.

For a small group, we've won an amazing % of Nobel prizes.  Science seems to be our forte, but we do well in other fields, too.  For the people who Hitler said was sub-human and killed off 6 million of us, we are people who rise to the occasion and have become leaders of men.

Moses was our 1st prophet. He had the ability to hear G-d speaking to him.  Today, when someone says something like this, he is put in a mental institution, or at the least, sent to a psychiatrist.  Moses, the former prince of Egypt,  was extra-ordinary.  He was carrying around a lot of guilt for running out on his people, and so his brain was under a strain.  Something then happened and he knew what he had to do.  He was hearing messages and visualizing what to do.  He had tapped into the lines to G-d.  He wasn't crazy;  he was special.

 Following him in this ability was Joshua, our Judges, Samuel, Isaiah, Jeremiah and Ezekiel.  Moses, born in 1391 BCE, discovered his ability to hear from G-d at age 80, so  by 1311 he discovered this power.  Isaiah prophecized in Jerusalem (a part of Judah) from the death of King Uzziah/Azariah (780-740 BCE)  until the middle of King Hezekiah's reign (720-692 BCE).   Therefore, his prophecy came from (740 to 701 BCE).   Assyria had attacked Israel and Judah  in 722 BCE and they had led away the best of the population as slaves.The attacking went on till 721 BCE.  

Our ancestors have produced 12 men of extraordinary gifts of prophecy; Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi,  over a period of 350 years beginning in 700 BCE from the middle of the 1st Temple period to the early years of the 2nd Temple.  Each prophecized for brief periods to get something important across.  Rashi, our great biblical commentator explained that the era of prophecy was ending then,  so they would be the last prophets.  Haggai, Zechariah and Malachi had to write down their own prophecies.  He saw Hosea, a contemporary of Isaiah, was according to the sages, the greatest prophet of his time.  Since then, we have had a few more make prophecies that have come true.  Hosea, born in the 8th century BCE lived and prophesied in the kingdom of Israel from the reign of Jeroboam II in 744 BCE but mainly in the last years of the kingdom up to 722 BCE.  His prophecies were about the relationship between G-d and Israel and in 4-14, rebuking Israel, followed by promises of consolation and salvation.  He saw the bond between G-d and Israel as an almost physical love with Israel compared to a wife in a marriage.  He forecasted Israel's exile, but also saw visions of restoration after the people's repentance.  Much later, Judah the Pious of the 13th century CE from Germany made prophecies that area coming true.  .

To think that at one time, most likely at the fall of Jerusalem to the Romans in 70 BCE, we were so depleted of a population that DNA scientists have found our Ashkenazi ancestors  600 to 800 years ago, from 1214 to 1614, happened to be only 350 Jews, caused by a bottleneck.  (1)When you think of the men who managed to get out of a burning Jerusalem and escape to France and then to Germany, they had to take their wives and children. Over 1 million Jews were killed in Jerusalem's fall.  100,000 were taken as slaves to Rome.   Many were to old to bear children anymore out of the group.  Our 350 would have been the children of those survivors who fled.  They would have had many of their men slain fighting off attackers, and there would have been hunger, thirst, the elements to deal it in nature that would have cut down the population.

As far as that goes, an earlier DNA report was that we Jews had only 4 women as our ancestors.  That means that each generation was from that population only.  People from other women had died out.  So here we are today, from one of 4 women and 350 survivors who managed to procreate and rebuild our nation.

Long before in our midst we had other anomalies of the brain; men who had the ability to prophesize the future.  Surely they also had brains that had mutated to have special abilities, most likely in similar areas that Einstein's brain had been affected.
                                                               

Peter Hurkos b: May 21, 1911-d: June 1, 1988 from Dordrect, Netherlands

I remember reading long ago about a man that had something happen to his brain.  Peter Hurkos had a brain injury after falling off a ladder while working and hit his head at age 30 and was in a coma from the fall for 3 days.   The end result was that he had the gift of ESP.  He had become psychic. Previous to this accident, during World War II, he was a member of the Dutch Resistance and was imprisoned in Buchenwald   He would have been 30 in 1941. "Hurkos was said to have been born with a caul, the milky veil over his head that old wives considered the mark of a mystical child. As a boy, he was a poor student, dropping out of school when he entered his teens. He was a loner who spent much time in the woods or in solitude, dreaming and exploring, prone to fantasies and visions."

After the accident he became religious.  He proves that you don't have to be born with a brain that had mutated, but that a brain can be jiggled into having extra sensory capabilities if done in just the right way.

 My brain just showed a capability we all have, and that was that I was able to remember his name after reading about him over 60 years ago.  When I thought about the man who fell off the ladder, I could not remember his name, but after a half hour or so it just popped up into my head, like retrieving a stubborn file from my computer program and I had even retained the correct spelling of his full name.  .  It was there. He had made a huge impression on me long ago.

 He said he saw pictures.  He wasn't 100% correct all the time, but did far better than us with average abilities. He claimed to be 87% right on his ESP.    "He discovered he had developed an ability to pierce the barriers that separate the past, present and future. With stunning accuracy, he was able to see into the unknown."  Now he sounds a little like Einstein who had some amazing theories about the past, present and future all being one in time.  

So, you don't have to have had ancestors that were in UFO's.  Our brains have the ability to somehow do miraculous feats given the right circumstances of life.  We just have to get ourselves to use it or we lose it.  

Resource:  http://io9.com/this-is-why-einsteins-brain-was-better-than-yours-1441971724
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Hurkos
http://www.peterhurkos.com/peter_biography.htm
Abraham's Children, race, identity, and the DNA of the Chosen People by Jon Entine p 303 Brains andd IQ
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albert_Einstein
http://www.biography.com/people/albert-einstein-9285408#synopsis
update: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Historical_Jewish_population_comparisons
http://www.timesofisrael.com/ashkenazi-jews-descend-from-350-people-study-finds/ (1)
http://jewishbubba.blogspot.com/2014/03/bible-predictions-from-judah-pious-of.html
http://jewishfactsfromportland.blogspot.com/2014/10/ashkenazi-jews-of-today-are-30th-cousins.html
http://israel-nadene.blogspot.com/2014/08/jews-living-in-judea-samaria-and-other.html / TIMELINE
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3199788,00.html  (4 Jewish women-DNA)
http://jewishfactsfromportland.blogspot.com/2012/10/east-of-euphrates-river-came-hebrews.html, timeline from beginning of Jews with Abraham's people
http://jewishbubba.blogspot.com/2014/04/census-time-of-12-tribes-of-israel.html
http://www.religioustolerance.org/jud_pers1.htm  numbers killed
http://goldfoot_genealogy.blogspot.com/2011/06/high-iqs-coming-from-mothers-or-fathers.html