I once went to a hypno-therapist who did a germ-line regression (as contrasted with a "past-life" regression) where I was lead back in time through my familial linage to talk one of my ancestors. YMMV

> Epigenetics is the study of heritable changes in gene function that do not involve changes in the DNA sequence.

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

> After all, when a new cell is made, the parent replication mechanism also builds the child's replication mechanism.

The whole organism splits in two so the daughter cells' entire mechanism is half of the parent cell's mechanism.

One of the thoughts that trips me out is that each Amoeba (for example) is billions of years old.