Memory, Epigenetics, and Ancestral Healing

[AncestralEchoes]

I am always interested in hearing stories of “knowing” things you can’t possibly know, as if you are being guided through some important information that needs to be shared. Certainly, the concept of past lives and channeling can explain knowledge that is not part of a current lifetime. But what about things that may fall in the realm of ancestral rather than personal experience or spirit guide communication? Can memory be passed down through blood? What role does honoring our ancestral origins play in spiritual development?

I began to explore my own ancestral stories following a series of occurrences I had while working on a fiction project. Here’s how it unfolded.

A troubling upbringing and subsequent journey to healing led me to writing as a recovery tool. I had grown up in a family filled with secrets and religious fanaticism. One of the ways I survived what happened to me and my siblings was to wall off many childhood memories. This profound lack of narrative created a weird sense of being lost without a contextual compass. No matter what I did or who I connected with as an adult, the feeling of not having a home or tribe never left me.

But I was determined to break through the trauma reaction and find my way. I decided to write a memoir about the difficulties, explore the role my brain played in protecting me, and ultimately express the hope that recovery was possible. I believed that consciously confronting the “forgotten” pieces would help me understand and develop the tools I needed to live a more coherent and fulfilling life. It was good therapy, but I was soon to discover it was only a beginning to a much larger series of revelations.

After completing the memoir, I began a sequel and a historical novel. The novel was a way to work through some of the recurring themes floating around in my mind that felt “important” but that didn’t seem to connect to my own experiences in any concrete way. As I followed the trail of those themes and researched characters, plot, and setting, something interesting occurred. Even though I had very little information about my family of origin on either side (we had almost no contact growing up with extended family and very few stories were told), the historical research for this fictional story began to spark vivid personal recognitions. The characters and locations I had randomly chosen for the novel began to come alive, not only because they were rooted in history, but because they felt like part of my own story. Had I forgotten something told to me as a child that I was now excavating, or was something or someone else walking me through the narrative that had been lost along the way? I decided to open an ancestry.com account to see if the history I had uncovered in the research had any real connection to my family or if I was just my writer’s imagination at work.

I quickly discovered that, yes, one of the main historical characters and setting I had pulled out of thin air for the book were in fact part of my mother’s ancestral story. As I followed the genealogical trail and extensive documentation available about this group of people, details I had never been told about my lineage, their religious beliefs, and their lives in the early days of America began to be revealed.

Continuing down that path of exploration, I began to experience automatic writing and lucid dreams about the difficulties of the time, particularly for women, and specifically for the women of my lineage. Ongoing research allowed me to connect the dreams and intuition with actual documented events. From there I learned about ancestral healing and began using the practices to work with what was coming up. It was as if my ancestors had been waiting for an opening, a listening ear, a way in which to share stories of trauma and triumph. The revelations provided clues as to why my own life may have been fraught with symptoms, fears, and hyper-sensitivities that did not harken back to my own personal experience but were reverberations of the lives of those that had gone before. And in establishing connections to my well ancestors (and recognizing the unwell), I gathered valuable allies in my healing journey.

There is a growing body of evidence that the past – even experiences that our parents, grandparents, and so on had long before we were born – impacts us in more ways than we ever imagined. We are not just a product of their genetic matter (nature) and the traits assimilated through familial relationships (nurture). According to epigenetics, memory, reactions, symptoms, phobias, and emotional traits that have no direct correlation to present day experience can also be handed down. I have learned that understanding and honoring the struggles, mistakes, shortcomings, wisdom, and sacrifices of our ancestors can be a huge help in navigating our own challenges with more grace and acceptance.

I would love to hear if others practice ancestral medicine or have had lineage stories communicated in unusual ways. If so, have you developed relationships with specific ancestors, and how that has impacted your present life?

[Miss Hepburn]

What a great idea for a topic! Bravo!

We just have some spirit that has been around our family---it feeds off of bitterness and anger,
unforgiveness and obsessive compulsions.
It doesn't mess with me!
A Christian Fundy said he had heard of such things, but never saw such a thing before...when it entered my mom...
I said, "Welcome to the family."
As children we called it the ''Witch face".
It changes the voice and the face shockingly as it 'comes thru'.
It's a generational thing alright on her side of the fam.

Loved your post, articulate.

[Altair]

Originally Posted by AncestralEchoes

There is a growing body of evidence that the past – even experiences that our parents, grandparents, and so on had long before we were born – impacts us in more ways than we ever imagined. We are not just a product of their genetic matter (nature) and the traits assimilated through familial relationships (nurture). According to epigenetics, memory, reactions, symptoms, phobias, and emotional traits that have no direct correlation to present day experience can also be handed down.

Yes, I have heard the same. To expand on this, I've also heard about this through organ transplantation. Maybe it's even possible with blood (perhaps in a very minor way compared to an organ). It was a common belief in the ancient world, the power of blood. Although I don't think thus far it is recognized by the scientific community, as such experiences are anecdotal, but I just don't see the problem with it, intuitively. Memory stored in organs, in DNA, etc. Why would it be controversial, intuitively? I believe 'we' 'physically' exist not just in the brain.

As for your question, I don't practice ancestral medicine and don't have 'contact' with ancestors.

[AncestralEchoes]

Originally Posted by Miss Hepburn

What a great idea for a topic! Bravo!

We just have some spirit that has been around our family---it feeds off of bitterness and anger,
unforgiveness and obsessive compulsions.
It doesn't mess with me!
A Christian Fundy said he had heard of such things, but never saw such a thing before...when it entered my mom...
I said, "Welcome to the family."
As children we called it the ''Witch face".
It changes the voice and the face shockingly as it 'comes thru'.
It's a generational thing alright on her side of the fam.

Loved your post, articulate.

Thanks for sharing your experience Miss Hepburn! Sounds like "witch face" was what I call an "unwell" ancestor that never reconciled bitterness and anger and is hanging around inflicting it on others. (No one said that dying automatically makes you a "wise and benevolent" ancestor, especially if you were a scoundrel in life.) Generational manifestations can be pretty shocking and weirdly out of character for the people experiencing them, that's for sure! Whether our ancestral "inheritance" comes through in the way you describe or via a psychological or physical DNA manner, it's fascinating to consider what is really behind some of what we feel and do isn't it?

[AncestralEchoes]

Originally Posted by Altair

Yes, I have heard the same. To expand on this, I've also heard about this through organ transplantation. Maybe it's even possible with blood (perhaps in a very minor way compared to an organ).

A really interesting idea Altair, I'll have to look for more on this possibility!

[Starman]

The theory of epistemology, which is a branch of philosophy, is about knowledge; how do we know what we know, etc. For so long knowledge, and intelligence, was seen as a product of thought. Thus intelligence exams were mental exams.

In the 1980’s the term “emotional intelligence” was coined and a test for emotional maturity was developed. Of course prior to the concepts of mental or emotional knowledge was the knowledge gained by our five senses. The fact is scientists do not know what intelligence actually is and they have developed all sorts of tests that define their limited knowledge of intelligence.

I assert that information, which is the prelude to knowledge, is everywhere and it is just a matter of us learning how to tap into it. Knowledge often comes from the application of information, but there are also flashes of knowing that is not dependent on information.

For instance intuitive knowledge which does not require any elaborate explanation or further information about the knowing of something. In my opinion we are all born with intuition. We may also be conditioned by having lived previous life times, and that conditioning may carry with it an inbred knowing from one life time to the next, a sort of ancestral knowing.

DNA comes with instructive information and there are a lot of information in every cell of our physical body. The information in DNA is also ancestral, particular to the family we are born into. We don’t only get information from our mind or external experiences, we also gather information from the core of our being. The problem is that most people in this world give more validity to external objective knowledge then they do internal subjective knowing.

[Redchic12]

Yes I read that book Emotional Intelligence many years ago and became fascinated by this concept. Did a lot of research into it afterwards.

I feel emotional intelligence is probably more helpful in life than ordinary IQ. IMO

After reading the book I realised that my son, who was hopeless in school and did t do well in most subjects would have been described with a low IQ. But he has done extremely well in life because he has a very high emotional IQ. Didn’t realise this until I read the book.

For anyone interested the author is Daniel Goldman.

Regarding this ancestral medicine. Well I got mixed feelings about that.

What I do believe is that there are certain behaviour traits that are passed down from one generation to the next and it will continue until someone decides to question it and look into their own and their family’s beliefs, their way of thinking and behaving. Most of us continue to act, talk and believe in exactly the same way as the rest of the family. Most will never even question why, because we are not taught to do so. And if we do question it we are labelled a troublemaker and ostracised by some family members. So the abuse/negative behaviour continues.

In my own experience I have found that leaving home and living in other cultures soon makes you question what you have been taught. Also reading books that teach us another way of looking at ourselves, our life and our relationships can also help to brake that chain.

Once you question things about your family that are not acceptable only THEN can you break the negative chain that has been continuing for generations and slowly you will find others starting to adopt those changes as well.

Once the chain has been broken, then the following generations have a much healthier and well balanced future.

Just my personal views of course.

[eezi-ulgen]

Originally Posted by AncestralEchoes

I would love to hear if others practice ancestral medicine or have had lineage stories communicated in unusual ways. If so, have you developed relationships with specific ancestors, and how that has impacted your present life?

I do practice ancestral Medicine.
I'm not much of a writer, but I do have many stories.
Communication for me happens in so many ways it's hard to be sure what's ancestral or some other form of communication from Higher Spirits.
Though there is a saying we say in my Circle "Aho Mitakuye Oyasin" (Were all related or all is connected).
So I try not to color the messenger with an identity when it's not clear but rather pay attention to the message.

I did once while in a Sweat Lodge or Purification Lodge (Inipi) Spirit travel to an Ancestral land in South East Siberia were my Asian ancestral line comes from.

PEACE

[Native spirit]

I would resonate with Starman and a lot with eezi-ulgen I have stories but im not one for writing it down either,


Namaste

[eezi-ulgen]

@AncestralEchoes
A member on here (SF) called sentient has written a lot on here about ancestry and DNA.
He helped me in more ways than I can express to sort out some stuff.
He had a phrase something like "Energy signature" and he claimed that ancestral energy was present
in and around the energy of the aura field and that he could read it around people and pick up ancestral information.
The aura may be another area for you to consider, besides DNA and Blood.

I do have to give a shout out to my Neanderthal relatives.

I do miss my friend sentient.