THE GHOSTS OF YOUR ANCESTORS
Healing Family Patterns - David Furlong

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THE IMPORTANCE OF YOUR ANCESTORS

This is one of the most fascinating branches of healing that at 
present gets very little attention. Aspects of your character, 
mannerisms and psychological make-up directly stems from your 
ancestral patterning. In many cultures, both sophisticated and 
primitive, a great deal of attention was given to the ancestral 
family, for ancestor worship is one of the most widespread of all 
religious belief systems. In Taoism time is regularly set aside for 
consulting the ancestors and prayers are offered up on their behalf. 
The ancestors were seen as having a direct link with the spiritual 
world and therefore in a position to bring positive benefit to the 
family. It was perhaps also intuitively realised how directly their 
energies affected the world of the living family. On the spiritual 
dimension time and space impose no restrictions so, in one sense, your 
ancestors are living concurrently with you. This can be a hard concept 
to take on board, for the Western mind has become conditioned into 
thinking in linear terms. Other cultures not so restricted , accepted 
a much greater fluidity in the movement between the past, present and 
the future. Their ancestors were alive and connected to them. In 
propitiating the departed they were positively helping the flow of 
Ch'i in their lives. 

    In Western culture we have forgotten much of this inner knowing, 
for how many people think about or even remember their grandparents 
let alone their great grandparents. From my experience it is generally 
not necessary to go back further than your great grandparents 
generation, although the Bible talks about the sins of the fathers 
"even unto the third and fourth generation", that is to say your great 
great grandparents. 


Healing Ancestral Patterns

The concept behind this form of healing is quite simple. It suggests 
that where traumas, problems or strong types of emotional behaviour 
have occured with on or other of your forebears, the energy from these 
experiences gets passed on to future generations. This is so even if 
the experience happens after the direct offspring have been born. 
Conversely if you heal one of your ancestral patterns it becomes 
immediately available to your own offspring. The reasons why this 
happens is, I believe, based on 'resonance'. We carry at a genetic 
level the patterns of our forebears which, like a radio set, is tuned 
to some of the set frequencies of our ancestors, allowing a transfer 
of energy or information to take place. Healing this type of situation 
can be carried out in exactly the same way that you might send 
'distant' healing. Nor do you need a clear picture in your mind of how 
they looked for the healing to be effective. 

     In his book "Healing the Family Tree" Dr Kenneth McAll recounts 
the case of a woman in her early thirties who suddenly developed a 
fear of water. Researching into her family patterns she found that an 
uncle had died on the Titanic disaster. A healing service was carried 
out in which the uncle "was committed.... to the Lord". Healing this 
ancestor freed the woman from her phobia. In most cases it is only 
necessary to deal with your direct ancestors, that is your parents, 
grandparents and great grandparents, but in some cases, such as the 
one cited, healing another relative may also be appropriate. 

     Many people today are resolving childhood and past-life problems 
through meditation, counselling and psycho-therapy. Working on your 
ancestral patterns can free many blocks and give great insights into 
some of the patterns that are woven into your life. 


Ancestral Myths

Ancestral myths, too numerous to mention here, abound in many 
cultures. In the Ancient Egyptian story of Isis and Osiris, Osiris is 
cut into 14 pieces by his evil brother Set. This is a curious number 
which does not find echo in other traditions. However, it is worth 
noting that 14 is the sum total of your ancestors back to your great 
grandparents generation. Adding you parents (2) , to your grandparents 
(4) and your great grandparents (8) gives 14 ancestors in all. 
Moreover in the myth when Isis gathers these seperated parts together 
to breath life back into her husband one piece is missing, his penis, 
which has been eaten by a Nile crab. This suggests a link with the 
ancestral patterns and perhaps the story is telling us of the need to 
re-unite the energies of our fourteen ancestors within our psyches. 

     Also your family tree chart mirrors exactly the developmental 
stages of the I Ching of Ancient China. This starts off with two 
lines, yang (___) and yin (__ __) and progresses in two stages to the 
8 tri-grams that are the basis of the 64 hexagrams of the I Ching. 
While I have never come across any direct reference to this symbolic 
link with the ancestors, I cannot but believe that this is more than 
coincidence bearing in mind the enormous emphasis on the ancestors in 
Chinese culture. 


Ancestral Chart

To start the process of ancestral healing you will need to construct a 
family tree chart filling in as much detail as you can. It does not 
matter if there are blank spaces, for although you may have no 
information on a particular great grandparent, they certainly existed 
and their energy and patterning is connected to you. The charts that I 
normaly use has the 8 great grandparents near the top of the page. In 
the middle comes the  4 grandparents and at the bottom the 2 parents 
along the following lines: Gt grandfather - Gt grandmother  Gt 
grandfather - Gt grandmother etc. 

            grandfather         -           grandmother etc

                             father
(repeat for mother's side)

  Next consider whether any problems you are experiencing, whether on 
a physical, emotional or mental level were similarly found in other 
known members of your family. If so one of the cause almost certainly 
lies within the family tree. If you do not know which side to look you 
can always dowse for the answer. Alternatively I often get students to 
imagine a bright coloured spot-light is shining on their chart 
indicating which ancestors need to be worked upon or connected to 
first. It is fascinating how often the obvious is not highlighted, but 
the attention is drawn to another of the forebears. Another method is 
to make up a set of 14 cards marking on each a seperate ancestor. 
These should be shuffled and an ancestor selected. Once this is done 
you can carry out the following exercise: 


ANCESTRAL HEALING

Aim: To clear and heal blocked energy within your family tree. 

* Adopt your normal meditation posture, relax and sense a connection 
  to your spiritual self. 
* If you have not already done so look at your chart and imagine that 
  a 'golden light' is shining on the ancestor who most needs 
  integrating within you. 
* Close your eyes and sense you are connecting to that ancestor, 
  through your imagination, and try to feel what it is that they most 
  need healing. You can at this stage send them healing thoughts. 
* Sometimes foregiveness is needed, if so bring forward this energy to 
  your ancestor. 
* When you have completed this part of the exercise, sense or imagine 
  that the new healing energy is flowing down from the ancestor to 
  yourself. 
* Feel that this new energy is being integrated within your being. 
* Send a thought of thanks and acknowledgement to your ancestor before 
  carrying out a closing down exercise. 


Healing Yourself, Healing Your Family

This type of healing can be applied to all sorts of conditions 
stemming from your ancestral tree. For example, if you are suffering 
from arthritis and there is a predisposition for arthritis in your 
family you can move back to an earlier ancestor who expressed this 
complaint. Carry out the healing in exactly the same way that you 
would with sending distant healing to a living person. It does not 
matter if that relative is deceased, for as has been already stated, 
their energy will still be affecting you. You might need to carry out 
this exercise on a number of occasions, seeking also to balance this 
situation on an emotional, mental and physical level. Finally, when 
you have completed the healing, sense that it is coming down through 
the family tree to yourself. This exercise can be repeated until you 
have got to know and balance the energies of all your main ancestors. 
They will then become an integrated aspect of yourself and freed from 
any blocks that they might be carrying. On the other side of the coin 
as soon as you free blocks within yourself at this level it 
immediately releases this dynamic for your children, if you have any. 
So in a way you are also healing future generations, for each parent 
is potentially a great grandparent to a future generation. 

Extract from the book THE COMPLETE HEALER: How to Awaken and Develop 
Your Healing Potential by David Furlong - Piatkus Books, London 1994. 

P.S. I am in the process of completing a book on Ancestral Healing and 
would appreciate hearing from anyone who has had experience or success 
in clearing problems that stem from ancestral patterns.