Biological Memory
Therefore, patterns of behaviour, professional activities or lifestyles, can be repeated in different generations of the same family, this inheritance can create blockages which make it impossible to reach happiness. This is what we study through Transgenerational Memories.
These conscious and unconscious processes are common to the human mind as a whole and they’re stored in our psyche, are stored within the psyche, they allow us to preserve the memories of the processes which had impact on the psyche of our predecessors. The positive impacts will be our resources through which we affirm our life, the unfinished tasks will be our personal work in order to close circles, if we’re unable to resolve them they’ll be transmitted to the following generations.
Until recently it was believed that biological transmission takes place only by means of genes and that the genetic inheritance is our unchangeable “destiny” regarding a person’s illness, symptoms or other characteristics. Studies in epigenetics (meaning “above genetics”) have demonstrated the genes may be influenced by the environment and conditions of life such as nutrition, stress, experiences and emotions.
These elements can modify genes without altering their DNA sequence and these modifications are then transmitted to the descendants. What is transferred is the manner of experiencing conflictive situations. There are studies, for example those carried out by Rachel Yeduha, which demonstrate how traumas experienced by previous generations manifest in the children and grandchildren through physical adaptations such as altered levels “stress hormones” despite the fact that children and grandchildren did not experience any of the traumatic situations.
The family system
The medium in which the history of each subject is produced and reproduced is the family. It is the medium in which multigenerational patterns can be transmitted. For example, there are families in which violent deaths are produced (male or female) at the hands of a partner through various generations. Or various generations in which incest appears. Or even in somebody who cannot stop working and dedicates life to his profession.
We say that in a certain family “the same thing always happens”. The result of stressful situations experimented by our ancestors can affect our lives, making us behave as if we were the puppets of destiny. In this sense, our reaction is frequently to try to do the opposite or to repeat situations, these are the most common transgenerational mechanisms.
The unresolved business from other generations of the family can often manifest itself through illnesses, accidents or problematic lives (I can’t make stable relationships, I can’t get pregnant, I react disproportionately to my children, I force others to do things and I don’t understand why…).
The family may sometimes be experienced as a weight, as a burden too heavy for one lifetime. Sometimes there can be destructive elements that people try to “break” in order to free themselves (this is a big mistake because they won’t manage to break free through rupture). Freedom is attained when we respect and acknowledge what passed, because we are where we are because of what happened, because it happened as it did. Only from this point can anything start to change.
How do we work with the transgenerational?
We can make good use of the material that was handed down to us, both biological and mental. The best way to do so is to be able to access these memories, understand them and if necessary, transform them. Working with the transgenerational requires a search within our own selves for the information which we have stored. Our body never lies!
If we listen to our body, object of our materialisation on this plane, then we’ll be able to access all the memories stored within.
In different moments, when a person unconsciously approaches a painful memory about his biography or the past, his body reacts by means of corporeal sensation. The body will inevitably express these corporal sensations through non-verbal communication by means of reflex movements, physiological changes (vasoconstriction, vasodilation, tics, etc.), verbal lapses, mistakes or errors in communication, involuntary actions, etc. Access to these memories is a gift that we’re all worthy of, it will help us to build a healthy life for ourselves, for those that have been and for those to come.
Our family clan lives within each one of us and can become a trap if we become entangled by expressing an unconscious loyalty to family traits which can prevent us from developing personally and living our own lives. The basis of transgenerational decoding lies in the transmission of these memories.
The family tree
The family tree allows us to access a whole system of beliefs, dates, names, reruns, special situations experienced by some members, which can affect the person who comes to our practice. Here are a few examples of what we may encounter when working with transgenerational memories:
- The person seeking treatment was given the same name as another family member. We’ll explore the fate of the ancestor because sometimes with the name one can inherit the destiny.
- When drawing the family tree, the relationships between the members become clear and this can help us to understand the blueprint by which a person lives their life: regarding partner, economy, parental projects, matriarchy or patriarchy, migration, accidents, illegal situations, profession, sterility, death…
- Dates of birth, deaths, weddings, accidents that repeat or coincide. It is quite surprising how many numerical relationships we find, not only can people represent other family members, they can also be called to repeat the same dramatic situations and the same circumstances sometimes even take place at the same periods.
If possible, the person who comes to our practice should sketch their family tree by hand. Their unconscious may offer information about the different branches of the family by means of the strokes they use, lines, spaces and distribution. Investigating our family system can be very beneficial because it is an inner journey allowing us to discover our deepest essence and find out how family circumstances in the past affect our present. Furthermore, through this process we’ll be able to reach a superior level of consciousness from which we can see ourselves as we really are, freeing ourselves from our transgenerational chains.
