CAROL BOWMAN ON CHOOSING ONE'S PARENTS IN THE PRE-EARTHLY EXISTANCE

The options are plentiful but not unlimited. 

Frankly, I myself have wondered how or why anyone would choose a parent or partner who is abusive to them as the soul plans the next incarnation. So though I'm partial to the idea that we do have many life experiences so that we can learn and improve ourselves, I feel that there is a risk in experiencing a life that makes us a worse person. I feel careful about having a "tit for tat" notion about spiritual experiences and using reincarnation theories as an excuse for bad behavior.

But let's see what Carol Bowman had to say in her book, which I highly recommend.

Page 144 : Not all souls participate equally in the planning process. Some are actively involved and choose carefully; others are passive, drifting into their next lives without much preparation.  Some apparently never leave the earth vibration and wander aimlessly until they fall into a convenient womb.  It's not a tidy process, not uniform or predictable, follows no formulas, and is definitely not the same for every soul.

Page 145 : It seems that in choosing a life the difference in the degree of planning is dependent on the soul's maturity and awareness. Studies agree that advanced souls spend more time in the afterlife learning and weighing plans for their next incarnation than less mature souls do. Since the advanced souls have mastered a higher level of lessons and skills on Earth, they have the understanding to create more ambitious and finely tuned plans.  On the other hand, less advanced "beginner" souls rush through the afterlife without giving much thought to what they are doing and jump back into the first body that seems good enough. These lives have a smaller chance of being productive compared with those that are carefully planned. The unplanned lives are more likely to end up being drab and meaningless or chaotic, or the individual may be overwhelmed by challenges it is not equipped to handle.

Carol Bowman's book was published in 2001 and so about twenty-five years ago.  I'm sure much more has been learned about reincarnation in the Western, Christian world, since then.  I'm aware that some Christian's believe that any belief in reincarnation is wrong, even demonic. I personally do not agree this is so. 

As a genealogist I encounter many family stories, many family secrets, many family scandals, and vow to show respect for those I work with and for by not revealing these to others. There is a lot of pain and shame in some cases. I realize that genealogy is most often promoted as a way to reunite a family, but sometimes the notion of "family" is one that needs to be redefined.

C 2025  Ancestry Worship - Genealogy BlogSpot

QUESTIONS TO ASK YOUR RELATIVES ABOUT RELIGION AND SPIRITUALITY

I recall that my dad used to advised that, when visiting, to talk about the weather.  What he meant was that controversial subjects were to be avoided.  Politics...  Religion... Perhaps knowing that these subjects will spark debate - or worse, arguments - during a family get together is trouble and, sure, I wouldn't want you to create an uncomfortable situation at a gathering. But then he was of the Silent Generation, and the Silent Generation wasn't talking about a whole lot.  

Things have changed, at least in some places and sometimes.

I can say that it came as a relief to learn that my ancestors were of various Christian denominations, which I wouldn't have suspected based on my upbringing. In my heritage - and I only know this because of genealogy research I have Roman Catholics, Greek Catholics, Reform Protestants (Calvinists), Lutherans, and also, it seems - some would say this doesn't fit the religion category - a Mason.

And so maybe getting a conversation going with relatives about ancestral religious or spiritual beliefs starts with past rather than the present.

It could be that you can't find what you need in the church records of the assumed Faith because those ancestors were converts or belonged to another religion.  And got buried in a churchyard or Faith based cemetery. 

And it seems like everyone in past generations belonged to some church or temple or organization ...

QUESTIONS

Was John baptized?  Who were his godparents?

Did he take part in rituals such as Communion, Confirmation?

Did John belong to a church as a teenager, as an adult?  

Did he sing in a choir?  

Did he do volunteer work for the church? 

Was he devout?  Or Religious. (Did he consider becoming a priest or minister or monk?)

Did he change religions? If so, why and when?  (Some families simply went to the closest church, wherever they moved to. Perhaps John was in a cult?) 

Did he get married in a church? How was it decided where he would marry?

Did he have children? Were they raised in a religion?  (This might bring up some different responses if the marriage was a "mixed marriage."  For instance, perhaps the children were allowed to join a different church or make up their own minds about spirituality as adults, 

Where is he buried? (Is this a Faith based cemetery?) or was he cremated?  Where are his ashes?

These questions can always spark a departure in the conversation. Back when I took Anthropology 101, it was noted that the definition of religion was "a way of life." Life in America has changed. Regular attendance at church services was normal for many people prior to the changes of the 1960's. Today many have decided that church is not for them.  As genealogists, we are looking for church records in addition to or instead of civil records to find our ancestors.

C 2025 Ancestry Worship - Genealogy BlogSpot

ANCESTRY WORSHIP - GENEALOGY BLOGSPOT

Our genetic and spiritual ancestors help us with our research quests 

and, while we follow a linear research path, 

amazing dreams and synchronicity abound. 

We explore multicultural ancestry worship 

and the use of genealogy for past-life verification, 

as well as practical ways and means to achieve your research goals.

BURIAL

 

DEATH PROCESS and SPIRIT : WHAT CAN BE SEEN IMMEDIATELY BEFORE AND AFTER A PERSON DIES

RAISING and LOSING, MY REMARKABLE TEENAGE MOTHER : ANCESTRY WORSHIP GENEALOGY BOOK REVIEW

 

This memoir by Stacey Aaronson, born Stacey Hill, is about a life that many have lived, being the child of a teenager mother who had a brief relationship with their birth father and a marriage to give the child a name.  It moves through the years quickly.  Stacey moved around a lot, between her birth parents, and spent long years not living with her mother, who went through many relationships and marriages.  What I wasn't expecting was that her mother herself had been adopted and that was a mystery.

Stacey is given to mystical powers such as second site and believes that she chose this mother before she was born and had a vision of her mother's birth mother as a child.  But she also feels it was up to her to raise her mother. Since eventually her mother's birth mother was found, this is not a case of Stacey being born again to do that.

In 1990 her mom got the NONIDENTIFYING INFORMATION about her own mother who gave birth to her in the Long Beach, California area in 1952.  That information is given fully in the book and I was surprised at how much information it was. I could imagine putting that all up on an adoption registry.

It turns out that teenage pregnancies among adoptees is common and the theory presented is that this is so the teenager can have someone in their life of their own genetics.  This theory is floated but not detailed.

The book does not say how the person who was hired to get the information unsealing the adoption proceeded, and I did wonder.  Upon the first phone call the birth mother completely denied it.  It took three phone calls.  So, now here is the disappointment.  For the next eighteen years Stacey's mother and her mother's birth mother sent cards and had telephone calls. They developed a relationship slowly but never met in person. Never. There was always a sense that this birth mother was withholding information and herself. It's said that she was a little bit Cherokee.

Stacey was not born Jewish. She discovered and was drawn to Judaism and converted.  She changed her name to Aaronson as part of her acceptance of a Jewish life.  She belongs to liberal Jewish congregations that accept women as Rabbis and accept lesbians.  Her partner is someone she met on the internet and had a long distance friendship with and it took a while for the friends to realize their soul connection and that it was not a "cyber illusion." Also, though she did have a relationship with a man who she was attracted to when she was young, she ended an engagement with another man who she was not attracted to. She realized she's lesbian and has had a long term relationship with a partner. Her mother instantly and fully accepted this. 

In 2016, after her birth mother had died, Stacey's mother got herself a DNA heritage kit and learned that the birth mother had lied on her NONIDENTIFYING INFORMATION....

Her birth father was not part Cherokee, he was Jewish.  And while that could have been a misunderstanding, she also lied about how many siblings she had.  The mystery is therefore one that will go unsolved forever. Not a lot is said about this woman other than that Stacey had been right in her vision of her as a toddler.  She was red haired and a lot like the actress Audrey Meadows.

The voice of this book is young and enthusiastic but it does get into the gritty details of her mother's death.  Somehow I did not get how it is that Stacey raised her mom.

C 2021 Ancestry Worship - Genealogy BlogSpot

LIFE TO AFTERLIFE : MOM CAN YOU HEAR ME HELPING PARENTS HEAL ORG ; ANCESTRY WORSHIP FILM REVIEW

LIFE TO AFTERLIFE : MOM CAN YOU HEAR ME   

HELPING PARENTS HEAL ORG ; ANCESTRY WORSHIP FILM REVIEW

Craig is the interviewer, a good and patient listener who talks with 17 parents who have lost their children. These parents come from a variety of religious and spiritual points of view and their children died in a variety of ways and ages, from a horrific car accident that was a parent's fault to an addict's heroin overdose. Perhaps the most profound loss a loving parent can have, it's natural and part of the process of acceptance to want to communicate with the child who has left the body and life on earth. 

A few known psychic mediums make appearances giving their notions of the spirit world. Book authors make appearances too. It's the testimonials of the parents that is most important.

Perhaps these children knew or their parents knew they wouldn't be long on this earth. The young ones may have been enlightened beings. Some were kid peacekeepers, the type who stood protectively against bullies. They were Old Souls. Sensitive. Empathic. 

Some of the reported communication includes parents seeing balls of light, ghosts, having dream visitations, or feeling a hug from far away.

Despite most of these parents having anger over the loss of a child, according to James Van Praagh, one of the most known mediums today, in the spirit world they know what's going to happen and when and absolutely every one of us, upon death, is met by someone to help with our transition.

I know some people are afraid of mystical things and may be of different religious beliefs. However, this film is one of several to consider by Inspirter Films. I realize some of them will seem "way out" to some people while being of possible comfort to others.

C 2021 - 2025 Ancestry Worship Genealogy BlogSpot  All Rights Reserved

HELPING PARENTS HEAL ORG

ALL SOULS DAY - JULES BASTIEN LEPAGE

Painted in 1878  Image from WikiArt

According to Wikipedia, Jules Bastien-LePage ( 1848 -1884) was born in the French village of Damvillers, Meuse, where his father grew grapes in a vineyard and his grandfather grew apple, pear and peach trees.  He showed early talent which was encouraged by his family.  

To me this painting appears to be a grandfather taking his grandchildren on a walk, and only the title of the painting would indicate that perhaps he is taking them to visit the cemetery and talking to them about their family history.

INVERTED FAMILY PYRAMIDS and SAME FAMILY REINCARNATION

Now that so many people are limiting the number of children they have to one or two, I'm finding more inverted family pyramids.   Example: a farm family in the Carolinas who had six to 12 children per woman in the 1800's and hundreds of descendants by 1900, three or four generations later is down to three nuclear families and so far one boy to possibly carry that family name forward.  (The surname itself will not go extinct because it's fairly common, in this case.)

I was speculating, based on a theory of reincarnation that families tend to reincarnate to continue relationships, or work out problems, that this has to mean a lot of deceased ancestors are waiting in the spirit world for their chance.  (Or they may just have to move on to a new family group!)

In my own family I suspect there are two people, now teenagers, who may be related to a couple - their great great grandparents, who would be my grandparents on one side.  I have photos of them, but there are also children born, granted there are 16 great great grandparents, who look like no one alive.  The mysteries of DNA!  But what if these new people simply have inherited the genes of ancestors no one has a photo, drawing, etching, or painting of?

I want to say, "Ah you have so and so's ears!" but I can't prove it.  It's easy to think that DNA is dictating the physicality, and the psychology (when there are say mental illnesses or learning differences) of the person, yet some reincarnation theorists feel sure that we someone pick out looks or have birth marks on our bodies where significant wounds occurred in a past life.  In this case, someone who is mostly of dark Mediterranean heritage, looks like the Slavic grandmother/great-grandmother and has some of her mannerisms.

For those of you who do not believe in reincarnation and haven't even considered reading around it with a doubter's sensibility, I realize some of this is esoteric - or ridiculous.  But whenever I read around children remembering their past life, or see videos about it on YouTube, I'm reminded that there is so much we do not know about our existence.  Most of us believe we have an eternal part called the soul, and we disagree about what happens to it after this life we know.

As for reincarnating in a family to work out problems, in some cases I think it would be better if someone said "stop the insanity!" and reincarnated into a healthier family!

C 2017 Ancestry Worship Genealogy  All Rights Reserved.

WOULD YOUR FIRST AMERICAN ANCESTOR

Be PROUD of you?
Would they UNDERSTAND YOUR LIFE?

A HOLIDAY MEMORY OF A GENEALOGY CLIENT THAT TAUGHT ME A LESSON

It's been a while, nearer 20 years than 10, since, around this time of year, when I was first trying to attract some pay for my genealogy research skills, that I met a woman who taught me a lesson.  Never ever, for any reason, take on a client who suddenly has a "rush order" for genealogy services.

I met the woman at a lecture about searching through the Ellis Island Databases, and she had, she said, spent years compiling research for a book.  A family reunion was coming up, and she was missing some information on a relative who had gotten lost in Texas.  She hoped to have the book published and ready to hand out at the reunion. Actually, the relative had married outside her faith and the family disowned and shunned her.  Now, decades later, this woman felt it was only right to include this once disowned person in the book. She hired me to find "Bertha" and provide some information which might be easy to get to.

I knew what I needed to do, but there was one big issue.  "Bertha" had a given name that had undoubtedly been changed, and this family had even forgotten what her married surname was.  There had apparently been absolutely no contact with her once she married. It was said that despite them the marriage had succeeded and that there had been property, a ranch.  They were sure she had died.  They couldn't even remember what the given name of her husband was. They also only knew it was in Texas, a big state with lots of counties.

Based on the information this researcher gave me as a starting point, I did historical research about how immigrants from Europe got to Texas in the days when Ellis Island was a frequent drop off point for steerage (sometimes called 3rd class) passengers.   Had Bertha come in steerage? People are so sure because they don't know that passengers with better tickets skipped the Ellis Island routine.   Had she taken a train from New York?  What trains ran to Texas?  After finding that there was a way to Texas mostly by train, from New York to Chicago and then going south, I decided that Bertha had possibly come into New York, but as she didn't appear on any of the New York Ship Records Databases, to try other ports.  The one I focused upon first was the one in Galveston, Texas.

One could travel by ship down the coast, around Florida, and through the Gulf of Mexico.  Or one could travel by land to Florida.  I found a woman with a surname that was probably a variation on the original surname coming into Galveston.

I wondered why she had gone to Texas?  I suspected that there was land to be had free or inexpensive, some lure to settlement in a place so different than Germany.  But maybe it wasn't that she chose Texas and went and then met the man.  Maybe she met the man and he said, "New York City is not for us."

I lost the trail.  Meanwhile my client started calling me too much and inappropriately, such as at ten at night and on Sundays.  I figured she was lonely and trying to make a friend but she also was in error thinking that all the time spent on the phone was pushing me to work harder.  I was already working smart and efficiently and started to feel hounded and resentful. 

I called historical societies and archives in Texas, starting with the Galveston area, to learn about local resources.  I talked to an "expert."  Was there, for instance, a particular settlement where people from Germany who spoke German wanted to live?  Had there been a call out from ranchers who needed wives?

Again using databases, I searched for this woman using several known variations of her maiden surname and given name.  Nothing came up.  That didn't mean she wasn't in Texas when she should have been, just that the information wasn't on databases.

I set up an in person appointment at this client's home to go over all that I had done and what I had found.  Was it possible that this might help her or one of her relatives remember more about Bertha? I wrote up a few paragraphs about Bertha that summed up what was known about her life before she left the family, careful to call what was speculation, speculation, and not fact.

I got there and my client suggested that she was a poor senior citizen and asked for a senior citizen discount.  Meanwhile, maybe it was only a condo in Beverly Hills, but the interior was lux.

I've never done this since, but I stopped working for her, stopped taking her calls, sent her the work I had done in the mail, and never billed her.

I heard she took all my work, claiming it was hers, down to a local LDS where she asked the missionaries for help.  They know what all I had done and told her they didn't know anyone who could.  I appreciated that.


C 2016 All Rights Reserved.  This post is a section of a book I will someday publish.
Please honor it accordingly. 

REINCARNATION

DO YOU PRAY BEFORE YOU BEGIN YOUR GENEALOGICAL RESEARCH?

I've been advised in the past by Latter Day Saints missionaries to PRAY to the ancestors in the spirit world for help in my genealogical research.  To me this is a form of ancestor worship.  I don't actually have a problem with the notion but I also have never prayed for other worldly research assistance.

Maybe this is because an occasional dream has provided guidance instead.

I suspect it is more ethical to pray to your OWN ancestors for help when it comes to genealogy research - or anything else - than to the ancestors of strangers you might be helping or working for. 

I do wonder what other people think of this.

I suppose it can't hurt but maybe it can.

Maybe it depends on the focus of the research.

ALL SOUL'S DAY - DAY OF THE DEAD - PRAYERS AND CHANTING FOR THOSE WHO HAVE GONE ON BEFORE US

Did you know that Buddhists believe that chanting certain mantras, hundreds of times, for the recently departed can get them to heaven?  Or that Catholics also believe that praying for the dead may release them from Purgatory?  How about that some people believe that when a person comes to visit you after death - be it in a dream or as a ghostly apparition - they may be there to ask you to pray for them?  Latter Day Saints believe that when you are doing your genealogy you can pray to ask the ancestors to help you with your research.

I've had spiritual experiences such as dream contact with the dead.  In one case I was not aware the person had actually died until much later but in the dream they were coming by to see me before leaving town.  I've had the experience of seeing the face of someone who has died in my mind's eye like a small cameo at a time when I was not at all thinking of them consciously. 

I've seen one full-on ghost, years ago.  The person had recently passed from a combination of sleeping pills and alcohol, and because I saw this ghost smiling and waving, but also going about his worldly profession, I knew it had been accidental and not a suicide.

I recall what the late psychic medium Sylvia Browne had to say about ghosts.  She said that if the apparition you see has its feet on the floor, they are indeed a ghost.   If they are up off the floor, floating, then are already on The Other Side, which is what she called the afterlife.  (My favorite of the psychic mediums is James Von Prague.  He has stopped doing readings and is focusing on education.)

What strikes me about these experiences of mine is that they happened when I was not seeking contact.  Some people do, with rituals, seek contact with spirits or other entities.  (I think this can be dangerous.  I prefer to just let it happen, if its going to happen, as a natural part of living.)

When researching your genealogy, you sometimes find that amazing synchronicities are occurring.  I say do everything you can, do it right, but also be open to the gifts of information that you may encounter and keep in touch with your own ability to be psychic.

Here is an example of something that happened to me recently.

I got to the research library I was using for the day a little early with a strong plan of action for using my time.  However, it turned out I was going to have to wait my turn to get on the Internet.  So I sat in front of a database machine that had the Social Security Death Index on it, as well as other databases.  Suddenly the thought came to me "I wonder, is Katherine dead!"  So of course in two minutes I had her married name in the SSDI and sure enough she had died a little more than one year prior!  I had not thought of Katherine in years.  She had died young.  When I got on the Internet I not only found her obit but other information that I wished were not true. 

Katherine and I were friends in our late teens and early twenties before our lives diverged.
I guess she really wanted me to know that she had died and so I do!  

She had changed religions and was Jewish at the time of her death and had a husband who could do the prayers and rituals of that religion for her,  which normally go on for a year, and I did not seek him out or involve myself in her spiritual evolution past death.  I had a strong sense that this was not my place and also that I wouldn't know what was truly appropriate.  But I did note that she had waited that year to get her message to me across somehow.

C 2014 All Rights Reserved including International and Internet Rights.  Ancestry Worship Genealogy Blog

4th of JULY WEEKEND GENEALOGY : THE MYSTERY OF THE LONG LOST RELATIVE "JOE"

This afternoon I'm doing genealogy, using the FamilySearch web site, and this weekend my plan of action is to get around to putting recent photocopies of documents in plastic folders and starting a new binder for a person I'm related to that I never met. 

Let's call him "Joe."

"Joe" is a long lost relative and he died before I found him on records.  He was alive when I started looking for him but there was a lot of needle in a haystack searching going on because the family legends or rumors which were all I had to go on at that point proved to be wrong.  Years ago I read every page of the 1920 Brownsville Texas and Bexar County census looking for a farmstead hoping I could find "Joe" as a young boy.  I even called places in Texas looking for a wine grape grower and was told I was erroneously looking in Citrus Country.  The Texas Wine Growers Association heard from me as did librarians in Brownsville who told me that records had been burned up or thrown away because "Texas is a cheap state."

It was a couple years ago that I happened upon a military record by using Ancestry databases which allowed me to ask for everyone in Texas who was a World War II veteran with the name "Joe."  With what I thought to be a misspelled surname in Texas but apparently was how the family spelled the name, I followed that to contact with his daughter, who was celebrating her wedding anniversary.  She seemed fairly enthusiastic when I contacted her by e-mail but I have heard nothing since.   I so hoped to see a picture of this man!  I put all my cards on the table when I e-mailed her because I want to be sensitive but also authentic about who I am, why I contacted her, and that I would like to share information.  At the same time I realize that people who are not into genealogy or who have more concerns about privacy than I do (or maybe should) might have second thoughts about it.  I told her what I thought the relationship was and other details based on family legends and rumors.

I just wish she had written back and said so rather than let me hang wondering and worrying.  I hung like one of those cats on a poster from the 1970's.

Recently I decided to proceed with documenting "Joe" and at this point I now know enough because of additional records in the FamilySearch database to be extremely sure that indeed he is the man I'm looking for.  The problem is that there will probably never be a record of his adoption as I don't think the couple who adopted him did so legally...and one interpretation of this is scandal and heartbreak.

You should know that there was a lot of informal or illegal "adoption" going on in American for the longest time.

And now that I know that a certain rumor or legend that I shared with her is incorrect because I have a death certificate and burial with the name of Church and Cemetery of his birth mother, who was married at the time, I think I should let her know.  Now that I know that a certain rumor or legend about how "Joe's Mom"  died is not true, I think her family might want to know incase it's genetic.  All the while I'm thinking of this poor woman dying young with a toddler in her household and how terrible that must have been for everyone and now she's in a cemetery that has broken and missing tombstones and records, no one visits the grave, no one thinks about her, and yet there are people alive because she had "Joe."  This year when I light candles for the dead I will have reason to light one for her.

What do I do?

I wait in hopes that someday "Joe's daughter" will reply to the just send e-mail asking if she's still there.  I'm hoping she is not ill or has died and wondering if I should try to find her children or JUST LET IT ALL BE?

I'm like everyone else.  Sometimes the GENEALOGY BRICK WALL is not that you can't find the records or proof but that other people just aren't interested in being involved in a project.  They think "None of this makes any difference to me in my life!"  And there are times when you have to know that they called it quits on you even when you didn't give up on them.

This is why I always say, "SOMETIMES GENEALOGY CAN HEAL A FAMILY but DON'T COUNT ON IT."  Do genealogy for your own purposes or reasons and be prepared to keep that information PRIVATE!  Just because it's increasingly easy to do doesn't mean people don't deserve their privacy and to be let alone.

There are always mysteries in this world but I suspect that in the next life/world/hereafter all is known.

With that, I wish you all a happy Fourth of July!  Make it a three day weekend!

C 2014 Ancestry Worship Genealogy

RESEARCH YOUR FAMILY, HONE YOUR SELF KNOWLEDGE, HAVE A SPIRITUAL EXPERIENCE! ANCESTRY WORSHIP - A GENEALOGY

Welcome to Ancestry Worship - genealogy, a Google Blogger! 

As you may notice if you begin to read past posts, and go into my archive, I'm a serious and experienced genealogist and family history researcher and writer.  I love to help others break through blocks, and believe in proofing your research, holding to professional standards.

My interest in genealogy and family history includes a broad range of related interests such as history and cultural studies, anthropology, archeology, and the science of DNA.  Spiritually, I am intrigued by past life regression (hypnosis) and reincarnation. Is it possible that our souls come to this earth many times in search of experiences that will move us to divinity?

I find genealogy is sometimes a spiritual quest.  You may ask, How So?

I'm not a member of the Latter Day Saints though I do know that they believe our ancestors can help us with our genealogy research and I try to respect their beliefs which are centered around family life and healthy living. 

One of the goals of research for members of the Latter Day Saints, a religion that originated in the 19th century, is to Baptise the Dead.  In this temple ceremony or ordinance, live members of the Church welcome those who have gone before the opportunity to be Baptised in their faith so that they can be unified as a family in the After Life.

I do believe we may be reunited with others in the After Life!  But then maybe some of them have reincarnated or have moved on spiritually.

Though I do not pray for help from Divinity or Ancestors in advance of my research, I've experienced some compelling synchronicities leading me to information and the right people.  I've even felt at times that I was being guided or watched.  I've even had dreams that helped me move in the right direction.

Those who are regressed through hypnosis for a myriad of reasons, including curing illness of the body or mind, sometimes find themselves going back in mind or memory to another life where the problem began. These days children seem to be remembering their past lives well enough to be taken seriously by their parents;  truly fascinating!  (I have a couple new books on order right now and hope to report into you!) 

Another aspect of genealogy research for the individual who is researching their own family is that when you better understand your ancestors you may just come to understand your own life and yourself better.  This is especially the case when the family has been broken, perhaps not for any other reason that immigration. Some of us have never even seen a photo of someone who is part of our genetic lineage and who looks like us!

Over the next few posts, I'll be linking to sites about DNA.  DNA is revealing so much to us and so much more quickly than even the scientists anticipated.  Those who have a problem with evolution or DNA science are simply not compatible with my point of view.  They are welcome to keep their beliefs, as am I.  Simply, I see no conflict with the notion of a Creator God or the notion of Creation and evolution. I know that conscious life is amazing and that the universe is intelligent.

HEY THANKS FOR READING ALL THIS!  Now let's go forward!

BARBRO KARLEN EARNESTLY BELIEVES SHE WAS ANNE FRANK IN HER LAST LIFE

May 2021 :The original three video documentary that was inclusvie of Doctor Walter Semkiw, has been taken off YouTube,

This is what I had written about it:

This is the full mini documentary film.  Barbro Karlen was born into a Christian family in Sweden this time around. She has retained her skill and talent as a writer, like Anne Frank, and published her first book at 12.  Her priest was concerned.  A psychiatrist said she was normal, but she didn't tell him about her memories.

Barbro's parents, especially her mother, believed her after a trip to Amsterdam. Then, around the age of 15 she began to forget the dreams and memories that were with her as a child.  She had a brief marriage at 19 and a son, and needed to find a way to support them besides writing.  She retained a fear of men in uniforms but she trained horses for the Mounted Police, which was her career for 15 years. Her past life memories came back to her.  Why had she remembered a past life when most people don't?  Feelings of persecution on the job brought nightmares that she'd had as a child came back to her  - day and night.  She even considered suicide.

I'm posting this video as a substitute which he also posted:

BODY MEMORY : DOGS HAVE IT and SO DO PEOPLE?

The other day I was trying to explain the notion of "Body Memory" to someone and I found myself talking about my dog.

The dog I'm the person of was a rescue animal.  I got her at a county run animal shelter that is not a "no kill" shelter; most in big cities aren't.  Just recently when renewing her license, I learned I was not her second owner, but her third.  I still feel sure that her name has always been the same and that she was born in the home of her original owner, who may have been a backyard breeder.  I also learned when I adopted her that she has at least one liter, but for all I know she may have given birth many times, and then was spayed.

My dog reacts emotionally, shaking, when her feet are on stainless steel.  Doesn't matter if this is at the vets or in a sink, or anywhere else - the feel of it frightens her. I think she associates the feel with pain and loss.

When I first brought her home she always pulled her feet or paws away if I tried to touch them.  Over many full body massages and months of learning to trust me and not exhibit signs of separation anxiety, she stopped pulling away and started waiting for me without crying.  Now she lets me touch her feet and paws and I sometimes hold them in my hands.  Again, I think she associates the feelings - physical and emotional - with pain.

I took my dog into the closest groomers, a store that also sells cute doggie items, and depending on what sort of barking she hears she will either, wag her tail and look up at me with excitement (small chirpy sounds) or shake with fear and even back away (the harsher barking of a larger dog) and this is very specific.  Because she has exhibited fear, which is uncharacteristic for her overall friendly temperament, I don't want to leave her at a groomer and groom her myself.  I recently took her to a benefit for the shelter and she peaceably sat near a massive Irish Wolf Hound and German Shepherds.  All well behaved.  The dogs at the groomers were further away, leashed, and also well behaved, but yet the VOCAL SOUND of dogs either made her think she was going to meet a long lost relative (maybe her mother) or an enemy!

My dog can't tell me what she's feeling or thinking in any moment, but it's clear she is reacting.  Memories are inside her - maybe her mind which is part of the body, or her body itself as mind.

WHAT DOES THIS HAVE TO DO WITH HUMAN BEINGS?

I'm convinced that some people practice genealogy to gain a different perspective on themselves, by way of getting to know more about the people they are genetically related to, especially so if that person has always felt different, as if they were born into the wrong family.  (At last you've found an eccentric sea captain a few generations back who seems to be the only other person in the family besides yourself who loved to sail!)

I'm also convinced that some people are very influenced by their past lives.  (You sailed and were the sea captain yourself!)

Some people think that there is no such thing as past (or future) lives, as is the case for reincarnation, but that people do have BODY MEMORIES and these can be inherited.  (You love to sale because you have the body memory of the sea captain!) A body memory might, as in the case of my dog, give you a reaction - positive or negative - that  maybe makes no sense.

Say tuned for more on Body Memory in the future posts of ANCESTRY WORSHIP - GENEALOGY

C 2013 Ancestry Worship Genealogy

A SPIRITUAL TIME OF YEAR : NO HALLOWEEN HORROR FOR ME!

Halloween is coming and I will not be participating in the ghoulish aspect of it, the horror, the violence.  I won't be watching fright films meant to keep me awake or contemplate evil or decorate my home with  plastic spiders, rubber ghouls, or foam gravestones cob-webbed with spun foam.  A harvest wreath is more my style.

I'm not sure what the evolution from spiritual time of year, when communication with the dead was thought to be especially good in Pagan traditions, to dream upsetting horror as a celebration was. 

I feel sure that our ancestors who lived an agricultural life were much more acquainted with death and the cycle of life that includes death than we, who buy our meat in supermarkets far from the reality of raising animals and killing them for food, or digging the graves for those who died and burying them on family property.  Recently I was excited to hear about a discovery of a burial not far from where I live of some Colonials, which was under railroad tracks that had been removed.  I wonder where the skeletons were taken!

Checking to see if FIND A GRAVE has added anyone related to me to their database is more my style.

Halloween is coming and I will not be participating in the partying, the outrageous, the costumes and masks. It seems to me there are other, better times for masked balls, for displaying alter egos.  Using an old family recipe for pumpkin pie and having a single goblet of wine with a special dinner is more my style.

Halloween is coming and I will be participating in remembering the dead.  I'll be doing that by working on my personal family history story, by photographing old photos (something I've been meaning to do for such a long long time) so that I can upload them onto a genealogy program I use, and by lighting a candle for those friends who passed in the last year.

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