—RESELECTING YOUR GENETIC DESTINY—A SHAMANIC EXERCISE

Modern physics explains that interactions across time and space are possible. Shamans learned to put this into practice long ago and employed imagery to select genes for health and longevity from the gene pool.

Imagine that you could go back in time to the moment of your conception and select the biological traits you wish you had inherited from your parents. Perhaps you would choose your father’s heart because there was no heart disease in his side of the family. Or you might select your mother’s brain because there was no Alzheimer’s in her branch of the family tree. You likely would want the trait of longevity from either of them.

You received the entirety of your genetic makeup at the moment of your conception. But that’s only part of the story. Your beliefs, diet, and choice of lifestyle influence your inherited risk factors. But lifestyle modifications are often not enough, and seemingly healthy men and women can and do develop terminal illnesses.

So, what else can you do? You can, from your current wisdom perspective, go back and visit the moment of your conception. You can bring a meditative and sacred feeling to the moment of the comingling of your genes. During this exercise, you can forgive your parents for any transgressions you believe they committed toward you. This is necessary for your journey into enlightenment because holding on to any residual anger or resentment toward your parents only perpetuates your role as a victim of their genetic signatures.

Open and close all shamanic exercises with the Sacred Space prayer, or a similar prayer of your own creation or choosing. Even if you do not use the words in this prayer, turn to each of the four cardinal directions and feel a connection to each of the animal archetypes―South as the place of the serpent; West as the place of the jaguar; North as the place of the hummingbird; and East as the place of the eagle.

With your eyes closed, take a few deep, relaxing breaths. Count your breaths from one to ten, then back to one again, until you feel yourself entering a deep state of relaxation.

Your mind may wander. You may find yourself counting past ten or chasing a random thought. Let it all drift by like clouds that appear, then disappear, in the sky.

Now imagine your timeline, the chronological series of events in your life, poised in front of you. Perhaps you imagine a golden thread or a string with many beads or moments of time. Perhaps you simply see a road that leads in one direction to the past and another direction into the future.

Begin traveling backward along your timeline, briefly revisiting events of the past few days. Then go farther back, to your childhood, and your earliest memories as a toddler. See the images as if in a movie that you can fast-forward or reverse at will.

When you can no longer recall events or situations, use your mind’s eye. Imagine yourself as a baby in your mother’s arms … being inside her womb … the instant of your conception, when your mother’s egg is surrounded by your father’s numerous sperm, all trying to fertilize it.

See yourself sitting inside that peaceful luminous egg. Bring your stillness and grace into that space. Know that you are filling it with your peace and luminosity.

Now sense the egg selecting and inviting the finest sperm to fertilize it. Imagine as it enters the ovum, you witness the most extraordinary alchemy that is the conception of you. You see proteins cross-link with each other, making the matrix of the egg hard and impermeable to other sperm. The nuclei of the sperm and the egg dissolve, and the father’s DNA and the mother’s DNA fuse. The egg divides and forms two tiny, identical cells. They begin to replicate, doubling, quadrupling, and exponentially adding to their numbers at an extraordinary rate.

As you observe this amazing process, hold steadfast to your intention of forming and shaping yourself into your desired being. Bathe the nascent cells with your great peace, your serenity, your light. Bless this holy union that is you regardless of what the “facts” of your conception may have been. And then, as the growing, forming you, forgive your parents. See them as holy, glorious, innocent beings. Bathe them with your love, knowing that all is well.

Now, return along your timeline to the present, visiting your childhood and pausing at any major traumatic event that you encounter. Observe that frightened you and reach out to him or her, letting them know that all will be okay, that they are loved and cared for. Notice how they recognize you, making eye contact with you as you reach back to them from the future to encourage them with your love. Continue making your way to the present, bringing with you—into the here and now—your feelings of peace and luminosity, your joy and exhilaration, your innocence and playfulness, your ability to trust and to play.

Welcome yourself back home.

Remember to close sacred space by repeating the prayer. Thank the archetypes―Serpent, Jaguar, Hummingbird, and Eagle―for being with you, and release their energies to the four corners of the Earth.