Heal Your Ancestors to Heal Your Life: The Transformative Power of Genealogical Regression, by Shelly A. Kaehr, PhD
Llewellyn Publications, 0738764511, 191 pages, March 2021
How much power or influence do your ancestors have over your current life? Some people say that they got their talent for music from their great-grandfather, or their ability to cook from their maternal family of stellar cooks. We tend to easily attribute talents to our ancestors. But, can ancestors have a connection to a physical ailment that you have? How about a personality trait such as a tendency to worry?
In her book, Heal Your Ancestors to Heal Your Life: The Transformative Power of Genealogical Regression, Dr. Shelly Kaehr explores how working with your ancestors through past-life regression can help you heal your life. The book differs from others I’ve read on past-life regression because the focus of this book is not so much on one’s own past-life regression to one’s previous lives, but rather a past-life regression to experience what one’s ancestors experienced in their lives. “By sending healing light through the family tree, clients positively affected not only their own well-being but the lives and future happiness of everyone in their family.”1
Shelley has decades of experience as a past-life regressionist. A previously published author of Past Lives with Pets and Meet Your Karma: The Healing Power of Past Life Memories, she is well-poised to write on this topic. She developed her own method of past-life regression to connect with ancestors and to experience their “struggles and turmoil, triumphs and tragedies.”2 She writes on how we can take the knowledge gained from working with our ancestors to not only heal our current challenges, physical, mental, emotional, and even spiritual but also help our ancestors heal while also helping future generations in our families to feel a light of “loving kindness.”3 Remarkably, she also details how those who were adopted can connect with their blood ancestors.
The book is divided into three parts: Genealogical Regression Overview, Case Studies, and Guided Journeys, which contains exercises. The book concludes with a bibliography and a list of genealogical and DNA resources.
Genealogical Regression Overview is the shortest section of the book, but it formed the basis of the remainder of the book. Shelley writes about Carl Jung and the collective consciousness as well as “behaviors that seem to be transmitted through the collective consciousness and DNA…”4 For me, this section melded college psychology course work that I had long forgotten about with ancestors and past-life regression — a connection that I hadn’t made until now. As Shelley writes, “We have energetic ties to the past, where we’re consciously aware of them or not. Every single soul who has come before us and all who will continue on when we’ve crossed over are part of our cells.”5
Part 2, Case Studies, provides just that – various case studies on which Shelley has worked over the years. What was unique to these case studies, compared to those I’ve read in other books on past-life regression, is how the outcomes were related to ancestral trauma, events, and even illness. The case studies focus on physical healing, emotional, and spiritual healing, plus curses and vows. While, as Shelley notes, the “past-life regression cannot alleviate illness,” it can become “a tool to help the cognitive aspect of the client to come to terms with what’s happened and gain the strength and acceptance to accept what is and to go forward with healing intentions.”6
Two case studies especially resonated with me. The first was that of Dana who worried constantly. It was a relief to read that “some people are genetically predisposed to worry.”7 I come from a family of worriers on my mother’s maternal side. “The undercurrent of fear is a quite prevalent emotion to pass down through the generations.”8 Dana regressed to visit a great-great-great-grandfather who suffered a violent act. Through the regression she was able to bring a healing light over the man, releasing him from his pain.
The second case study that touched me was Eugene and the Evil Eye. Shelley writes that she became involved with helping people remove curses accidentally. As a woman whose ancestral family hails from southern Italy, namely Benevento, where the witches were thought to gather, I grew up quite familiar with the curse of the Evil Eye. In my family this was nothing to be scoffed at, especially for the generations to which my grandparents and great-grandparents belonged. Through Shelley’s past-life regression, Eugene was able to help remove a family curse, which whether real or perceived was affecting Eugene.
The final section, Guided Journeys, allows the reader to participate in exercises for their own healing and that of their family and ancestors. Shelley writes that it’s best to do past-life regressions with a professional if one is able. However, the exercises that she included in the book can be done on one’s own. She recommends recording one’s regression to listen to later. I tried a few and found it helpful to record the words of exercise in my own voice to guide myself in the process. I also recorded what I had to say during the session. While not wanting to reveal details, I found the exercises illuminating and well worth the time to invest in journeying.
This section has three parts. There is one on working with your mother and your maternal lineage and one on working with your father and your paternal lineage. She provides ways for an adoptee to connect with one’s birth mother and birth father and also ways for one to connect with ancestors of one’s adopted mother and adopted father. The last part deals with cord cutting and soul retrieval, as well as visiting future generations of one’s part.
What I liked most about this section is that one does not enter into a past-life regression alone; one is always accompanied by an angel who provides healing light and guidance. As Shelley reminds the reader, during these exercises one encounters the higher selves of our parents and ancestors – the “most evolved aspects of their souls.”9 It removed the judgement to read:
“The higher self (of one’s parent) is calm and neutral, loves you unconditionally, and has come to your soul journey in your current life for very real and meaningful reasons that always contribute to your highest and best, even if their real-life actions don’t ways seem that way.”10
I found Heal Your Ancestors to Heal Your Life very, very interesting. It introduced me to the concept of connecting with one’s ancestors through past-life regression to assist in present-day healing. The case studies were detailed, and the exercises covered a wide range of topics. There’s something for everyone in this book who wants to dip a toe into ancestral past-life regression. I highly recommend this book to those who are just being introduced to the concept of past-life regression as well as those who are familiar with the concept.
Anne Greco is a non-fiction writer who writes about her life experiences and travels with humor, keen observations, and the hope that her words will remind us that “we’re all just walking each other home.” Her book, Serendipity: Chance Pilgrimages, tells the story of Anne encountering her places of power. As she reconnects with herself at each site, Anne also develops a deeper understanding and appreciation of her connection to both the seen and unseen worlds. Learn more about her work here: http://annegrecowriter.com.