Dreams of Healing Generational Memory

“When you have dreams, you know when they come from the Creator”

–Jim Miller, Native spiritual leader and Vietnam veteran

Dakota 38+2

I recently watched a powerful film on the largest mass execution in US history, that of 38 Dakota Native Americans the day after Christmas, 1862. (Two others were hanged a year later.) The executions were ordered by Abraham Lincoln, offered as a “compromise” to the original list of 303 that Minnesota authorities had sentenced to death. Two of the men had been mistakenly hanged; and almost all had been dug up after burial to be used as medical cadavers.

The movie, Dakota 38, follows the story of Dakota Native Jim Miller, his discovery of the execution through dream and the ride he started to manifest healing. Himself abused as a child in multiple ways, sufferer of PTSD following the Vietnam War, formerly alcoholic and imprisoned, Jim’s story is more common in Native American communities today than anyone would like to believe. And yet, through all of this, his most familiar words to those who meet him continue to be, “I want you to know I love you.”

To watch the movie online, visit Karmatube.org.

Transmission of generational memory via DNA

In the movie, Jim touches on the suffering — what he calls a “deep, generational depression” — found in the Dakota people of today who as they carry not only the burden of current conditions on the reservations, but also the history of what happened to their people in Minnesota. Science is starting to find that’s not just an idea, but a reality: DNA may indeed be passing down generational memory. Researcher Dr. Brian Dias from his 2013 animal study reports,

“From a translational perspective, our results allow us to appreciate how the experiences of a parent, before even conceiving offspring, markedly influence both structure and function in the nervous system of subsequent generations.

Such a phenomenon may contribute to the etiology and potential intergenerational transmission of risk for neuropsychiatric disorders such as phobias, anxiety and post-traumatic stress disorder.”

Of course, this [animal] research is in early stages and more work is required before drawing conclusions about humans. For more thoughts on the subject, see:

“Clear seeing” through dream work

While Jim describes in Dakota 38 seeing the execution ‘in his dreams,’ and only learning later what it meant by talking to other elders; it is also described at one point as something he saw while ‘looking into the fire.’ Char-Koosta News goes on to explain, “This direction to lead all tribes across the U.S. came from a dream – but more precisely, from prayer, sweats and ceremonies.” I would describe Jim’s experience as clairvoyance — “clear seeing,” which I teach my energy work students is something that can be done during sleep, or may appear as a ‘daydream.’ We all know when we are fabricating something from our ego-mind, and when we’re tapping into something greater. It’s this sense of touching a larger truth that I hear in Jim’s statement, “When you have dreams, you know when they come from the Creator.”

To support Dakota 38 and its message of healing

Karmatube.org recommends three ways to keep the film’s message of healing alive:

• Order your own copy of the Dakota 38 DVD, host a screening, become a “backer” of future free distributions of the film, or support the annual ride.
• Read an interview with Silas Hagerty on the genesis of Dakota 38 and the serendipitous events that allowed this gift economy film to be completed.
• Hug someone today and say, in the words of Jim Miller: “I want you to know I love you.”

Your Practice

Reflect on your dreams and/or visions over the years; can you recall any that guided you to greater awareness, greater connection, or resolution? How might you honor this wisdom that speaks through dreams?

What Are Energy Work Practices?

Author and inventor Dr. Lin Yutang wrote in his 1937 bestseller, The Importance of Living, “…[A]ll human happiness is sensuous happiness”(125).  He goes on to explain our capacity for enjoying the “positive joys of life” is inextricably tied to increased sensibility of our senses, and our full use of them.

To illustrate his point, Dr. Lin lists Chin’s Thirty-Three Happy Moments, suggesting that “the truly happy moments of human life [are those] moments in which the spirit is inextricably tied up with the senses”(130). You’re probably not surprised that I agree! (Why else would I start my post with this?)

Energy Work is Mundane Work

People often confuse energy work with something ‘beyond’ the ordinary, human experience. Or people think it’s something to ‘attain,’ or something mystical. Most often people think energy is separate from the body; and therefore consider the physical simply crude, unnecessary material they’re just waiting to shed to get back to the ‘good stuff.’

But, while energy permeates and animates physical matter, the physical experiences Spirit’s sublime nature. The physical interprets energy, and affects the world with energy. That’s potent stuff! Without the ability to sense, energy could not know itself. For this reason, while we are in the world, knowing we are not of it affords us a unique opportunity to care for and appreciate our vessel (the physical body), while experiencing Spirit in action.

Can Energywork Be Bodywork? (And Vice Versa?)

When we talk about types of energy work, some practices might fit under the category of bodywork, while others might be considered emotional release techniques, mental concentration practices, or in some cases spiritual or religious practice. At first glance someone with no background in energy work might think, “Hold on a minute, this can’t be right! Isn’t energy work stuff just ‘woo woo,’ waving hands in the air?” (I’m reminded of Christopher Walken’s trivial psychic skit….) No, it’s not. Remember, I defined energy work as any practice that works with our body’s energy; and if you understand that our spirit is inextricably tied to our body sense-experience, you’ll understand energy work in practice may involve the body, mind, and/or emotions.

A Short List of Energy Work Practices

There are countless practices that involve energy work I could name in this post today. Nonetheless, I’d like to introduce you to a short list so you can start to see that you’ve likely already been introduced to energy work, and perhaps have even been practicing it already. What makes the energy work a stronger aspect to physical, emotional or mental practice? Intention.

You’ll notice I slipped intention work and affirmations under perceiving energy. (Pretty much all the things on this mind map can be swapped from one side to the other.) I did this intentionally (ha!) as a reminder that sometimes we can learn things about what we really think or feel deep down when we try on a new, positive affirmation or intention. Resistance can crop up saying, “Yea, right! I don’t deserve that!” etc.

My today’s short list includes:

• Acupuncture
• Bowenwork
• Dream work (including interpretation and lucid dreaming)
• Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT)
• ESP (including clairvoyance, clairaudience, clairgustance, clairsentience, claircognizance, and “medical intuition”)
• Feng Shui
• Homeopathy (including flower, gem and environmental essences)
• Intention work (including affirmations)
• Journeying (including to the Akashic records, Lower World, Middle World, Upper World)
• Meditation
• Pranic healing
• Psychic awareness (including psychometry)
• Qigong
• Reiki
• Rosen Method
• Shamanism (including soul retrieval)
• Yoga

Your practice this week:

Reflect on a time in your life when you felt most alive, connected and ‘in the flow.’ How did you feel in your body? How was the state of your mind; and what were the circumstances under which you had this experience?

Has an energy work practice greatly impacted your life or growth? I’d love to hear your story in the comments!