The Ancestors Within: Reveal and Heal the Ancient Memories You Carry

By Amy Gillespie Dougherty

Your ancestors have waited your whole life for this moment...

...the day you reveal and heal the ancient memories you carry. 

 The world of ancestral healing opens up possibilities for mind, body, soul, and spirit wellness you've never imagined. The Ancestors Within offers a collection of l

• Language: English
• Publisher: Brave Healer Productions
• Release date: Apr 28, 2022
• ISBN: 9781954047150

Amy Gillespie Dougherty

Amy is a results-driven innovator, speaker, and bestselling author with more than twenty years' experience creating impactful self-discovery, awareness, and life coaching programs. As a 38-year old woman who had never traveled abroad or even learned a foreign language, she beat the odds in Mozambique, Africa, where she started a nonprofit with $150 and the idea that all children deserve the right to keep themselves and their siblings alive. Over six years, she became a finalist for CNN Heroes and received accolades from embassies and aid organizations.Thriving as a trailblazer, Amy created Irigenics™ Ancestral Eye Reading as a survival skills program for teens and young adults in an effort to reduce self-destructive behaviors and suicide patterns. Amy believes in the power of the ancestral pulse within each of us, and our ability to reach the best of our best. She emphasizes this connection to our gifts and our origin in her new series, "The Ancestors Within." The first book (Reveal and Heal the Ancient Memories You Carry) places emphasis on the repeat patterns that show up in your life and how they have ancestral ties, which can be resolved. Her second book in the series will publish in October of 2021.

Book preview

CHAPTER 1

THE ADOPTEE’S DREAM

Recognizing Your Ancestors in a Whole New Way

Amy Gillespie Dougherty, Founder of Irigenics™ Ancestral Eye Reading

My Story

If you’ve ever doubted your personal power, consider for a moment the unbroken line of ancestors who came before you. If there were any break in your line of DNA—any ancestor who died before creating another life—you wouldn’t be here.

That line goes back for thousands of years. Even if you’re an identical twin, you are the only person connected to your specific ancestors. You are their hope for greatness!

Your ancestors have waited your whole life for THIS moment! This is even more true if you were adopted or felt blocked from your ancestral information. The true essence of your ancestry lives safe and secure inside of you. You are the treasure chest.

Ancestral gifts, education, training, oaths, intentions, physical attributes, and traumatic experiences that were your ancestors’ are woven in your epigenetics. You can take a DNA test to get a pretty clear image of your family’s geographic and ethnic background (six to eight generations back).

As an adoptee growing up in rural America, I coveted the lives of my cousins who came from big families of nine and ten children. It was easy to see their similarities in voice, mannerisms, looks, talents, and how they did things. After years of working with ancestral clues, I know the ones who didn’t seem to fit in were simply threaded back to earlier ancestors, and their birth order explained those discrepancies.

I wondered what it would be like to sit down to dinner, surrounded by those who looked like me, laughed like me, felt insecure like me.

At the same time, I contemplated, how in the world does anyone think they would get away with placing a child for adoption? They look just like their siblings and cousins; they talk like them, they move like them. I think it’s just a matter of crossing paths with those that share your lineage.

I could never have imagined how true my thoughts as a nine-year-old girl actually were.

As soon as my birthmother discovered she was pregnant, she decided to place me for adoption. When I was born, I was quickly placed in a permanent home of wonderful people who didn’t look anything like me.

I met my birthmother when I was 19, long before I knew anything about ancestral eye reading. We quickly identified our many shared traits and interests, including that my first corporate job had been for the same company, in the same office that she’d worked at, and that we’d even sat at the same desk. Crazy, right?

Imagine this sort of thing has happened to you (even if you weren’t adopted, this incident could have been with a cousin, a great-grandparent, etc.). You just haven’t connected the information yet.

Things were very different with my birthfather. We didn’t meet until I was 54, long after I’d identified ancestral patterns that were distinctly validated once we started sharing notes about our lives.

I knew he was the son of a doctor and a librarian, so when he accepted my invitation to meet for the first time at the International New Age Trade Show, I was a bit nervous. I had finally achieved my little-girl-dream-come-true of being an exhibitor at INATS and was receiving an International COVR (Coalition Of Visionary Resources) award the next night.

As we sat in the hotel café, face-to-face for the first time, he held up his hands with a grin, Give me fingerprints! I pointed to my eyes, Give me eyeballs! We laughed and settled into comfortable banter.

Huh! I got HIS carrying radio voice.

Soon, we discovered similarities way beyond the physical, including interests, talents, travels, careers, traumas, and early-life visions. Believe it or not, my husband and I bought a farm in Virginia that had the same name (according to county plot books) as my paternal ancestor’s castle in Scotland.

By the time I met him, I had developed a system of profiling ancestral information and impressions from the eyes. I believe this experience can be impactful for any of us, and I know it can be life-changing for adoptees. It allows them to find genetic clues inside themselves.

My birthfather was involved in developing fingerprint software to profile identity information. Our shared affinity for connection and patterns was likely something his father had used as a doctor, and my maternal grandfather had used designing stained glass windows.

I was blown away when he asked to see my Irigenics™ Ancestral Eye Reading exhibit! My fears were released when we walked past the U.S. Games display, and he asked, Is Tarot coming back in?

What?! I got my metaphysical interests from my FATHER!?"

But, of course. Metaphysics is just another aspect of clues, connections, mysteries, and patterns, my inherent gift.

There was no mistake that my birthfather and I played some kind of magnetic board game of life since my birth. He drove past my homes in Minnesota, Colorado, and Virginia. He attended college in the town where we went to do our shopping, and we may even have thrown our pennies into the same wishing well at Musicland in the mall.

My jaw was left hanging at Christmas when my new mother-in-law had Mr. and Mrs. Santa Claus set out, wearing the Gordon plaid of my paternal birth family.

Who even owns a green-plaid Santa?

The clues of my genetic inheritance were always within me. They were playing themselves out in my adopted home and my life from the time of my birth. I’m exactly who I was born to become. I had only to look at my own life experiences to find validation.

Now let’s dig into yours.

The Tool

(YOUR ANCESTRAL CONNECTIONS)

www.amygillespie.com/resources

Whether we look at those beyond chance clues as a board game or a treasure map, they’re a series of clues that may not appear to tally up to the origin of you.

Yet, my experience over the past eleven years (and meeting my genetic family as an adult) has shown me time and again that our life experiences offer several clues to our ancestral origin, like a great treasure map that leads us back to ourselves.

Epigenetics Revealed through Repeat Responses to Situations

Our ancestors’ repeat thoughts and words come through us via generations of epigenetic imprinting. Often, we experience this imprinting as intuition. These are our responses to a trigger. While one person screams, You Never Listen to ME! another says, Oh, they never listen to me anyway. Same situation—totally different response.

Epigenetics has been researched in animals for decades; the DNA and instinctual response to a situation or threat. It’s a magnificent evolutionary system that evaluates whether specific variables continue to pose a threat to our genetic line (creating drama or trauma).

In people, however, it’s more difficult to study because it isn’t always an action. The response can be thoughts, words, and feelings, which don’t fit clearly into a study but make great puzzle pieces for our tool.

In Irigenics™ Ancestral Eye Reading, I use your eye photographs as your treasure map. While the map doesn’t tell me your ancestors’ nationality or names, it does tell me which triggers are going to come up in your life for resolving (escape, identity, religious oppression, gift for expression, affinity for athletics, and more).

Still, I can’t read the eyes of the entire world, so let’s take a look at how your ancestors show up in your life.

Like a jigsaw puzzle, you can enjoy this activity over many evenings. You can also do it as a deep dive weekend retreat. Read through this entire exercise before beginning.

You will find detailed instructions, PDFs, Treasure Maps, Ancestral Labyrinths, and timeline links at www.amygillespie.com/resources

If you don’t have online access and want to do this on your own, you may take a long roll of paper and create a timeline of the experiences of your life.

DNA Testing

DNA testing is widely available and affordable. You can learn which regions of the world your ancestors came from, and some aspects of your health. With certain DNA companies, you can even input your personal information for those who have matching DNA to contact you by email.

Write down any DNA or genealogy clues you have about who your ancestors were, their careers, locations, talents, quirks, or unique information.

Note: for some of you, this list may be long, in which case, you may want to leave it for last after filling in your information.

For those who are adopted, you might not know your DNA clues or may just have your test results. You can write your bullets now or leave your DNA clues for the last part of this exercise. Remember, not knowing is also a clue.

Your Birth Story

Birth stories are hugely important to an understanding of oneself and one’s ancestry. For adoptees like me, birth stories can be a blank void starting and ending with, Well, I’m adopted! I don’t know anything. That isn’t true. You know what you were told about your birth, and that’s a clue.

Most people will find an ancestor (usually within two to four generations) who had a similar experience of their birth story. You can read more about the ancestral echo, which repeats in pregnancy in the chapter I wrote for The Ultimate Guide to Self-Healing, Volume 4. Chapter 6: Resolving Cellular Memories. If your birth story lacks detail, consider using this pre-birth and in-utero visualization:

https://irigenics.com/guidedexercise/

Write down any birth story clues of you.

(e.g., I was adopted through a church, and the records were sealed. I was raised by my grandmother. Or, I was sent to boarding school.)

Just so you know, many times, the pattern of abandonment and adoption originated generations ago, when a child had to be placed in hiding for their safety. Sometimes, the parent swore an oath that the child would know the greatness from which they came one day. Thus, that pattern of "a deep desire to know their origin would repeat every couple of generations, waiting for technology to catch up in a way that would reunite the individual with the knowing and pride of their people."

That day could be today.

Early Traumas

The next thing to list is any traumas you endured before age two or three. You won’t remember those traumas, as they’re stored in your preconscious memory, but they do impact your personality and approach to life. Ask someone older than you who would remember your early life if you experienced any traumas, accidents, or bizarre experiences before you reached age two or three.

You can bet these early traumas reflect similar experiences of your ancestors and are one of the few experiences that create a permanent change in your eyes.

Write down any early traumas (as they were told to you by adults).

Childhood Gifts and Interests

Next, consider any significant interests, awards, and events from your childhood, up to about age eight.

Did you have a natural love for dancing, music, writing, or animals? Did you excel in sports, sandcastles, tree-forts, or crafting?

In my story, I was proficient at embroidery, crewel, and crochet. My birthmother was a professional knitter and needle pointer. I later discovered our ancestors had been seamstresses and embroiderers. On my paternal side, I dreamed of becoming a zoologist, as my paternal grandfather had.

What did you want to be when you grew up? Did you play doctor, nurse, soldier, or teacher? On my birthfather’s side, my biological cousins, who knew nothing of me, had jobs and interests that mirrored my own: pharmaceutical sales, working with eyes, music therapy, genetics, and zoology.

Childhood interests and aspirations reveal inherent gifts (usually around age seven), even if we turned away from those careers for something more practical—especially if we turned away for something more practical.

List your childhood interests, talents, games, etc. Note your age for each.

Your Physical Build

The way your body is built—your stature—offers clues to your birth order from your genetic father (whether he knows you exist or not: genetics are funny like that).

This connection between birth order and body build was validated for me in 2019 at the Greater Philly Expo Center.

I was walking past a family with three daughters. The oldest was obviously (to me) a second-born daughter who followed a first-born son.

Sensing that the son’s absence represented a traumatic experience, I whispered, Did you lose a son?

The hint of panic in the mother’s voice was unmistakable. How’d you know that?

I pointed to the oldest daughter. It’s her body build. She’s a perfect second-born daughter after a first-born son. You see, she has that kind of boxy build: square shoulders, narrow hips, and a big rib cage without being busty. Often, these children are all about sports but a bit socially awkward.

The mom laughed, shaking her head, confirming I’d nailed it. She’s all that! We lost our first-born son to health problems at six months of age. The girls don’t know.

Their birth order was obvious to me in their body build, energies, and even clothing choice. The youngest had a mystical, healing energy about her, along with the entertainer’s twinkle in her eyes. She was a fourth born, not a third, even if she didn’t know it.

With a sympathetic voice, I nodded to the girls, "Sometimes this pattern happens when the first child has been a late-stage miscarriage. Perhaps one of your daughters is intended to grow up to do something significant, and there needed to be a missing first-born-boy to set the birth order, personality, drive, and interest."

Her husband, who’d been listening intently, reached for her hand, giving her a loving look. We’ve felt like there was something much more to this story than we could understand.

I explained, Missing siblings leave clues within the other children. Even if a child doesn’t know a sibling is missing, their bodies will reflect it, and so will their intuition.

Let’s be clear that there can only be one first-born (even if they’re twins), and they are easy to recognize. First-born boys are slim (bean poles), with their heads in the clouds of engineering, stars, ideas, and innovations. First-born girls are built strong, with significant hips, and determined to save people (mother bears). They usually stop playing and start role-playing by the time they are three.

List your body build and anything you know about your birth-order from your genetic father. Not knowing is also a clue.

Characteristic Exclamations and Traumas

Many of us can identify characteristic exclamations in our personal history.

Early childhood is often when escape traumas and patterns first show up. If, for example, you had older siblings who teased you, you might have screamed many times, Let me Up! Let me Go! Any repeated, characteristic exclamations, especially from early childhood (up to age eight to ten), have ancestral roots.

When it comes to ancestral recognition, details may vary, but the dynamics match.

Imagine, unbeknownst to you, you had an ancestor in 1857 who got locked in the berth of a ship, unable to see out the window, screaming, Let me out! Can’t you hear me?! Fast-forward to 2011. You’re five years old, and you find yourself locked in a bathroom, screaming, Let me out! Can’t you hear me?!

The screams and the internal chemical responses are identical.

The dynamics of how you both found yourselves trapped are what will match. In short, if it happened to you—it happened to them. For example:

The door malfunctioned.

You both ignored (or couldn’t read) a sign on the door indicating there was a problem.

You both had a sibling holding the door shut from outside while laughing.

The same dynamics play out in different generations, with different players and locations. Thus, our ancestors’ identity issues at Ellis Island return as online identity issues, 2020.

Each time you declare or exclaim with emotion, it’s as if your ancestor’s words are coming through you. Each exclamation presents an opportunity to determine whether the situation is still a threat to your specific genetic line.

In 2020, we can short-circuit most escape traumas by simply picking up our cell phone and making a call.

List your significant exclamations first.

Then note any trauma attached to the exclamations.

Then note the dynamics of what was happening that led to the trauma and the exclamation. You’ll start to see the pattern.

Money, Contracts, and Signatures

Anytime you observe yourself inexplicably repeating financial patterns or prematurely signing contracts even though you know better, you’re probably repeating an ancestral pattern.

My Aunt Jane and I were packing my birthmother’s home. Jane told the story of my birthmother purchasing La Creuset® bake-ware when she was 18—and how she’d struggled through a second job to pay for it.

I did nearly the exact same thing! When I was 18, I signed a contract for dishes I just had to have, but couldn’t really afford. It was my first adult experience of a repeat ancestral pattern relating to signature documents.

The pattern dynamics were always the same:

Doubt (Should I sign it?).

Signing the document, knowing I shouldn’t (I can’t afford this! I’m going to regret this!).

Days of regret (Why did I sign that?! Why did I let HER talk me into this? Why didn’t I wait?)!

This pattern reflected my ancestors’ regrets over signing their names to agreements that cost them greatly, including my birthmother signing papers relinquishing me for adoption.

List your significant issues with papers, contracts, and signatures (including emails and texts that were sent too soon or to the wrong person).

And, Oh, so many more.

Please visit the resources for this exercise at

www.amygillespie.com/resources

Chapter 2

The Secrets of the Stones

How to Channel Your Ancestors Through Crystals

Melissa Jolly Graves

My Story

I remember that day clearly, the day I first felt the power and beauty of the ancestor flow through me.

It was crystal cleaning day. My roommate Mikey and I sat at the rectangle table placed in the middle of the dining room. Laying in the middle of the table between us was a bottle of mineral oil, rags, and my wooden box that held my treasures. The box contained many crystals, stones, fossils, rocks, and artifacts collected from all around the world by friends, family, my husband, and myself.

I was obsessed with collecting these items, but I didn’t know why. Every time anyone would go on an adventure, I would ask them to bring me back a stone they found along the way. They had to be found, gifted by nature, not paid for. Each time I received an item, I placed it in my Crystals of the World box. I had over 300 items in the box.

I opened the box and poured the contents over half of the table. The stones were all different colors, shapes, and sizes. We spread them out and let them breathe for a few minutes. I prayed that we might have the honor of cleansing the energy. When the time felt right, I picked up the rag, poured mineral oil on it, grabbed my first stone, and polished it. As we cleaned each stone, the colors became more vivid and gave us a unique perspective of the properties each one had. We passed them around to each other as we admired the beauty, differences, textures, and even smells each stone offered.

The more I paid attention to them, the more I could see the auras and the energy around crystals, just as I saw it around people. My hands got warm, my head felt woozy, and my ears rang in a way they hadn’t before.

I looked at Mikey, I feel like I am on drugs or something. I can see the energy of these crystals moving and changing.

Mikey said nothing; he just laughed at me.

No, I’m serious. My vision is changing, and I can see the crystals breathing and pulsing. Like spring waters, I can honestly see the center of this stone and how each layer springs out of the center and moves to the surface.

Missy, you just get weirder and weirder, he replied.

I looked down at the stones and thought, what is wrong with me? Why are my visuals changing? Did I eat or drink something without knowing it? Am I sick?

Noticing my baffled face, Mikey looked at me and in a loud voice said, Reiki!

In a loud voice, I replied, Reiki! It was a term we used when strange and energetic things happened around us.

I continued to polish the stones while Mikey started picking them up and looking deeply into them to see if he could see any energy. As he picked up each stone, I saw the energy of the stones travel up his fingers to his arm and then become part of his essence. They completely changed the energy and coding around him.

Normally when I look at people, I can see their energy, aura, shapes, symbols, and colors on their faces and bodies. The energy is in continuous motion, changing color, never still, always rotating. It is a compilation of past and future lives, integrating with the person’s current biochemical and electromagnetic field. The best representation of how I see energy on people can be seen on Ink Mapping videos by Oskar and Gaspar.

Prior to that moment, I had only seen that kind of energy on people. I did not see moving energy in the stones, nor did I see the energy exchange between two objects. I could, however, see the energy exchange that occurred when I did Reiki and faith healing on people, and this energy was much like that.

Are the crystals doing Reiki on Mikey? I thought.

Mikey, do you feel that? I asked.

Feel what?

The energy traveling up your arm from the crystals?

No, he replied.

Oh, I said sadly.

What is going on with me? I didn’t know what to think.

Suddenly, my friends the Angels swooped in. Not the stereotypical kind with two wings and a human face, most people would think about. The kind that changes my vision, completely interrupts the space in the room, and causes ringing in my ears. They have faces of light, animals, and images not seen in this world. The wings are not feathering; they are lights, eyeballs, metal, liquids, or lightning storms that come out from around them. When they speak, I feel it through my entire body, and I have a hard time integrating with my earthly environment.

One angel told me, Have Mikey pick nine stones and place them to the side. Tell him not to ask questions or tell you anything he’s thinking and not to speak until I tell him to. So, I did as I was told. Mikey, knowing my connection with the angels, did as he was told.

He picked the stones and placed them to the side. The angels then told me, "Have him put his hands together in a cupping position like he’s holding water and place the stones