Prior to the advent of the 1960’s and 1970’s relationships had models (assumed frameworks) within which individuals could pattern themselves. Adults aligning themselves with the excepted social relationship pattern of the day (the “traditional” marriage) and then would be carried along various stages over the course of a lifetime: courtship, marriage, mortgage, children, and finally retirement. As these generational-specific social patterns have eroded over the past thirty years (resulting in high rates of divorce and family breakups) the psychotherapy model heroically stepped in to save the day. “Look at your issues”, said the psychotherapists, “and let us show you how to work through any problem in your relationships.”

Heritage chakra cords with layers, each associated with an ancestor

But one problem with this approach is that most people want others to change; very few people want to embrace significant change for themselves, or to engage in what one psychotherapist termed “The hard-work miracle”: personal development. Additionally, change is not the act of simply changing our minds and then making a new choice; many of the patterns in our relationships flow from a source other than our personal history. The apparent power that our relationship patterns have in our lives is strongly embedded and reinforced in our habitual actions. To the energy healer, these forces flow along chakra cords and are fueled by heritage-based Astral thought forms. To the energy healer your relationship issue may not be your issue: it may be a heritage/DNA one, fueled by hidden Astral energies.

Layered within each chakra cord lies your heritage habits, like growth rings on a tree, where your family patterns will await the right time and circumstances to become active in your life. When triggered, these family patterns attract a series of events or individuals into your life as a way to perpetuate their particular pattern. These repeating family dynamics are often masked from sight because they may skip a generation. Your personal life issues are most likely variations on your grandmother’s or grandfathers challenges, either maternal or paternal. In order to get to your personal development you have to peel away – and resolve – your family “karma”. This is always easier said, of course, than done.

While I am a big fan of psychotherapy as an essential tool to process our personal and relationship issues I feel more tools are needed on our transformational journey through life. We often need to clear away the energetic patterning of our ancestors so we can see the new choices available beyond our heritage habits. Clearing DNA/heritage patterns from the auric field is arguably more important than a past life healing as heritage issues are eternally present to our consciousness system, whereas past life issues are most often traumatic events left unresolved in the astral component of the auric field. Of course it is important to work through any incomplete death or unresolved life, but heritage/DNA cord work is usually far closer to home. It lives in each human cell, in real time, supported by memories held in both the physical and the auric field.

If there is a regular sequence my clients follow it is this: triage (get out of immediate danger), healing (resolve shock or trauma to the energy system, and then return to the pre-trauma developmental state), reflexive personal process (learning to work through adult personal challenges in an effective way), and then to glimpse new opportunities, which is followed by improved relationships and other events that take your life to a new and improved level. One of the keys to moving through this sequence is the awareness and clearing of heritage patterns. Think of it as a jump out of your usual outcome, and into a new evolutionary stream of development.

So, what if your relationship issues were not only your issues? How would it change things for you, to know that you were acting upon the unsolved relationship dynamics of your ancestors?

Three common symptoms of invasive chakra cord are numbing, habitual usage (resignation), and the active denial of a truth.

1. Numbing: When an invasive cord attaches to the head of the chakra it resembles a fish hook or a cord with suckers at its terminus. Like the insect bite it resembles this cord will numb the chakra, thereby restricting its natural functioning. As an example, with an invasive cord in Swadhisthana (Second) Chakra an individual will experience reduced tactile feeling in their animal (sensual) body, as well as possible immune system compromises.

2. Habitual Usage (Resignation): Some invasive cords have been with an individual most of their lives, possible put in place by a parent or other caretaker. The invasion effects (energy drain, lack of freedom or personal development experienced in adulthood) are now considered inevitable or karmic by that person: the individual simply cannot imaging a life without being controlled, or drained.

3. Active Denial: One of the major hurdles in personal development work is the psycho-emotional structures that support denial in our lives. The truth of our situation can be clearly seen by another who is outside of any denial system, but those within the system will actively work to refuse to acknowledge what is really going on. Invasive cords that support denial are often group (shared identity) cords; everyone in the family or group agrees to agree on the same view of reality. This type of  networked cord system commonly supports political propaganda, for instance, or efforts that are designed to keep our attention from wandering where it really should go; to the discovery of an important truth.

Removing invasive chakra cords should bring significant results into an individuals life, usually in the form of increased energy, more awareness about the life issue the cord represents, and individual freedom of choice. It is also essential for spiritual development of all kinds, as we must be free to grow in our own direction and not be induced to support the agenda of others. Once the cord is removed the chakra will begin the return to its natural and healthy state, slowly improving the mental and emotional lives of the former victim. They will resume their spiritual evolution, now unfettered by the outside influence.

Invasive cords are those that most energy healers will intuitively attempt to “cut”. But my preference is to remove the invasive cord at its terminus, rather than attempt to traumatize the energy body even further with “cutting” techniques. After cord removal an individual will have much more prana available for their energy system, which is now available for satisfying life pursuits, relationships, or personal and spiritual evolution.

Then, in the midst of an energy healing session, my spirit helper had nudged me and pointed at the chakra cord I was cleaning. “There, you see those thin branches sprouting out of the relational cord going towards her mother? They root back into the chakra, and anchor the experience of “Mother” into her auric system. Try gently pulling them back towards the head of the chakra. See what happens when you do so.”

I had tried to take hold of these newly-discovered branching cords but they were, indeed, tiny and extremely delicate. It took a few more healing sessions before I had learned how to take hold of  each fragile “self-cord” and gently move them into contact with the outer edge of the chakra. Then I watched as, like a magnet attaching to metal, the self-cord automatically attached itself into the chakra, and stayed in place. At least, most of the time. Sometimes they just sprang back to their former position, of hanging out next to their host cord.

Self Cords emerging from Chakra Cord

But I persisted in learning this new skill, and I’m glad I did. The positive results of self-cord work have been reported back to me from my clients over the past six years.  Self-cord attachment has become a vital part of my healing work: the energetic anchoring of “the experience of the other” into the auric consciousness system. These days – and without dramatic catharsis – many of my clients make slow, steady, but significant shifts in their perception of themselves as individuated beings.

With this particular relational energy healing skill, nice and easy does it. Of course catharsis can be helpful in certain cases of repressed expression, but it is not essential for all stages of our personal growth work. Growing a stable connection to the self is essential to us all, and self-cord work can help that process.

When root chakra cords are weakly or reluctantly attached to the living planet we will feel like orphans; that we don’t belong here, that we are bereft of hope, or support. These chakra cords provide an essential connection to the natural world. Mother Earth is the base note, the fundamental beat, of our physical manifestation. Without her maternal support we cannot grow up strong; we dare not take on the risk to become fully potent, passionately alive. And without such aliveness, we will never develop into our full potential: as fully embodied creative and spiritual beings.

Our animal body is the link between Earth and Spirit, and is the launching pad for our wings of divine desire. Our sensual nature urges us to fly, to feast, to hunt, to survive… and to fully immerse ourselves in the Divine creation. And then, from the depths of matter, we begin to awaken.

Our personal development in Muladhara (Mula = root, Adhara = support) requires both roots (to Mother Earth) and wings (basic trust in exploring the living world). Poet Mary Oliver points the way for us, in her marvelous poem Wild Geese,

You do not have to be good.

You do not have to walk on your knees

for a hundred miles through the desert, repenting.

You only have to let the soft animal of your body love
 what it loves.

Tell me about despair, yours, and I will tell you mine.

Meanwhile, the world goes on.

Meanwhile the sun and the clear pebbles of the rain

are moving across landscapes,

over the prairies and deep trees,

the mountains and the rivers.

Meanwhile the wild geese, high in the clean blue air

are heading home again.

Whoever you are, no matter how lonely,

the world offers itself to your imagination,

calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting—

over and over announcing your place

in the family of things.

- Wild Geese, from Dream Work (1986) by Mary Oliver.

Similarly, we have chakra self-cords (internalized connections that help create our self identity) that anchor us to our inner energetic identity. In Relational Energy Healing the wiring of chakra cord connections (and our relational life that flows from these connections) also depends upon the Astral world: the fourth-dimensional reality that dances creatively with the material world. The fluid nature of the Astral energies balances the fixed layers of evolutionary progress hardwired into the chakra system. We see the Astral worlds as being essential to the creative expansion of the universe – and to we human beings – as it tirelessly creates novel ways to express reality, and to constantly challenge the consciousness held in our comparatively rigid and past-orientated chakra structures. The Astral modifies rigid structures of consciousness in order to evolve them.

Relational Energy Healing seeks to dance between these two expressions of the universal consciousness: structured relational energy connections (chakras and their cords), and the Astral energies that flow around them. Roots and wings are both needed for us to grow, and to heal our past wounds, or developmental challenges. This form of healing uses an evolving map of the chakra system that combines the wisdom of the East with important new developments in psycho-spiritual growth as taught in the West. It seeks to understand how consciousness grows through specific stages and states. And it looks to where any stage may be blocked, undeveloped, or traumatized, and where energy healing can effect a change. By clearing the auric energy system (including heritage/DNA cords, and past life trauma) of hindrances, or by “rebooting” any challenged state of consciousness development, Relational Energy Healing trusts that an individual can resume their impeded journey through life: to continue the evolution towards their true and authentic nature.

This system of energy healing seeks to re-initialize an individual’s chakra system, rather than to focus on solving any “problem”. It is not psychotherapy. It is a reflexive personal process system, as well as a trauma healing process. Our agenda is to orientate psychic healing work around the solution rather than the problem, in contrast with other healing systems that attempt to understand or to “process” an issue with a client. For Relational Energy Healing insight into any issue does not ultimately heal a client; it is only by clearing the hindrances in their blocked consciousness system that anything will significantly shift for them. Once this form of healing work has been applied our reward is to watch an individual move naturally into the next level of their personal or soul development. The human mind may later look back, to understand what has happened to them, but this is done from already standing in the place of change, rather than the position of hope. Insight without any real change only offers us unactivated potential; actual change presents us with a meaningful perspective, and adult choices. And, when we have a choice, we are free to evolve to the very limits of our creativity.

The mechanism for inappropriate relationships can be seen wired into the Etheric body via the chakra cord system, and manifests in how we repetitively seek to connect to another person who is not good for us. As adults we are repeating an earlier (and dysfunctional) solution to an authentic childhood need, originally frustrated due to family circumstances. In our childhood while reaching out to find love and appreciation from our caregivers we may have been met with schizoid absence, borderline fragmentation, or narcissistic exploitation. An awareness of our habitual process, where we discover how we do this, is the first step, and is then followed by the dissolving of challenging relationship contracts.

We then move on to the next step: energetically reclaiming the lost emotional consciousness when hooked into an inappropriate relationship. We can begin to heal the exhausting energy drain – which is how invasive cords manifestly affect the physical system – by initiating a self-care regime to reverse it, as well as deliberately pulling the lost or stolen energy back into our cells. Once we are filled with our life force (as opposed to innocently handing it over to someone in the vain hope of receiving love in return for capitulation) we can move more easily to release them, and to begin preparations for the arrival of a better choice. This waiting period is the trial-by-fire that most children of dysfunctional families fear the most: an empty time, unfilled by the drama and chaos caused by dysfunctional friends and lovers, but it an essential time for clearing away the past.

Chakra cord energy healing work pulls the energy you habitually give to the other back into yourself, so you can experience a new-found expansion of self. To support the healing process you must break the habit of contact with the other, and make a conscious decision to wait for healthy change to integrate into your energy consciousness system. You use the waiting time to reset your values to those that any healthy individual would expect to have in a relationship. Start working to draw someone into your life who is at the same level of awareness as you, someone who demonstrates a track record of words consistent with their actions, and someone capable of self-reflection and mutuality.

This wait may be lonely at times. But the healing of an inappropriate relationship is worth its weight in gold, because ultimately – just like precious metals – your life force has an intrinsic value, recognized the world over, as opposed to a paper fiat currency or the “promise to pay”. Choose yourself, respect yourself, be loyal to yourself right now. Know your value. Heal your past where – for whatever reason – you could not have made a healthy choice. Consciously release relationships of questionable value, learn to tolerate the inevitable loneliness of the gap, and prepare for the arrival of your new life.

In our first class on November 14-15, 2009, we will practice powerful techniques to boost our prana (human life force energy), and then learn to direct it into the lower chakras. Only an energized auric field, strong and focused, can awaken our full psychic nature. We will charge up the power of Muladhara, the root chakra, to provide us with a safe container within which we can expand our soul nature. Then we will open up Swadhisthana chakra, and explore our energy connections with those people important to us. We will learn how to effectively heal and transform the important relationships in our lives, or to let them go and recover the energy they hold for us.

A combination of lecture and practical exercises, this is the first of four workshops which will teach you how every day experiences and relationships can be used to awaken your psychic gifts. Come and awaken to your full potential as a spiritual adult.

This workshop is taught in English with simultaneous Japanese translation provided by Yui Wang.

The second class will be taught on March 13-14, 2010.

For location and course fees please email: office-lifeschool@blue.nifty.jp

Except that my grandfather died in the late Sixties, when I was twelve years old. My father died in 2003, of lung damage, the results of a lifetime of smoking. This family meal would never take place. I was waking up from an early morning dream where, for a few minutes, I felt clearly the way it was to be with my father, to speak with him, and to see his face. Talking to him in this way seemed like a lifetime ago, rather than only the passing of a few short years.

We all have dreams like this one, a dream that feels so very real.  Despite decades of scientific research, the human mind remains a mystery, and we still don’t fully understand how the brain produces conscious thought. But we do know that, to keep us sane and rooted in the present moment, the brain continually creates dreams.

The interpretation of dreams has long been the bedrock of any spiritual or personal journey, as chronicled from Shakespeare to Carl Jung. Dreams suspend the assumptions of our conscious self and set us free from the restrictions of physical reality. In this dream from my unconscious I was still attempting to bridge the schism between the generations in my family; trying to heal a long-standing feud between my father and his father. This family split had its roots in my father’s teenage loyalty to his own mother when he took on the role of pseudo-father during my grandfather’s necessary absence from England during World War Two. My grandfather had served in the British military, and in 1945 returned from the African war front to discover his family role usurped. My family never truly recovered. In fact, the same heritage pattern remains embedded in my family history today. Only in this modern version I play my grandfather, and my father’s role has been assumed by my adult son. It is a pattern as solidly embedded in my family heritage as my genetic code. But now I know that family traumas repeat themselves not because of our conscious choices but because they are programed into the family heritage relational code, into our relational chakra cords. These patterns provide the script, and we become the unconscious actors in our dramas of our lives.

How to change these patterns? First we must become aware of them, to know our family history, and to actively seek where our lives are following in the footsteps of a parent, or a grandparent. But even without that information we can still intuit the existence of an old pattern by the deeply disturbing effect it has on our lives, and have them verified by a psychic. As in a vivid dream we may come to notice how we are playing a role in the unfolding drama of our family heritage, where nothing we say – or can do – changes the outcome.

The act of dreaming itself is the true meaning of the dream, of course, not simply the interpretation. Facing what is true discharges the repressed reality of our situation, allowing us to consider new options for ourselves. The dream may seem to point the way towards some salvation, a redemption through an act of some kind. But the far deeper healing available to us is the energetic release of any emotional charge long held in the heritage genetic pattern. We must come to live our own lives, and not duplicate the lives of ancestors long dead. Yes, I do miss my father, but I still cannot save him from his own life choices, even after all my years of study trying to understand personal growth. But I can release my own naïve effort to try and save him. Instead of trying to telephone my grandfather in order to rescue my father from his pain I can initiate a new choice. I can simply go ahead and “prepare the family meal”; those who choose to come will come; the rest will live their lives as they wish. I learn to accept the truth that I cannot save anyone from that which they cannot face in themselves. The greatest healing we can experience is always that of letting go of our unconscious patterns… and then to move on to make a new choice.

Dean offers distance heritage chakra cord energy healing sessions: to clear family patterns and thereby “reboot” your life. Live the life you were meant to live, and not that of another.

Chakra cord with self-cords

I began working with chakra cords over fifteen years ago, in conjunction with my astral removal work. In relational energy healing the structured cord connections between us are one aspect of human energetic relationship, and the etheric astral world is the other. We use both wired and wireless mediums to energetically relate to other people, to form and maintain contact, and to share important ideas and vital resources with each other.  Shortly after I left The Barbara Brennan School of Healing (BBSH) in 2003, my spirit guidance team taught me about a third energetic system that ultimately has become vital to my Relational Energy model: chakra self-cords.

These tiny filaments represent the energetic “wiring” of the way in which we internalize the outer world – and their relationships – into our personal, inner world. We become truly individuated through these personalized connections, rather than just another predictable personality springing out of our family heritage.  While relational chakra cords extend out to others, and astral energies surround, or are embedded within our physical body, self cords emerge out of our cord connections with others and then loop back, sometimes embedding themselves into the chakra head. Normally these cords grow through our early and healthy interactions with others. They are automatically repaired and enhanced in any adult-to-adult relationship, such as that of a caring family member, a close friend or mentor, or even with your psychotherapist. If the cleaning and strengthening of these chakra self cords were simply a nice idea it would be one thing. But experience shows that that by receiving self cord work my clients (and my students) make substantial leaps of progress in the areas of:

• self-esteem, or self-value
• healing from co-dependence
• releasing abusive, toxic, or addictive relationships
• healing of early childhood worlds and developmental deficits
• awakening to our true spiritual identity as an embodied soul

The value of chakra cord work is that the healer deliberately enters the auric system with the intention to clear, or untangle, any problematic energetic wiring of the self, as well as to reinforce important connections  where necessary. Heritage/DNA chakra cord work address family patterns which we may unconsciously be perpetuating in our own lives. Self-cord work is especially helpful to those individuals who have already accomplished much in their lives, and are looking for a new level to healing their past. As these early chakra cord connections are often pre-verbal, held in place by years of habits, a supportive re-wiring of the chakra cord system helps create the circumstances for a leap to another level of awareness.

Dean working with chakra cords

This is not to imply that chakra cord work is dramatic or cathartic; cord healing is almost always gradual and gentle. One day you realize a glimpse into a new inner world, one where you are connected to a deepened sense of self. The old way is somehow behind you; you have found yourself. And the past is done.

To read one way in which Dean works with chakra cords, follow this link.