Dr. Whittaker's Blog

Who are you, really? Are you a unique individual? Of course you are. I believe that each of us is one-of-a-kind. There is not, nor has there ever been, anyone exactly like any one of us. Even identical twins are not entirely identical in their knowledge, their tastes, etc. And yet, we were not formed from nothing. We did not come into this life as a blank slate or an empty life form which then our parents, and later ourselves, created into the person we are today. Our DNA, our blueprint if you will, is a composite, or a unique combination, of attributes that have been passed along to us through our parents, which were passed along to them by their progenitors. This, of course, gives us our hair color, our eye color, our height, our bone structure, and so forth. But are our physical characteristics all that we inherited? I don’t think so.

Identity, that sense of who we are, is an essential characteristic for every one of us. Without a good grasp of that, we feel lost. I believe that it helps us to know how we got to where we are. We really need to take responsibility for what we make of our lives. A victim mentality is extremely non-productive and leads to stagnation and misery. So in reviewing this topic, it is not my purpose to give us excuses for not doing our best, and especially not to just give up and give in to our weaknesses. Some people say, “That’s just the way I am. Deal with it!” We all have free will and some control over what we make of ourselves. The information that I’m providing here should give you more of a sense of control over your life by helping you understand not only your physical roots, but your emotional heritage as well.

Any parent will tell you that their children did not come to them as a lump of clay that they could just mold into whatever they wanted them to become. Every child, as soon as they’re able to walk and talk and express themselves freely, demonstrates a unique personality that cannot be entirely attributed to the parent’s upbringing. Where does this come from? If the child seems to arrive on the scene with some pre-existing attributes, it should be clear that not every aspect of their personality came directly from their parents. The following are some possibilities for sources of our personality traits.

1 – Transgenerational epigenetic inheritance. That’s a fancy term for inheriting personality traits, emotions and perhaps even some memories from your parents and ancestors via your DNA. Epigenetics is an exciting branch of science that maintains that our genetic make-up can be altered by our diet, emotions, etc. I believe this is true. I don’t think our genetic blueprint is written in unalterable stone as once thought. So this term refers to imprinting onto genes, which then is passed along to the progeny. Could our parents’ knowledge and understanding of a particular subject make it easier for us to learn that subject? Possibly. I’ve read a couple of studies with mice that indicate that could be the case.

All of my children are adopted. We got both of my daughters straight from the hospital. Neither of them spent more than a day or two with their birth mothers. And yet both of them grew up to have some problems and weaknesses that were very similar to their respective birth mothers, even though they were in direct conflict to how we raised them. It’s the old “nature vs. nurture” question. To a certain extent, they were who they were, no matter how we raised them.

2 – Inherited emotions. I’ve talked about the Emotion Code in previous postings. That technique, along with other forms of energy work, tells us that trapped emotions can be passed along from parent to child at the point of conception. Trapped emotions are bits of energy that are acquired when an emotion has not been fully processed and released. This energy can be passed along with the sperm and the egg. In my work, I often find and release inherited trapped emotions. Trapped emotions can affect us both physically and emotionally. Since each emotion has its own frequency or vibration, they can affect how we feel, which in turn can affect our actions. So to a certain extent, inherited trapped emotions can help to shape who we are.

3 – Previous life. I believe that we lived as spirit children of God before coming into this mortal existence. Whether you believe in a pre-existence or reincarnation, it’s clear to many of us that we experienced a great deal before we came into our current physical state. Although we have no clear memory of this prior existence, it leaves its mark on us. I do sometimes find and release emotions that were trapped before this earth life, which were carried by our spirit into our physical body.

4 – Collective consciousness. There is a wide range of opinions and definitions of this. Some look at it simply as the norms and attitudes of society and how we are affected by them. This is certainly a factor in who we are. Some people see it as an actual shared consciousness; as if we’re not really individuals, especially after we die. That seems a little extreme to me. However, I do believe that “no man is an island”. I believe we’re all connected. I believe your thoughts and actions, in some small inexplicable way, have some affect on me and vice versa. I can’t prove it, I can’t really explain it and yet I sense that it’s true. I put it out there as food for thought. Like it or not, we are a part of each other. My oldest daughter is African-American, whereas I am Caucasian. As my adopted daughter, she has become part of me. Therefore, I am partly African-American. One time when she was a baby, we heard a young man making racial slurs against black people. My daughter wasn’t present and he didn’t know we had an African-American daughter. I felt great offense at his remarks. What was interesting though is that I didn’t feel defensive for my daughter’s sake, but I felt that he was offending me personally. As I thought about it later in light of how we’re all part of the human family of earth and how we’re all connected in some way, I realized that I’m also part Oriental, part Hispanic, and part everything else. You are a part of me and I am a part of you.

So as we consider our identity – who we really are inside, we realize that it is a conglomeration of our upbringing, our choices, what has happened to us, our relationships, what we inherited and picked up from others, and even choices we may have made before this life. Yet I still believe that we are not victims of all that, even though some of it may represent major hurdles in our life. We have the power to choose. Our thoughts, actions and emotions that we are experiencing right now will help to shape not only our life, but that of our descendents and those who are close to us.