Earthworm World
I watched a video with a well-known guru who often shares practical wisdom about life.
Top of the Pyramid?
In answering a person’s question, he stated how human life is much more complex than other species and how we have more choices and are at the top of the species pyramid. I bristled at his words extolling the separation of humans from other species in this common notion of human superiority.
He went on to say that other animals don’t have the choices humans have, citing as an example an earthworm. He and the person who asked him the question chuckled as if it was common knowledge that an earthworm’s life was lowly, inconsequential, and simplistic. They held this superficial human belief without any intimate connection, observation, or knowledge of earthworms.
It reminded me of when I lectured in the 1980s-90s at metaphysical books stores or other centers where people explored their spiritual nature. Audience members generally thought that humans were superior and were the only species that evolved spiritually or could even be aware of themselves as spiritual beings.
They were amazed when I talked about animals being aware of themselves as spirits, conscious of their roles in the whole web of life. These people often had no idea that animals had so much choice and could feel so much and make decisions about their life situations.
Awakening to All Life
The lectures provoked many realizations about how their animal companions chose to be with them and were their teachers. The people often shifted from believing animals were unintelligent, almost robotic beings governed only by instinct to seeing them as aware, loving, conscious, intelligent, and evolving beings like us. They began to see other animals as often more aware of their spiritual nature than many humans.
Many people are now learning more about the intelligence, complexity, and richness of other species’ lives. The internet is full of research, videos, and films about humans having intimate, awakening experiences with other species. Yet, as I was reminded by this guru, even in spiritually aware people, ideas of animal inferiority persist.
When people meet animals as fellow beings and truly observe their lives without preconceived notions, they find that other animals are not so separate or different from humans as they may have believed. It takes stepping down from the pedestal of human superiority and out of rigid hierarchies, categories, and false notions to embrace our true relationship.
Feeling kinship with other species and communicating with them opens whole realms of wonder. Being able to get animals’ thoughts and feelings directly and perceive their lives from their points of view is entirely different from making abstract statements based on looking at them as beings you could never understand. Telepathic connection bridges interspecies understanding and presents a magical mystery tour of endless discovery.
Earthworm World
After I heard the spiritual teacher denigrate earthworms as having an inferior life to humans, I tuned into earthworms to find out the real story. When I connected with earthworms, I discovered a rich world akin to psychedelic experiences one might get from peyote or magic mushrooms.
Earthworm senses were brilliant. Through them, I perceived rich, earthy, ecstatic smells, with visions of bright cascading colors and energy patterns of the world and beings around them. Their exquisitely-tuned nervous system provided a sense of touch experienced in undulating orgasmic waves.
The earthworms relished their relationship with the earth and the fertility they brought through their bodies. They felt contentment in their choices to feel their bodily potential and experience themselves as spiritual beings in oneness with all other life. They never had the feeling of alienated isolation that many humans have. They experienced their life and death in a continuum and often chose to be an earthworm again. In attuning to their experience, I felt expanded, rich, supremely fulfilled, and happy.
And this is what humans in a separated head space judge as an inferior form of life. Oh, how much we can learn and feel from our earthworm gurus and all other species!
