Edited from my original article published in Species Link, Issue 13, October 1993 Since I began teaching in the 1970s, the results of helping people how to open to their ability to communicate with animals have been overwhelmingly positive. As telepathic communication with animals became more widespread, I began hearing more stories of how individuals using this skill upset people and animal companions. In any field, some try to help others with clear and pure intentions, and some mix their emotional imbalances into their interactions.
I created the Code of Ethics for Interspecies Telepathic Communicators following a situation with Stella, who attended an Advanced Course at my home in 1991. (The names in this article have been changed for confidentiality.) Stella was uncomfortable around others and expressed that she trusted animals more than humans. Serious and defensive, she claimed that she could hear other people's thoughts since she was a child and was aware of others' criticism of her.
Sensitive individuals often get the thoughts, feelings, and energies of people around them. However, they may misinterpret that their own unresolved emotional problems, frustrations, and inhibitions are coming from others. Their lack of clarity then reflects back to them when they look at others. To accurately receive others' thoughts, it is essential to be honest with yourself, and to have minimal emotional clutter muddying your perception.
Generally, we flavor others’ communications with our outlook on life, and maintaining positive attitudes towards other beings and life is beneficial. Optimistic attitudes favorably influence interactions and interpretations. Negative attitudes and emotional insecurities may lead to distorted interpretations of others' communications. Even when confronted with disparaging thoughts or energies from others, remaining balanced and positive can help you brush off such negativity without undue stress. By recognizing the source of these thoughts, you can stay relatively unaffected unless you become overwhelmed by continuous exposure.
Later on, Stella became very upset and spoke to my husband about wanting to leave the course because she felt that I was critical of her and her relationship with her animals. I took her aside to clear up the misunderstanding, but despite my encouragement, her defensive manner continued throughout the class. Weeks later, I heard that she had interpreted animal communications in ways that upset others.
While I had no desire to control or police other's thoughts or actions, I recognized the need for guidelines for interspecies telepathic communicators. After meditating and praying, I formulated the Code of Ethics. I have found that many people committed to this work naturally embrace these guidelines as a cherished part of their lives. Those who use telepathic skills to manipulate others or to gratify perverse desires are not aligned with the Code. Over time, they tend to stop themselves or self-correct. This ability requires a pure heart to be sustainable. It seems to have built-in safeguards.
HARMFUL INTENTIONS Jane trained a young horse who began to display uncharacteristic fear and aggression toward her. Through her own and others' communication with the horse, she discovered that the person who introduced Jane to telepathic communication with animals had told the filly that Jane was going to kill her and that she should fight back and defend herself. This revelation was very upsetting to Jane. With the help of several people's positive reassurance, the filly eventually released her fear and again became cooperative in her training. Jane sought clarification from several psychic counselors and later wrote to me asking how to handle the person involved.
People who misuse their spiritual abilities and harm others may soon find their abilities declining, other people and animals reject them, and they become emotionally distraught. They often resist direct communication about their behavior. A gentle method is to send these individuals blessings and wishes that they find their true light and peace. This positive action can alleviate your adverse feelings and can help others involved to undergo a positive transformation. As a safeguard in dubious situations, picture yourself, your animals, everyone involved, and the area surrounded with light and moving toward harmony and beauty. Ask guardian angels for protection and guidance.
THE SHADOW AND FANATICISM Telepathic work requires people to continually grow emotionally and spiritually, while also taking responsibility for their motives and actions. A lack of honest self-perception can be hazardous. Spiritual teachers throughout the ages have emphasized the need for rigorous self-development for achieving cognitive clarity. Many have warned that improper initiation or spiritual discipline brought dangers of being caught up in deceptive or pernicious elements, including astral entities, aberrations of fantasy, and the mirror images of our Shadow.
The Shadow is the realm of ourselves where denied thoughts and feelings live, which can affect us without conscious awareness, creating havoc. This dark or repressed aspect must be acknowledged and integrated as we go through life, or it can interfere with our ability to serve others. Integrating the shadow's repressed energy helps to release creative energy and brings clarity and emotional stability.
Several years ago, another student named Barbara was very eager to regain her ability to telepathically communicate with animals. Like Stella, she had trouble dealing with people and was on a disability leave from work due to a "nervous breakdown" from conflicts with her former boss. Barbara was sincere in her love for animals but had an underlying hostility toward people. She tried hard to listen to animals but found herself running up against mental blankness or blackness.
In questioning her, I discovered that her diet was heavily laden with sugar, coffee, and chocolate. Her dinner often consisted of a package of instant chocolate pudding mix. Given her poor nutritional habits, it wasn't surprising that Barbara had severe mood swings and trouble focusing or listening. I advised her to eat a more wholesome diet to help calm her nervous system, improve her physical stability, and enhance her telepathic connection with animals.
When Barbara upgraded her diet, her overall health and mental well-being improved, but it was not easy for her to avoid her addictions. I also advised that she seek counseling or other therapy to help her with her unresolved emotional issues. I felt she needed to follow some balanced spiritual discipline to ground her energy and discover herself and her abilities in an integrated way. Life is not an instant pudding mix.
Barbara frenetically searched from book to book, method to method, teacher to teacher, seeking ways to achieve the ability to communicate with animals she so fervently desired. Finally, she proclaimed that she had the ability she wanted. She proceeded to do some positive work in listening to and healing animals, but Barbara had difficulties. She couldn't shut off a constant stream of voices, and she perceived that animals were constantly interrupting each other. She couldn’t differentiate the sources of her communications, and they seemed to torment her.
In contrast, I have found that animals are mentally peaceful most of the time, do not chatter incessantly, interrupting each other, and mainly address communications to you when you ask them specific questions.
Barbara suffered another nervous breakdown. After apparently recovering from that, she made a devastating attempt to help Charles with his ill dog and horse. At first, she did some healing work with the animals, which seemed beneficial. Then Barbara gave Charles advice she assured was for his best interest and channeled from "The Great White Brotherhood," to the effect that he was filled with evil entities and that he caused another horse to have a convulsion and had to stay away from his horse and others until cured by the good spirits she had summoned. Barbara's Rasputin-like effect on Charles in his vulnerable emotional state caused him to suffer tremendous emotional upheaval and nightmares until he obtained the help of several counselors. He realized that Barbara was projecting onto him the difficulties and perceived entities that plagued her. Barbara seemed to be obsessed with perceiving evil forces; she had her own home exorcised to try and alleviate her upheavals and difficulty with her animal companions.
Barbara sent me a communication she said she had received from turkey vultures, filled with heavy remonstrance toward "man" and hailing Barbara as "the first person who sees beauty and dignity in our being." The transmission mirrored her unbalanced self-focus and seemed more like the musings of tormented entities than the thoughts and feelings of turkey vultures, from whom I and others have received graceful, peaceful communications.
Most animals share positive feelings with people. If they have complaints, they generally express them as vented feelings or observations rather than as personal vendettas toward humans. FULL OF SPIRIT Ellen, an animal communicator, was called about a newborn filly, "Full of Spirit," who was born with severe scoliosis and could not stand up to nurse without being helped to her feet. Ellen found that Full of Spirit had incredible zest for life. The owner of the mare and foal wanted to euthanize the foal and sell the mare for meat for having such a deformed foal. The mare and filly let everyone know that they would not give up, and the owner of the barn, Janet, took responsibility for the two horses to see what could be done.
Ellen began working with a chiropractic veterinarian, and the medical community was amazed at the little horse's progress. Filled with buoyant energy, she made people joyful just to be around her. She began to stand and nurse, with the help of a harness, and even walk a bit. After months of steady improvement, Full of Spirit suddenly ran a high fever and wouldn't eat.
Janet called Ellen for help. Ellen asked her to talk to a woman named Karen on the phone. Karen had previously gone to a workshop to watch Ellen and a chiropractic vet work together. Karen explained that as she watched Ellen work, she suddenly knew that this was what she had to do. Karen began seeing a psychic once a week, and in two months, she said she was able to totally and successfully communicate with animals and do healing work with them.
Karen then told Ellen that Full of Spirit told her, in no uncertain terms, that it was her time to go, and she needed to be euthanized. She explained to Ellen that when she asked her spirit guide for help, her left hand moved to her mouth, and her lips formed the letter "D." When she spit it out, the words came forth, "Do it. Do it," and her hand was in the shape of a needle and syringe. Karen said that she knew this was the truth, but other people (including Ellen) were keeping Full of Spirit here for lessons they needed to learn. Karen said she had been giving Full of Spirit lots of healing energy for the last day to help her pass on.
Ellen questioned the information she had gotten from Full of Spirit since it drastically differed from Karen's death wish. She again checked with the young horse and still got she was not giving up, and she wanted Janet, her caregiver, to know this. Ellen did not want to create problems for the people involved but had to be honest about what she received. Ellen reassured Janet that Full of Spirit would let Janet know directly when it was time to end her life. Janet was relieved, and said that Full of Spirit's blood tests had come back that morning as vastly improved from the previous day, but showed serious dehydration. Her temperature was also down. Janet decided to rehydrate her.
Janet felt that whenever Ellen had talked to Full of Spirit in the past six months, the things she said were so typical of the filly's personality, and they were things that Janet somehow knew deep down inside. But, as she listened to Karen, it didn't feel right at all, and it didn't feel like Full of Spirit.
Janet described how Karen had been alone in the stall with the filly for about 30 minutes when she came running out and crying hysterically that the horse had to be euthanized right then. Janet had to calm Karen down.
Ellen's experience with animals who were ready to depart revealed that the animals felt, not panic or hysteria, but peace. Karen was adding her own agenda to the communications. Janet made the decision not to euthanize; the horse was improving and not suffering at all.
Full of Spirit's usual support team was out of town that weekend, and Karen's negative, focused energy seemed to be wearing the horse down. Janet and Ellen tried to boost Full of Spirit through the trying time, but the horse seemed drained of all her energy. Janet felt Full of Spirit was telling her the time was right now. They wished her well on her journey and had her euthanized.
After Full of Spirit left her body, she communicated through Ellen. She was playing, running, and free of the body that couldn't quite contain the energy of her magnificent soul. Ellen and Janet knew that Karen had only accelerated matters, and that Full of Spirit was not living at the mercy of people who were holding on to her to learn what they needed to learn, as Karen insisted. She had lived her life because she enjoyed it.
Later Karen conveyed that Full of Spirit would not be available to talk with anyone until she came back in physical form in six months, and she would make herself known to Karen first. Ellen was able to counteract this upsetting interpretation, and by connection with Full of Spirit, she reassured Janet that she could communicate with her anytime, that the connection and friendship with her former horse were still there. Everyone except Karen now felt emotionally at peace.
THE TONE OF GENUINE COMMUNICATION These examples give us clues on how to recognize the abuse of telepathic communication with animals. The communications don't feel right, are upsetting, and have negative results.
People usually recognize and accept the tone of genuine communication from their animal friends. Accurate communications help to resolve conflicts and problems.
Our own personal outlook is inevitably a part of any reception of communication, whether verbal, physical, or telepathic. Communications are least altered from their original intention and meaning when listeners do not impede clear reception and transfer by coloring the message unduly with their own personalities and experiences.
A good communicator also interprets the messages to the people involved in a helpful, positive way, with consideration for their feelings. People who feel they love animals but loathe people do not do well in this field. A prerequisite for being a good communicator or counselor is love and compassion for all species and individuals you work with, including humans and (perhaps, most of all) yourself. At the minimum, a professional needs to practice Walt Whitman's words in Leaves of Grass:
Love the earth and sun and the animals, Have patience and indulgence toward the people. If you get hostile or judgmental toward human clients who come to you for help, you won't be able to hear the animal clearly or offer balanced suggestions for the betterment of everyone involved. Your preconceptions and judgments will cloud communication and understanding and upset both animals and humans. People generally call for help because they sincerely love their animals, even if that is not apparent in their outward mannerisms. Solutions are best when they elicit the cooperation of everyone involved.
AUTHORITIES AND BALANCE Some people who are new to this ability or suddenly feel their perceptions opening may be carried away with the excitement or magic of other-dimensional possibilities and feel that whatever they get is superior to anything else and must be listened to. They need to balance their perception with the perceptions of others around them. While personal truth is wonderful and necessary for oneself, other perceptions of reality are also valid. If people persist in fanatically imposing their views on others, they may be chastened by their lack of balanced understanding—by the animals, other people, or themselves.
In all fields where we go to others for guidance, we need to examine the balance and wholeness of the person whose services we desire. Talk to people who have worked with the person before and ask about the results. Notice the benefit to the animals and humans. Observe communicators' attitudes and actions with animals and people. While sainthood is not required, notice how communicators take responsibility for their mistakes and work to better their own and others' lives. Watch for those who are rigid or sure they know best or attribute what they get as infallible or irrevocable because it came from other sources, whether inner voices, guides, angels, God, or animals. Use the Code of Ethicsas a guideline for assessing a good practitioner.
There are no hard and fast rules in interpreting any form of communication among beings. Honor your judgment of what is good and right for you. And most of all, have fun in meeting others mind to mind, heart to heart, and soul to soul.
