(published in Species Link, The Journal of Interspecies Telepathic Communication, Issue 52, Autumn 2003) As I was beginning to teach a Basic Course on How to Communicate with Animals years ago, my mentors, the Great Whales, communicated:
Have them feel the animals through their feet on the ground. They showed me how we as individuals of all species are connected to each other through our bodies on the Earth no matter where we are. The animals living in the water, on the Earth, in the Earth, or in the air, are all connected through the Earth. They made it clear that by emphasizing this feet-on-the-ground connection, students could more easily access telepathic communication with any animal.
Since then, I often remind students to feel their feet on the Earth and connect to animals in this way. This Feet-on-the-Ground practice helps people to be fully present in their current surroundings by freeing themselves of mental distractions and bringing their energy and attention back into their bodies. By reminding people to connect with all the animals, whether near or far, domestic or wild, through their feet on the ground, something else begins to happen. Students cultivate a real visceral full feeling connection that is a solid foundation for complete reception of telepathic communication with animals.
Practicing Feet-on-the-Ground continues to deepen and broaden interspecies connection as people move from basic to advanced levels and become experienced professionals. This practice helps to address some common complaints I have heard from people who have used the services of animal communicators. One such complaint is: The animal communicator was not really “tuned in” to the client’s animal companions and the communications relayed did not resonate as true. Through the practice of feeling the animals through their feet on the ground, animal communicators can be more present, calm, and aware. Whether they are with the animals in-person or communicating with them at a distance, they establish a solid connection with animal clients; the communicator really feels the animals’ presence and their feelings.
Being Present I guide interspecies counseling students to cultivate being present and clearly aware of self, the animals, and the humans involved in a consultation. To compassionately assist stressed, emotionally reactive, or demanding clients, animal communicators must drop into a calm state of deep presence, connected to the core of being within themselves, the animal, and the human clients.
If an animal communicator gets distracted, thrown off, or triggered into emotional reaction by their clients’ state, words or actions, it is probable that their own reactions or projections will filter into their perceptions of the communication they receive from the animal or human. Their own reactions will then prejudice their intuitive perception, sound judgment, and the effectiveness of the consultation. Practicing Feet-on-the-Ground can activate and amplify the full feeling presence for the optimum tuning in that is so necessary for a good consultation.
Here is another grievance clients have expressed:
The answers that the animal communicator gave were nothing new; the communicator could have derived their answers from the information the client gave or from knowing this type of animal. Animals Won’t Communicate? Beginning animal communicators have told me that they couldn’t get in touch with a particular animal or the animal didn’t seem to want to communicate with them. Nervous distraction and superficial connection to human and animal clients can cause this phenomenon.
Distractedness, nervousness, confusion, and inability to connect demonstrate a lack of presence on the part of the animal communicator. Animals may be unwilling to connect and communicate in the unsafe or uncomfortable atmosphere thus created. My experience has been that animals are willing and usually eager to communicate, especially about situations concerning them that their people bring forward. They are interested and happy to get their viewpoint across when someone is truly present, listening, and able to understand them.
Without being present and making a solid connection with the animal, the animal communicator cannot get to the core feelings of what is happening from the animal’s point of view. In this state, a communicator is likely to grasp at and reiterate what a client has said or what they already know. Trying to say something sensible and helpful, they miss the power and clarity that comes from getting the animal’s view of the situation, which is what they were called to do in the first place. I wince at the negative feelings directed at animal communicators when human clients dismiss these animal communicators as fraudulent.
Afraid of Humans? Some animal communicators prefer to communicate with animals while the human client is not present because these communicators get nervous or distracted with people there. Feet on the Ground practice can be enormously helpful to maintain presence with both human and animal clients.
There are advantages to doing consultations with the human client present and willing to actively listen and respond to what the animal communicator receives from the animal. After conveying the animal’s communication, the dialogue with the human creates a sense of communion as everyone works together to understand the situation. The animal communicator can better clarify the person’s ensuing questions by checking in with the animal, facilitating harmony for all involved. This way of consulting can be much more powerful, empowering, and effective for all beings involved than merely relaying the animals’ answers to the initial questions in written or taped form.
Let’s look at how practicing Feet-on-the-Ground can help with another objection:
The answers the communicator gave did not relate to or help in solving the problem with the animal.
Often I find that inexperienced animal communicators use only or mainly the mental aspect of telepathy to receive messages or verbal translations of animals’ thoughts. Complete telepathic reception requires receiving the full sensory range of animals, including becoming one with animals to get all of their feelings. Focusing only on receiving mental messages can cause a communicator to miss out on fully understanding what is really important to the animal from their perspective. It is also easier to misinterpret translated thoughts by mixing and filtering them through the human thought process.
Animal communicators can tap into what is really relevant and helpful by continually feeling the animal through their feet on the ground. In this vein, I have students practice getting “gutsy” rather than “heady” and feeling the telepathic transmission through their whole bodies with all their internal/extended/telepathic senses alive and receptive. With continued experience cultivating this deeper feeling awareness and presence with the animal, the communicator can get the complete and broader picture, not just partial answers that they have to grope to understand and flavor with their own interpretations. Animal communicators can learn to open, feel, and receive all levels of information from animals—physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual.
Through deep intuitive connection and the wisdom of experience, they will discover what is truly relevant to the resolution of the situation. Seasoned animal communicators can get how the problematic situation fits into the whole life of the animals—their history, environment, family dynamics, and temperament—along with the animals’ attitudes about it, what it means to them, and how they wish to handle it.
One communicator relayed:
When connecting through the ground, I am aware of a more powerful presence of the animal and a sense that a whole package of information is available to me in this way. Feel the animals through your feet on the ground, as the whales have advised, and notice how it helps you in your animal communication. With this simple and powerful practice, you may find new dimensions in “getting down” with your body, Mother Earth, and all her creatures.
