Using Photos in Animal Communication

In an online mentoring class I did recently, many questions were submitted that I didn’t have time to answer. Here’s one of them:

How does a recent picture of the animal help the animal communicator (if they are off of the premises)? Beverly Taylor

A similar question was answered in Species Link, The Voice of Experience Column Issue 60, Autumn 2005.

I completed a class with you last year and have been having success communicating telepathically with the animals in my life. I seem particularly skilled at using a photograph from a remote location to initiate the connection (like you had us try in class). I have also had very good results using this method to successfully connect with human animals, too.

I attempted to research the use of photos as a telempathic tool and I really couldn't find anything credible on the subject online. Do you perhaps know of any research out there that discusses how it might work and ways to improve such a skill. Sandra Stahlman

Jeri Ryan Congratulations on the good success you have had with animal communications! Opening that spiritual door and crossing that threshold is an experience never to be forgotten.

Although research on the use of photos as a telepathic tool may exist, I haven’t seen any. I can only speak from personal experience as an animal communicator, workshop facilitator, and mentor for students.

I developed my telepathic skills mostly without photos. Some clients take great pleasure in sharing photos of their companion animals. I enjoy them when I have them, and I do use them then. However, I find that getting a fully detailed description of the animal works just as well in helping me to hold the image in my intention.

The photo is clearly very helpful for consolidating the image of the animal to be placed and held in intention. However, in comparing the two methods, I have not noticed a difference in my communications. There are other factors involved in achieving a successful communication. One very key factor is the confidence of the communicator.

Many students have preferred using photos because they feel more confident in reaching the intended animal. After they have gained experience, many students start to feel comfortable without the photo and with using a complete description. However, I know of very experienced successful professional animal communicators and psychic readers who work only or primarily with photos.

Holding the image in your intention is the requirement for maintaining contact with the animal from the communicator’s end. We are on a two way street with regard to maintaining contact between the animal and the communicator. Since the vast majority of animals are eager to communicate, their cooperation in maintaining the connection is usually a given.

If a photo supports more confidence in holding the image in the communicator’s intention, then it is the method to use. If a detailed description supports more confidence in holding the image in the communicator’s intention, then it is the method to use. If both are used simultaneously to support that goal, then both should be used.

You have had great success with use of a photo and I recommend continuing with that method. However, if you want to experiment with the other method and compare the results, that could be beneficial. I also recommend experimenting with the photo and a detailed description simultaneously.

Intention and the whole of this work are best supported by an open heart. Such a heart has released the burden of fear, at least for the duration, and is very plugged into compassion for all or what we often call universal love. It can take some practice maintaining that release and heart openness. Life’s challenges push us into pain and defensiveness from time to time.

Strengthening heart openness is the best way to improve the use of photos or detailed description or both, as well as the other facets of animal communication skills. Focusing, intention, listening, and keeping informed about relevant topics to this work are clearly also required.

Feeling the animal’s specific essence and energy happens more quickly for some when observing a photo. Using the detailed description requires the communicator to consolidate it into a complete image, thus demanding that focusing skills be strong.

The key here is to find which method is most conducive to the comfort and confidence of the specific animal communicator. When he/she is not distracted by a concern about reaching the animal, and/or about maintaining the contact, his/her focus and intention can be directed to the substance and essence of the communication.

Dr. Monica Diedrich Since I first started talking, or maybe listening, to animals when I was around eight years old, I never knew that I could connect with them over great distances until someone asked me to do it. I was very apprehensive at first because I couldn’t figure out in my mind how I could converse with someone who wasn’t in front of me. I gave it a try anyway.

In no time at all, I was receiving pictures in my mind’s eye and sending information to the animal companion just like the animal was next to me in the flesh, but all I had was a picture of him.

Ziggy

Later I realized that the animal’s picture is the conduit necessary to establish the link that I need to communicate with that animal, almost like picking up a phone. The picture that I look at helps me to “call out” his name, which becomes a starting point for my communication. To begin, I duplicate the picture in my mind’s eye and let it “run” as if it was a motion picture. This tells me about the character and personality of the animal first. Then I get sensations which could involve all five senses.

For instance, I could often smell the greenery outside if the picture was taken in the back yard, or I could smell the home, the kitchen, or even an incense stick burning inside the house. The picture also tells me how they feel physically, emotionally, and spiritually. All I have to do is ask. Many times when the picture was taken at an earlier time, the animal will say how they felt at that time, and then how they feel now.

When a new client comes to me, or we set up a phone or e-mail consultation, my first requirement is to have a recent picture of their animal companion. Since I do not know the client except for maybe a few lines of e-mail, it is important for me to know the client’s animal companion well from a picture.

Occasionally when my clients have multiple animal family members, I get a picture of them together. If they are both of the same breed it could be confusing for a beginner to differentiate between them. It can help to ask for a single picture of the animal you want to work with.

I believe that the picture, just like a name, carries a certain vibration, like a distinct radio signal. An intuitive can pick up and translate the vibrational information into words that a client can assimilate.

Many communicators prefer doing their job with the animal in person, while others do it only through pictures. The best way to improve is to practice.

Shirley Scott I can do animal readings with or without a picture but I feel because we humans are visual beings that pictures give us a certain security. I love to do readings from a picture because many times it seems I connect more quickly and get more information. Sometimes a visual stimulus gives us a better connection because of what we have been taught or the belief in ourselves.

Nedda Wittels Perhaps you should widen your search to other objects and to general psychic abilities. There are many psychics who work from objects that belong to missing persons or animals and from photos. The reason these objects and photos work is that some of the person's or animal's energy goes into the picture or object. The psychic is tuning in and reading the energy and/or making an actual connection with the being.

Rupert Sheldrake, a biologist who has a done a great deal of research on psychic abilities in many species, has some intriguing ideas and evidence to support them. He has published two books. Dogs That Know When Their Owners Are Coming Home was the first. The second, The Sense of Being Stared At, is my favorite because it includes a great deal more information and is more interesting to read.

As for ways to improve your skill, learning to sense and read energy is something that you can do on your own, just by remembering that everything including physical objects, thoughts, and emotions is energy. You can learn to sense it by using a pendulum, dowsing rods, and with your hands. I have a number of techniques I use in my workshops to help people get started with using their hands and learning to move energy around. Here's one of them.

Purchase two pieces of the same type of fruit, one organic and one not organic. Hold your left hand over the top of each fruit one at a time for 10-15 seconds. You can use your right hand as well, but each hand will experience this differently. You can hold it there longer if you need to. Allow your focus to be in the center of your palm. Notice what you feel. Then do the other fruit. Go back and forth between the two fruits. Then do the same exercise with your other hand.

By focusing your attention on the palm of your hand, you will sensitize your chakra in the palm and start to feel sensation there. You will also begin to notice a difference between the two fruits. Once your hands are sensitized, you can do the same exercise with photographs of people and animals.

Gena Wilson My belief is that the whole universe and everything in it is energy. Telepaths have learned how to tap this cosmic stream where all energy becomes one because it runs through all that is. I probably do not need the pictures but it helps me to focus and then I can tap the energy of the animal or person I read for. I look at it as drinking in their energy or sometimes trading places with them for a moment to connect and reveal their messages.

Lisa Shaw I don't use the term telempathic because my modality is visual rather than emotional. When I first began to focus on the metaphysical realm twenty years ago, I made it clear to the Universe that I did not want to be clairaudient or empathic. I was enduring my own shamanic breakdown and I didn't want to feel others' feelings or hear voices.

Instead, I learned psychometry, the reading of people through objects. When I began, I was doing readings for people using Tarot cards. Eventually I put the cards aside and used my clairvoyant abilities. Shortly thereafter, I decided to use these gifts for animals rather than for people. I always say meditation and intention is the key. If you will it from the heart center for the highest good of all, it will happen.

However, the most profound experience I had was during a group hypnosis session. A very gifted reader and teacher led us into a meditative state and "programmed" us to be able to use our telepathic or psychic abilities through positive suggestion alone. After the session I was astounded by the specifics that came through in a reading. Now, whenever I teach the animal communication course, I use the same technique. After all, we all possess the ability to do this and need only a little confidence and guidance to draw it out. Practice and trust.

Rev. Karen Kober I ask for photos more for emergency purposes. It is a quick reference when someone on the line is in distress. I have no need of photos for an animal communication session.

Why do we need to know how it works? I understand the unified field of quantum physics, yet that is not where the joy in faith is. Joy is the love given between animal and caregiver. What we (animal communicators) provide is that special bonding beyond expectation in the conscious, loving connection between humans and animals.