The Human Superiority Complex: Cracking Open the Old Story of “Higher” and “Lower” Life

Prompted by Megan Mayhew Bergman’s essay The last frontier of empathy: why we still struggle to see ourselves as animals in The Guardian (November 2025) Full article here: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/ng-interactive/2025/nov/16/human-exceptionalism-essay?CMP=GTUS_email


For decades I have spoken, written, and sometimes climbed up onto my soapbox about the stubborn idea that humans are the crown of creation—the divine exception, the “higher” species, the only ones with true intelligence, choice, or spiritual awareness.

It is one of the most persistent illusions of our time, and one of the most damaging.

Every species has its unique gifts, but uniqueness does not mean superiority. No single being stands above the circle of life—we are all expressions of the same Source, the same living field of consciousness, the same sacred wholeness. Yet the human mind, conditioned into hierarchy, often struggles to see other beings as equals.

This month, I came across a powerful article in The Guardian that gave me a breath of genuine hope. Journalist Megan Mayhew Bergman described what she calls the “last frontier of empathy”: seeing ourselves not as superior to animals but as animals too—kin among kin.

Her words echo what I have been teaching since the 1970s, and I’d like to weave some of her insights with my own here.



The Invisible Background Hum of Human Exceptionalism

One of Bergman’s most potent observations is this:

“Every threat they face–speed, noise, nets–traces back to the same root assumption: that our needs matter more than theirs.”

“This belief has a name: human exceptionalism… a system constantly humming in the background–efficient, invisible yet devastatingly consequential.”

This is exactly what I mean when I talk about the Human Superiority Complex — an inherited belief system so ingrained that many people don’t notice how it shapes their behavior.

It’s why ships race through waters where whales nurse their young.
It’s why habitats disappear for convenience and profit.
It’s why some still claim that animals act only from instinct, while humans alone possess divine choice.

But overwhelming evidence from biology, neuroscience, and direct telepathic communication with animals tells a different story.


Animals Think, Choose, Reflect, and Love

I have spent a lifetime listening to animals telepathically—hearing their thoughts, feeling their emotions, sharing their inner wisdom.

Animals absolutely choose how they act. They deliberate. They reflect. They consider options. They sacrifice. They forgive. They learn. They change.

These abilities are now widely documented, yet some spiritual teachers still repeat the idea that:

“Animals act on instinct and don’t have the choice to do differently.”

This old belief is falling apart, and rightly so.

As Charles Darwin wrote long ago, animals share the same continuum of emotion as humans. And researcher Frans de Waal coined the term anthropodenial for the refusal to acknowledge that truth.

The Guardian article affirms:

“There is no principled boundary around ‘human’ emotion and intelligence.”

Exactly.
The boundary exists only in the human mind.


Indigenous Wisdom Has Always Known

Long before modern science caught on, Indigenous cultures carried an unbroken understanding of kinship:

“I am the river and the river is me.” - Māori

Mitákuye Oyás’iŋ — “all are related.” - Lakota

Bergman writes:

“Westerners could admit at any point that we have misread our place in the cosmos and shift toward this older, still living worldview.”

This is the worldview I have spent my life helping people remember—the telepathic understanding that everything is alive, conscious, and communicating.

Rocks, trees, elephants, whales—all have their own immense repositories of wisdom. Some are more grounded, some more expansive, some more attuned to cosmic currents than humans generally are.

Hierarchy dissolves when you listen deeply.


The Psychology of “Us” and “Not Us”

The Guardian piece introduces the term pseudospeciation:
the tendency to divide the world into “us” and “not us” to justify mistreatment.

This is the same thinking that fueled racism, sexism, and the dismissal of entire groups of humans. Now the pattern plays out toward non-human beings.

It is not spirituality; it is separation. And separation always breeds suffering.


What If Uniqueness Doesn’t Mean Superiority?

One of the article’s simplest and most important points:

“Uniqueness has never equaled higher moral rank.”

This is exactly what I teach:
Each species is unique, like each note in a symphony. Not higher. Not lower. Necessary.

If “superiority” were based on unusual traits, then a bioluminescent jellyfish or a 2,400-year-old honey mushroom might outrank us!
This kind of comparison exposes the flaw in hierarchical thinking.


Signs of a New Worldview Emerging

Across the globe, new legal and cultural shifts are beginning to honor the rights of nature:

“New Zealand’s Whanganui River and Colombia’s Atrato River now hold legal personhood… glimmers and proof that the concepts are real and growing.”

This matches the spiritual reality animal communicators have known for generations:
Rivers, mountains, forests, oceans — they are alive, aware, and deserving of respect.

Even literature is evolving. As Bergman notes:

“Centering animals as literary characters… is a way of honoring non-humans.”

This movement—in law, story, and public imagination—signals the awakening of a deeper truth.


Humility: The Doorway to Peace

Upon the death of Jane Goodall, the article quoted her simple, profound question:

“How should we treat beings… nonhuman yet possessing so many humanlike characteristics?”

And her answer:

With the same consideration and kindness as we show humans.

This is humility—the humility that opens the door to peace among species.


What Animals Teach Us About Being Fully Alive

Animals do not dwell in the chaos of human thought-patterns. They live in presence.
They communicate honestly.
They do not recirculate the same thought loops endlessly.
They are.

This is why being around animals calms the human mind and opens the heart.

I remember walking through a field of cows while a woman asked repeatedly, “What is she thinking?”
Each cow answered simply:
Nothing.

They were dwelling in the pure harmony of being.

Animals bring us home to ourselves—to the quiet, centered state humans so often lose in mental noise.


Where Do We Go From Here?

The Guardian article ends with a gentle and practical reminder:

“Each step we take lessens suffering… broadens the circle of consideration—not with perfection, but with sincerity.”

We do not need perfection to honor other beings.
We need presence, willingness, and a recognition that all life carries spirit.

Let us set down the language of “higher” and “lower.”
Let us step off the throne we built for ourselves.
Let us meet our fellow beings as equals—unique, wise, interconnected, sacred expressions of the same living universe.

The circle of life is not a ladder.
It is a wholeness.
And in that wholeness, each being shines.