About Animal Communication
ANIMAL COMMUNICATION:
The Telepathic Connection
Penelope SmithThe Telepathic Connection
In this age of ecological emergency, more people are seeing the need to recognize their connection with all living . Communication between humans and animals has taken on a deeper meaning and urgency. We can learn so much from the animals about how to live in harmony and balance on the Earth. For animal lovers, direct telepathic communication boosts the understanding, joy and richness possible in relationships with their animal companions and all of life.
Children are born with the ability to communicate telepathically with their own and other species. Humans in this society are generally socialized to use verbal language as the accepted and "higher" mode of communication and discouraged from getting human or other species' thoughts and feelings directly. We are also conditioned to believe that animals are generally inferior to humans in their ability to think, feel, and make non-instinctual choices, so we learn to separate ourselves from mutual and equal communication with them.
The word ANIMAL comes from the Latin, ANIMA, which means life principle, breath, air, soul, living being. Recognition of the spiritual essence of animals and respecting them as fellow intelligent beings is vital to facilitate interspecies telepathic exchange. Animals are able to communicate with humans who are open to the telepathic connection. They get your intentions, emotions, images, or thoughts behind the words, even if the words themselves aren't totally understood.
I have communicated with animals all my life. Since 1971, I have successfully used with animals the same counseling techniques that help humans through traumas and problems. Over the years of listening and talking to thousands of animals and counseling them and their people, I have routinely seen upsets and problems resolve, negative behavior disappears, illnesses and injuries heal speedily, and warmth and communion between humans and animals blossom. For those who are skeptical and need physical proof of telepathic communication, these often-dramatic changes are evidence.
Although the ability to communicate telepathically usually is lost in childhood in our culture, where there is love for animals and willingness to re-learn, that ability can be revived. The rewards are mutual expansion and delight for human and non-human.
The first thing you can do to start on the road to direct communication with animals is to discard any condescending attitude that animals are lower, less evolved, or less intelligent beings. This kind of attitude blocks true communication with animals, just as it does with humans. Regard animals with respect, openness and as potential teachers, and this alone will enable you to observe them with a fresh light and open up a wellspring of information from them about who and how they are.
Another barrier that needs to be surmounted is invalidating your own potential to receive telepathic communication from animals. If you love animals you already "hear" what they say to some degree, even if you are not aware that you are doing it. Commonly, when I explain what animals are communicating, people exclaim, "I thought he was trying to say that" or "I kind of picked that up." Lack of recognizing the reality of that perception as it occurs causes people to miss out on continuing the conversation and developing their understanding and ability. Your animal friends can become frustrated at your lack of understanding their thoughts, emotions, and intentions when they directly communicate them to you, and so they have to resort to methods that you do understand, such as tearing up the furniture or peeing on the carpet.
You'll be amazed at what can happen if you accept the feeling, thought, emotion, picture, or impression that you get when you are quietly attentive to an animal and continue your communication from there.
Raindance & RegaloContaining and Grounding Your Energy
Penelope SmithTraining in interspecies telepathic communication requires increased awareness of energy fields and how we handle our own energy. One of the foundation exercises to learn to clearly and naturally send and receive telepathically is practicing to be quietly present – not doing anything, but just being aware and receptive. Getting one’s busy thoughts, judgments, evaluations, analysis and mental projections (all forms of energy) out of the way is essential to open a clear channel to heighten perceptions and to experience subtle energies and feelings.
Learning how to clearly communicate telepathically is a path of mastery of self, including one’s energy. To the degree one’s energy is out of control and projected on to the animals and humans one is trying to understand or assist, one gets mixed, unclear, or distorted messages, not purely understood as the animal or person is intending. The result can be detrimental or at least lack the miraculous healing potential that pure communication and understanding offer.
Many people are not aware of what they are doing with their mental and emotional energy. They unconsciously send energy in various directions and often do not notice the effect they are having on others. Animals can readily experience and reflect back how people are impinging upon them with their energy. Often people are so busy doing something else rather than being present, aware and listening that they don’t notice until these effects are pointed out to them.
Our urban society conditions humans to disperse energy in many directions rather than containing it in a calm, centered field within and around oneself. The speedy, competitive emphasis of our culture prompts people to push, struggle, and become distracted, which drains their own power. People suffer from unfocused mental attention, runaway busyness of the mind, lack of connection with their body and feelings, and running currents of anxiety.
Animals are generally very sensitive to energy in the form of thoughts, intentions, emotions, or feelings directed toward them. Chaotic, disruptive, forceful or invasive cascades of energy, from the more obvious, such as loud or raucous sounds, to the more subtle, such as emotions and intentions, can disturb, alarm, or provoke them.
When people initially encounter animals, they often flood the animals with energy in their desire to see them. They put their energy and automatic judgments onto the animal without even knowing that they are doing so. This can cause a range of reactions in animals, depending on their particular temperament and their familiarity with people. I have seen animals feel uncomfortable, oppressed, afraid, distracted, or angry when they received this uncontrolled energy from one person or a group of people. Wild or traumatized animals often react severely.
I routinely ask people at lectures when animals are present on stage or when students are meeting animal teachers at courses, to bring their energy back, cease projecting onto the animal and to keep their energy field contained and calm. Then the animals can be who they are in their own space and not have to deal with the mental and emotional energy projections of people. People intuitively know what I mean and comply without any explanation when I ask them to shift from staring or pushing energy forward and shift into a more gentle, relaxed or soft focus. This is a respectful way to be with the animals.
I have found throughout my life in communicating with animals that animals are drawn to a quiet, attentive presence. They are attracted, become curious, and are very willing to share their life; they no longer think of you as a human predator or a disruptive presence but as a fellow being or kin.
Some beginning animal communicators have asked me what to do when animals don’t wish to communicate to them. They may suppose that the animal is preoccupied or they picked the wrong time.
I have found that animals are very willing to communicate when you are quietly and patiently present and are simply open to receive their communication. They become peaceful and calm in the presence of centered, calm being. They relax when they don’t have to deal with the invasive energy of thought projections and agendas. They open their hearts and communicate freely to you. In this atmosphere understanding and healing can occur.
GET DOWN!
Here is a practice to contain and bring your energy down into your body and so you can feel calmly centered and connected to animals.
Feel your feet firmly on the ground and feel your connection to Mother Earth. Even if you are in a building or on some object, you can connect to the Earth through the floor of the building or through any material. All constructed things are made up of materials from and also connected to the Earth.
Allow your energy to be drawn lower in your body, away from your head and the motion of mental projections and into the organic feeling of your whole human animal form. Feel the Earth caressing your feet and your feet caressing the Earth. Feel your connection to the animal(s) you wish to communicate with through your feet on the ground. This is what it means to be “grounded” or consciously connected to Mother Earth.
As you lower your focus in your body, to your heart, belly or feet, you can more easily get in touch with your own feelings. Recognizing your own feelings is a prerequisite to being able to differentiate and recognize another’s. You can then feel what the animals are feeling, rather than trying to figure it out mentally and mixing it with your own thoughts and feelings.
A solid connection with the Earth helps you to become one with animals and sense their physical, emotional, mental and spiritual reality without the strain (for you and the animals) of reaching forward with mental projections, analysis, or other energy. This method of getting down through your body into telepathic or extended sensing affords a more complete picture of what is going on with the animal than more separated methods of communication. It is more likely to yield a full and accurate interpretation when put into words.
Reconnect with the Earth. Gather your energy down and calmly centered in your whole body. Feel your own animal nature. Then sense more deeply what the animal is feeling through your own animal form. In the process, you may restore lost or denied aspects of yourself, deepen in loving compassion, and increase your ability to help others—precious rewards for your efforts.
Agendas, Illusions, and Loving Care
Penelope Smith Species Link Winter 2002A concerned animal lover sent me an article published in the September/October 2001 issue of The Animal's Agenda (a magazine published by "The Animal Rights Network") entitled "Hear Spot Talk — Are Animal Communicators Psychics or Shams?" by Elizabeth Hess. While the author exerted genuine efforts to explore the field of animal communication, her general tone in this lengthy article came across as cynical to mocking.
The title of the article seemed strange, juxtaposing "psychic" and "sham." Usually people who are suspicious of spiritual realities assume psychic and sham to be inseparable. I wondered if she was going to elucidate the difference between a true psychic and a phony. In relaying different practitioners' approaches, she appeared to cast doubt on all of them.
The reality of telepathic communication seemed very nebulous to this author, as it does to many people. It brings up the central issue about how we can ascertain what is "real" or "true" versus what is "phony," "made up," "imagined," (the last three are synonymous to many people) in the physical universe or in any dimension.
People have unique and evolving perceptions of what is real and true according to their own senses, all the influences within and around them, and their own choices. Many people feel uncomfortable with and resist the fluidity of events and perspectives in this universe. They may seek to maintain rigid points of view and to dogmatically categorize things as true or untrue, right or wrong, good or bad, without room for debate or shades of difference.
Our experience of this universe is subject to our imagining and how we focus. We can imagine and focus on our experience as benign, peaceful, and harmonious, and for us it is so. We can imagine and focus on our experience as threatening, filled with horror and pain, and for us again, it is so. We can imagine and focus with others on a common reality and agree upon its nature and for we who have agreed, it is so.
What is real, eternal, solid, and never changing? Ageless wisdom from many traditions tells us only that which is found deep within us and everywhere in every element of the universe, called Spirit, God, Divine Being, True Self, or core essence. What is ever changing, illusory, a "sham"? The material universe or physical reality. This universe is our constantly changing playground of illusions with which to experience a multitude of colorful realities and enjoy ourselves as different aspects of the Whole/Oneness/God of which we each (individual beings and all elements) are part.
Where is the boundary between reality and illusion? Who decides what is real and what is illusion? Do we accept a common belief, or can we have an independent belief, isolated but real? How much our experience is an illusion based on what we think or expect is reality?
...If this is an illusion I am experiencing with Nature, if it is all imagination — then it's okay. I like it. Who can make me a better offer? Polluted food and air? Is that better? To maintain a belief in death, fear, greed? Are they better? A dogmatic religion with a judgmental God? Is that better? My experience is uplifting, expanding, loving, creative, intelligent. Who can offer me a better reality or illusion? If I feel a great love toward Nature, and I feel love radiating to me from Nature, who has a better illusion to offer? If I feel compassion and love for humanity, if I am happy doing exactly what I want to do, who can offer me more than this?
Suddenly it hit me. What am I fighting? Am I fighting an offer of love, of peace, of expansion, of creativity, of insight and intelligence, of knowing "me," of what "IS"? Fighting it for what? Do I want to remain with the common belief of pain, suffering, death, drudgery, sickness, of being the victim of life's misfortune — when I know I can be who I am, where I am, when I am? Right... "now."
...I am not denying the pain, fear, doubt, sorrow of everyday reality, but neither need I cling to such a powerful belief while denying the creative, intelligent love of Nature... I accept my experience. I believe my experience. I know what I know.
For me what is real or true in this world is what resonates with the core of my being, my deepest experience, what feels good and right in my heart and soul, what works for me and is helpful to my evolution and happiness which includes all that is around me. In the field of telepathic communication with other species, I have found that telepathic connection resonates deeply within me and brings extraordinary and beautiful manifestations. I have seen in countless cases how practice of this communication brings more peace, harmony, and happiness in our lives and the lives of our animal friends and all beings on the Earth. Understanding of communication, whether human, interpersonal, internal, or interspecies is shaped by those involved. Modern science tells us that anything that is observed is influenced by the observer, therefore making notions of scientific "objectivity" an elusive quest. As people follow the path of opening to their innate ability to connect and communicate with spirit in any form on Earth or beyond, they can experience many stages of growth. Skill with communication and how to interpret and counsel others with what they receive from animals improve with practice.
It is unreasonable to expect animal communicators to infallibly interpret and handle every situation that comes up with people and their animal companions. People in any helping field are wise to acknowledge their limitations as they humbly give their best service with loving care.
What is gleaned from communicating with animals to soIve a problem may be as simple and practical as “move the litter box," advice that could come from other means than telepathic communication, but is found very pointedly and quickly in this way. Sometimes communicating and counseling with animals creates amazing and immediately perceivable results, as spiritual roots are able to be tapped and fundamental realities are shifted in animals and people. Miracles or unexpected healing and changes occur. That depends not only on the skill of the communicator, but the openness or readiness of the animals and their people to change, and divine grace within and all around received or felt by those involved. What outcome is best for concerned is not always what we think it should be.
There are many worlds to experience beyond socially accepted versions of reality. When a person is tapped into the multi dimensional nature of our existence and our own creative power, miracles are ordinary, and the ordinary is a miracle. We can decide what we wish to experience and assign it our own meaning or value. The way we envision the world in our inner space manifests in the malleable energy of the outer world. Many of us are shifting our beliefs to a new vision of a world where all beings live in harmonious connection with each other and the magic of communication with all life is the norm. Let it be so
SCIENTIFIC PROOF OF TELEPATHY
Species Link Winter 2004 Penelope Smith with Anita Curtis, Mary Getten, Carol Gurney, Dawn Hayman, Barbara Janelle, Jeri Ryan, Elizabeth Severino, and Marta Williams
An e-mail message from a man called R.C. started a thought provoking dialogue. In answering his earnest questions, I opened to new possibilities of bridging our field to a larger public.
R.C. asserted that unless I could scientifically prove the existence of telepathy and my claims about interspecies communication that I was potentially causing innocent people psychic damage. He further stated that truth is testable and repeatable and that scientific experiments should be set up to test the authenticity of our claims. He affirmed his belief that the mechanism of what we called telepathic communication could be explained in terms of the normal five senses.
I view telepathy as an extension of our five senses - a finely tuned communication of energy, thoughts and feelings experienced through internal and extended sensing. While telepathic communication is invisible, it is able to be perceived if one is attuned to and practiced in that form of communication, even across vast distances. Radio waves are also invisible but able to be perceived with a properly tuned transmitter and receiver.
For me the observable positive results of telepathic communication seen in animals and people are the proof of its existence and validity. These results include both physical behavior changes that can be easily seen plus emotional and spiritual healing which is experienced uniquely by the individuals involved. Outside observers or researchers would not experience the benefits in the same way.
Scientific studies in remote viewing and other forms of telepathic communication with humans and in other species have been done that show its nature and prove its existence. Well known biologist and biochemist, Rupert Sheldrake, employs scientific experiments to show that animals can telepathically communicate with people in his book Dogs That Know When Their Owners Are Coming Home (And Other Unexplained Powers of Animals).
Marta Williams, an animal communicator with a background as a biologist, mentions in her book, Learning Their Language that physicist, Russell Targ, did extensive studies on human intuitive powers, or “psi phenomena” focusing on remote viewing in his book The Mind Race: Understanding and Using Psychic Ability and related studies in Miracles of the Mind: Exploring Nonlocal Consciousness and Spiritual Healing. Also, Gary Schwartz used strict scientific protocol to test accomplished intuitives in The Afterlife experiments: Breakthrough Scientific Evidence of Life after Death.
Animal communicators have repeated experience of the positive response of animals after communicating telepathically with them, often at a distance where no behavioral cues are observed. Specific information and results have been verified by numerous people, including veterinarians.
In scientific parlance, these examples are considered anecdotal and not accepted as scientific proof. Rupert Sheldrake points out in his book that the word anecdote means “not published,” so an anecdote is an unpublished story. Once published, anecdotes become case histories. When people’s accounts point to consistent and repeatable patterns, anecdotes are called natural history. Dr. Sheldrake feels that open minded scientific inquiry, paying attention to evidence and testing theories by means of experiment can be very enlightening.
I had to overcome my resistance and doubt as to how such complex, intangible yet obviously beneficial results as those regularly obtained by animal communicators could be scientifically tested. I began to see that setting up repeatable experiments to verify some of the information obtained in animal communication could be another way to validate the existence and results of interspecies communication. Moreover, it could open the benefits of telepathic connection to another segment of the population.
R.C. proposed this experiment:
You have all made the claim that animals communicate information about their surroundings which you can receive. We know from experimentation that dogs are good at distinguishing shades of gray. So, they could tell a white bowl from a black one. For a given number of trials, place either the black bowl or the white bowl (maybe with a little treat in it) before the dog. Have the animal psychic who cannot see the bowl, "ask" the dog if the bowl that contains his treat is "kind of light" or "kind of dark" and record the answer. Calculate the percentage of correct answers. Recognizing that no communication is 100% (I have enough experience here to make this bold claim!), and that pure chance would predict correct answers 50% of the time, the existence of interspecies telepathic communication would be proven beyond a shadow of a doubt if your answers were correct significantly more than 50% of the time!
I did an experiment on human telepathy in college on the relationship of emotional closeness of sender and receiver and telepathic accuracy. In a series of separate trials, the people tested wrote down what number they received telepathically as I viewed one card at a time. The correlation of telepathic accuracy and degree of emotional closeness was statistically significant.
In the course of our e-mail discussion, I went from dread at receiving another long, involved message from R.C. to being excited about how we could use a scientific approach to expand our reach and effectiveness. We could set up a study with many animal communicators, from beginners to experienced professionals, testing common information that animal communicators receive.
As long as we would take the time and effort to do this research, we could make it a more comprehensive and useful study than the dog bowl experiment R.C. proposed. Factual information, such as physical health conditions, living quarters, people in the family, and other elements of animals’ physical life could be checked. This could help animal communicators to validate and even improve their own telepathic skill. Other parameters and ways to research are proposed by other contributors to this article.
Brenda Fullick, a journalist writing for Species Link, is seeking researchers to do this kind of study. Suggestions on accomplishing this are welcome.
I asked other seasoned animal communicators, including some with scientific backgrounds, to respond to R.C.’s challenge. The result is a rich exploration of many angles on the subject. This landmark discussion can help us to better understand and present to others the validity of telepathic communication with other species.
Elizabeth Severino offered:
I would suggest that this man first read Power vs. Force by David R. Hawkins, M.D. Dr. Hawkins has spent his life studying the internal truth inherent in the body's knowing, its pure relationship to Truth and Universal consciousness, and the ability to sense and know that truth. He is the author of numerous scientific papers and videotapes and co- authored Orthomolecular Psychiatry with Nobel Prize Winner Linus Pauling. I further suggest that this man read The Biology of Consciousness and watch the video, The Biology of Belief, both by Dr. Bruce Lipton. Dr. Lipton is a Stanford University Researcher whose work with cell behavior has yielded extraordinary insight into the molecular basis of consciousness including the conclusion that Neo-Darwinian biology is gravely in error. A major conclusion of Dr. Lipton's work is that the energy of compassion, love, and community actually changes the field into which it is expressed. Isn't that what animal communication is? Sensing with our feeling body and introducing great love and compassion into a situation?
I figured out many years ago what I needed to feel validation for myself and to feel validated by veterinarians and care-persons. I moved forward to acquire that experience and the validation, often putting myself very much on the line. Many of my early experiences with each of the veterinarians I now work with as a veterinary medical intuitive were in emergency situations where life and death were in the balance.
I was first tested as an intuitive in Vassar College in the 1960's through a study from John Hopkins University. A few unedited capsules from my notes follow.
"K.C. called, dying cat, no external indicators of cause, cat said it inhaled chemical fertilizers sprayed on next door neighbor's lawn, vet took immediate hair sample, sample confirmed chemical poisoning, appropriate remedy given, cat recovered fully."
"D.K. called, dog dying, external indicator of major bite wound vet felt was from either a brown spider or a wasp, vet said antidote for one if it was the other would kill it, dog said it was a brown spider, immediate antidote for brown spider given, dog recovered fully."
"B.Sp. called, cat dying, hemoglobin level 13, vet said hemoglobin level must rise, prayed for 45 minutes, hemoglobin level then 27, vet said 'medical impossibility but there it was'."
"D.K. called, cat presented with major phlegm and near asphyxiation, okay only on oxygen, cat sent me basement's energy, sensed spores in basement, subsequent test proved spore presence in respiratory, remedies given, cat recovered fully."
One of my favorites: "A.J. called, Dachshund paralyzed for six weeks. A.J. said "not responding to anything" "tried everything" "no hope of recovery" "recommending euthanasia", dog said "not ready need help big-time", took this as God and prayer needed NOW, told A.J., begged A.J. to hold off, A.J. agreed "what can we lose?", started praying deeply, A.J. called during prayer session & reported dog had "fallen into a deep trance" feared trance meant precipitation of dog's death 'cause we agreed I would also pray for Highest Good, dog woke up finally after 2 hours (whew!), got up, walked and has been walking ever since."
From Anita Curtis:
I was told recently, “Experts have let us know that dogs are color blind.”
The first thing I do on a communication call is ask the animal to tell me something that will let his person know we are talking to him. Usually, if there is a physical problem, I feel the animal’s pain or discomfort. If there is no pain, the animal often describes a place or something in his environment. I am either shown a picture of an object, such as a green chair, or the animal will describe the item as well as the color. The conversation can only continue if we have verification that we are speaking to the correct animal.
The woman called the firehouse at once and found out their trucks were yellow. She called me back excitedly and said she would set a humane trap with food in it in a certain place. We described the place to the dog and told him it was safe to go there and eat the food. He got the message, went into the trap, and they had their dog back within hours of the call.
The gifts of animal communication are the joy and relief felt by the animals and their people when their problems are resolved, messages delivered, and fears are put to rest.
Sometimes the issues are simple. Many behavioral problems are resolved by communicating with animals. Cats who urinate beside the litter box can explain that they are “pissed off” because another kitty is fed first, or they do not like the smell of the litter, or a myriad of other reasons. When the person makes the appropriate change the cat returns to using the litter box. This happens too often to be a coincidence.
In all the years that I have been communicating with animals my most poignant memories come from the times when I have been called to speak to an animal who was about to move on in his spiritual journey. I always ask the animal to give me information so the caller will know we are truly talking to his or her best friend. That information usually comes in the form of where the pet will visit his person once he is in spirit form. It is comforting for the person to hear, “I will visit you in the room with the piano.”
The callers are usually distraught because they think their beloved friends are afraid. When they receive messages of love and understanding it helps to ease the pain of the transition for both the person and the animal.
Jeri Ryan addressed R.C.’s concerns:
I understand your skepticism regarding "felt-sense", or intuition, given that many have been found to be in error for that and others have been persecuted for the work they did to challenge that. I know that Galileo did much scientific work (as it was defined in those days) to reach his conclusions. I do genuinely wonder, however, where his belief originated. Was it an intellectual "Ah ha!" after reviewing and rearranging the available data into combinations and permutations? Or was it the "felt-sense that we call intuition?
Descartes was renowned for his scientific work, and is still greatly relied upon in modern times for his major contributions to mathematics and physics. He was not challenged for his mechanistic view of the world, which left no room for free will and which has turned out to be greatly deficient, according to modern physics. That mechanistic view, when applied to nonhuman animals in Descartes’ time, allowed the most brutal research to be applied to them as subjects. Today that mechanistic view still allows the scientific use of animals again in brutal research, this time with the knowledge that they are indeed sentient, that they have emotional brains, and that they have emotional receptors on every cell in their bodies. Emotional receptors exist on every cell in the human body as well. They assist in that "felt-sense."
Einstein did feel uncomfortable with his own theories, as did Max Planck with Quantum Theory. Yet both revolutionized physics to the point where now there are two camps: classical and modern. Einstein refused to accept Quantum Theory in its entirety, even though he contributed to its development, because he insisted that "God does not play dice," a rather unscientific statement. Einstein’s Theory of Relativity was a vast departure from the Newtonian scientific method. Relativity takes research into the real world, where phenomena are not removed from their influential environments and isolated. Both approaches are very useful, and much needed.
There is a solid piece of research on telepathic communication conducted in the early part of the 19th century by Vladimir Bechterev. See the Journal of Parapsychology, 13, 166-76. It could be of great benefit to do further study of telepathy between humans and animals. Dean Raden conducted consciousness research for twenty years at Stanford Research Institute, think tanks and several universities. He has applied science to psychic phenomena, and specifically to telepathy. Dr. Raden addresses nonlocal consciousness. The physics phenomenon of nonlocal resonant activity of two separate particles, no matter how far away from each other they might be, has been applied as possible substantiation to telepathy per se, and then to telepathy between animals and humans. Larry Dossey, a medical doctor with a penchant for physics has reported on this, also, and on the nonlocal effectiveness of prayer in healing.
I am a deeply spiritual person, as I understand you (R.C.) to be from your discussion of God. I am totally comfortable without proof for my spiritual beliefs or even for the existence of God, albeit that is not a scientific attitude according to Newtonian science. With the strength of your support for Newtonian science, I wonder if you are. Please consider the fact that many animal communicators have their feet on the ground. They sincerely want to be of help, and they are. They study; they learn. Their work is an extension of the five senses that falls into the intuitive realm. However, the intellectual is also present to monitor the work for interference, accuracy and validity, and to determine the reality of recommendations for solution. Their work is substantiated by the validations they receive from their clients and by the willingness of the animals to change their behavior. When I studied psychotherapy, I learned that the healing methods that are effective are the ones that the afflicted people embrace in their belief system. Newtonian science may consider such healing to be a result of placebo effect. Perhaps, and placebo studies show that the results of modern medicine could be the same.
Belief systems are very powerful. Rupert Sheldrake addresses intention as an important ingredient for successful telepathic communication between animals and humans. Intention is what allows the karate black belt to crack a cinder block with the side of her/his hand. It allowed a nine year old female child to crack a two inch thick block of wood with the side of her little hand. It allows the spiritual practice of walking over hot coals in bare feet to occur without injury or pain. Intention allows telepathic communication with animals to happen. These have all been considered impossible events. Telepathy with animals is considered by many to be impossible, as were travel to the moon, the healing effectiveness of prayer, artificial intelligence, etc. Field theory and the observation that particles become each other suggest that telepathy between any beings is possible.
We always work to improve our work. Research could help that. Your suggestion for a research topic is a good place to start. I would like to see it move into the phenomenological method of research, a bit closer to modern physics because it allows for movement, instead of confining the study to a static linear approach.
According to modern physics, to have the whole truth we need to allow for some mystery.
Barbara Janelle responded:
Relatively few ideas and "facts" in our world have been subject to double-blind studies. Double-blind studies are full of difficulties. They attempt to look at only a couple of variables although functioning in our world is very much more complex. Examples are studies done in animal psychology and health. Animals, from mice to monkeys, are kept in artificial environments. Moreover, the larger species are usually kept in isolation. These conditions stress animals and any study results are questionable because the impact of stress on immunity and behavior is not fully understood. There is a large and growing body of evidence that suggests that the researcher's interest and attention can change study outcome. Even something like a lab technician's interest in a particular animal can change that animal's behavior and health. We have a very limited understanding about how information spreads. Rupert Sheldrake and others have written about how a whole species behavior shifts once a threshold population knows how to do something. Work on String Theory suggests that once cells have been in contact that they continue to show similar changes over time even when separated by thousands of miles. This suggests a wide range of additional variables that we know little about. There is a huge amount of writing on the philosophy of science that essentially says that the scientific approach is very limited as a testing procedure and what we learn from it are only approximations in understanding, not hard, unchanging facts.
Another way of looking at the validity of ideas and information is to examine the effects of using them. Indeed much of what we think we know through scientific study is based on examining effects. For example very little is understood about what electricity is, but we have a lot of studies that show us what it does.
A principle of Hawaiian Huna Philosophy is "A measure of truth is effectiveness."
We can work with this principle in examining interspecies communication. Primary questions are:
a) Does interspecies communication change something in the behavior, health or performance of the animal?
b) Does interspecies communication change the relationship between animal and owner?
c) Does interspecies communication change anything in the communicator's life?
This is an avenue that we can explore both formally and informally through questioning clients about the effect of the work. Informally, as I look at the letters I have received from clients in the last three months, about 80% of them mention changes in the animal and/or in their relationship with the animal as a result of the communication consultation. Formalized studies using questionnaires can certainly be devised and done. This kind of approach is commonly used in health studies and in the social sciences. There are other indicators that interspecies communication is real:
a) In almost every communication there is some piece of information that signals to the owner that the communicator is actually receiving information from the animal.
b) In classes, there is always some correlation in information received by the participants. These can be examined in formal studies as well.
On the test of dogs seeing color, it is my sense that dogs and other animals, including many humans, experience colors as vibration. An animal can send this kind of information to a communicator and the communicator may interpret it as color. Another issue raised by R.C. is about ethics. The Code of Ethics that Penelope developed is a fine statement of the principles that those of us who are listed abide by. Again too, there is the measure that effectiveness in our work determines whether we stay in business. Many of our clients come by word of mouth. If a communicator is not ethical or accurate, the client base will disappear.
My skill and that of many others in this work has been developed over years of training, practice, and sharing of information through writing, teaching and self-examination. This is demanding work and we continue to grow in skill, clarity, and understanding.
Mary Getten answers R.C.:
There is plenty of proof with many thousands of animals and clients that have been helped by communicators. Most communicators work on the telephone. They do not see the animal and are not interpreting “body language or animal sounds” as you (R.C.) assert.
I am also not a psychic. I cannot predict the future, diagnose illness, nor compel any animal to change its behavior. My job is to be a link between the person and the animal – to help them understand each other. I am in effect a translator. This does not mean that each communicator will translate what that animal has to say in exactly the same way. Human language translators often interpret what they hear a bit differently. The essence is the same, but the way of expressing it may differ.
Like a language expert, I studied and practiced to learn this skill. Communicating with animals was not a “gift” I just woke up with one day. I took my first class in 1988 and studied with many teachers for eight years before I felt confident and had enough proof to do this work professionally. The communicators I know and network with have similar stories.
In my work I have been able to help thousands of animals and their people. How do I know this? I get phone calls, e-mails and letters from clients every week, telling me about the changes that occurred after our consultation, or that the vet confirmed what I was feeling. I also call my clients about three weeks after a consultation to see how things are going. This gives me valuable feedback or “proof” that I am communicating well with animals.
The point of telepathic communication is to relay information. What the person does with that information and how they respond will influence what happens. I make suggestions, negotiate with the animal and help them understand each other. I do not claim to be able to “fix” their problems, although very often this is the outcome.
Animals are a lot like people. You can ask them to change their behavior and some will be happy to do so. Others will not. Some might want to, but in the end fail. You (R.C.) relayed a story about your friend’s dog who said he would not kill another cat, but then did. (See the next article for this story.) Do you have any friends who said they were going to stop drinking or smoking, but then didn’t? I suspect that the dog’s intentions were good; he just wasn’t able to control himself in the moment. This is common with all living beings. Animals like people, also change their minds.
Our world is full of variables. There is very little that can be proven by the scientific method if you require that the results are the same every time. Math is the one science which seems to be constant – 2 plus 2 always equals 4. There are some laws, such as gravity that appear to be constant as well, but when you bring living beings into the equation, your definition of scientific proof fails.
Let’s look at our medical system. Some would say that we have proof that chemotherapy kills cancer, yet this is often not the case. The same is true of vaccines and any medical procedures. Sometimes they work and sometimes they don’t. Does that mean we should stop using our current medical system until we have proof that it works every time? It does not work a good percentage of the time, yet it is commonly and wholeheartedly accepted. Individuals react and respond differently and there is no scientific method that can show that the same result will occur again, under identical circumstances. There are no identical circumstances when dealing with individuals.
Nothing is 100% in this world we live in - not medicine, not science, not anything that deals with individuals. The animal communicators I know and respect can all furnish written and oral proof from their clients about the effectiveness of their communication. The fact that this information has not been published in a scientific journal is irrelevant.
Marta Williams to R.C. and other skeptics:
I read through your (R.C’s) test and find it to be logical and repeatable. The only problem I see is that it might be somewhat unexciting and therefore both the psychic and the animal might fatigue rather quickly. I would set it up differently.
Also, there are some problems that can happen in laboratory testing. People being tested can become nervous, get performance anxiety and not do well. And if the tester is very negative, psychics have a hard time performing. I am not sure how to compensate for those two variables, but they have been observed in experiments in this field.
It is to be expected that many people will be skeptical of the ability to communicate intuitively, through the use of mental projections of thoughts, feelings, and pictures. This is something we are taught is impossible. However, within the last few decades there has been significant research proving that such abilities exist.
There are also many researchers, primarily physicists, who are working to uncover the explanation for how such abilities might be possible, including Alain Aspect (physicist, University of Paris), David Bohm (physicist, University of London), and Karl Pribram (neurophysiologist, Stanford University). The fact that these researchers have been largely ignored does not negate their work. It simply shows that scientists can be resistant to change and challenging new ideas just like anyone else.
It is not fair, as some skeptics claim, to say that there is no proof of intuitive ability. There is ample proof and these people have painstakingly provided it. Moreover, their experiments were repeatable and verifiable. One of Rupert Sheldrake’s detractors even redid his experiment and got the same statistically significant results.
Within the field of animal communication specifically, proof comes most often in the form of anecdotal evidence such as information the communicator receives from the animal that can then be verified by the animal’s person. Anecdotal data is used all the time in medical research on people, for example in studies of painkillers or other such subjective inquiries where peoples’ responses are collected as data.
I believe that verified anecdotal data from animal communicators is just as valid as statistical data, especially when the communicator works at a distance, neither seeing nor interacting with the animal, and when the data is unique and could not have been logically surmised.
It is however, critical to verify and test intuitive data and maintain some objectivity about it. Just because someone feels something does not mean it is true. There should be a ‘wait and see attitude’ if the data cannot be immediately verified.
It is the irony and challenge of working intuitively that one must be nonjudgmental and nonanalytical in order to receive intuitively. Yet judgment and critical thinking are then required to adequately interpret and utilize the intuitive data received.
One critique I have of the field is that some practitioners, both human psychics and animal communicators, do not treat unproven intuitive data with enough healthy skepticism. Even the best intuitives know they are not always accurate, so there is always that margin of error to be taken into account.
However, the overall effectiveness and usefulness of animal communication is being proven every day by its growing popularity with the consumer. People receive enormous assistance from this process. If that were not the case, the field would not be expanding as it is.
From Carol Gurney
Without a doubt, modern science, with its stringent protocol, has made immense contributions to the health and welfare of our society. Many people depend on science to create the reality in which they live. For instance, my parents would only go to a western physician for their health care and only do what their physician recommended. For most people this is entirely reasonable. Others have chosen alternative approaches and still others have integrated the two. We have a choice in how we want to pursue our health and ultimately live our lives.
Today, science would like us to believe that it is the standard by which reality is validated. However, science and its stringent testing protocol are not infallible. With improved testing methods, research supplies us with new theories which sometimes contradict existing ones.
For many years science claimed that animals could not see color. In The Journal of American Veterinary Medicine Association Scientific Reports: Leading Edge of Medicine—A Review the ability of dogs to distinguish color has been the subject of several studies with often conflicting results. Many early behavioral studies indicated either that dogs lacked color vision, or that if they could discriminate hue, it was without importance to dogs; form and brightness were more important. Many of these early studies, however, were poorly controlled, and more recent, well-controlled studies have clearly documented that dogs possess and use color.
Animal communicators have known that animals do recognize color and respond to it. They did not apply scientific protocol to discover this and yet they knew and have been working with this color knowledge in spite of and before the latest results of this now accurate scientific data.
A client whose horse arrived from Russia called me to consult on the case. When the owner took the horse to one of the top hospitals in California, the veterinarian was very interested in listening to what the horse had communicated. At the end of listening to my tape recorded session, he said that everything the horse communicated could be scientifically proven through the x-rays and testing the hospital administered. How do we, as animal communicators, obtain this information without the use of scientific testing methods?
We use a form of telepathy to gather information about an animal. The word telepathy is derived from the Greek terms tele (“distant”) and pathe (“occurrence” or “feeling”). Most common telepathy occurs spontaneously in cases of crisis in which a family member or friend has been injured or killed. The receiver becomes aware through thought fragments, vague feelings, dreams, visions or simply knowing that their loved one is in danger or has died. Brain research has shown that telepathy can be induced in the dream state or what is commonly known as the theta state. Electroencephalogram monitoring during this testing also showed that the brain waves of the recipient changed to match those of the sender. It has also been found that telepathy is closely connected to emotional states of both the sender and receiver.
It is then not so surprising that there is little published scientific data to support telepathic communication. Science is based on objective testing, often in sterile environments and with no connection between the two subjects being tested. Sometimes the subject is even tested by a random number generating machine. Science prides itself on hard facts, the opposite of heartfelt feelings. With this in mind, it would almost appear that science, as a tool for validating telepathic animal communication is inappropriate.
Perhaps we are ready, as a species to live in balance and harmony with our two brains. The left analytical side which strives to explain the world through science and the right intuitive side which chooses to feel life naturally.
From Dawn Hayman:
There are two types of knowledge: intellectual, coming from the mind, and intuitive, coming from the heart. Both types of knowledge are equally valid and important to our understanding of life itself. Neither can exist without the other. When in balance, they enhance one another. The mental intellect has developed incredibly advanced ways to prove, measure, and determine the validity of many things perceived to be in our physica
There are many things about our daily existence that we can not “prove” to be true or “real” yet we all have experienced them. Love is a great example. How can we scientifically prove that love exists? How can we measure it? Yet, I think it is fair to say that most of us have experienced it and felt it. Indeed, we see that we actually need love to survive and develop correctly as functional human beings.
The field of animal communication is based more on the intuitive form of knowledge. Just like love, it can be experienced, but not necessarily measured. Animal communication is a counseling profession. Through telepathic communication, an animal communicator can help people find their own connection and communication with their own animals. The animal communicator is simply a facilitator in the process.
Animals are non-judgmental, trustworthy, and love unconditionally. Can we prove any of those things? Not scientifically. Those of us with animals know those statements to be true. Animals connect with us heart to heart. Through that heart/intuitive connection, communication takes place. The “proof” of this communication can be seen through changes in the animal’s behavior, health, and even changes in their entire human family as well.
Animal communication is not about finding out what color the dog’s water bowl is or what their favorite toy looks like. Animal communication is about relationships. It is about the relationship that the animal experiences with other animals, with their human friends, and with life itself. Just as importantly though, it is also about the person’s relationship with their own self, with other humans, and with the world.
I have had much feedback from clients saying that not only did their whole relationship with their animals change after a consultation, but they found that their human relationships were impacted too. Witnessing people’s lives open up to connecting with their intuitive knowledge has been “proof” to me that animal communication works in immeasurable ways.
Knowledge of the heart can not be measured. It is experienced. To be loved unconditionally and accepted without judgment is one of the most healing things we can experience. To be a facilitator of this process for people and their animals is incredibly rewarding and humbling. The goal for me, as an animal communicator, is to help people find their intuitive connection to their animals, all living things, and the world around them. It is not my goal to have them depend on me for their answers. In fact, it is not about giving them answers at all, but it is to help them find insight. We all have our own answers and our own “proof” within us. We need to acknowledge that intuitive knowledge within us and connect with our hearts. Then, what can be measured is the outcome.
To discover your ability to communicate with animals, start with reading the popular book, ANIMAL TALK, and then continue to develop your skill with this program.
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