An Example From Alaska

The first time Alaskan communicator Chrys Long-Ago experienced mind-to-mind connection with an animal, it was the last thing on her mind.

"I used to keep my horse at a boarding stable in Anchorage," Chrys told me. "One day while brushing my horse, I became so absorbed in the moment that the pressures of life drifted away. I realized later that the activity put me into a mindfulness meditation, for I relaxed my mind.

"When I walked out of the barn, a movement caught my eye. It was a lovely gray tree squirrel who ran up onto a 55-gallon barrel and sat down not far from me with a nut in his paw. In that relaxed mind state, I turned my attention to the squirrel and spontaneously greeted him in my mind.

"I said, 'Greetings Little Squirrel.' He put his nut down and looked straight at me. This was a wild squirrel! We had direct mind-to-mind contact for at least 20 minutes.

"The words came into my mind very quickly. He said that squirrels considered themselves creatures of the air more than of the ground, that they love to live in the swinging boughs of the trees and leap from branch to branch. I was totally consumed by the whole sense of being a squirrel.

"He told me how they would venture down the tree head first, consciously looking everywhere, because all of their predators are on the ground, except for owls. He also told me how territorial they were, which I didn't know about squirrels. I later researched it and found out they are very territorial.

"I asked him how long squirrels lived.' Three winters,' he said. When I asked if that wasn't a rather short life, he said, 'Who would want to live any longer than that?' He just had this amazing perspective!"

Chrys was the first animal communicator with whom I spoke. Not only was she very knowledgeable about animals, but Chrys had worked hard to make sense of how this thing called animal communication fit from our end. Like myself, she was intrigued with how the human mind could "translate" thoughts and ideas, even complete sentences, from a variety of species so different from our own.

So, How Does It Work?

Human-animal communication is based on telepathy, one of those loaded words that seem to poke fun at something that, underneath it all, we all know to be true. One dictionary defines telepathy as "communication by scientifically unknown means." Etymologically, the word derives from tele, meaning distant or far away, and pathy, from the Greek patheia, meaning feeling or perception. Perceptions from a distance, feelings from far away - a definition for a rather vague and intangible form of communication.

Still, who has ever not "had a feeling" something was about to happen? How many times have you "just known" what somebody was going to say or do? Is this really so strange?

Carol Gurney, a communicator from California, believes that one of the first steps to opening to telepathy is realizing it's something we do all the time. "When you are in touch with your feelings, telepathy happens very quickly," Carol explained. "You can get a whole concept within a flash. When a friend tells you she is fine, but your gut says something's not right, how do you know that? It's telepathy!"

The jump between believing telepathy between humans is possible to believing telepathy between species is feasible is a tricky one for some to master. It requires not only viewing animals as intelligent, sentient beings, but accepting that a flow of communication between humans and animals is possible. Carol feels that people talk with their animals all the time, though don't necessarily recognize it. "The thought of the animal blends with your consciousness. It has to become your own inner thought for that flash of a moment in order to get it. What happens is that we judge it as ours. We don't know how to tell the difference sometimes. We're not giving ourselves credit that we're getting it, nor are we giving the animals credit that they do communicate."

A Balancing Act

Communicators explain there are several ways in which humans can send and receive messages from animals. This may include seeing internal images of an animal doing something, or even viewing a scene as if through the animal's eyes. It may include inner hearing, such as the sounds an animal hears. Distinct words and sentences might also be heard on the inner level, rather like thoughts. (Communicators point out there is a qualitative difference between hearing your own thoughts and hearing the thoughts of an animal.) It may include physical sensations, such as communicators feeling aches and pains in their body corresponding to the aches and pains of the animal. And it may also include intuition, or inner knowing, a kind of immediate insight.

While some people rely on one method over others, most often a combination of impressions will be received. There may be an overlay of images and knowing, or inner words and thoughts, sounds and feelings. As Carol Gurney points out, there are no limitations in the way we may receive information. "If you are an artist or very creative, you might get a lot of images from the animal because that is how you see the world. If you are personality oriented, you may get personality things from the animal, such as things they like to do. People who are very spiritual may connect with the spiritual aspects and longings of that animal. We're like magnets. We draw to us what is comfortable for us to hear and in the mode of communication that is comfortable. Where we are within ourself is what we will draw in."

Animal communication is also a bit of a balancing act. In addition to finding the best possible words while translating animal to human thoughts, we must constantly be open to what the animal is saying - not to what we think the animal is saying or what we want the animal to say. In this sense, learning animal communication is about learning to get out of our own way. It's about moving past our limited perceptions of what we believe the world is like.

Getting The Facts

Getting the facts from any animal can sometimes prove to be a puzzling and surprising affair. When I asked Sam Louie, an attorney turned communicator, how he thought humans were able to understand what animals had to say in terms that were understandable to our consciousness, he offered me a story.

Early in his career, Sam did some volunteer work with a woman who rescued Dobermans impounded for aggression. In an attempt to place the dogs so they would not be destroyed, the woman asked Sam to talk with them to determine what type of family situation would be best. The woman was desperate to place a dog, also named Sam, as she needed to move and caretake her ill father. When Sam asked the dog what could be done, he distinctly heard the words in English, "When the rains come."

"Part of the skill as a psychic is not simply receiving information, because data without some analysis or interpretation is not very useful," Sam told me. "At the time, I simply interpreted this message as meaning we might not be able to place the dog until November, because that's when the rains begin in the San Francisco Bay area. But this wouldn't work for the woman, because it was August and she had to leave by September. When I asked the dog again, I got the same response, 'When the rains come.'

"A couple of weeks later, a woman named Annette Rains showed up to adopt the dog."

"Whoah!" I exclaimed, and Sam laughed. Not only was I struck by the humor in the situation, but by the intriguing way human word allusions can play a key role in animal communication. Plus, how did Sam the dog know "the Rains" were coming?

Why Talk With Animals?

What other discoveries would we find by going to the source, asking animals themselves what they think, what they feel, what role they play upon our planet? Communicator Carole Devereux finds that animals may represent a last chance for humans.

"Sometimes people can't talk to another human being, but they will talk to a horse," Carole related. "Why? Because a horse is nonjudgmental. Unconditional love flows very naturally between animals and people who are somewhat jaded about the human race. Humans have judged each other for so long that we don't trust each other anymore. When people are with an animal, barriers come down. That's why I work with animals in therapy, because it's a door, an entryway. Animals are the gateway to a higher awareness of spirituality."

If we are willing to open the door and take that first step beyond the entryway, if we are ready to really look and listen, letting go of all those constructs of what we think we know, if we choose to honestly and openly form a deeper relationship with animals and the rest of nature, whatever and whoever will we find?