Revelations of an Animal Communicator

James called me to schedule a visit to his farm because his horse was bucking him off. When I went out there, I could sense from both James and the beautiful mare, Belle, that the relationship had been that of animal/human soul mates.

James and Belle were both devastated by the situation. James was hurt and angry, and he felt as if he were failing. He’d never been so close with a being, yet the horse was tossing him up in the air like a lightweight stuffed animal, and he was at an age when bones don’t mend quickly. The worst part of it for James was that he felt betrayed by the love of his life, this magnificent mare.

When I connected with Belle, the image of an impasse or a standoff kept coming up. She felt that James wasn’t getting the fact that her back was very sore and that the minute she saw the saddle, she knew it was going to make her suffer physically. Her feelings were hurt, as James had been so attentive up until this point, and it was disturbing to her that he was ignoring this most basic need.

By being stuck in his own feelings about the situation, James couldn’t see his horse’s true, simple wishes. Even when I told him of her pain, he remained locked into the betrayal . . . until I poked Belle’s back right where she said that the discomfort was and her legs buckled. He finally saw with his own eyes that the horse wasn’t in any way, shape, or form betraying him; rather, she was just communicating that she needed help. If he wasn’t going to hear her subtle message—for instance, when she moved away as the saddle was going on—she would have to resort to more dramatic methods of communication.

James immediately sought out an equine chiropractor, and once Belle was adjusted, they were back to being in love again. A couple of years later, James called and thanked me profusely because they were doing so great that sometimes they were going on the trail twice a day! And he was staying on top of her bodywork.

Loyalty

Animals are always loyal in communication sessions. Even if there’s a perception breakdown and the household has run amok, they still make their feelings known from a place of love. Sometimes people are afraid that their dog or cat is going to “tell” on them. This still cracks me up even after years of doing this work, because this is anything but the case. The only information that gets exposed is exactly what needs to come out in order to improve the situation.

On occasion, animals will reveal some quirky behavior of their “person.” For example, a 20-something gal came over to have a reading of her two adorable little dachshunds. One of them told me that his person sang a lot in the middle of the night. The young woman confirmed that when she couldn’t sleep, she got out of bed and did karaoke! I don’t think any loyalty was breached there, and we had a great laugh.

Beth and Petunia

Sometimes animals send me a concept wrapped in symbolism to protect their person, yet it still relays a message. A woman named Beth had me over to talk to her three cats, one of which had been sick, and Beth wanted to know if it was her time. That day—that minute—it wasn’t.

The main concern of the cat, Petunia, was how grateful she was that after two years, Beth had come out from under what looked like a giant sticky web and was now going back to work. Petunia had been very helpful to Beth while she was under this “web.”

Well, Beth was astonished. She revealed to me that the web was breast cancer, and she’d been very sick. After battling the disease, she’d finally won and was indeed reentering the working world.

This came as an image, an impression of her being nearly suffocated by this thing—the “cancer web.” Knowing what a struggle this was for her, given the public’s perception of sickness, Petunia was very protective of Beth and loyal to her. It’s not our animals’ job to “out us” about our feelings or circumstances. Without being specific about a painful experience or blowing open our deepest, darkest secret, they will relay enough information to let me know how much their human’s lifestyle, work habits, or interpersonal relationships have impacted them.

Evolution

All members of our household have a right to their feelings and their history; we can’t take that away. But we can shift the perspective, which could create a shakedown that leads everyone to eventually coexist—or even better, to live together with joy.

These days, you’d be hard-pressed to find anyone who believes that animals don’t have feelings. (Of course, some people don’t care, or animals aren’t their “thing.”) But the naysayers have a tough argument, and the cards are very much stacked against them. Furthermore, the intelligence of an animal is frequently measured in the terms of our world. And there alone, they’re evolving right along with us, even though their brains may not have the capacity that ours do. (In some circumstances I think, Lucky them!) Or we’re evolving because of them. In fact, without horses in particular, we humans wouldn’t be where we are today—they’ve helped us build civilization. That same goes for oxen, donkeys, and elephants.

Dr. Temple Grandin is a designer of livestock-handling facilities and a professor of animal science at Colorado State University. She’s also perhaps the most accomplished and well-known adult with autism in the world. In her book Animals in Translation, she states:

When you compare human and animal brains, the only difference that’s obvious to the naked eye is the increased size of the neocortex in people. . . . The neocortex is the top layer of the brain, and includes the frontal lobes as well as all of the other structures where higher cognitive functions are located.

Grandin explains that the human neocortex is thick and is the size of a peach pit, while that of animals is much smaller. The bigger the neocortex, the more intelligence we can expect from a species. She also goes on to say that we all share the same three brain regions and, therefore, have three different intelligences or places to process: (1) the reptilian brain; (2) the middle—paleomammalian—brain; and (3) the neomammalian brain, which is the latest to develop and the highest in our heads. She states:

. . . the reptilian brain corresponds to that in lizards and performs basic life support functions like breathing; the paleomammalian brain corresponds to that in mammals and handles emotion; and the neomammalian brain corresponds to that in primates—especially people—and handles reason and language. All animals have some neomammalian brain, but it’s much larger and more important in primates and in people.

In the 1980s and ’90s, Dr. Giacomo Rizzolatti at the University in Parma, Italy, discovered that monkeys may have a neuron that’s responsible for “monkey see, monkey do” activities. However, it became clearer and clearer to him that this neuron truly was triggered by intentionality.

The studies followed the mirror neuron in relation to how we learn language; and this same nerve cell has been found in macaque monkeys, humans, and birds. Since then, scientists have discovered that people with autism may not have it or it might not be firing in those individuals.

So, what does it mean when it is fully firing? It signifies that we have the ability to feel, hear, see, taste, and understand what another is going through. We can perceive the intention behind someone’s behavior rather than simply mimicking it. There’s a special place in our brain that responds to—and perhaps causes us to jump—when someone is shot in a movie, or that gets thrilled by and identifies with what an athlete is doing in a great competition. Our reaction is based on our engagement with that other world that we’re watching. When we’re lost in a state of our own, we have no way of deciphering this sort of information. So the next time your partner gets riled up over a football game, remind him of how in tune his mirror neuron is so that when the game is over, he can go into the kitchen and talk to the dog!

As Temple Grandin stated, our brains are more developed than those of animals, but many of the same components are shared by different species. I don’t want to dwell on the science of telepathy; I’m more interested in the art of allowing this information to come through. However, it’s nice to know that there are studies proving what intuitive folks and trainers were already aware of.

We do have the ability to understand the feelings and thoughts of our animals. Taken a step further, we can interpret their actions if we’re able to get quiet enough to examine what their intention is through their feelings and thoughts. Awareness of this—and more important, of what’s driving the behavior—will have an impact on your nonhuman housemates.

Animals that have been domesticated and are living in our homes are, of course, still after the basics in life such as food, water, and safety, but their awareness of our world is heightened. They’re sifting through it—through our thoughts and our pictures—in order to get a sense of their own security. They’re trying to penetrate this madness with their own thinking, and then they resort to communicating with us through behavior. Some of it is, by our standards, acceptable; some is true to their species and breeding; and some is just plain negative for our home environment. The not-so-good conduct is a result of our sending mixed messages or some human in their past having done so.

As much as we want to become aware of their thoughts and feelings, the first key is becoming