USING ANIMAL COMMUNICATION RESPONSIBLY. . . . .Someone asked me what I meant by a simple psychic hit when I used that phrase in a radio show this week. This is my attempt to explain it, and how important it is to use information that we receive intuitively from animals ethically and responsibly. To describe this well could take a few pages. I’ll try to talk about it in perhaps less than two! A “psychic hit” refers to when any of us may feel a strong intuitive knowing about something, or have a gut feeling about something. It could be about which car to buy, which meal to eat, or which person to trust or not. In the context of animal communication it refers to when we have such an experience with an animal--meaning we have a psychic hit about what an animal is feeling, thinking or saying. It is a *piece* of information or the *beginning* of information and to be used ethically it should be followed up with a full conversation to both confirm (one way or another) and learn the full story about what we initially felt or “got” from the animal. To not follow up on such hits and to take such brief and unverified information out into the world and announce it as fact is an egregious breach of ethics in the animal communication field. This is most especially true when the issue has far reaching implications as was the case I gave in this talk. A person who refers to herself as someone who communicates with cetaceans (but does not have professional training in the field) announced on Facebook that she saw a whale once at SeaWorld and he taught her that all whales and dolphins in captivity are quite happy, that we don’t have to worry about them because they “chose” a life of captivity as ambassadors to spiritually transform people. I was very surprised (and alarmed) to read this because I have talked to approximately half of the whales in captivity around the world and had not heard anything remotely close to this information from any of them. Out of curiosity and in the interest of being open minded and fair I asked her which whale this was and what else he had to say. She said she did not know which whale it was but that she got a strong psychic knowing while looking at him. I asked her if he specifically said he was speaking for all the other whales and dolphins in captivity on earth. She said no, she just “knew” this, that he really didn’t say more. There was no conversation. There was no attempt to learn more or verify or confirm what she “got”. A huge leap was made from one intuitive feeling to making a sweeping statement that her “psychic knowing” is a universal fact. The tragic thing about this is that many people probably believed what she wrote. They may now believe that there is nothing at all wrong with ripping whales and dolphins from their homes and families and forcing them to live in concrete pools and do circus tricks to loud music every day in order to eat because hey, they chose it to teach and transform us humans! Those same folks may continue to buy tickets to marine parks and perpetuate the suffering of cetaceans. One of the reasons I very seldom post communications with animals in social media (along with reasons of client confidentiality, including some wild animals who do not want their private information shared) is that too many people seem to be looking for sound bites and quick fixes they can use to help them not be uncomfortable with the suffering of animals. Because I am neither the mentor nor the therapist of the person who shared her psychic hit as a fact, I don’t know with any certainty why she did what she did. But I think there is a distinct possibility that it was a form of denial. For all of us who deeply love animals, it can be a tremendous emotional challenge to be present with their pain and suffering. Not everyone is cut out to do the work that brings one very up close and personal with the emotional trauma of animals. However, for those who state that they are professional animal communicators, it’s an ethical requirement. We need to continually build the emotional strength, maturity and spiritual poise to be fully present with the suffering of those with whom we communicate and attempt to help--not recoil from their suffering, feel compelled to immediately fix it with platitudes, or make up spiritual fairy tales that there *is* no pain so we can all be happy. I believe that is what happened with this situation. A well meaning person felt genuinely transformed from the presence of this whale, then erroneously overgeneralized that this must be the purpose of all cetaceans being in captivity---to bring humans spiritual transformation. Because hey, since it was her experience it must be the same for everyone! She embellished her intuitive experience, stated it as fact and said it came from the whale. She received spiritual inspiration and transformation from this whale, gave nothing back, did not even give him the courtesy of asking him more about his life or what he might need, and spread erroneous information that all cetaceans in captivity are happy as clams. This is not animal communication. It is an irresponsible, unethical use of bits of intuitive experiences. When we communicate with animals, we have an ethical responsibility to go beyond any initial psychic hits we may receive and engage in full conversation. As people who love them, whether we have remember our abilities to telepathically communicate or not, we have a responsibility to give back to them, not just receive the inspiration and gift of being in their presence.
Posted on: Fri, 19 Sep 2014 18:48:48 +0000
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