Do Little and Be

 

While there are many ways to fine tune our natural abilities to talk with animals, it’s important to know right from the start that this form of communication is all about relationship. It’s about relating to other beings (including ourselves) in an honest and authentic manner. It’s about re-membering our common essence and sharing our feelings and thoughts from that connected state of awareness.

 

"Open your heart to every living thing. We are all connected to each other, a part of each other. Close your eyes, take a deep breath and just feel it. You will know this is true. Isn't it wonderful?"           ~ Tuli Bear (cat, through Tera Thomas)

 

As we open to the energy that flows through all life, we open ourselves to instant relationship. We know that we share a common awareness, for we feel it flowing through us, connecting us with every other living being. Our ancestors tapped into this connection and communicated effortlessly with the natural world. We also carry this ability within ourselves. Although we may not constantly hold the awareness in our everyday lives, it’s simply a matter of shifting perspective, deepening, and tuning our consciousness to recall this connection whenever we choose.

 

Different Ways to Sense the World

 

Llama, dolphin, eagle, cat; human, salmon, whale and rat: underneath our physical bodies – our fur or feathers, skin or scales – we are all composed of the same universal essence or energy. Still, obviously, we are different. Among the 1.5 million species on earth that humans have classified, each of us has a totally unique vibration in form. Our perceptions of the world are unique as well, based on our sensing mechanisms (be they fingers, whiskers, trunks or antennae) as well as the particular ways we use those sensing mechanisms to relate to the world.

 

Most animals perceive the world much differently than we do. Many animals can see energies, for example; they can quickly ‘read’ our thought forms and emotions, knowing instantly if we are afraid even though we may be sitting still or showing no visual signs of fear.

 

Some animals have completely different sensing mechanisms than we do.  Consider the bat’s ability to echolocate; the squid’s undulating propulsion system that powers it through water, the snail’s intimate sensing of the world through the length of its body. Consider how the jellyfish, with no brain, heart, blood and gills, is able to move, sense and taste its world. Can you imagine life as a jellyfish?

 

Part of the adventure in communicating with other beings is learning how to open our senses, to take in (as well as send) feelings, thoughts, ideas and sensations in ways that can be mutually understood.

 

So, How Does It Work?

 

As we relax and deepen to a quieter, more tranquil state of being, our logical mind slows down. Our habitual ways of seeing the world begin to shake loose, and we become more receptive to perceiving in different ways. As rigid thoughts of how reality “should be” release their hold, we shift to a more intuitive state of being, one that is quite naturally capable of telepathy.

 

Telepathy really isn’t so unusual. Most likely, you have had many experiences of “just knowing” what someone was thinking or going to say. Perhaps you have become so in tune or closely bonded with a person that you felt a heart melding, mind-to-mind connection in which there was no need for words. When we label this “telepathy” and decide it is weird or scary, or become judgmental about whether it is possible or not, we move away from the deep down reality of something that is very natural to all of us. We might just as easily think of it as engaging the “universal language,” for that too is what it is.

 

Be brave enough to let your sensitive side show.    ~ Rainbow (llama, through Tera Thomas)

 

Telepathy is instantaneous – it is direct perception, immediate sensing. The word telepathy comes from tele, meaning distant or far away, and pathy, meaning feeling or perception. Telepathy is feeling from a distance, or perceiving from far away. It transcends the way we normally understand time and space, for with the help of telepathy we can expand and deepen our awareness to connect on the inner level with any other being – be it the cat sitting by our side or a cheetah speeding across the African savannah. With telepathy, we rediscover our fluency in the universal language.

 

When we telepathically connect with a cat or cheetah or any other animal, we naturally draw upon our own way of understanding the world – our own sensory mechanisms – to make sense of that other being’s thoughts. That is, we instinctively make use of our brain’s unique “software” – the programs or sensory ways in which we see, feel, hear, taste, smell and generally make sense of the world – to interpret the perceptions, feelings, thoughts and observations of others.

 

Telepathically, we can receive information from animals in many different ways, such as through visual images, inner feelings and intuitive flashes. We must then “translate” these inner impressions in ways that we (and other humans) can understand. When communicating with animals, here are the most common ways in which humans send and receive information:

 

INNER SEEING makes use of pictures, photos, slide shows or movies within the inner theatre of the mind. These images may be something an animal is actually seeing, or it may be a visual representation of a thought or feeling from an animal – a wiggling, tail-wagging, jumping dog representing play or fun, or a curled up purring cat denoting pleasure or serenity, for example.

 

INNER HEARING can be in the form of sounds, thoughts or even words and sentences. You might hear what an animal is hearing. Other times, you may actually hear an animal’s thoughts within your mind. It can be surprising and even exhilarating to receive thoughts that are different from your own, for many animals have a unique way of using words, and some even speak with an ‘accent.’

 

INNER FEELING can include physical feelings, such as the sensation of an ache or pain in your body that corresponds to the animal’s body, as well as emotional feelings, such as fear, sadness, joy or excitement. Taste and smells may also be forms of inner feeling, such as experiencing an animal’s taste for a particularly delicious food or smells that an animal likes or dislikes.

 

INNER KNOWING is a form of intuition and immediate insight. Often, you “just know” something about an animal. Sometimes this is felt as a gut-feeling or a hunch; other times you simply suddenly understand the whole experience.

 

While there is no set rule on how we receive and send information, many people discover that they have a preference for one mode over another. This can be true for animals as well. Animals that are extremely visual (birds of prey for example) may be more likely to send pictures or images, since that is that their dominant sense, whereas an earthworm may be likely to send feeling-oriented information. But not always.

 

In the beginning, you might identify your preferred mode. If you are very visual and artistic, you might get a lot of pictures or inner movies, and you may want to practice sending images in return. If you like to talk and have conversations about ideas, then you might experience words and sentences, an inner translation that allows your connection to resemble a dialogue. If your expertise is in feeling, you may want to focus on sending emotions. We draw to us those forms of communication with which we are most comfortable in experiencing the world and expressing ourselves to the world.

 

What Are The Basics?

 

You may be astonished to learn that some animal communication teachers say nobody really teaches anyone to communicate with animals. Instead, it’s about helping students remember what they already know. As teacher, author, and communicator Tera Thomas notes, “There really isn't a ‘how to’. You can't teach anyone to communicate with animals—but you can help them to uncover their abilities and plug themselves in to their connection with all of life. That's the only ‘how to’ there really is.”

 

The basics of communicating with animals is really not that much different than communicating with people. You share an interesting thought or observation and then you await a response. This may excite you to share something else and listen eagerly as a reply comes your way. And so it goes, back and forth, an exchange of information, ideas, thoughts, feelings, laughter, sadness, joy and delight. What could be more natural?

 

    To read more from Tuli Bear and Rainbow, visit Tera Thomas at Hummingbird Farm.