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Carol, how did you first get involved with animal communication? I was introduced to the idea of animal communication through my veterinarian. My cat was hissing and batting at people. She didn’t like to be picked up or cuddled, and I thought, at the time, there might be a physical reason why she was exhibiting such aggressive behavior. Well, my vet told me that he could find nothing physically wrong with my cat, but that he thought it might be emotional. He then told me that there are people who can actually talk to animals and recommended that I pursue that avenue. I contacted an animal communicator who worked with my cat and gave me some suggestions as to how I could remedy the situation. After noticing a dramatic change in my cat’s behavior, I realized how important it is that we humans learn to “listen” to our animals so that we can truly understand what may be upsetting them emotionally. What exactly is animal communication? It’s like learning to speak a different language. When we meet someone who does not speak our language, we don’t assume he doesn’t have anything to say or can’t communicate. We just can’t understand him, and, if we want to communicate, we must either learn his language or use an interpreter. I was at a barn not too long ago and sensed a horse wondering why his guardian was having her trainer ride him. Later in the tack room the woman who was the guardian of the horse told me that she had a strange feeling and wondered why she was not riding her own horse. When I told her that was exactly how her horse was feeling, she realized that what she believed were her own thoughts, were really her animal’s thoughts and feelings. If you are close to your animal, you can be sure that you are communicating with them. Oftentimes you may not know that you are communicating with your animals. You may think the thoughts and feelings are your own. Can you give us an example of how you work with animals? There was a couple who had a dog that was beginning to snap at them and behave in a very strange manner. When they were cooking, the dog would run to the bathroom and wrap himself around the toilet bowl. He would also devour any paper products left on the coffee table. They asked if I could help them as they were considering putting the dog down. I sensed, as I entered their home, that the dog did not want to be touched. After sitting quietly with the dog for a while, I was able to feel how he felt when the couple were cooking. The odor of the food caused him to be nauseous and have a burning sensation in his stomach. The dog was trying to ease the fire in his stomach by placing himself against the toilet bowl, which was cooling and soothing. I communicated this to the people and told them their animal should get to a veterinarian immediately. After a visit to the vet, they discovered that their dog had so much bile in his stomach that the acidity was beginning to eat the stomach lining. The dog had been eating the paper products to try and absorb all the bile in his stomach! This animal was so smart in trying to take care of himself, but how else could he communicate to the couple that something was wrong other than snapping at them? He was in such pain. This is a case where if we had depended on animal behavior alone, the dog would have been labeled crazy and vicious. So here’s an example of an animal who was at risk of losing his life because he was trying to communicate his discomfort in a way that was being misunderstood. How does one begin to learn to communicate with animals? The main factor of animal communication is the ability to listen, which means to become sensitive, to use our intuition, to allow ourselves to really feel as that animal feels. Children have this natural ability, but as our society is so intellectually oriented, this gift of communicating with animals is slowly shut down as we grow older. It’s much like developing the skills of listening to your own inner voice. Our minds tend to override any intuitive feelings we have. Have you ever asked a friend how they are, and the person says, “Fine.” But something in you senses that there’s something bothering them and they’re just not telling you. Well, how do you know that? You just sense and feel the unspoken communication. It’s this same ability we use with the animals. Intuition is like a muscle that needs exercise. Some of us need more exercise than others, so it’s up to us to develop the strength in our intuition so that we can pay better attention in our communications with others. Couples often find that they become aware of what their partner is about to say even before the words are spoken. This can become quite common as two people get to know each other more intimately. You could liken animal communication to the way a baby communicates with his or her mother. No words are spoken, yet most mothers know exactly how their child is feeling and what his or her needs are. What have you learned from the animals? I feel the animals want us to learn to love ourselves the way they love us, which is unconditionally. People who have animals know what that love feels like. They don’t care what job we have; they don’t care what we look like; they don’t care if we wear rollers to bed. They love us for who we are and not for what we do for a living. I’ve also learned that animals are very much a reflection of us. They reflect things that are going on with us that we may shy away from dealing with. I knew a woman who had to muzzle her dog because if she was approached by anyone, the dog would go after that person. But if her vet took the dog into another room away from her, he could take the muzzle off and the dog would be fine. But, if the woman came into the room, the dog would snap at the vet. In this case, I could not get a clear sense of what was happening. After talking at length with the woman about her social life, she admitted that she really didn’t socialize that much because she felt uncomfortable around other people. I asked her just how uncomfortable she was with others, and once we started probing her feelings, she admitted that she was afraid of being attacked. As soon as she said that, a light bulb went on and she said, “This is not about my dog; it’s about me.” This dog was unable to communicate why he was attacking people, because he didn’t know. He was simply responding to his person’s innermost fear of being attacked. He was protecting her. In this case, there was no “quick fix” for the animal because it wasn’t his problem. The solution to this problem lay with the woman resolving her own inner fears. So besides listening and “talking” to animals, we need to look more closely at ourselves. Yes, the greatest gift we can give our animals is to be more aware of our own inner feelings. If an animal is behaving strangely, we can ask ourselves if there is anything we are doing that is being reflected back to us. If we ignore our own feelings, the animal will continue to reflect them. If the situation is corrected, the animal need not reflect it to us anymore. The dynamic will persist if we do not take responsibility for what is going on. In this way, we can really learn a lot about ourselves from our animals, and if we are willing, they can be our greatest teachers. *Originally published in The Natural Pet; July/August, 1993. Carol Gurney has developed the 7-Step HeartTalk Program™ to help people make a spiritual connection with their animal companions. Carol is the author of The Language of Animals and also presents her program through lectures, workshops, audio and videotapes. To learn more visit www.animalcommunicator.net Home  Health Directory Articles Index InterviewsReviews Links About Share Guide Contact us |
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