Animal communication for skeptics
By Christie Keith
October 14, 2008
My editor at the SF Chronicle/SFGate.com asked me if I’d write an article about animal communication, and I said, you don’t want me to write that. I’m a non-believer.
She thought that approach would make an interesting article, and so, since she’s the boss, I wrote it.
Fortunately, I’ve been friends for years with a very well-known animal communicator and author of three books on the subject, Marta Williams. She went along with my desire to write “animal communication for skeptics,” and was a pretty good sport about the whole thing.
My basic premise is this: even if you don’t believe, several of the exercises and techniques used in animal communication are helpful in dealing with pet problems, and in our own decision-making process:
That would probably be a harder case to make if modern animal communication came with all the trappings of mysticism – Madame Zenda in a purple robe, gazing into a crystal ball and intoning your cat’s secret thoughts. But today’s animal communicators don’t usually ask your pets to comment on the nature of the universe or the meaning of life after death. Instead, their approach is practical and results-oriented, focusing on lifestyle, behavior and health concerns. The sessions are more likely to be conducted by a jeans-clad teacher in a humane society auditorium than a séance chamber.
To be fair to Marta, she sees it very differently than I do. After I told her that to me, the exercises were really nothing more than an opportunity to turn off the mental static and, basically, meditate until some clarity emerged, she said:
(S)he was glad her exercise helped me but said I was missing the point. What she calls hunches and feelings aren’t coming from inside of you. According to her, they’re direct communications from the animal. “It’s not just a matter of mulling over what you’ve seen or observed,” she told me. “People and animals can exchange thoughts, feelings, and images nonverbally over a distance. That’s what this is. I use ‘intuitive communication’ to describe it, but another term would be extrasensory perception – perceiving outside the known confines of our five senses.”
She offered the experience of the students in her animal communication classes to make her point. “They’re working with a partner they’ve never met before, getting information about an animal who isn’t there, who they’ve never seen.” Even so, she said, these paired exercises typically result in accuracy rates of between 70 and 90 percent, some of it objectively verifiable information such as names, colors or health problems.
What about you? Have you ever used an animal communicator, or tried it yourself? Are you a believer or a skeptic?
The article is here.
The BRILLYUNT communicumator hired by my professional society to occupy lecture time for an annual conference was able to discern, on being presented, at a dog trainer’s conference, with a gentleman wearing khakis and a whistle on a fancy lanyard, and his wiry, bouncy, keen retriever, was able to discern that “She enjoys doing something with you, also there’s a cat she doesn’t like at all and wants to go away.” Goose egg, sez the field trialer, she sleeps spooned with the cat. “Oh, but there is a cat!”
Wow. What a great use of our educational time.
Another one, at a pet fair, was working with pictures. She had quite a tale of woe for this poor shelter dog: http://tinyurl.com/4d5omy
What a narrative of woe and abandonment! All the reasons why this dog was shy, snappy, and reactive.
Except, it was a photo of my first SAR dog, Lilly, specially staged at the vet’s office, and deliberately badly shot and awkward looking. Lilly came to live with us when she was eight weeks old. She was bold, happy, social, and confident her entire life.
Then there’s the chatting with dead pets, who always say that their owners’ euthanized them at the exact right time. Good to know, eh?
I absolutely believe in Animal Communication. Do it every day, two ways, receive and send. It’s called “training.” Or just “paying attention.”
Comment by H. Houlahan — October 14, 2008 @ 5:41 am
Do believe, taken classes, done exercises and have had uncanny experiences. I tend to subscribe to slightly woo-woo type beliefs so it fits in my worldview.
Plus I happen to have met either some darn good guessers who do animal communication or there is something to it.
Comment by Sheyna — October 14, 2008 @ 7:40 am
I won’t rule it out…there are more things in heaven and earth and all that. String theory, it’s all wibbly-wobbly energy bits, conservation of matter, massive unused portions of our brains for what?, yeah, science has a long way to go and I like to stay open to the possibilities.
I’ve tried some communicators and gotten both crap results (like when I was worried about my 16 yr old cat sleeping so deeply - communicator said that she was getting ready to die - turns out she had just gone deaf…lived for five more years) and interesting results (two cats who weren’t getting along suddenly becoming a bit more tolerant of each other), but nothing spectacular where I could say, “Ah-ha!”
Comment by mikken — October 14, 2008 @ 8:34 am
I’m a believer. I can’t do it myself despite attending workshops, but I’ve seen it with my first Flat-Coat. I took her to her first flyball class, and to my horror she attacked another dog. This was unlike her and her breed. At a show soon afterward, a communicator was doing a fundraiser for rescue, so I bought a session. I didn’t tell her the sport or anything about the other dog. She spoke to Zubie, then gave me her response. “That white bitch stole my ball!” It was a white Poodle, and Zubie believed that all tennis balls were her personal property. The communicator told her she’d miss a lot of fun if she didn’t allow other dogs to share her balls at flyball.
I took Zubie to flyball class the next week, and she looked unhappy about the other dogs holding her balls, but she made it clear she would tolerate it and went on to joyfully race for several years.
Some people have mnore of a gift than others, but it is real.
Comment by Theresa — October 14, 2008 @ 9:01 am
My friend who rescued a formerly abused and starved Irish Setter had a very positive experience with a “Pet Psychic.” But I think it was mainly positive because the woman told her what she wanted to hear: Fergie was happier now and starting to forget the things that happened to her. That Fergie didn’t care what they did together she just wanted to be with my friend. I could have told her all those things, but if it gave her some peace of mind and didn’t hurt the dog, then “whatever gets you through the day.”
I must admit that I don’t want to completely discount it though. Just because I want it to be possible.
Comment by Lori — October 14, 2008 @ 11:18 am
I give animal communication the same verdict as UFOs, Sasquatch, Ghost Hunters, etc: I WANT to believe…
Comment by slt — October 14, 2008 @ 12:26 pm
Those I’ve talked with and seen are, IMO, far too much like bad palm readers. Pitching broad generalizations while searching for bits of acknowledgment they can hype as ‘success.’
I do believe that there is a great value in shutting your mouth and opening your eyes and heart to listen to an animal (and to each other). Something we do far too little of these days.
Comment by Janeen — October 14, 2008 @ 12:52 pm
I know one person who I believe is a “for real” animal communicator. She’s a vet tech for a veterinary acupuncturist/chiropractor and also is skilled at therapeutic massages for dogs and horses, so she’s pretty in tune to animals anyway. But from what I’ve seen this is above and beyond normal observation.
She does NOT charge for communicating.
I was still skeptical until one day I was in the office with one of my dogs who has a seizure disorder. After she has a seizure, part of the routine is to give her ice cream to get her blood sugar back up, and also to reassure her. I had never mentioned this to this woman, but that day my dog had had a seizure the night before, and had gotten her ice cream. While we were in the office, my dog walked up to this tech and looked up into her face. The woman looked at me and said, bemusedly “She’s asking for more ice cream. What’s she talking about?”
Comment by Barb — October 14, 2008 @ 1:57 pm
I have 3 dogs who exhibit seizure activity, none of it more than simple partials, nor severe enough to require medication. I have used 2 different communicators to help me with the IE. The dogs have learned/are learning to alert me when they are pre-seizure by assuming a position unique to them that says “I don’t feel so good, I think it’s happening again.” I have also consulted on their dietary needs, and removed foods that cause them problems from their individual diets. So my experience on that level has been positive and effective.
Training issues? Behavior? Past history? I am not so sure of the validity. Dogs ( or cats) are not above telling us what we want to hear.
I have personally experienced dogs either coming to me after they have just died, or have had dogs try to non verbally communicate their problems to me. I don’t like it one whit. I think I am totally nuts when it happens, doubt the validity of the experience, and do my best to keep it from happening again. Why? My college training was in the hard sciences. The hard sciences have no room for this kind of extra sensory perception/intuition. We are trained away from it as a society about the time we so amusingly discover an “invisible” friend as children, and it’s all downhill from there.
So do I believe some people can actually, usefully communicate non-verbally with other mammalian species? Yes, I do. Is it a perfect technique? No. Are there charlatans, of course. There are always cheaters amongst the ape family, especially if the “cheating” can be used to the cheater’s advantage.
Comment by Anne T — October 14, 2008 @ 3:45 pm
I’ve taken some classes. In one, there was a German Shepard whose owner was trying to decide whether to euthanize him because he attacked anyone and everything. She brought him out so that 4 of us could do a ‘session’. I ventured 3 items. a) the dog hated being here as a dog, b) adored the woman c) loved strawberries. Amazingly, the woman stated they each shared a bowl of strawberries every night. I’ve had some mild success other times. My problem(s) is that I don’t try to communicate with other 4-legged animals often enough and I don’t entirely have faith in my own ability. I have used other animal communicators when I needed assurance that what I was thinking or feeling was correct for my own pets.
Comment by VJ — October 14, 2008 @ 4:24 pm
I’m not prone to credulity in this sort of thing, but I’ve had some pretty weird experiences that make me think some folks - not all, by any means - do have a heightened ability to “hear” what animals are “saying.” I also think some animals are better than others at talking back.
I’m not a UFO believer or any of the other usual paranormal stuff — but on this one, I’ve got an open mind. Humans have had domestic companion animals longer than we’ve had written language, and maybe longer than we’ve had complex language - the jury’s still out on that one. The fact that we can’t quantify all the details of how animals communicate with us isn’t proof that they aren’t trying.
Comment by LauraL — October 14, 2008 @ 9:18 pm
I’m a closet intuitive (coming from the zoo world you would understand) and worked in an innovative clinic where we had two animal psychics to round out the team in the early 1990s.
Since we all cross referred (I did the animal behavior and training for the clinic) we all took each others classes.
Today I have three animal communicators that I refer to or will consult when I have a case when I am not making the headway I think we should see.
For the toughest decision of my life, euthanizing my dog, I called in a communicator.
There is a long funny story about this but I’ll save it for my blog or another time.
But yes, I believe in animal communicators and I don’t dismiss alternative therapies as part of a total program.
One of my buddies, Carol Gurney is working to standardize training and documentation because there are a lot of charlatans out there.
Comment by Diana L Guerrero — October 15, 2008 @ 11:08 am
My thinking is that there is a lot of unknown waiting to be discovered.
I am open to all theories and possibilities, but I do know that there are a lot of chalatans to be wary of.
So far, life has taught me that there is more than what is obvious.
Comment by Colorado Transplant — October 15, 2008 @ 11:34 am
File me in the “want to believe, but doesn’t” category.
It’s too easy to fake, and the anecdotal stories, while nice, could be coincidences or “educated guesses” especially if the person knows you.
I’ve said similar (but not pet related) things to gullible friends. I even currently hold a 100% pregnancy prediction (as in before they even knew for sure, if not before they suspected it themselves) rating out of about 7 people (6 yes, 1 no). But that’s not because I’m a pro at fetus communication, just lucky. It also doesn’t come up that often.
Comment by Christine S — October 15, 2008 @ 12:19 pm
After my dog passed, I came across animal communication. The death of my beloved girl was so final, I couldn’t handle it. So I tried several animal communicators. I wanted so much to believe. A few hit some notes of ‘maybe,’ some were completely ridiculous and off the mark, but none gave me a communication with my dog that showed they were really speaking to her. I spent money I shouldn’t have on these people, and ended up not having that contact with my beloved dog I craved so much for.
I think many who contact animal communicators are in need, or grieving, and it is so easy to rip such people off, like myself, desperate to believe. And, I still have not completely dismissed the possibility of the real thing out there. Just that I can’t afford to go on a hunt for one. Am I gullible or what.
Comment by A.L. — December 14, 2008 @ 10:26 am