Elizabeth Fulton is an international acclaimed animal communicator and healer, who has been helping animals and their people for many years (www.healingforanimals.com).
Elizabeth has always been deeply connected to animals and has always been drawn to healing. As a child she communicated easily and naturally with animals and brought home all kinds of injured animals to nurse back to health. As a young adult she wanted to heal animals professionally but did not feel suited to be a veterinarian. Since there were no other avenues for healing animals at that time, she turned her attention to helping people heal from emotional wounds and trauma. She received a master’s degree in clinical psychology and worked as a therapist with children, adults and families. She also studied homeopathy for two years. When Elizabeth learned of Reiki energy healing, she realized that it was an extraordinary way to heal animals, and she reconnected with her true path: helping animals and their people with the challenges they face and strengthening the human/animal bond became her mission in life.
Elizabeth is a Reiki master and began her career with animals as a Reiki healer and teacher, working in shelters, with Guide Dogs for the Blind and the Elephant Sanctuary in Tennessee as well as with many private individuals and their animals. Elizabeth was one of the first people to have a Reiki practice devoted to animals and has given thousands of Reiki treatments to animals of all kinds, domestic, exotic, and wild. She has seen Reiki bring about many truly miraculous changes in the health and lives of animals and their people. She is the co-author of the book, Animal Reiki: Using Energy to Heal the Animals in Your Life.
As Elizabeth healed animals, the animals helped her natural ability to communicate with them to grow into a full-time animal communication practice. In time she has found that profound healing occurs using animal communication and flower essences very much as it does with Reiki, and, for the last twelve years, she has used primarily animal communication and flower essences in her work. She has worked with all kinds of animals, literally from A for alligator to Z for zebra. She is a certified Anaflora flower essence practitioner with many years of experience.
Elizabeth specializes in behavioral and emotional problems, illness and injury, death and dying, and after-death communication with animals. She also works with missing animals. Her clients come from all over the world and from all walks of life, including many in animal-related professions. Elizabeth’s assistance enhances her clients’ ability to understand and communicate with animals and deepens their connection with animals.
Elizabeth feels honored to be a consultant to a number of zoos, sanctuaries, rescues and non-profit organizations dedicated to wild, exotic and endangered animals. She supports the important work they do in healing individual animals, holding a space for the survival of these remarkable beings, and strengthening our collective bond with them.
INTERVIEW: EVELYN EINHAEUSER
How do animals communicate?
Well, I think that the most important thing to understand is that, unlike our normal day to day communication using speech, facial expressions, gestures, etc., animal communication takes place on an inner level. Humans have grown less familiar with this level over time as they have built an increasingly complex civilization. Animal communication is telepathic communication. It can also be described as deepened intuition. All of us have intuitive capabilities, which we are aware of in day to day life, and these can be developed and expanded to become telepathic communication. At one time many people were probably able to communicate telepathically with other species. Although many humans have lost touch with this ability, most animals have not and are adept at communicating with each other, at distances as well as in each other’s presence.
Telepathic communication can take place in many ways. Animals can send visual images, feelings, thoughts, ideas and sensations as communications. Sometimes these communications have words; sometimes they are just accompanied by a strong sense of how they fit together to form the communication.
Telepathic communication is a natural ability for all beings. Although many humans have lost touch with this ability, there are some words in our language that relate to animal communication, such as “intuition” and “telepathy”, and we can use them as a starting point in understanding what animal communication is. Intuition is “the ability to perceive or learn things without conscious reasoning.” At some time all of us have had experiences of intuition; we “just know” something without knowing how we know; but we feel confident that what we know is true, and results or circumstances later confirm this perception. Telepathy includes “feeling at a distance,” “communication by means other than the normal sensory channels,” and “transference of thought.”
Animal communication includes elements of all these definitions. It takes place without conscious reasoning and by means other than the normal sensory channels; it involves feeling at a distance and can involve transference of thought. In order for animal communication to take place you have to bypass the rational, linear mind. This is done by quieting the mind, allowing it to become as still and empty of thought and everyday “mind chatter” as possible. Meditation is an excellent way to quiet the mind and access the still, inner state in which animal communication can take place. My own path of re-connecting with my childhood ability to communicate with animals was through a combination of meditation practice and Reiki energy healing.
In addition to my meditation practice, I was a Reiki master with a practice devoted exclusively to animals. Reiki healing is in some ways similar to meditation: during a Reiki treatment the healer will sometimes enter a deep, meditative state in which the mind quiets and various subtle phenomena can be recognized. They include such things as feelings from an animal that very quickly and softly touch our consciousness and are gone. When we are in our dealing-with-the-world mentality, these things are too quick and subtle to register against the backdrop of all the worldly noise and the chatter of our own minds.
Communications from non-human beings go on around us all the time, but most people are not in a state to receive them. While the ability to be in this state is natural for all beings, non-human beings generally find it easier to access this state because they have done so continuously and haven’t lost track of this ability as so many humans have.
When the animals “speak,” it’s usually a subtle process; it’s rarely a voice speaking clearly in full sentences in one’s head, although that can happen. More often it’s a combination of subtle impressions. Releasing expectations is key to receiving communications from an animal. Many people have expectations about what animal communication is, but, in fact, becoming truly empty of expectation and thought is key.
Each animal has an individual style of communicating, just as people do. The ways in which animals communicate can involve visual images, thoughts, words, feelings, sounds, and other sensations. What you receive depends on the animal’s style and what he wants to make known. Understanding an animal’s communication is in some ways similar to translating from another language, in this case a language of energy and spirit. In addition, communication with an animal can involve a sort of merging with the animal. In this merged state you can know and feel things from the animal’s perspective, on the emotional and spiritual levels and often on the physical level as well, and this leads to understanding the situation from his perspective.
The way that animal communication is experienced also depends on the ways in which the person receiving the communication can most readily receive the information. I most often experience an animal’s communications as a combination of thoughts and finely-tuned nuances of feeling, both of which arise quickly and sequentially in the empty space I’ve cleared in my mind. Together they make very precise and often elegant communications from the animal about the matters of concern to them. Visual images also can play a part in building the animal’s communication. Although I’m a very visual person in general, visual images are not the main way in which I experience animal communication. Other sensory-like impressions can play a part but are not the chief way I experience communication.
In communicating with animals I never pressure them. I just make it clear that I’m available to listen and help them communicate with their human loved ones. As I talk with their people, I enter the animals’ world and let them offer what they want me to know in their own time and in their own way. I allow animals to evaluate the situation and me and reassure themselves that it’s safe to participate. In the long run this approach builds the greatest trust and leads to the greatest benefits for everyone.
What do they communicate?
Animals are capable of communicating very complicated and deep ideas and feelings, and many communicate with great elegance. There are immense rewards and excitement in communing intimately with the other species that share our planet. Their insights show a beauty, depth, and generosity to their natures far beyond what most humans are conditioned to believe is possible.
In terms of what animals communicate, there are few differences between humans and animals. For instance, they are concerned about their loved ones, their people as well as the other animals in their lives; they can experience worry and fear based on past experiences, and this can limit their behavior or lead to behavior that is distressing to their people; they want to be of help to their loved ones and can be very dedicated to helping their loved ones develop further, emotionally and spiritually, and in other ways that seem to them to lead to greater health and wisdom.
For example, you may find an animal who is very concerned about emotional distress in another animal in the household; one who feels insecure because his person is very stressed, sad, or depressed; one who is trying to help his person manage a difficult situation by disciplining other animals or even people in the only way he knows how, i.e. by growling or biting; one who is very worried about an unhealthy or abusive relationship his person is in; one who is trying to help his person to progress on his spiritual path at a time when the person has hit obstacles and feels unable to progress. Animals who are concerned about the high, unhealthy level of stress in their people’s lives are not at all uncommon, as well as animals who feel their person has veered off-track and is no longer pursuing the purpose they came to this life to accomplish.
You see animals at all levels of personal development just as you see people at all levels in this world. Some animals are very limited by earlier traumatic events and are engaging in undesirable behavior because it’s all they know to ward off traumatic memories or because they feel hopeless about anything changing (sometimes in spite of the fact they have found a stable, loving home). There are those who can’t get beyond their own needs and remain focused on whether they’re getting exactly the same amount of attention, food, etc. as the other animals in the household. Really you see the kinds of situations that you see with people. When you can communicate in depth with animals, you can readily understand what is causing the undesirable behavior that has led their people to seek help. And the good news is that animals are much easier to help.
There are two major differences that I see with animals. One is that animals don’t have the busy level of mind that people have. They don’t get caught up in going over and over the things that happen to them and making stories about them as we humans often do. They may acquire a sort of post-traumatic shock-like effect where certain things trigger a terrifying memory or the expectation of being hurt, but it’s a momentary thing, and they don’t go over and over it in their mind and think about all the other, similar things that could happen to them as people so often do. When they are offered the opportunity to talk about what they feel and what happened in the past, they can re-live it briefly in the consultation, receive whatever information or reassurances are appropriate, and then begin to release it, sometimes completely after one session and almost always after a series of sessions over several months (if their current situation is not continuing the unhealthy dynamic they experienced earlier).
The other major difference is that animals are unbelievably loving and almost uniformly forgiving. They don’t hold grudges and are open to change when the opportunity is given. I think most animal lovers understand the unconditional love they receive from their animal companions. They see the best in us, even when we are at our worst, and they always believe in the best. Over and over I’ve seen animals forgive even cruel and damaging treatment from their people because they understand how that came about in their person’s make-up. One of the very best things about working with people and animals is that I often see people make changes in their lives and behavior for their animals and to extents I never saw when I was working as a therapist. Because of the extraordinary bond of unconditional love between them, people will sometimes change the most difficult, challenging behaviors for their animals. I’ve seen people learn to control violent unpredictable tempers, stop drinking or using drugs, leave abusive relationships, seek treatment for severe depression, make amazing leaps of many kinds that they’d never before been able to do, all on account of their trust in and love for their animals. I really love the people I work with as much as the animals because I so often see them stretch themselves to understand their animal’s feelings and motivations and to do what’s needed to secure a happier, healthier life together. I have great admiration for the way that animals and their people work together and help each other.
In more specific terms, animals generally do not wish to chatter or to talk at all about things they consider of little importance; they tend to comment only on things that are really meaningful to them. People sometimes think that everything in an animal’s consciousness and memory banks is readily available to me, but in fact the animal is quite able to hold back anything he does not want to share or feels is irrelevant. They avoid topics which they feel are sensitive to their people and sometimes will not directly comment on even matters of importance to them if they feel the person would prefer that it remain confidential. They find ways to give me the information I need to be of assistance without revealing matters that are sensitive to their people.
Experience has taught me that it’s best to have a wide-ranging conversation with people about their lives with their animal. I pay attention to the changes in the animal’s feelings as we talk. Just as you or I will have various feelings as we listen to a conversation two people are having about us and things that occurred in our lives, animals will go through a range of feelings as we talk and I can feel those and use them to understand what the animal thinks and feels about the events we’re discussing, even if the animal is not commenting directly.
Sometimes the challenges that animals face mirror in important ways the challenges that we humans are confronting in our lives. Out of love for us, animals can try to assist us by bringing our attention to matters we need to be aware of to be at our healthiest and best. These matters can be physical symptoms of which we may be unaware or emotional or spiritual issues an animal takes on to focus our attention on the need for growth or healing.
Some animals have a great deal to say and offer a wealth of information and impressions. Other animals have only a few important things that they want to make known. Regardless of how much or little an animal has to say, being able to express his thoughts and feelings and communicate directly to his person is usually tremendously beneficial and frequently a great relief to him and his person as well.
Are different animals like dogs, horses, cats, or deer communicating similarly or do they have different communication styles depending on the species?
The way in which animals communicate is generally the same throughout the species. However, despite that generality, there are some differences. For instance, reptiles and amphibians often tend to communicate more slowly and to communicate only a few well-chosen ideas or concerns. Sometimes animals that are living in a group, such as birds or fish will communicate as a group, with a sort of group mind. Individual members can still communicate separately but some matters may be addressed as a group. Wild animals are generally very economical with their communications and concerned only with matters of real import. They are usually very willing to talk with humans and interested in discussing matters of great import to both humans and animals, such as the health of the environment and spiritual matters. When they become close to a person, they take a strong interest in the person’s welfare. Although most animals usually focus on what is really important to discuss, this is especially true of wild animals.
Exotic animals in zoos are often concerned with the welfare of their keepers as well as their family and friends, when they are in situations where there is warmth and interaction with their keepers. Domestic animals’ concerns almost always involve their people in some way. One usually needs to understand the animal’s family (human and animal) as a whole to understand his concerns as completely as possible.
Animals are like people in other respects. Sometimes you’ll hear someone described as an old soul, meaning someone who seems especially wise and evolved, or another described as a young soul, meaning someone who hasn’t grown beyond more basic concerns and probably not beyond his own perceived needs and concerns. You see old and young souls among animals as well and in communicating with them you’ll find their needs and concerns are very different.
All animals can communicate with great precision and elegance, and many animals can address complex and abstract ideas with great wisdom and insight. Some animals have achieved a high level of consciousness and spiritual understanding.
Can everyone learn to communicate with animals?
Yes, I think that everyone can learn to communicate with animals. Many of us started life doing so as children and let go of the ability as we grew older and learned we were not supposed to be able to do that. To learn to communicate with animals, one has only to have a sincere desire to do so, to believe it is possible, and to learn to quiet the rational, analytical mind so that the intuitive mind can operate. I think there are probably degrees of ability to communicate with animals, like there are degrees of ability with other things; some people find it easier and more natural to do, but I think everyone who truly wants to communicate with animals can learn to do so.
Can I communicate with my animal even if I am on travels or far away?
Yes, animal communication takes place at an inner level for both you and your animal. You don’t need to be in the animal’s presence or to be able to see, speak to, or hear the animal in order to communicate with him. You can be away from home, and, in fact, there is no limit on the physical distance that can exist between you. It is important that you are able to relax, empty your mind, give yourself over to the process, and be fully present with your animal, especially at the beginning. It’s best at first to be without interruption or concern about privacy. Later when you’re accustomed to communicating, you may be able to maintain your inner state in broader circumstances. Professional animal communicators maintain that inner state and connection with animals while talking with their people and listening to the animal, or perhaps several animals at once.
All beings, human and animal, have a body and a personality with which they interact with others in this world in everyday life. More fundamental to each being, however, is their spirit or energy or soul. Although we commonly think of our soul being held within our bodies and personalities, I think it’s really more appropriate to think of our bodies and personalities as being held within our souls. When we discard our bodies at the end of our mortal lives, our soul remains and is the eternal part of us that endures. True animal communication takes place at the level of the soul, a deep place at which we are all connected. This is why we can communicate with animals anywhere in this world and also after death as well. One doesn’t have to believe in spiritual matters to communicate with animals, but I think that it enhances the ability to communicate because many animals are quite spiritually aware and concerned with spiritual matters.
Why do you think some people are drawn to certain animals more than to others ( I am thinking about people who have a special liking for cats or horses or dogs, etc)?
Well, cats and dogs and horses all have the wonderful qualities of all animals in general, and each species has its own commonly accepted characteristics, such a devotion for dogs, independence for cats, etc. Dogs tend to be more selfless and cats more sensitive and psychic. You can list a few outstanding qualities for each species. I think people are attracted to different types of animals based on their own make-up, but in many varied ways. People are sometimes attracted to animals that have similar personality qualities to their own, others to animals with qualities that are in some way complementary to their own. Some people may feel the need for the steady unwavering support and devotion of a dog because of events in their lives that lead them to seek more certainty and security, for instance. But within these generalities there are really many different individual reasons why people choose to interact with certain animals. And that’s part of the magic of it, I think.
Oftentimes animals seem to look like their owners or show similar personality traits. Why do you think animals often resemble their owners?
I think this is related to what we were just talking about. People are often attracted to animals who have similar personalities or who have complementary personalities. And, like little old couples who have lived together a long time, animals that have shared our lives and interests can grow more like us in many ways, as the bond and understanding deepens between us.
What makes an animal choose us, for example if a stray animal like a cat decides to live with us and it is clear that this animal chose us and not necessarily the other way round?
Again, there’s an affinity there. Animals are very perceptive and stray cats, for example, will often survey a whole neighborhood carefully and astutely, taking the measure of the various people who live there, and then approach the person or household that seems the best fit for them. It can be the kindest-seeming household or perhaps the person who the cat feels can best benefit from the cat’s companionship and help. Sometimes one puppy in a litter will fix on a particular person who comes to view the litter and will know in an instant that he or she is meant to be with that person and will then “choose” them. They know instinctively that they are meant to have an important role in that person’s life and vice versa. Animals want to have a purpose in life and do best when they have one. Their purpose is most often in helping their person, although some extraordinary animals also become service animals in some way, for instance, therapy dogs or horses or Guide Dogs for the Blind.
You say that animals come into our life for a purpose. What purpose can that be? Can you give examples?
Well, over and over I see animals coming into people’s lives at what seems like a critical time. It may be just before or after a devastating death in the family, or when a young person is moving out on their own for the first time or when a person is facing a life-threatening disease or is in a depression. These are dramatic examples and of course there are less dramatic ones like the mother who is facing an empty nest; or someone who lives alone and lacks support; or a couple without children who have a lot of love and nurturing to give. I also see people whose spiritual life and growth is of paramount importance to them and whose animals share that strong spiritual passion. The animals’ devotion helps the person to maintain their practice and to rededicate themselves when they hit an obstacle. Sometimes the animals will even share the person’s devotion to a particular spiritual figure.
Can you talk a bit more about what animals can sense about situations and humans in your opinion?
Sure, there is really not much that we can keep from our animals. There are things which they’re not much interested in-the desire for material things for instance-and things that they don’t understand well-financial matters for instance-but they absolutely understand the nuances of emotion we feel as we think or talk about things, actually just about everything. And they understand what is pleasing or troubling to us without fail. Our animals really understand us as well or better than the people in our lives and are often quite wise about us, including understanding our purpose in life and how we can best develop along our path.
In many indigenous traditions, animals have a highly symbolic meaning and represent different functions. Some traditions also have the concept of animal spirits that support us on our spiritual journeys. What do you think of that? Do you think that animals are spiritual guides as well?
Animals are fully conscious, sentient beings just as we are. They have the full range of emotional life that we have, and they have spirits or souls and spiritual lives just as we do. They don’t have the kind of busy, chattering minds and tendency to always be thinking of the past or future or making all kinds of stories in their minds about the things that happen in their lives, as we do. As a result, they remain open to the present moment and to Grace in a way that people generally have to work pretty hard to achieve. There’s a quotation from Eckhart Tolle that I keep on a sort of inspiration board in my office that I’d like to read to you because it really speaks to this:
“I sometimes say animals are closer to God than humans. They are closer to the source. The humans are more lost in the mind forms. Being is more obscured to the human because of the overlay of ego and mental formation.
I call animals “guardians of Being,” especially animals that live with humans. Because, for many humans, it’s through their contact with animals they get in touch with that level of being.
We are destined… to return to being by going beyond thinking. The animals are at a level prior to thinking. They haven’t lost themselves in thought. We rise above thinking and then we meet them again, where we’re both in no-thought. There’s a deep connection.
The consciousness of the animal also begins to change when it interacts with a human who’s gone beyond thinking. It’s not only the animals assisting us; we are also assisting the animals. The animals certainly like to be close to humans, especially as humans go through the shift in consciousness.”
Animals are innocent, give their love unconditionally, and are more open to the present moment and to whatever divine energy flows in that moment; in that sense they are closer to God, whatever God or spiritual path you may believe in. I believe it’s because of this phenomenon that Tolle discusses that animals appear in so many spiritual traditions in special roles: as spirit guides, vehicles for the deities, or with other symbolic functions. The ancients were wise about the special qualities of animals.
I do believe in spiritual guides. I have seen many “old soul” type animals who fill the role of spiritual guide for their person in this life, and often afterwards as well. And there are archetypal animal spirits that represent the fine qualities of their species and work with seekers and all those who can be open to a spiritual dimension. There also are “young soul” type animals that can act as spiritual guides; in coping with unwanted behavior in their animals, people are often forced to confront things about themselves that are in need of growth or healing. In this way animals hold up a mirror to us to help us perceive and heal or transform areas in need of attention.
You said that „Animals are very good in holding the energy for things to come to their people“, so they help humans to achieve certain goals in life. Can you explain that a bit more and give an example or two?
Animals are natural contemplatives. They spend much of their time in a sort of quiet, meditative state, for instance, when their person is at work or out buying groceries. In that state they are especially close to Being or Spirit and are able to hold the energy for their people to have the healing or transformation or perhaps good fortune that they need. It’s really almost a sort of prayer state that animals naturally assume. I always encourage people to talk to their animals, out loud or at an inner level, about their lives and concerns in all respects. Animals understand almost everything we say, either the words or the nuances of feeling that accompany the words. When they have more information about their people’s needs and aims, they can do a better job of helping them by surrounding them with love and holding the energy for these things to come to their people. It’s also a much healthier way for animals to help their people than by trying to take on a negative influence that’s affecting their person. For many highly intelligent animals, it gives them interesting things to consider in their quiet alone time as well. I usually encourage people to talk with their animals about their lives and what they’re trying to make happen. This can involve material things, like a house or career advancement, or matters of personal development, such as overcoming a tendency to depression or anger.
I often feel that if a person in the family is sick, the animal is taking on the energy of the sickness. Or it is taking on the energy that is prevalent in the family, like anger, etc. Do you agree? If so: Is this consciously done to help or unconsciously done because animals are so empathic? Do you think that an animal taking on a sickness or energy has a healing function and actually helps the sick person or family constellation?
Yes, I agree. Animals will take on such things as our sickness or angry energy to their detriment in an effort to help us because this is sometimes the only way they think of to help. When animals live closely with people, sometimes they can take on some of the less healthy qualities and practices of people and “forget” some of the natural wisdom and practices of the animal kingdom. I think this tendency to take on such things as illness or anger is partly conscious and partly unconscious, because much of animals understanding and response is intuitive and empathetic. I haven’t ever seen it help a sick person or family, however. Usually it adds to everyone’s distress and the overall level of stress when the animal becomes sick or behaves in an angry way. One of the things I try to do is help people and animals to find a healthy way that the animal can help in the challenging situation. Often this is by reconnecting with an inborn ability to hold the energy for things to resolve in a positive way, as we were just talking about.
There is something about animals that is healing. Horses for example are often used to help in the therapy of handicapped people and the purring sound of cats has a sound frequency of 25 to 50 hertz, which is proven to be the optimal frequency for supporting fracture healing and bone growth. What have you learnt about the healing capacity of animals?
Animals are natural healers and teachers. In their great love and selflessness they so often offer healing to those around them. Part of their purpose is often to show us what unconditional love is, to surround us with it, to hold the energy for us to progress toward our highest selves, to hold a mirror up to us to show us where we have work to do to reach our potential. There are many furry gurus running around in our world (and some that are feathered, or scaled, etc.).
You are healing animals. Can everybody become an animal healer and how to become one?
Yes, I think anyone can become an animal healer. Many people are already healing animals in their own way. Loving our animals and doing our best to understand them and help them be safe, healthy and happy is very healing for them. There are many ways to heal, both through conventional medicine and alternative methods. I think that a mixture of conventional and alternative methods makes the best integrative approach to healing, when possible.
The methods to which I’ve been drawn and which I have found very powerful for animals are animal communication, Reiki energy healing, and flower essences; and these are the ones I know most about. They also have the advantage that they can be used successfully even when you can’t get close to or touch an animal. Each of these methods is relatively easy to learn and get started with and is remarkably effective right from the start as a beginner.
Reiki healing is perhaps the easiest. You know the saying about “there’s no such thing as a free lunch”? Well, I always say that Reiki is the exception to this. It is inexpensive and quick to get started with and yields wonderful healing benefits right from the start. Animals will show you how to give them treatments and will help you progress in your healing. It can be given to any animal, anywhere. For seven years I was the local health clinic for several herds of deer at one of our former homes. The deer would come to my house when they were in need of healing, going around looking in the windows to find me and let me know they were there. Over that time I saw Reiki heal an amazing array of injuries and illnesses, from broken bones, gangrene, illnesses and injuries, deep lacerations, so many things-and it helped a deep bond to grow between the deer and myself so that we looked after and helped each other. I have seen similarly amazing results in many other settings with many animals. I’m the co-author of the book Animal Reiki: Using Energy to Heal the Animals in Your Life. The book details how to give Reiki treatments to animals, since in some important ways giving a Reiki treatment to an animal can differ from giving a treatment to a person, and includes well over a hundred stories about how Reiki can be used for the benefit of animals.
Animal communication and flower essence treatment are both also fairly easy to learn. The thing that makes animal communication a bit more of a process for many people is learning to detach from their everyday rational mind, grow inward and quiet and then to recognize the subtlety of communications and learn to trust their understanding. Once this is achieved, things usually progress pretty quickly. I recommend having a mentor to work with, to talk over experiences with and get some guidance in the first period of learning animal communication. Flower essences are also relatively easy. One has to learn the properties of the various essences but there are several lines of essences that produce wonderful blends for different situations and that makes the task easier. People can learn them on their own but I think it helps a great deal to have a mentor in the process.
What can I do if I live with several animals and they don’t necessarily get along with each other because one came after the other and there is rivalry? Can I pacify the situation in some ways?
It is often possible to resolve the issues that prevent animals in a household from getting along. My approach is to begin by talking with the animals to understand what is causing problems from each animal’s point of view, just as you would with people who were not getting along in a similar situation. When you understand what is troubling each animal, you may see the situation differently and may be more empathetic, for instance, to an animal who previously appeared to be a troublemaker or one who just wouldn’t stand up for herself. Sometimes the person has to be willing to change their perception of the situation for change to take place. You can talk with the animals about how to address each’s concerns and to the person about how to adapt their handling of the situation to allow for change. It is usually quite possible to achieve at least meaningful improvement and often to obtain peace in the household. Sometimes this takes several appointments over several months to complete the process. I like to have people use flower essences after the communication appointment to keep the changes we have begun to put in place moving along well after the appointment.
What have you learnt from your work with animals that you feel people should know?
Well, I think we’ve covered almost everything! Let’s see if I can summarize:
Animals are intelligent and have emotions very much like yours. Far from being a “lower order” animals are really members of cultures different from our human ones. Their intelligence goes far beyond instinctual drives. They often have an astute understanding of other beings, human and non-human, and of complex emotional and spiritual matters. When we see animals in this way we can be far more effective in understanding and helping them.
Animals are fully conscious, sentient beings just as we are, with souls or spirits just like our own. They remain open to the present moment and to Grace in a way that people generally have to work hard to achieve. They can help us in our spiritual evolution and can benefit from being with us as we evolve spiritually.
Animals understand us much better than we may think. They are very sensitive to the emotional states of those around them, human and animal, and monitor them closely. One of the wonderful things about animals is that, although they see all of our qualities, even those we dislike, they are endlessly compassionate and loving toward us and focus on the best in each of us.
Animals have a purpose in our lives. Animals want to be of help to us in our own development and benefit when their people allow them to become close friends and confidantes. Some animals develop their own ideas of how they want to be of help to us; others would like to know more from their people about how they can be of help. Animals are very good at holding the energy for things to come to their people if their people let them know what they’re working toward. Talking to your animal increases the understanding and bond between the two of you and helps your animal know how he can be of greater help to you. Animals thrive when they have an intimate partnership with their person.
One of the things you can do to help your animal to stay healthy and strong is to take good care of yourself, physically, emotionally and spiritually. Like people, animals can become ill out of concern for human loved ones. Similarly they can develop emotional and behavioral issues from worry or in an attempt to help a loved human by taking on matters that are troubling their person. Our animals also can look to us as an example of how to handle things so taking good care of ourselves helps them to do the same.
Just like people animals are much more willing to cooperate when they understand the situation. When their person explains how their cooperation will contribute to their safety and well-being or that of others, animals are often much more willing to offer their cooperation.
The wild animals of our world are more interested in and available for communion with us than many people think. They are usually very gratified by people’s desire to connect with them and give generously of themselves for the benefit of all of the earth’s inhabitants.
Years of communicating with and healing animals have shown me that animals have their own wisdom about situations and about what they need. My goal is always for the animal to be a partner in what I’m doing, whether it is animal communication or healing. I think a truly integrative approach to healing animals respects the wisdom and autonomy of animals as fully sentient beings and takes into account their knowledge and preferences in treating them. Deeper and broader healing is obtained in this way. I hope that as a culture we will move increasingly in this direction.
THANK YOU!
.jpg)
