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.
Back to Table of Contents
Read next excerpt
Buy
the Book!