Balanced Living Magazine - November - December 2005

A New Way of Talking

By Marta Williams

    Each of us has the ability to communicate intuitively with animals and nature – to converse with other life forms by mentally exchanging thoughts, emotions and images. I believe this is an ancient, innate characteristic of all life, the foundation of spoken and written words and the common link between all species. People of ancient cultures probably used their intuition daily in interactions with animals and nature. Modern-day humans are born with this ability, but we are subtly conditioned to repress it as we grow up. There is little room in the logical modern mind-set for the sometimes vague and often emotional messages conveyed to us by our intuition. Centuries of civilization have robbed us of the use of intuition, yet it is possible to recover our intuitive skills.

    Intuitive communication is not the same as reading body language, such as knowing that your cat wants to go outside because she's sitting at the door staring at you. It is something completely different, something that conventional science holds to be impossible – the ability to send and receive thoughts, images, feelings and other sensory data mentally, without using any sound or gesture.

    Most of us can relate to the idea of intuition and have had hunches or gut feelings about things, such as whether to trust a stranger we've just met, whether to take a job offer or whether someone is angry with us. Intuition is a useful survival tool and even though suppressed, it often will surface in a crisis to inform us of some threat or critical event such as an ill or dying relative.

    Animals recognize the survival value of intuition and never disconnect from it. They are constantly scanning the environment for intuitive data, alert for any changes, such as shifts in the emotional states of those around them. If your otherwise jovial dog starts acting suspicious of a stranger, take heed: your dog may sense something you don't. Intuitive communication can be done at a distance and you don't have to see or know the animal with whom you wish to speak.

    Here is an example of how it works. At a workshop held at a farm, my students interviewed four Norwegian fjord horses. We knew the horses were female, and we could see that one was young and one was pregnant. The students mentally spoke with the horses and then got feedback from the woman who regularly cared for them.

    This woman was skeptical but as the students relayed their questions, she became amazed. One student asked, “Was that mare brought in from another farm? Did they use her for jumping and then get rid of her because they wanted a bigger horse?” The caretaker nodded.

    Another asked, “When they got rid of her, did they get a big black Friesian horse instead? That's the image the mare showed me.” Again, the caretaker nodded.

    More questions followed. “Were the other three horses all born here? Is that mare over there the mother of this baby, and is the mare next to the baby her grandmother? That's what the baby said.” The caretaker confirmed this, too.

    Most of the information the students got from the horses turned out to be accurate. The caretaker immediately wanted to know how to learn to do what the students had done.

Sending Information Intuitively
There are two parts to intuitive communication: sending information and receiving information. Sending is by far the easiest. Try this experiment: For a two-week period talk to your animal aloud as if he or she understands you completely. Tell your animal how you feel or how your day went – just as you would converse with a person. Politely ask your animal to change any behaviors that might be bothering you. If there is something you would like your animal to do, just ask for it.

    Keep a written record of any changes in your animal's behavior. If your animal complies with your requests and suggestions, be sure to give lots of feedback and appreciation. Many people who try this exercise discover that it works so well they make it a permanent change in the way they relate to their animals. At a minimum, I recommend talking aloud to your animal to explain any changed circumstances or potentially stressful activities before these events occur. This gives the animal a “heads up” and an opportunity to adjust to the coming changes.

    A client of mine, Geoffrey Levens, tried this talking experiment with his cat Willie. Willie often rubbed against people's legs to beg for food and had his humans trained to put more food in his bowl at this signal. One day, as Willie was doing this, Geoffrey said, “Hey, if you want food, why don't you go point at your dish instead of coming to me?” Willie instantly stopped, gave Geoffrey a strange look and turned to walk toward the dish. As he approached it, he froze in mid-stride, stretched his head forward and raised his bent front leg, like a pointer spotting a bird. Willie got a lot of extra food that day!

    After you've been talking for a few weeks, you can ask your animal to do something or act in such a way as to provide you with indisputable proof that you have been heard and understood. For example, my sister asked her food-obsessed horse to leave his hay and come give her a kiss, which he did to her complete astonishment.

Receiving Information Intuitively
Receiving intuitive information is harder than sending because you have to learn to recognize the incoming information. Once you contact an animal intuitively and initiate a dialogue, all information that pops into your head at that point is potentially about or directly transmitted by the animal. The information can come in the form of visual images, feelings (both emotional and physical), ideas, words or phrases that pop into your mind. The art of receiving is to trust this incoming information and record it without question. Then you can check with the animal's owner to verify what you received.

Hearing Your Own Animals
Oddly enough, it can be easier to receive information intuitively from an animal you don't know than from one you do. That's because you know so much about your own animals that it may be impossible to get around the feeling that you are just making things up. In addition, there is no easy way to verify the data you receive from your own animals. To counteract this, I recommend that you try this experiment: Ask your animal, “Do you have a question for me?” If a question pops into your head, no matter what it is, assume it came from your animal and answer it as best you can by talking aloud or sending thoughts. Ask for more questions and keep answering until your animal is finished. If you are successful, you will bypass your inner critic and experience what it feels like to receive information intuitively. You may also find that you and your animal end up in a back-and-forth discussion of a subject that your animal has chosen. If your animal doesn't have a question or you just don't get anything, let it go and tell your animal that you will ask again another day.

Marta Williams has always had an affinity for animals and a love for nature. She earned her degrees in biology and resource conversation and then worked in wildlife re-habilitation, habitat restoration and environmental regulation. The author of numerous magazine and journal articles, she now lectures, teaches and offers clinics on animal and nature communication worldwide. She lives in Northern California and her website is www.martawilliams.com.