TALKING to ANIMALS:
Encountering the Soul of Nature
by David Louis

By now you've probably heard of animal communication. Penelope Smith and others began their pioneering work almost a quarter century ago; recently the phenomenon has become very popular, with the success of books and films on the subject, and Animal Planet's Pet Psychic special.

Having a communication session with your companion animal is a bit like having a psychic reading or healing, only for your "pet!" Thoughts, feelings, impressions, opinions: all come through the communicator as s/he tunes in to your animal's energy-many finding their way into words, sentences, phrases-conversation, from the animal's point of view.

As an animal communicator, I am most often consulted when there is a difficulty-a behavior or health problem that hasn't been solved in the more conventional methods, such as training or veterinary assistance. I don't have a secret formula, and I can't guarantee success, but what I do is listen to the animal and find out what is occurring from their perspective. This awareness is almost always accompanied by potential solutions.

People also contact me when their animals have trouble getting along with each other, or respond negatively to a particular member of the household. More and more I find that there is a deep sadness underneath a frightened or aggressive animal. My work with them involves clearing away this sadness so that they are able to feel as relaxed and happy as they would like to.

Some people just want to know what their animals think about, how they feel, and whether they are satisfied with their homes and lives. These calls are fun for everyone: "owner," animal and communicator. Imagine your animal's personality translated for you into language! It's fun and fascinating to hear the things they say, the particular way they express themselves. And it's never quite what you expect!

When people ask me about my work, I often find myself struggling to find words to express how it makes me feel. "There's an incredible sweetness to what I do," I tell them, wondering if something of my meaning will find its way into my face or voice, or if the word "sweetness" will resonate with them as it does with me.

Communicating with animals is sweet, indeed. It is also very rich, and deep, and intense, and sometimes melancholy or even heartbreaking. And mostly always fun, and always fascinating. As an animal communicator, I feel as though I've been given a key to a secret world, one richer than my own, which I can enter and reside in whenever I choose. It's a world of conscious presence, a world of deep feeling, a technicolor world of multi-sensory experience. It's the everyday world of animals' experience.

How can I explain it to you?

I have a friend named Zeke. He's a two-year old golden retriever. Zeke and I have never "met" in the conventional sense. I've never seen him in person, never even seen a photo of him, nor heard his bark from the other side of a door or over a telephone. Yet I feel that I know Zeke, and I call him a friend because he has shared with me intimate details of the joy of his daily experience. I know something very important about Zeke, and I know it because he told me. Because of this sharing, I may know Zeke better than I do many of my human acquaintances.

Zeke's "mom" was concerned about his running away-getting out the door, and not coming back when called. Zeke told me, "I love the feeling of hurtling through space." Simple enough words, it's true, but as I heard them I also saw Zeke at play, and felt, very, very deeply his absolute exhilaration, the complete joy he feels when flying across an open field with no regard for destination. Zeke lives for this experience, and the opportunities he has to fling himself full-tilt into the air with total abandon are his happiest moments.

Everything that is alive has consciousness. Consciousness, because it is shared by all creation, communicates. To communicate with any creature, or any aspect of creation, one need only to learn to listen. It isn't a matter of "doing" anything. It is rather, a learning to allow the natural flow of information-- images. thoughts, feelings, perceptions-to enter and reside in our consciousness. This appears difficult because we have created many distractions. In fact, we've become so adept at creating distractions that we've mostly forgotten how to listen, and how to trust, identify and interpret what we receive.

As healers, human beings have a responsibility to reconnect with the natural world. Reconnection will heal humans, and it will also heal the natural world, particularly the animal kingdom. Animals exist now in a largely forgotten realm of distance from our immediate experience. Despite all of our affection and attention, we rarely truly respect them, or endeavor to truly understand them. Instead we project our own thoughts, feelings and desires onto them, and we expect our companion animals to provide us with comfort, companionship and attention, primarily on our terms.

Animal communication is not, however, a movement which is attempting to change the way people relate to animals. If it is a "movement" at all, its purpose is to give voice to the animals-their thoughts, feelings, ideas, and concerns. Once these are revealed, human behavior will change as a matter of course. Truth heals, whether we like it or not.

As I was writing this article, I was paid a surprise visit by my cat Merlin, who passed into spirit last November at the age of fourteen. He had an interesting message for me and you, and I'd like to close with it.

"When I lived as a cat I was loyal and very loving and affectionate; now, I am a teacher of the highest order, a teacher and healer of animals and people-more specifically, of the relationship between animals and people. Talk to us. We always welcome you. Talk to us, but more importantly, talk with us and listen because what we have to say may not always be what you want to hear."

David Louis is a professional Animal Communicator, psychic medium and certified Intuitive Counselor, David studied Interspecies Telepathic Communication with internationally acclaimed communicator Dawn Hayman and the staff of Spring Farm CARES. He is one of very few male animal communicators in the world, and is listed in the International Directory of Interspecies Telepathic Communicators, published by pioneer Penelope Smith. He provides in-person or telephone consultations internationally, from his home in Averill Park, NY, where he lives with his wife and two stepchildren. David can be reached via email at: lifelessons1@juno.com, or by phone at 518-674-0057.