Animal Communications Do you believe or not?
By Richard K
Have you ever wondered what your horse is thinking? Do you see him gazing into the distance and wish you knew what he was daydreaming about? Well what if I was to tell you that there are people who can communicate with animals without even being in the same room as them? This is the claim that is being put forward by ‘pet telepathists’- individuals who make their living from delving into the minds of troubled creatures. The birth of the Internet has seen a boom in animal psychics, with telepathists offering everything from diagnoses of the causes of antisocial behaviour to remote horse counselling. Many operate at a distance and only require a photo and a bit of background information in order to go to work.
2011, a mare and a foal belonging to a man called Frank from Southern Ohio broke out of the barn where they were being kept. Frank managed to locate them in a nearby field but they were terrified and wouldn’t let him get close. Fearing that the bond with his horses had been destroyed, Frank called up pet psychic Diane Schuette, who went to speak to the distressed animals. Within a matter of hours, Diane was walking the horses back to their owner as if nothing had happened. Frank was gushing with praise for the talented clairvoyant and declared that she really was a true horse whisperer.
Equally impressive is the case of Mrs Yeates from High Peak in Derbyshire and her horse Noli. Mrs Yeates
where all else had failed.
Remarkable as these cases might be, there are still those who believe that animal communication is simply make-believe. President of Rationalists International Sanal Edamaraku is outspoken in his criticism of telepathists. “Pet psychics or pet communicators who claim to talk to animals through telepathy and sell this idea to gullible pet lovers are class one fraudsters,” he says. “Since telepathy itself is a pseudo-science based on magical thinking, pet psychics should be classified as swindlers.”
Joe Nickell of the Committee for Skeptical Enquiry is equally disbelieving. ‘Having studied pet psychics at their work, I find they are using very simple ploys,’ he says. ‘Basically they are using the old fortune-teller’s mainstay- a technique called ‘cold reading’. This is an artful method of fishing for information from a pet owner while giving the impression that it has been obtained psychically from the pet. After all, it is the owner, not the pet itself, who validates the pronouncements. Among the common cold- reading techniques pet psychics use are noting the obvious, making safe statements, asking questions, and offering vague statements that most people can apply to
According to Trish Scott, author of ‘Animal and Nature Communication- A Journey Toward Wholeness’, communication with animals is simply a matter of rejecting conventionally held beliefs and tapping into a forgotten skill that all human beings possess. “To face reality means to go along with whatever predominant ideas of reality your culture has decided works best to keep people in their place,” she says. “There is no aspect of ‘other’ that is not known to all so all that is needed to communicate is to tune into that part of yourself that is operating as another self, a dog or a tree for instance.”
This may sound like something out of Doctor Doolittle but horse psychics are capable of achieving surprisingly accurate results. In July
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consulted animal communicator Annie Marston after Noli fell sick and started having trouble standing up. It was a matter of either putting her faith in the supernatural or having her horse put down. Annie told Mrs Yeates that she would send her healing powers over to Noli three times over the course of the following week. Within a day, the poorly horse showed signs of improvement and by the end of the week she was as good as new. Pet telepathy had cured this wounded animal
their situation.”
However, these explanations are still unable to explain the results obtained by those who communicate with animals from a distance. Trish puts scepticism of pet psychics down to the fact that people are ‘hung-up’ on what they believe to be ‘real’. “Communicating with animals is so far out of the realms of possibility in our culture- driven understanding that it takes a lot of proof to convince ourselves that this is really possible,” she explains. “Even though we come up with ten correct things about an animal we have never met that we could not have known via normal understanding, we will still convince ourselves it was a coincidence.”
Do I personally believe in horse telepathy? I am yet to come to a conclusion. I do however believe that it should never be used in place of taking animals to the vet. Psychic communicators and healers may help to put an owner’s mind at rest but it is always advisable to seek the opinion of a health professional if your horse is ill or behaving oddly. Pet telepathists can provide a second opinion or offer additional guidance but should never be taken as the sole authority on an animal’s well-being. After all, the fact that some of them are accurate does not necessarily mean that they will all fall within this category. It is best to view them how you would view astrologers; it is interesting to see what they have got to say but probably not advisable to take their words as gospel.
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