27 Sep Animals In Spirit – How Can We Connect?
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“Can we connect with our pets and other animals after they’ve died?” Most of us have experienced the loss of a beloved pet. It is as traumatic as experiencing the loss of a friend or family member. If they’ve been ill for a while, or suffering, we suffer too. We suffer with the weight of knowing that they are in pain and we suffer knowing that they will soon leave us. For many of us, it is almost unbearable. And after they pass, we can feel such deep sadness and an open wound that we think may never heal.
Why is it that we connect so deeply with these animal friends? How is it that animals, unlike most humans, can love us so unconditionally, so deeply, and with such loyalty, day in and day out? Do they continue to love us even when they have died?
There is little clinical or scientific evidence that shows proof of animals possessing a soul. From my research, it appears that humans have a soul, while animals… well, they have a “breath of life,” not an immortal soul. However, studies are increasingly showing that many non-human beings feel and experience varying degrees of emotions and states of consciousness. Elephants appear to feel grief, while dolphins and whales express joy, or something much like it. Parrots can be cranky. Pigs and cows experience terror when facing death. Chickens become saddened. Monkeys appear embarrassed or frazzled when they cannot solve a riddle. Rats act agitated when seeing other rats undergoing surgery. I have been a witness to some of these.
Science is rediscovering what Charles Darwin, in his book The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals (1872) concluded: the variations between humans and other species, in their capacity to feel and express emotion, are differences in degree, rather than differences in types of emotions. From this awareness of fact, it’s a short step to the recognition that animals have personalities.
Sentience is the capacity of a being to feel. It is fundamental to being alive. What humans feel at a deep level is what drives us, for good and ill. The innate connection to feeling and emoting is part of what makes up the soul. As long as we are alive – and therefore feeling and emoting – we are connected to one another and to the natural world. We are, in a word, ensouled.
Extraordinary examples of ensoulment among non-human animals abound. Animals that play, express gratitude, contemplate nature, act to save a fellow creature, or react mournfully to the loss of family members or other close companions, are all, in my view, demonstrating aspects of connectedness. Such connectedness is the root the soul, and of spirituality.
I believe that when our souls choose to take human form on the physical plane, our primary intent is to learn how to give and receive love. We select our life as the school in which we will learn this lesson, because the physical plane is where we find teachers who have mastered the ability to give and receive love. We call them dogs and birds, cats and horses, pigs and ants, and any of our animal friends.
Our loving animal companions are always present, always loving, and always forgiving. Growing up with dogs and being around nature, I’ve observed that animals live in a state of complete ease and peace, no matter their shape or size. They do this by always living in the present moment, that state of being that we humans call mindfulness. Mindfulness is not an automatic or easy state of being to humans, but it is necessary if we are to live a life of complete ease, peace, and heart-felt joy.
All of our animal friends teach us this. In fact, they are master healers, in part because they embody love in an entirely nonthreatening form. This obvious absence of threat, competition, and judgment creates within us a willingness to receive healing. We may fear accepting love from another person, but rarely from a non-human. How do our beloved pets heal us? There is no greater healing power in the Universe than that of unconditional love, and our animal companions heal us by exchanging that loving energy with us.
Consider this: even when we feel weak and small, our pets still come to us for care, and in doing so, remind us that we are strong and capable enough to provide for them. When we are in anger or blame mode, they sit joyfully at our side, radiating contentment and instilling peace within us. When we feel shame, guilt, flawed, or unworthy, they look at us and see only perfection.
Our pets see us as light, the light we are made of, the light we knew ourselves to be before we were born. When we lose sight of our magnificence, they remind us of it, much like our departed loved human companions who, in spirit, transmit only love and peace to us.
Can we continue to connect with our pets and other animals after they’ve died? Do they still love us even when they have passed? The answer is simple: Yes. When I have brought forward messages to humans from departed animals, or even from the ones that are still alive, the message has always been linked, one way or another, to love, to gratitude, and to thankfulness.
As our animal companions share their love and true, pure feelings for us, and as we receive their wisdom and healing, we create an eternal link between both human and animal species, a bond that no amount of distance or time will break.
Love from another is always Love, regardless of kind, time, and space.
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