Update

OMG! Tabi and I had so much fun on Tuesday night’s call! Nearly 600 of you (Holy shitballs!) signed up and the feedback so far has been amazing! Not only did we talk about quantum leaps, but we also covered animal communication, connecting with trees, and most importantly, how to integrate all of this growth stuff into the real world.

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And now, for today’s blog post. Inspired by Tuesday’s chat where we talked pretty extensively about communicating with animals and trees (cause that’s how we roll…), I thought I’d share a bit more about what interspecies communication is and what sorts of things it can lead to. I find this a truly fascinating field and one that can open up all kinds of avenues of growth. Plus, it’s freaking cool. Seriously, who hasn’t wanted to actually “talk” to their cat or dog and have them answer back? Admit it. You’re SO wishing you could do that. Well, it turns out you can.

What is Interspecies Communication?

You see, when we communicate with one another person, we’re doing so on many more levels than just the verbal one. And sure, we say a lot more with body language, but that’s not what I’m talking about. We all communicate telepathically, whether we realize it or not. And we all receive telepathically, whether we do so consciously or not. If you’ve ever heard someone say pretty, pretty words and knew instantly that they were full of shit, even though their delivery was flawless and seemed genuine, you were picking up on the fact that their words and their vibration (what they were really feeling) didn’t match.

There is an energy transmission that happens when we communicate. Think of it as streaming data at your conversational partner, full of audio and video. Whereas your words are describing a movie, your energy stream actually contains the movie itself. Our brains filter out most of this conversation, at least consciously, because too much data can be totally overwhelming. I’m convinced, however, that this is just because we’re not used to receiving so much information at once, and that with a bit of practice, we could translate someone’s energy into a full, sensory experience. So, when someone tells you a story, you’d actually be there, seeing it, feeling it, living it in 3D. This isn’t just theory for me. I’ve actually experienced this expanded communication, although I had to whittle it down to a silent, black and white movie before I was able to decipher it. When I did, however, I realized just how insufficient and laughable our words, our verbal communication is.

Words can be amazing, don’t get me wrong. I love words. But hearing about an event and actually experiencing it are two completely different things. Words can’t accurately describe the different levels of emotions. For example, when we say “love”, we can mean a whole variety of different states of being. But we use the same word for all of them. The energy transmission that is our actual communication conveys exactly what we mean in utter perfection.

And we’re not the only ones communicating this way. It turns out, everything does. Yep, everything. Animals, plants, even rocks and mountains. There is consciousness in everything. And, if we take the time to remember how, we can tap into all of it.

Why communicate with animals and plants?

Now, aside from the “cool” factor, why would you want to have a conversation with the tree outside your house? What can the cat from across the street possibly have to tell you that’s interesting? Well, you might be surprised. We tend to think of animals as pure instinct and little intellect. They eat and poop and play and just sort of react to the world around them. Surely, they’re not actually capable of real, cognitive thought? Actually, they totally are. Not only do they think about the world, their place in it and yes, us, their perspective is often a whole lot more enlightened than ours (there are exceptions. See below). For those who want to find a more aligned view of the world, our non-human friends can be some of our best teachers.

The thing to remember is that animals and plants teach us a lot about how we feel about ourselves. How we relate to and treat animals, for example, will mirror how we treat each other, and at an even deeper level, ourselves. We disrespect nature because we disrespect humans. We objectify animals to justify cruelty, just as we objectify each other in order to justify genocide. When we connect with nature in a conscious way and allow ourselves to realize that we are all connected, we are all one, and we are all essentially equal (humans are not superior to animals), we automatically open ourselves up to seeing all humans as equally valuable. Healing our animal based prejudices has the power to lead to the healing of our human based prejudices. So yeah, I’d say that communicating with and connecting to animals and plants has a lot of value…

Things I’ve learned from non-humans

In our talk on Tuesday, Tabi told an important (and awesome!) story about what she learned from a cockroach, of all things. And while I’m no master an interspecies communication, it is something I set the intention to learn about six months ago. The Universe has been supporting me in my endeavor ever since. I’m happy to share some of my experiences with you.

Learning respect and asking for permission

One of the first lessons I learned was about how we tend to disrespect each other, especially those who are smaller and cuter than us (furry animals and children), and assume that this is ok as long as it’s coming from a place of affection. I was petting a cat (a special, conscious cat named Nin, who has turned out to be a powerful teacher for me), when I, out of sheer habit, picked her up. While she didn’t hurt me, she made it very clear that this was not ok.

As I set her down, the full force of what I had just done hit me. I, a much bigger and stronger being, had assumed that it was ok to pick up my new friend, simply because she was so cute. I wanted to cuddle. It never occurred to me to ask her permission. In that moment I realized that we tend to do the same to children and babies. We just manhandle them as we please, assuming they like it. But what if they don’t?  What if we are making them uncomfortable? Might this be one of the first ways that we teach children that they are powerless and have no right to object to physical affection (hint: yes)? Those who are larger and stronger can simply overpower you and have every right to… Who, exactly, do we think we are?

Of course, this led to thoughts of how we mistreat the whole planet. Native Tribes ask a tree for permission before cutting it down and making it into a canoe. We can ask the land for permission to build on it. We can ask animals and plants for permission to eat them. And we can ask a child or an animal for permission to pick them up, hug them or manhandle them in any way. Instead of seeing everything, including other people, as property, why not ask for what we want? Of course, this would require us to not only detach from NEEDING the other party to give us what we want, not take their response personally, and line up our energy instead of just trying to force everyone around us to do our bidding. Are you beginning to see how this all ties into massive growth?

Not all animals are enlightened

I had an interesting experience with a dog a few months ago. Eager to practice my animal communication skills, I pretty much “talked” to any creature that came my way. The house where I was staying had three dogs, a mommy dog, a daddy dog and their son. When the son came out in the garden where I was sitting, I decided to try and reach out in my mind. Here was our conversation:

Me: “Hey there!”

Dog: “HELLO!”

Me: “Whatcha doin’?”

Dog: “I’M OUTSIDE!” … “I HAVE TO PEE!”

Me: “Um, ok. You go ahead and pee then.”

Dog: (Having peed) “OK, BYE!”

Um… yeah. I realized that I’d had this weird idea that all animals are enlightened beings. They’re not. They’re generally more allowing than we are, and much more connected than humans, but some of them are conscious, some of them are not, and some of them are, well, how do I put this delicately, dumb as a doorknob. Go figure.

Just as we’re not going to want to talk to just any human because not everyone’s going to be interesting to us, we’re not going to want to connect with just any animal. Which brings me to my next point:

Not all animals want to talk to us

I was at an animal sanctuary at the beginning of the year. It’s a farm in Austria that rescues less sexy animals, like horses and cows and sheep and pigs, along with dogs and cats and rabbits and lets them live out their days amidst a beautiful landscape. They even have a deer! I figured that with all those animals, I’d have a lot of chances to converse.

Having learned my lesson about permission, I approached each animal and asked if they would talk to me. And I was mostly greeted with stony silence. I’m still a newbie at communicating with our furry friends, so I wondered if I was doing it wrong. Then I met a horse who had trouble setting boundaries. He was beautiful and stood next to the fence. As I gently stroked his forehead (having asked permission), a teenage girl came up and began to pet him. I clearly heard “Too much! Too much!” I immediately backed away and took a few steps to the side. There was another horse, a huge stallion who abruptly told me “No!” when I asked if he wanted to talk. Sheesh. When the girl was gone, I went back to the gentle horse, drawn by my intuition.

I asked him why he hadn’t moved when he became overwhelmed by too many people touching him. His backstory was that he’d been in a staple and had been ridden regularly until it was found out he wouldn’t win races. Then, he’d been totally neglected and had been marked for slaughter when he was rescued. He told me that he was afraid that if he didn’t endure the affection when it became too much, he’d never, ever get any again. I explained to him that he could set boundaries and that there would be plenty of people to give him affection. It was not an all or nothing scenario. When I passed the giant horse as I walked away, I heard him say “Thank you for helping my friend.” As we were leaving, I checked in on my newest “client” one more time and saw him standing several feet away from the fence, just out of the reach of well-meaning but unwelcome hands.

When I later asked my guides, during meditation, why so many of the animals had been mute, they pointed out that I had simply walked up to each enclosure willy nilly, instead of allowing my intuition to point out those animals that wished to talk to me (like the boundary less horse). Well, duh, Melody. I wouldn’t try to go up to each person in the street and ask them to have a conversation, either… animals are no different. They are not all interested in us, what we’re doing (arrogant, much?) or in talking to us. Those who are, though, may well benefit from the interaction just as much as we do (win-win).

Animals are often very cooperative

Back at the house with the three dogs, I had the chance to converse with the mommy dog. She came up to me, sat right down next to me and gave me an expectant look. Another teacher… The first thing I picked up on when I connected with her was unconditional, heart-filling, pure love. It was nearly overwhelming. When I asked permission to talk to her, she indicated that it was already given (she had approached me). Here’s our conversation:

Me: “So, you’re the mommy dog, right?”

Dog: “Yep.”

Me: “Your son and husband aren’t very bright…” (I wasn’t being mean, just making an observation. And this part of the conversation was really funny to me.)

Dog: *Sigh* “Yeah, I know…”

Me: “Are you the matriarch?”

Dog: “Someone’s got to keep the boys in line.”

Me: “Hey, can I ask you a question? When I come to the house, or anyone comes to the house (or goes in and out of the house), why do you guys always bark so much?” (The dog’s barking was something that kind of intrigued me. I hadn’t felt fear or anxiety from them, they just seemed to bark for no reason.)

Dog: “We don’t know what else to do. We’ve never been told otherwise. We think it’s our job.”

Me: “Can I ask you not to bark at people?”

Dog: (Pause) “Well, you can ask us not to bark at you.”

Me: “Ah of course. That would be overstepping my boundaries (I had no right to mess with her owner’s manifestation). Ok, can I ask you not to bark at me?”

Dog: “Sure.”

Me: “You’ll tell the boys?”

Dog: “I’ll tell the boys.”

I spent another three days at the house, but after that conversation, not only did the dogs no longer bark at me, they never even barked in my presence. Talk about confirmation…

What I found interesting was just how easily she complied with my polite request. She was so eager to please, so willing to make a change. There was no training, no incentive, no punishment, no controlling, no threatening necessary. Just a polite request. Boy, do we make things harder on ourselves than they need to be.

The other thing that struck me was how much of a personality she had. She had a sense of humor, was clever, and was infinitely loving. There was absolutely no question that I had a fully sentient being in front of me, one who was eager to let me practice on her, eager to help me and eager to please.

Nature is generous

I was sitting a garden, underneath a fruit tree one day. The fruits were way overripe and had begun to go bad. I decided to practice my skills and connected with the tree. It was happy to talk to me and immediately invited me, even urged me, to eat some of its fruit. It told me that it loved sharing its bounty and wanted its fruit to be enjoyed and eaten. There was so much enthusiasm there! When I pointed out that the fruit was overripe and I could no longer eat it, the tree understood. I then felt a little sorry for it. I got this picture of a being who wanted desperately to share its creations, but had been rejected by humans (where the hell do we get this shit?). After all, it wasn’t the fault of the tree that the fruit hadn’t been picked in time. The tree immediately and very gently set me straight. I couldn’t have been more wrong.

While the tree loved it when people ate its fruit, it didn’t need us to. It was going to be happy no matter what. The fruit would fall from the tree and nourish the earth. Nothing could go wrong either way. Again, well, duh Melody. But while I got a reminder in unconditional happiness, what really struck me was the generosity of the tree. Nature wants us to partake of its bounty. It wants us to eat the food, wants to provide for us and is genuinely happy to nourish us. What I DIDN’T feel was any animosity towards humans. In fact, I’ve never felt that from any plant.

And what I also didn’t feel was any sense of scarcity. Only total abundance. Nature is never concerned that there won’t be enough. She gives freely and generously and from a place of perfect balance. She never depletes herself. And everything is always a win-win.

So, I’m thinking we can learn a thing or two hundred from Mother Nature…

Right. So I’ve told you about some of my biggest and most profound experiences with interspecies communication, as well as the lessons I felt each one reflected. Hopefully you’ve enjoyed them. If you want to learn more about how you can talk to our non-human friends, there are a ton of Youtube videos and books available (since I’m learning directly from  non-physical, I don’t currently have any books I can recommend, but will do so if I come across any good ones).

Do you have any experiences with animal communication? I’d love to hear them, so please share in the comments!