Talking to Animals – Part Two
The ability to communicate between human and other forms of life is not limited to domesticated animals, but includes creatures of the wild as well.
When biologist Lyall Watson lived for some months on a remote Indonesian island in the Banda Sea, he became fascinated by the egg-laying rituals of female marine turtles.
These ponderous creatures would come ashore under the curtain of night to dig nests in the sand in which to lay their eggs, before dragging themselves exhaustedly back into the simmering surf. Although numerous different species of turtle came ashore, Watson was never able to catch sight of the giant of all sea turtles, the leatherback.
Finally, after many nights in vain anticipation, he happened to mention his interest in this turtle to the local djuru, a man who had an uncanny ability to locate and understand sea creatures. The djuru promised to show him one.
It was several weeks later when the village djuru approached Watson and announced that his wish would be fulfilled. That afternoon, the two of them proceeded to a spur of volcanic rock which stretched into the deep waters of the lagoon.
Then, as Watson watched in curiosity, the djuru crouched down at the water’s edge and began dabbing his fingers in the waves, as if he were playing upon the keys of a piano.
After about twenty minutes of this strange behaviour, Watson noticed a large frigate bird swooping low over the surface of the lagoon. As the bird drew nearer, it was clear that it was attracted by a dark shape in the water that was steadily approaching the tongue of rock on which the two men stood.
Suddenly, the glistening olive-green shell of a leatherback turtle broke the surface of the waves. It was larger than Watson had ever imagined. At the sight of this creature, the djuru broke into a quiet chant. Slowly, but with repeated evasive flights of alarm, the giant turtle approached the djuru’s outstretched fingertips.
As Watson watched in astonishment, the turtle lifted its beak and gently nibbled at his fingers, before turning and swimming swiftly back to the open sea. 1
Aboriginal societies not only communicate with animals but with plants as well. When shamans and witchdoctors incorporate plants and herbs in their medicinal cures, they talk to them as part of their rituals.
One of the mental hurdles that Carlos Castaneda had to overcome in his apprenticeship to the Yaqui shaman Don Juan, was his idea that plants could not communicate and were incapable of feelings. As Don Juan continued to stress to his western neophyte, however, “Plants are very peculiar things – they are alive and they feel.” 2
On another occasion he told his pupil, “In order to see the plants, you must talk to them personally. You must get to know them individually, then the plants can tell you anything you care to know about them.” 3
One person who was well aware that plants were conscious and were able to think and feel, was the Indian scientist Jagadis Chandra Bose. Bose was educated at Christ College, Cambridge, and astonished his colleagues with various devices he invented to measure the character and sensitivity of plants.
He was able to demonstrate, by physical means, that plants had a nervous system and that they enjoyed a varied emotional life. He found that they responded to such stimuli as hate and love, and that they expressed such emotions as fear and pleasure.
Like humans, Bose found that plants became intoxicated when given doses of alcohol , and showed every sign of the common hangover. He also noticed that the application of chloroform on plants had the effect of temporally discontinuing all growth, and led to a state of general torpor.
It was by this means that Bose was able successfully to transplant trees that were fully grown. He also discovered that plants suffered from stress and fatigue, and that this directly affected their powers of resisting disease.
He found, furthermore, that at the moment of death plants radiated an enormous electrical charge. Referring to this phenomenon he noted that five hundred green peas were able to generate, in their death spasm, an electrical discharge that was sufficient to electrocute a chef, if it were possible to connect them up in series. 4
For his innovative research and success in analysing plant physiology, Bose received a knighthood in 1917.
Although many people might be prepared to grant intelligence to domestic pets, and even concede a sympathetic response in plants, few would generally consider that any form of consciousness or intelligence might reside in insects.
Yet all insects, as Maharaj has pointed out, possess consciousness and an awareness of identity. Some years after Allen Boone had his memorable relationship with Strongheart, he formed an unusual friendship with a common housefly, which he christened Freddie.
Boone was able to establish his extraordinary contact with the fly by drawing on the lessons he had learned from his experiences with Strongheart. He found that he could attract the fly to him if it were absent, merely be issuing a mental call. He also found that the fly responded directly to his thoughts and feelings:
“There was no emotionalism or sentimentality, or wishful thinking in all of this. I simply was compelled to realize that as I identified Freddie as either intelligent or unintelligent, good or bad, friendly or unfriendly, co-operative or unco-operative – that is precisely how he behaved. For Freddie was nothing more or less than the state of my own consciousness about him being made manifest in our outward experience.”
It took a humble housefly to reveal to Boone that life, consciousness and intelligence manifested in all creatures, and that no matter how lowly these might appear to the human eye, each demonstrated an amazing ability to share in a world of fun, joy and adventure.
In describing his episode with Freddie, Boone recalled the words of the thirteenth century mystic and theologian, Meister Eckhart:
“When I preached in Paris I said then – and I regard it well said – that not a man in Paris can conceive with all his learning that God is in the very meanest creatures – even in a fly.” 5
According to the sages, intelligence is a characteristic of all life, and inhabits every form. Even such microscopic creatures as bacteria exhibit intelligence, by processing information in ways which are favourable to their survival.
One of the problems with which medical scientists have grappled in the course of their research, has been the problem of “acquired bacterial resistance”. This is exemplified by such strains of bacteria as staphylococci, which, over a period of time, have become immune to the influence of such antibiotics as penicillin.
In a similar way, the bacterium Escherichia coli have become immune to the drug streptomycin. 6
It is a common experience that chemical antitoxins work well initially in counteracting the ravages of bacteria. Over the course of time, however, the efficacy of these antitoxins becomes reduced, until finally they cease to be effective altogether.
The limits to intelligence do not end with microscopic forms of organic life, for evidence continues to accumulate that even insentient matter possesses a rudimentary form of consciousness and intelligence.
Jagadis Bose found that metals suffered from fatigue, just as plants and humans did, and that, if given sufficient opportunity to rest, would return to their normal level of functioning.
Bose discovered that the pattern of fatigue demonstrated by a slightly warmed magnetic oxide of iron was similar to that exhibited by human muscles. In both instances, the recovery response decreased with exertion. Bose found, however, that metal fatigue could be removed by gentle massage or immersion in warm water.
He also learned that potassium lost its power of recovery altogether when coated with certain substances, in a way which seemed to rival the response of muscular tissue to various poisons.
When Sir Michael Foster, secretary of the Royal Society, called on Bose one day while he was engrossed in one of his experiments, he happened to glance at the response curve that was being recorded. “Come now, Bose,” he exclaimed, “what is the novelty of this curve? We have known of it for at least half a century.”
When Bose asked him what he thought the curve represented, Foster” replied: “Why, a curve of muscle response, of course.” Sir Michael was silenced when Bose quietly countered: “Pardon me, but it is the response of metallic tin!” 7
Bose was led by the results of his experiments, to question the classical scientific division between organic and inorganic life, and came to the conclusion that this dichotomy was purely artificial.
At a meeting which took place at the Royal Institution on May 10, 1901, he announced to his bemused audience:
“I have shown you this evening autographic records of the history of stress and strain in the living and the non-living. How similar are their writings! So similar indeed that you cannot tell one apart from the other. Among such phenomena, how can we draw a line of demarcation and say, here the physical ends, and here the physiological begins? Such absolute barriers do not exist.” 7
Science has traditionally divided nature into two distinct categories. That which is inert it has called inorganic matter, while that which has demonstrated the principle of cohesive growth, it has called organic life.
It has, furthermore, classified organic life into a hierarchy of forms, starting from the simplest and proceeding to the most complex. Science has called the process whereby the simple forms have been transformed into the complex, evolution.
While it has succeeded in identifying these various forms of life and cataloguing them according to certain common characteristics, science is still struggling to explain the way in which these transformations have taken place. As has been pointed out in earlier Blogs, the traditional theory provided by Charles Darwin now seems ripe for a new explanation.
Mankind stands today at the apex of the evolutionary process, and appears to science to be the fruit of an age-old procession through a long hierarchy of forms. The physiology of man is considered to be the product of his unique genetic code, which ultimately determines the limits of his powers.
Yet the scientific description of the origins and nature of humanity, as represented by the current theory of evolution, is the direct product and outgrowth of the classical mode of thought, which believed that the universe was a form of Giant Machine.
Because the universe was conceived to be a vast scheme of physical objects and organic creatures that existed independently of the observer, the appearance of this variety of form led naturally to the concept of an evolutionary spiral linking these forms together in a meaningful way.
But once the universe is portrayed as a subjective phenomenon, in the form of various images appearing in consciousness, then the entire edifice of evolutionary thought reveals itself to be a structure built upon the quicksands of illusion.
Since illumined souls have taught that there is no such thing as an objective universe that exists separately from us, what we have taken to be a real world is, they claim, merely a series of images projected on consciousness, just as cinematic images are projected on a screen.
Furthermore, because these images are projected by the mind of each individual observer, the nature of what is seen must inevitably reflect the content of each mind. It is the recognition of this fact, or, to be more precise, its revelation, which the sages claim exposes the true nature of creation. For as Maharaj points out:
“To know that you are a prisoner of your mind, that you live in an imaginary world of your own creation is the dawn of wisdom.” 8
Because the universe has revealed a plethora of creatures, the various religions of the world have taught that all these creatures have been created by a supernal God. The sages, on the other hand, have consistently taught that the existence of all creation, as well as the God to whom it is attributed, is in fact a creation of our minds.
It is because we find ourselves living in a world of incredible size and beauty that we assume that there must exist some all-powerful Being who is responsible for this extraordinary variety. The sages point out, however, that this entire panoply of universal form is nothing but a projection of our minds, and that it is we ourselves who are the authors of its expression.
The various religious orders of the world pander to the needs of their adherents by conceding the existence of a Creator. To those who can grasp the subtle truth, however, the sages reveal the subjective nature of the universe.
As the master explains to his disciple in the Indian Vedantic classic Advaita Bodha Deepika:
“Man having forgotten his true nature of being in the all-perfect Ether of Consciousness, is deluded by ignorance into identifying himself with a body, etc., and regarding himself as an insignificant individual of mean capacity.
“If to him it is told that he is the creator of the whole universe, he will flout the idea and refuse to be guided. So coming down to his level the scriptures posit an Isvara as the creator of the universe. But it is not the truth. You are now mistaking the nursery tale for metaphysical truth.” 9
The entire discipline of science is founded upon the belief that the universe exists as an objective phenomenon that is experienced alike by every mind. Yet despite the splendid theories of science, and despite the evidence of our senses, there is no world of shape or form that exists independently of our selves.
We project the images we see in waking life, just as we do in hallucination or dream. The fact that we are able to discover in the rich world of our experience, fossilised remains buried in antiquated rocks, together with ruins of ancient civilisations, does not in any way alter the fact that these hoary objects are actually pristine images which are being projected moment by moment in consciousness.
Our experiences in waking consciousness are, in essence, no different from our dreams.
In our dreams we also see objects of great antiquity. We discover ancient relics and other buildings and artifacts which seem to be the product of long ages of time. Yet when we wake, we see that the appearance of time was illusory, and that our ancient ruins were freshly minted by our minds within the fleeting moments of the dream.
When we see the images and objects of our waking state, we do not stop for a moment to consider that they might also arise in the same way as a vision or hallucination. Instead, we allow ourselves to be beguiled by the evidence of our senses into believing that our waking state is the only state that is real, and that it alone reflects an objective world.
Because our waking world is not an objective world, the analysis of those physical objects and organic forms which populate our waking state is only valid within the context of belief. Our conclusions have no underlying validity that is independent of our thinking.
Trying to classify the images of our waking world is no different from attempting to catalogue the creations of our dreams. Just as the idea of subjecting the content of our dreams to scientific analysis seems ludicrous, so also the evaluation of our waking world in scientific terms is equally illusory.
Our scientific paradigms are mere pyramids of thought, built upon our belief in an objective reality which is itself illusory. As Sri Ramana Maharshi remarks:
“One sees an edifice in his dream. It rises up all of a sudden. Then he begins to think how it should have been built brick by brick by so many labourers over such a long period of time. Yet he does not see the builders working.
“So also with the theory of evolution. Because he finds himself a man, he thinks he has developed to that stage from the primeval state of the amoeba. The man always traces an effect to a cause; there must be a cause for a cause; the argument becomes interminable.” 10
The physical bodies which we inhabit in our waking world appear to us to be completely real. In terms of the current scientific description of the universe, our bodies are believed to be dominated by the messages of our genes, and that it is our genes which ultimately decide what our bodies can and cannot do.
Yet the sages have pointed out that our bodies are encompassed by our minds, and that it is the content of our minds which determines the effective limits of our ability. Each person’s world thus takes the shape of those thoughts which give it birth.
“Thoughts“, says the Maharshi, “are the content of the mind, and they shape the universe“. 11
Or in the words of Maharaj, “What is imagined and willed becomes actuality“. 12
Or again, “The world becomes for one whatever one is accustomed to think of it“. 13
Our world, stress the sages, is governed by our minds. Our bodies, likewise, are limited only by our thinking. We are not bound by any laws of nature, nor are we dependent on the decrees of any genes. We are always free to roam within the limitless shores of our minds.
Confronted by this bold statement, the tough-minded realist reacts by saying: “I simply don’t believe it!”
The sage in turn retorts: “That, in a nutshell, is your problem”. For as Jesus assured the father of a child stricken with a demonic sprit: “All things are possible to him that believeth.” (Mark 9:23)
When Kirk Maynard Gull dragged himself across the beach with a damaged wing, Jonathan urged him to fly.
“You don’t understand. My wing. I can’t move my wing.
Maynard Gull, you have the freedom to be yourself, your true self, here and now, and nothing can stand in your way.
Are you saying I can fly?
I say you are free.” 14
Each one of us is ever free to transcend the apparent limitations of our bodies. We are neither the captives of our genes nor the victims of our environment. Each one of us is truly the unlimited expression of our divine potential.
We limit ourselves only by our thoughts, and by the nature of our beliefs. Our true origins do not lie in the gloom of a primeval past. They arise out of the untrammeled depths of spirit.
From our earliest days we have bound ourselves in chains of our own making, absorbing those beliefs that are the common heritage of our culture. But we need not remain bound. We are always free to shed the shackles of our illusory limitations, if we can only bring ourselves to believe we can.
Science has determined man to be a creature of the earth, a product of the long, slow march of time. Born out of the primal slime of antiquity, he is believed to have emerged from the ancient seas, until he came to stalk the land.
Driven by the constant struggle for survival, he mutated through a kaleidoscope of forms, until he laboriously reached that pinnacle of physical expression in which he exists today. Man’s potential is believed to be determined by his genes, which set strict limits to what may or may not be done.
The testimony of the sages points to an altogether more ethereal source. Man, they say, is a creature of ancestral freedom. The apparent limits of his physical form are but the shadows of his mind.
Loose the shackles of his thoughts, they claim, and he is free to explore the utmost limits of desire. His only obstacle is the impediment of his own belief. Man’s ultimate destiny, and the end of all his striving, lies in the rediscovery of his One True Source.
This is the truth that sets him free.
References
1 Lyall Watson, “Lifetide“, Simon and Schuster, New York, 1979, pp. 179-180.
2 Carlos Castaneda, “Journey to Ixtlan“, Simon and Schuster, New York, 1972, p. 22.
3 Carlos Castaneda, “A Separate Reality”, Simon and Schuster, New York, 1971, p. 117.
4 Peter Tompkins and Christopher Bird, “The Secret Life of Plants“, Avon, New York, 1974, p. 107.
5 Allen Boone. “Kinship with All Life“, Harper and Row, New York, 1954, pp. 143-144.
6 Harold Morowitz, “Do Bacteria Think?” in Psychology Today, 15:10-12, 1981.
7 “The Secret Life of Plants“, op. cit., pp. 99-101.
8 “Seeds of Consciousness“, The Wisdom of Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj, edited by Jean Dunn, Grove Press, New York, 1982, pp. 199-200.
9 “Advaita Bodha Deepika“, translated by Swami Saraswathi, Sri Ramanasramam, Tiruvannamalai, 1967, p. 20.
10 “Talks with Sri Ramana Maharshi“, recorded by Swami Saraswathi, Sri Ramanasramam, Tiruvannamalai, 1968, p. 603.
11 Ibid, p. 93.
12 “I Am That“, Conversations with Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj, translated by Maurice Frydman, Book I, Chetana, Bombay, 1973, p. 241.
13 “Tripura Rahasya“, translated by Swami Saraswathi, Sri Ramanasramam, Tiruvannamalai, 1962, p. 88.
14 Richard Bach, “Jonathan Livingstone Seagull“, Pan Books, London, 1973, pp. 82-83.
