A Conundrum -

meaning a confusing or difficult problem

A while ago I happened to come across some articles about people who claim to be able to communicate with animals. I’ve always been open to concepts such as intuition and psychic abilities, so I have no fundamental doubts that such communication is possible. I believe that all sentient beings have a spirit and a soul.

Let me explain what I mean: first of all, I don’t know that the above sentence is correct. When I use the term “I believe”, I want to communicate that I’m not certain about my statement, but that it feels better to me than the alternative: that there is no spirit, no soul, not in humans, not in other beings. There’s definitely an emotional component to belief, believe which is more obvious in the words’ origin: believe, for example, comes from Proto-Germanic *ga-laubjan "to believe," perhaps literally "hold dear (or valuable, or satisfactory), to love". Interesting, how far removed this is from the practice of all main religions. And I can’t help but add here how irritating I find this logical fallacy: I grew up Catholic, and was taught that I’d go to hell if I didn’t believe in whatever they claimed. You must believe – I was very young when I decided this was plainly stupid.

Spirit, to me, equals consciousness. Maybe that’s easier to understand and accept in German, where the meaning of the word for spirit, Geist, is much broader than in English. Philosophy, literature, history, philology, and other subjects taught at German universities fall under the general heading of Geisteswissenschaften, the equivalent of Humanities. And if you think of the soul as the accumulation and coherence of a being’s feelings, I don’t see how one can claim that non-human animals don’t have one.

Penelope Smith and Buddha Boy. Animal Talk Website

Alright, back to communicating with animals. I did a bit of research, and the first person who made the term popular was Penelope Smith who started to publicize her work with animals in the 1970s and is considered the “grandmother of interspecies communication”. She inspired others, and now there exists a large directory of people who offer their services for finding lost pets, helping with medical and behavior issues, and generally assisting humans and their pets to understand each other better. 

After my beloved dog Stella died quite suddenly in June of 2021, I was depressed and felt confused and guilty. Maybe I should have taken her to the vet immediately after I noticed she wasn’t eating. Maybe I shouldn’t have allowed the surgery. Maybe I shouldn’t have trusted the internist who operated on her. When a friend suggested I contact a psychic animal communicator/healer and recommended someone who had helped her, I decided to give it a try, although I was a bit skeptical. Lisa Hartnett, D.C. did indeed help me by making me aware of aspects of my relationship with Stella; for example, I knew Lisa was right when she mentioned that Stella would have preferred to be the only dog in the house (usually there were three, with short periods of four, even five). I had never thought about it, and if Stella would have been able to tell me “No new dogs!”, I would have tried to explain to her that every new one was a rescue, just like she was. 

Anna Breytenbach. Charles Eisenstein.org

But the person who really convinced me of the possibility of interspecies communication was Anna Breytenbach, after I had watched the video below. She was called in as a consultant by Jurg and Karen Olsen, the founders of Jukani Predator Park, a wildlife sanctuary in South Africa. A black leopard who was rescued from a zoo where he had been abused would not leave his night shelter, even after six months at the sanctuary with plenty of space to roam freely. He growled at anybody who tried to come closer. When Anna met the leopard she listened to him, to find out the reason for his behavior. And she communicated to him that he was safe now, that the people there were concerned about his well-being. That same afternoon he left his enclosure to explore the outside! Please watch the video, it’s truly amazing. He was given the name Spirit.

The sanctuary’s Facebook page announced last June that Spirit had passed away:

Spirit passed on the 18th of June 2023 at the ripe old age of  21 after a valiant battle with cancer.

Spirit leaves a hole that can not be filled.¹

Spirit. Jukani Facebook Page

I was curious whether Anna was vegan; I felt she’d have to be but I didn’t find any mention of it on her website. So, I contacted her and asked her. I wasn’t sure if I’d get any answer, but she replied right away: 

Thanks for your note. As an interspecies communicator (not just animals) I honour the sentience and consciousness in all life. Therefore I don't hold prejudice against plants/vegetables as being lower life forms. I eat select flesh - plant and animal - that is ethically sourced and has had a natural life. I shifted from being vegan for a few years to being in direct communication and relationship with all beings that enter this body as food.

There is information on this on my website. See the last FAQ answer at http://www.animalspirit.org/faq-page

Regards,

Anna

And here is my conundrum. While I can't experience it directly, I totally believe what she says -- that ALL living beings have sentience and consciousness. Come to think of it, grains and beans for example are seeds, and when I cook them, isn’t it as if I was boiling hundreds of babies? Just because I’m unaware of their pain doesn’t mean it’s not there. Sometimes meat-eaters make fun of vegans by saying that carrots suffer too. They think it’s just a joke, but what if it’s true? 

Animal rights activists use the term speciesism to characterize the practice of discriminating against some species (animals) while assuming another species (humans) to be superior. And there are people who get upset when they read about an abused puppy but who have no problem with eating a factory-farmed chicken – another example of speciesism. But Anna Breytenbach essentially calls vegans being speciesist, and I understand why. Being oblivious of the pain you cause doesn’t get you off the hook and is exactly the problem.

Will I start eating animals again because of this? Absolutely not. And since we humans have to eat, I won’t stop eating vegetables and seeds and fruit. But I’ll try to be more aware of the fact that they give their lives in order for me to keep mine. This sounds corny, right? But it also rings true. And I’d love to be able to communicate with other species. Anna claims we all have the ability to do so, we just have to re-learn it.

Do you have a solution to this conundrum?

1. Jukani Wildlife Sanctuary Facebbok