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It is my joy to celebrate Findhorn as a pioneering demonstration of what’s possible when open-hearted humans co-create with the intelligence of nature in a spirit of true humility.

After being inspired by the founding story and principles of the Findhorn Foundation when I began studying telepathic animal communication in 2000 in California, I’m delighted to have been able to pay it forward by mentoring co-workers to facilitate animal communication workshops and take the work further.

My heart was warmed by both the gardeners who care for the Original Garden and the Cullerne gardeners attending my workshops. They brought real life challenges and insights that led to wonderful solutions in The Park and benefitted all the creatures, plants and elements under their caregiving. Another highlight was seeing how bees are welcomed and tended with such reverence and kindness.

Vivid memories of my first visit are the peaceful aliveness of the woods, gardens, dunes, heather and beach as well as the vibrational field in and around the Universal Hall and the openness and kindness of all in the greater community. I’ve enjoyed the deep resonance with nature-honouring humans and feeling the Findhorn Foundation woven into the web of my peers and soul friends.

Sitting with Dorothy on occasion, when she was already well into her nineties, I was reminded of the treasure of deep silence between beings simply being in companionship. With both of us wordlessly communicating with the birds outside her window, we had the best telepathic tea parties!

I’m often asked who is capable of communicating with other species and I always stress that animal communication is not a gift. It is a natural ability that everybody has and is simply a matter of getting in touch with our intuition and accessing something that isn’t part of our everyday five-sensory reality. The First Peoples and indigenous tribes like the San Bushmen and Native Americans were easily able to communicate telepathically with all of nature and didn’t consider this unusual.

The shaman or medicine wo/man would use these skills for the tribe’s benefit, to conduct healing or reach a major decision. Also every person in the tribe had the ability to connect in non five- sensory ways with their surroundings; to know from the animals where they were, which was a good animal to hunt, or which plants would be medicinal, toxic or nourishing.

I’m not teaching people anything new. I’m merely helping them remember what’s already within them and I feel it’s again important to experience a deep connectedness with nature. When we experience a direct empathic connection with another being we’re much more inclined to understand the perspective of that animal and the challenges they face, particularly at the hands of humans and what we are doing to this planet.

Interspecies communication brings about mutual understanding and respect along with the possibility of co-creating solutions for even the most tricky situations where wildlife and humans come into conflict.

The same principles apply whether connecting with wild animals or domestic or habituated ones. Or plants, rivers, forests and ecosystems. Often I’ve been called upon to calm a wild animal that has been rescued or is being rehabilitated. In these situations wild animals are incredibly stressed at suddenly having to be in confined surroundings with all the human noises of people, cars and machinery.

The communicator’s role is then to calm the animal with reassurances that the scenario is hopefully temporary, and to explain what is required of them, particularly if medical intervention is necessary.

Communicators can assist medical professionals and their animal patients. For example, vets can find out directly – from the horse’s mouth, so to speak – the animal’s experience of their pain or discomfort; where in the body it occurs; what might have caused it; even what might make it better. This is immensely helpful to medical professionals who might otherwise have to rely on observation and other diagnostic measures alone.

Communicators can also warn wild animals big or small of possible danger, such as the threat from cars on roads, domestic cats in gardens, hunters and poachers – and can suLgest, through mental imagery, safe zones or escape routes. Using telepathy to go about intuitive gardening is a wonderful way to benefit the individual inhabitants as well as the collective good – through understanding the needs of plants, insects and the elements and acting in accordance with those for the highest harmony and thriving.

If wild animals are happily going about their own business in the natural environment, I then ask them about their lifestyles. It’s a great opportunity to find out what it’s like to be in those paws!

I might ask a sleeping lion how he is experiencing his body and surroundings and then feel inside myself a wonderful, absolute relaxation as if I’m in a deep meditation myself.

If I were asking one of the antelope species about their favourite food the answer might be a mental image of them stretching their necks up to browse off a particular bush or tree, or a taste in my own mouth of the acidity of that particular leaf. Try asking a bee how it sees the world (literally, not figuratively) and you might be amazed at the mosaic- like compound vision that appears behind your closed eyes!

Who would benefit from an interspecies programme or workshop? Any mammal of the Homo Sapiens variety.

Findhorn can assist the transition into a more empathic future with a grounded and multidisciplinary set of offerings for nimble and humble humans seeking to dance dynamically with self, other and the community of all beings.

Anna Breytenbach with Dorothy Maclean
INTERSPECIES COMMUNICATOR
from South Africa
FIRST FINDHORN VISIT » 2013

Geoff Dalglish

An author, writer, and spiritual and ecological activist