Our Animals act as Activators, Reflectors and Emotional Reservoirs

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Storytelling Humans
Humans are very good at creating narratives to explain experiences in their lives. We are good at creating connections between events and finding meaning to put things into place. Often quick connections are created based on fabricated concepts after the fact. Therefore, depending on the experience these created connections can be used to quell our minds, fears, create understanding and/or put things into place in a way we can accept. These can often lead us down paths that seem connected to us but on closer inspection and with greater wisdom and hindsight may not be. Oftentimes, these can be projected on to places, objects and other living beings. As we navigate through the lived experience in physical reality every second we have breath is a gift and an offering. It is a gift because we have life. And it is an offering as each moment gives us the potential to create, to evolve and to grow if we decide to adopt this approach. I don't like to use the word mindset exclusively as I feel that it is not about the mind being set it is about the balance of the mind, heart and body (thinking, feeling, hands/doing) that supports our growth and evolution. Each day brings us the ability to learn anew and to put things into place in a coherent way rather than finding narratives and meaning based on our beliefs or what we 'think' we know. Often it is in the unknown that we find ourselves. It is the discomfort that we have epiphanies about ourselves, others and the world.
More specifically, we as natural storytellers connect experiences and create narratives based on our internally created mental pictures of the world. Each individual creates their personal experience and an internal reflection of the outer world based on interpretation of their experiences at the time of it's origination. These often become idealized versions of the actual event or observed object based on internal interpretations. These can be distorted by past traumas, hurts and misconceptions.

Animals and Humans
What does all of this have to do with animals, most especially animals in domestication? The animal kingdom has served humanity for thousands of years. They have supported us while we have progressed and regressed through many iterations of human experience and civilizations. We owe them a great debt for their support on many levels and yet we continue attempting to understand them from a human-centric perspective (human centered). We bestow upon them human ideas and make comparisons between their cognitive abilities and those of humans; this often relegates them to lesser beings of intelligence. This is a mistake in my view. Intelligence is not based on an IQ, SAT or GRE test. Intelligence is not about how many test questions you can get right. There are different types of intelligences. I believe it is contextual so when reduced to a quantitative, human centric world view we have a very limited understanding of the animal and what intelligence is. This is evident in the current expression of intelligence and it's continual comparison between that of human intelligence and the natural world. This is what I mean by human centric and it is a gross arrogance to believe everything stems from the human outwards into reality. It begs the question as to whether that is the case and whether meaningful comparisons can actually be made with this point of view alone. The dismissal of contextual factors and experimenter bias is telling.
In this regard, I believe there is another type of intelligence that is erroneously dismissed in our society as unessential - the intelligence of the heart. The HeartMath Institute shows that the heart has neurons very similar to those of the brain and is the first point of activation when interacting with the outside world. It registers information before the brain therefore, our processing is not a top down system as we have been led to believe, rather it is a bottom up system (heart to brain). The brain is secondary to the heart. To this day humans have focused on intelligence being quantitative as the 'results' are tangible. Until recently human centric ideas have dominated the description and comparison of animals and humans. This is also reflected in the controversial discussion about consciousness. Until 2012 animals were believed to be devoid of sentience and were relegated to the world of automatons and instinct - they were lesser than. We hold die hard beliefs that the brain is the seat of consciousness. And this topic within itself is controversial purely for the fact that materialists are unable to find a 'place' in the brain where consciousness quantifiably exists. As the Founder of The Society for Animal Consciousness we are of the idea that consciousness is shared by all living beings. We believe a rather more nuanced approach is needed; an integrated approach.
Therefore, for clarity and purpose of sharing in this article it is essential to adopt a definition of consciousness. The dictionary supposes that consciousness requires mental faculties and the ability to have self awareness. I believe this is a human centric ideology and is a poor definition of what consciousness could be. I also acknowledge that this is a controversial subject and there are many interpretations of what consciousness might be based on personal points of view. Most are based in materialism - if it cannot be measured mechanistically with technology or cannot be tangibly seen or touched it must not be real. In other words if the 5 senses cannot decipher it then it does not exist. Materialist science suggests that being human (as we believe ourselves to be) means being conscious and humans are therefore the central point of consciousness to which all other life is to be compared.

Definition of Consciousness
Therefore, the beginning of a simplistic definition for consciousness adopted in this article is as follows, "consciousness describes a state of being or a lived awareness of one's surroundings with the ability to make choices based on an array of species specific senses and beyond. This refers to beings that possess the ability to experience a lived awareness from the most simplistic to the more complex . A lived awareness refers to the aliveness of being and has different forms dependent on the species, their environment and purpose as part of the ecosystem they are tied to. To be very clear this does not include any inanimate objects or a programmed entity created by humans using technology or AI." I would like to acknowledge that this is but a beginning definition and is a work in progress as we expand our different intellects - not just the thinking minds but our feeling minds (heart) as well.
Now that we have a definition of consciousness for this article, I would like to further discuss the role that domesticated animals play in our lives. They are fully conscious in the expression of their species and possess their own contextual intelligence. They have also adapted to a life of domestication that has dulled this expression, however, they are by no means idle in their efforts to educate and support us. They are players that support our spiritual, emotional and even physical evolution (and I mean this not from a scientific perspective but rather a perspective that relates to wisdom and maturity). How many of you have experienced an opening of the heart with your animal companions? How many of you have stated that animals have changed your lives or have supported you through a transition or time where you felt you had struggles? No words were exchanged and yet you felt it. You know in your heart they were a part of change for you and were catalysts towards the individual you are today. I am sure there are many, I am one of them.
These stories are often relegated to the shelves of book stores with what are termed anecdotal narratives about the relationships between humans and animals. Additionally, the narratives are explained away with limited views about the human animal bond when scientifically tested because they are not easily explained. I feel this dismisses the beauty and the shared bond that animals and humans have. Furthermore, I feel it is a travesty to reduce the experiential to a scientific explanation based on quantitative ideology alone. It is a rather reductionist approach that tries to explain a qualitative topic as one that is not measurable and is relegated to that of fiction or the land of fables; this is a mistake. Animals are key players in human evolution (in terms of wisdom and finding our humanity). What I mean by this is, we do not need to be able to quantitatively measure everything on our planet for as we can see lived awareness (consciousness) cannot be measured in our current scientific paradigm. This cannot be generalized to the population with an experiment as much of it is very personal. Reducing our lived experience limits it's richness and complexity. Also, science does not discover, it rediscovers that which it becomes aware of. Phenomenon existed before it was rediscovered (think of Galileo, for example), it just was not in the pervue of human awareness until the individual opens their mind and is enlightened so to speak or they have an epiphany because they thought about something differently. The point is that conclusions are based on human interpretation and this is based on their lived awareness (consciousness) and experience. Intellectual pursuit is important to the human experience and yet the richness, diversity and complexity of the inner world cannot be explained in tangible, reductionist forms. This is similar for the lived awareness of animals in our midst. I believe acknowledging this is important for our own humanity because dismissing it would be disrespectful to our own development and the contribution of so many creatures who have supported bringing us to this point in our human evolution. I want to be clear I like science. I myself have published research. I like to rediscover and explore and discuss but I am very aware of limitations of the mind and the effects of reductionism. We have seen it played out over and over again in our history. What we thought was truth was usurped by new information to the contrary or was expanded. True science creates building blocks upon knowledge that is not considered absolute but investigative explorations of rediscovery. Science in itself when used well is beautiful. To acknowledge this is important because it is my belief that in doing so we are able to expand how we 'do' science and begin to understand what lived awareness may be.
With this preamble in place I want to share something that is often not considered when discussing animals. Animals are center pieces in our lives and support us and our evolution as I have mentioned. I would like to articulate a few of the ways they do. There are many ways they support us but for this article let's talk about animals as Activator's, Reflectors and our Emotional Reservoirs:

The Activator
Animals are special beings. Their role in our lives is much more than just companionship. They have the uncanny ability to see what is inside our hearts and to share the purity of their being with us. When they are in our presence they show us what it feels like to be accepted and understood without expectations. They see us with their purity of being. They share a connection that is unmeasurable. It is they who act as activators; activators of our hearts that are often closed after disappointment and trauma. It is they who are activators of our humanity. I often hear the word unconditional used but it feels like its true meaning has become lost because of over use and mis-use. This is the reason why you will not find it in this article. For the animals deserve better. As heart activators they so effortlessly share of themselves in their purpose of supporting our evolution. At this juncture you will also notice that I have not used the word love. Again for the very same reason I did not use unconditional. It is another word that has lost it's meaning due to over use and mis-use. However, what I will share with you is my definition of Coherent Connection ™. I define is as follows, "the ability to see another for who they are without projecting. It is in the deep yearning to feel accepted, understood and seen. It is the heart centered thread that links one consciousness to another. It is cradled in selfless, coherent LOVE." This speaks to the purity animals who give without expectation, projection or deception. It is the purest form of connection one has the privilege of experiencing. They teach us to love coherently. It is an gifting through connection and consciousness.

The Reflector
Animals do not have an "I am" the way humans do. Sometimes, I refer to this as the ego-mind. It is the part of ourselves that, when under-developed and mis-used is the seat of self-preservation through a limited world view. It can also be the seat of self-deception and deception of our fellow human. Animals do not have the ability to deceive. They share their beingness and when allowed their uniqueness without ulterior motives. They merely are themselves in the animal bodies they find themselves in. In domestication animals will meld with their humans. What I mean by this is they will connect and share their energy bodies with humans and in so doing reflect human traits back to their humans. You will see this when you get a sense of the animals beginning to feel like their humans. Some humans mistaken this for the animal becoming more and more human. They are not becoming more human, they do not have an I am. But what they are doing is reflecting back to the human their inner landscape. This they do so very well and yet it is subtle. This subtlety and the unawareness of humans allows these little gems of self-understanding to fly off into the wind unseen and unacknowledged. And yet animals loyally continue to share these gems of wisdom patiently waiting for their humans to awaken to them. What is your animal reflecting to you? Are you seeing it?

The Emotional Reservoir
Finally, animals are reservoirs of our emotions and physical ailments. Many times you will see patterns that emerge in terms of now 'common' diseases in our domestic companions. They are a result of domestication and our management of them (food, water, environment and other) as our animals suffer from many of the same diseases that is a result of our industrialized, modern world. These are similar to our own patterns of disease. Their uniqueness and connection to the natural world is ignored as we offer them life experiences created by the human mind and not with the connectedness to nature animals crave. Their bodies crave it. They are eager to tell us what they need but often it is so subtle we do not have the awareness to listen. As part of their many roles in support of our evolution animals are deep reservoirs of our emotions. Their emotional realities are slightly different to those of humans. Not to say that their emotional lives are not deep, but they are different. Part of their purpose in domestication is to take our emotions and to run them through their bodies; yes to their own detriment. They will process and run human emotions and emotional inner landscapes through their body and suffer as a result because it is part of their connection to us. It is part of their purpose to hold us up and support our emotional and spiritual evolution as we become human. It is therefore part of our purpose as guardians to support them as best we can and to clear and become aware of our own inner landscape and transform that which is keeping us in the old and holding us back.

As an animal connector I see these three roles often in humans and animal relationships. Next time you are in the presence of your animal what role are they playing the activator, the reflector or the emotional reservoir? Can you sense it?

Picture Source: Pixabay