And Then Everything Made Sense (part 4)

I know: part 3 of this essay was published three weeks ago... But Spring Arrived At Last! The crabapple bloomed! The hill was calling me! I spent hours there, marvelling at everything. And hopefully, my dears, you were also busy outside for similar reasons  :o)

So – we were talking about the connective power of empathy, and how it happened (in these cases) through what can only be defined as telepathy.

In one week, the Crabapple went from this state (last year's fruits still on the branches)

to this radiant one :o)

I was already familiar with telepathy at the time, but only with friends or family. In fact, it would occur more frequently (yet always in a random sort of way) if the other person was naturally 'open' to that sort of thing... 

Of which I could give you dozens of really striking examples (like the day I was writing an email from the bookstore, to a friend with whom I hadn't spoken with for several weeks: "I would love to hear your voice, ..." then the bookstore phone rang – and it was him, not surprised at all by the 'coincidence'). But I am sure it has happened to you as well :o)

Horses are good at reading human's intentions.
This one was very friendly  :o)

However, the mysterious thing that took place repeatedly in the bookstore, as I was practicing 'seeing' my customers differently, was not 'random', and it certainly involved people who were not necessarily open to telepathy, or even to intuitive connexions.

Not to mention the countless times when Lola came in through her cat door approximately one or two minutes (which is the time it would take her to travel through the surrounding garden's fences, then climb up to the third floor's gallery) after I had wondered what she was doing at the moment.

Unless it was me catching Lola's thoughts when she decided to come home?

So I could see that all this was real, but wondering how, and why, it was happening.

Then not long ago, my friend Anne Bécel sent me a link to this striking video. Thus I was introduced to the work of Anna Breytenbach, an inter-species communicator who is mainly dedicated to the conservation and protection of wildlife, particularly in South Africa, where she lives – but also to facilitating our inborn connection with the natural world.

At first I was fascinated and moved (in many ways) by the content of the video itself – the transformation occurring in the black Leopard is very puzzling to watch, and to consider. So I read the articles and listened to the various interviews (including podcasts) available on the Website of her organization, AnimalSpirit.org

What is going on behind this broody mask?

To sum it up quickly: inter-species communication is something that takes place naturally, on an energetic level – between animal species, but also between insects, plants and every living being. 

Humans are definitely able to communicate in this way (both actively and passively), with other people or other species; but our rational side tends to bypass this ability. In fact, most of the time, our thoughts create a kind of static that prevents us to be directly in touch with our energetic level of being – where inspiration or intuition come from, for instance.

The more I learned about this, the more awe-struck I was. Many intuitions, understandings and perceptions that I’d had since my childhood, but so far in a kind of random way, were now falling into place, making sense within a much wider pattern that encompassed our whole planet.

Fluffy Egret about to land on a Rhino. Can you feel the air under her wings, like armchairs?

As a teenager, while reading Robert Merle’s book Un animal doué de raison (“a sentient animal”) – translated in English under the title The Day of the Dolphin – I discovered that dolphins use a very elaborate language. 

I soon became more generally aware of all cetaceans as truly intelligent, wise creatures, who even go out of their way to save a drowning person, something that moved me deeply (what made them feel such empathy for us, when some humans actually hunt and kill cetaceans?)

It must be quite wonderful when this happens to you.

I was also fascinated by bees, for similar reasons (I felt a strange kinship with honeybees whenever I saw one), and by elephants – thanks to Romain Gary’s Les racines du ciel (“roots of the sky”) translated in English under the title The Roots of Heaven. Interestingly, this title alludes to the irresistible appeal, within each one of us, of something that goes way beyond our immediate, physical experience of life; it describes our spiritual side, if you will.

At the same time, it can be understood (as I did) as a metaphor for the elephants themselves – to me they are like trees walking the earth… And they can communicate across vast distances, through the ground itself. (Their depth of understanding, feeling, and communicating abilities are strikingly described, from within, in Barbara Gowdy’s mesmerizing book The White Bone.)

From the publisher : Plunged into an alien landscape, we orient ourselves in elephant time, elephant space, elephant consciousness and begin to feel, as Gowdy puts it, "what it would be like to be that big and gentle, to be that imperiled, and to have that prodigious memory."

Through her activities, Anna has had many opportunities to communicate with wild elephants, but also with wild dolphins and whales. And she learned this from both elephants and whales: deliberately, through each of their migrations, and thanks to their collective presence and knowledge, they are energetically balancing (or grounding) the planet.

“As the elephants walk the gridlines and leylines rumbling their songs, so the whales weave the earth energy lines together under the sea with their calling and their songs. The stability of the earth’s grid depends on these two species being allowed to do their very important, selfless work.”

(source: written Interview with Anna on Elephant Wisdom, mentioned above)

Isn’t that amazing? But there’s more.

Anna communicating with a young elephant and her mother.

Over the years – I learned through her podcast interviews – research has finally identified eight broad patterns that all cetaceans (from whales to dolphins) use in their respective, highly complex languages. Meanwhile, other studies have identified, as well, eight patterns in elephant language (those deep rumblings through the ground). 

And they happen to be the same eight patterns.

I was astounded by what these two discoveries (on migrations and language) implied – not just about the common wisdom of elephants and whales, but about the way the world functions… An intricately balanced system in which consciousness and purpose are intimately woven within, and between, every element.

And it is this beautiful, balanced system of which we mostly are disconnected today, individually and collectively. Given the extend of our agency-gone-wrong, our whole planet is now getting sick (as are so many humans).

These conscious migrations remind me of the ‘Songlines’ followed for millennia
by Aboriginal people in Australia. They still remember them.

Anna herself is a very grounded and logical person – you can tell this by her voice, her demeanour, her background, and the way she explains things. Her testimony and understandings are all the more powerful.

Moreover, as much as she could be overwhelmed by the amount of distress inflicted to so much wildlife today, the depth of her understanding truly feeds her action. She works tirelessly to spread this awareness through workshops in Africa and elsewhere, where people can develop their inborn interspecies communication abilities. (Which involves mainly trust and empathy.)

You can imagine being a bee, for instance, coming out of a grass tunnel.
You'll experience her sensations, sight and flight. Quite thrilling  :o)

This alone is highly inspiring, particularly for an emotional girl like me.

When people ask why I am a vegetarian, for instance, and I try to say something about the appalling conditions in which chickens, pigs or cattle are raised and slaughtered in the 'meat industry' ( ! ) I get instantly flooded with emotions from what the animals must be feeling, right now, in these places – so I have to stop talking. Not very helpful, is it?

Watercolour of a Quail chick I did a while ago.

But if feelings of distress can communicate to you instantly when you are ‘in tune’ with the animal or person who is experiencing them, the reverse is true: you can instantly communicate empathy, awareness and kindness, through your sincere intention to do so – as I had discovered in the bookstore.

Furthermore, animal communicators don’t need to be in presence of the individual they intend to connect with – they can do so from anywhere in the world, in fact, as long as they have enough basic information about them (and maybe a picture) to tune their 'reception' onto their specific wavelength.

Peaceful and silky.

Anna explains that this phenomenon can be retraced within the field of quantum physics: every living being has a unique energetic signature, emitting constant and specific information that can be perceived instantly, anywhere, regardless of physical boundaries such as walls, oceans or mountain ranges.

This means – I realized – that you can suddenly receive feelings or impressions from someone you know but haven't seen in a while, or even somebody you 'meet' for the first time through a picture. Which has happened to me more than once!  

Red Cedar (Thuja Plicata) near Vancouver

And now I understood, as well, why I was overwhelmed both by recognition and longing, over the years, when looking at pictures representing rolling hills (from places as different as Wales and Mongolia) or certain trees that I had never met so far: the ancient, immense Redwoods living in the Pacific coast. 

So that's what it was – I could perceive the specific energy of these hills or trees through a picture! And it was calling me because I needed to be around that very type of energy... 

Trees in general, and old ones in particular, are keeping a gentle watch on us, something I had known deep down for years, and which is why I was horrified to discover that they were being cut for profit, even today. What if companies were dismantling centuries-old cathedrals in Europe to sell the stones at a high price? Except centuries-old trees can't be replaced, ever. And they are living, sentient, benevolent beings. 

Anna herself confirmed my intuition during one of the podcasts – trees are protective, and they have immense compassion for other species, our own included, in spite of what is being done to them everywhere.

When I met these old, majestic trees at last in person two years ago, it was even more evident. 

My friend Pierre, who was traveling with me, had the same wonderful sensation of being enveloped by a kind, wise and serene spirit, both ancient and very present – though he had never felt that way in a French forest (and neither had I).

It was him, in fact, who mentioned it to me, after we had walked for a while with a kind of hushed awe in the magic woods
 of Galiano Island, not knowing really where we were, and not worried a bit.

When I began to write this series of posts, it was initially to share with you the meaning, beauty and sense of purpose that Anna's work has let into my life. I had no idea it would evolve in a full story, going back to what happened to me in the forest one October evening, but in retrospect it makes a lot of sense :o)

However, right after I had published part 2, my friend Marianne mentioned to me a book that I should really read, so I borrowed it from the library, and here is synchronicity for you: Anita Moorjani’s story, Dying To Be Me, is not only a life-changing one, it also shines a new light on the 'extended' perception of our world that Anna Breytenbach is describing.

In fact, it helps us understand even better how, and why, we are all connected in a very real and powerful way, from the humble moss growing on the front steps, to the child who used to be completely absorbed in them, and to the adult who now marvels again at their tiny, exuberant forest.

Have you noticed how the seed of wonder and understanding has been nurtured in my life recently, from Anne and Anna,
to Marianne and Anita? And I should mention Milla and Mary as well. Thank you deeply, ladies.

Anita almost died, in 2006, from a final stage lymphoma, but she came back from her “near death experience” (NDE) after having experienced with wonderful clarity the meaning, depth and interconnectedness of all life; the unique magnificence and purpose of each individual soul; and the infinite, unconditional love that is the source – and essence – of any of us.

She realized that we are deeply loved no matter what we do… and we all carry the ability to love in the same unconditional way. Even after she was back to normal life, “I was no longer able to view the world in terms of ‘us’ and ‘them’ – that is, victims and perpetrators. There’s no ‘them’, it’s all ‘us’. We are all One.” (p. 109).

She came back to her dying body because she knew that having access, for the first time, to the magnificent beauty of her true self would dissolve the very reasons that had caused her cells to become sick in the first place. Her deceased father and her best friend Soni, whose loving presences she felt several times during her NDE, gently urged her then to “go back and live your life fearlessly!” 

And this is what she does, inspiring many people along the way. The link above leads to a wonderful interview with Lilou Macé, who had talked with her on Skype the year before. The difference between the two interviews shows that Anita keeps learning every day from what happened to her (as she underlines in her book) and from our own questions.

Believe me, this is an illuminating, empowering read.

Again, Anita is one thoroughly grounded woman. Her writing is very thoughtful and pragmatic, and the purpose of her honest, detailed story is to unlock (somehow) our knowledge that this is why we are here: to live our life fearlessly, with love and trust.

Our own particular purpose in life simply unfolds through that process – love and trust (and intuition) being our constant guides, particularly when we are stressed out, perplexed, afraid or lost. 

This is what came out one day on the paper as I was doodling with a brush and Chinese ink.
Kind of a self-portrait as a tree  :o)

Sometimes I ask myself “would I do this if I was seriously ill?” My immediate response is always revealing: either a resolute Yes or a sincere No… (It took me three years – and a burnout – to follow my own advice and quit my job. So many good things have been turning up into my life since I did :o)

The White Pine (Pinus Strobus) gives me peace of mind in any season.
The Iroquois or Ganonsyoni, I've just found out, named it the 'Tree of Peace'.

She concludes: “When we’re true to ourselves, we become instruments of truth for the planet. Because we’re all connected, we touch the lives of everyone around us, who then affect others. Our only obligation is to be the love we are, and allow our answers to come from within, in the way that is most appropriate for us… Finally, I can’t stress enough how important it is to enjoy yourself and not take yourself or life too seriously.” (p. 185)

I can certainly see that. Don’t you?

To me this looks like a baby Hazel, and I love hazel trees, so Hazel is her name so far  :o)

The beauty of it all, of course, is that my own deep experience of unity in the forest, the Vipassana teachings, Anna's discoveries as an interspecies communicator, and the impressive clarity of Anita's NDE all point out to the same evidence: we are all One – the whole planet. "Connectedness is our birthright", says Anna (and the Cottonwoods). We can talk to the ocean, to the bees, to the dolphins, to our cats and dogs. They are always 'tuned in'. And we should listen to them, too. 

Everything we do affects the "great tapestry of life" around us, as Anita puts it. This means that we are gifted with true agency, and it is rooted first and foremost on an intimate level: the way we feel about ourselves can change the external world, because this IS where our strength lies. Each unique person is important in the whole picture.

On the contrary, if we keep trying to change ourselves (like we do in so many ways all the time), we are literally depriving the world of our own true beauty. Says Anita. And I totally agree.

:o)

These were at my bedside when I endeavoured to write part 1 of this epic post!

I am truly looking forward to all of your comments – feel free to ask about anything that you find unclear, though of course both these amazing ladies have explained the whole concept in a much more elaborate way than I was able to do in a dozen paragraphs.

In fact, I would also be curious of your feedback when you've had the time to listen to/read more from Anna and Anita! Though I wouldn't be surprised if some of you are already familiar with their work, or with similar approaches  :o)

I've set aside a really nice selection of pictures and illustrations for part 3 and 4 in French, too. À bientôt !