In Part 1 of this subject we discussed the responsibility that we carry toward the Animal Kingdom and how walking in a greater measure of communion with that Kingdom will cause us to need to bear more responsibility for them than we do currently. If you haven’t read it, you can catch up here: Restoring Communion with the Animal Kingdom Part 1: Responsibility and Cost. Today we are going to talk a bit about the personhood of animals and how we need to shift our mindsets to match with what is actually true, not what we have tended to believe previously. We will also be looking a bit more into what this will cost us to properly steward in the Kingdom of God.
I was giving our dog Seraphina a shower recently with flea shampoo and Sunshine was mentioning how she thinks I’m better with the dog (as far as how I treat her) than Sunshine is. Not that Sunshine is bad or abusive in any way—just that she thinks I tolerate and manage the dog’s behavior better. I replied that I think it’s probably because I recognize the dog has her own thoughts, will, personality, and emotions, and I don’t think we always take that into account enough as people. Sunshine said, “Well yeah, but she’s still just a dog.”
I replied, “Yeah, she’s a dog, but that’s exactly my point. What if part of our problem is that we relegate her to ‘just a dog’ status and ignore her will, emotions, and intellect?” It took a bit of convincing to get her to believe that dogs have a mind, will, and emotions (and I’m still not sure she’s entirely convinced), but it got me thinking. Before going further, I’ll explain to you what I pointed out to my wife about animals having a mind, will, and emotions. Regarding Seraphina’s mind, we have the ability to train her to do things. She knows how to recognize certain commands and words, such as “outside”, “go home”, “crate”, “potty”, “Seraphina”, “puppy”, “food”, “hungry”, “no”, and more. Not only can she recognize these words, but she knows what they mean and in some cases what behavior is expected of her when we say those words to her. This requires intellect, or said another way, a mind.
As for Seraphina’s will, that is clearly evident in her behaviors, especially when we take into account the fact that she does have a mind and can understand some of what we tell her. When she is playing outside on our property and we tell her to “go home,” she knows she is supposed to, well, go home. The thing is, when she hears us tell her that, stops, looks at us, and then runs in the opposite direction she is enacting her will. A rebellious will mind you, but a will nonetheless.
Now for the emotions. When we first got Seraphina as a puppy, she had clearly been mistreated. It took a week before she started playing like a normal puppy would do and it wasn’t because she had some kind of developmental delay—it was because she was too afraid. I had to reach into her crate and pull her out of it and we would take turns holding her on our laps while she laid there shaking until she realized we weren’t going to hurt her. She wouldn’t take food from our hands for a while and we had to stop touching the food and move away before she would eat it. This animal was experiencing high levels of fear. Now, this is only possible if animals can experience emotions because fear is an emotion. Seraphina likewise experiences happiness, sadness, hope, disappointment, and other emotions as well, and if one observes her long enough, these various emotions become visibly evident. This is what I explained to my wife about our dog, but the same matters apply to all other animals.
In reality, the main difference we see between a dog and another animal, such as a beetle, is the level of intellect available. Theoretically all animals possess a mind, will, and emotions, but what allows them to display and/or experience a greater range of those things has everything to do with intellect or brainpower, or said another way, the size and complexity of their brain. Now, here’s where things get trippy. The human soul consists of a mind, will, and emotions, and as I have already proven, animals have the same. The level of intelligence they have, the intellect of their mind, will vary, but they still have one. The thing that’s fascinating is that when we realize that the human mind is not stored in the brain but the brain is the physical interface for the mind and the body, then it means that animals also have a soul that exists in a soul dimension similar to how we do (While some might like to use Greek and Hebrew to argue with me about this, I’m not talking about the spirit of the animal, I’m talking about their soul, and they aren’t the same thing. Argument over.).
Now, what would happen if we shifted our mindset and actually believe that animals have a mind, will, and emotions, have intellect, personality, and desires, and then treated them accordingly? I’m not even talking about if we could talk to each other, like I suggested in the prior installment, but what would it look like? How would we shift how we treat animals when we understand more about how they are made and what they experience? I believe if we truly understood this and changed our interactions with animals, we might see a difference in how they interact with us.
Now, I want us to come back around and take another look at this subject of cost. What price will we have to pay to communicate with animals and restore our relationship with the Animal Kingdom? Keep in mind as I discuss this that I’m not saying we should shy away from wanting things due to the price that may come as a result, but I do think it is important to think things through before we dive headlong forward without preparation. Luke 14:28-30 “Suppose one of you wants to build a tower. Won’t you first sit down and estimate the cost to see if you have enough money to complete it? For if you lay the foundation and are not able to finish it, everyone who sees it will ridicule you, saying, ‘This person began to build and wasn’t able to finish.’” If we want to steward the gift, we need to consider the price.
When we understand that animals have intellect and personality and have their own feelings and desires and then we are able to talk to them, what will that change for us? Let me throw out some ideas to consider—things that might ‘cost’ if we really could understand and communicate with animals like we are talking about. Going to the Veterinarian’s office might prove traumatic, as you will be exposed to the fear and pain of the animals present. An animal shelter would be even harder to go to, much less work at. Depending on how the animals are treated, the Pet Store, Zoo, and Circus might also become off-limits as well. If you’re a hunter, you might give up hunting simply because when you hear the dying cries of the animal you just shot, it will mean a lot more than it did before. Animals won’t just be ‘dumb beasts’ anymore to you – they will be your friends. If you’re a meat-cattle farmer, you’re probably going to need to find a new profession. Try telling all your animal- friends that you’re going to have to kill them once they get big enough. I mean, I’m sure they’ll understand, right?
This may sound entirely overboard to some and it may seem these things won’t matter much, but think again. Animals don’t just communicate using words like we do, and they certainly don’t use human-language when speaking to us. The communication is at its root soul-to-soul or spirit-to-spirit, whether it sounds like we hear them with our physical ears or not. If we shoot an animal with earplugs in, we may still hear their dying cries because it isn’t limited to the audible range, and as such simply going out of physical earshot is no guarantee either.
How do I know any of this? Have I had animals speak to me directly? Not that I recall. But I know others who have, and I have had enough experiences talking with plants, stars, angels and other non-physical beings that I have a few clues that indicate this is how it works. I have also experienced animals responding to my thoughts or words even if I didn’t hear theirs.
For one example of this, my wife and I were sitting in our car which we had parked on the side of a street. We were sitting in the car talking to each other with the sunroof closed but with the divider open so that we could see the glass above us. A black cat walked toward us, hopped up on the hood of the car, slowly walked up the front pane, over the top, and down the back, then hopped off and walked away a short distance. My wife and I both enjoyed this very much, as we got to observe the cat walk on the roof as well as the rest of the car. I even recall saying to her “I wish the cat would do that again – that was cool.” Within about 15 seconds the cat trotted over, hopped back up on the car hood, went quickly over the top and back down, and left. He/she looked back at us at one point and we both had the distinct feeling the cat was asking “There. Did that make you happy?” The cat was nice enough to humor our request, but it seemed like it found the request somewhat annoying. Clearly though, the cat heard our thought-request and complied when it was physically incapable of hearing us due to the windows being shut—and even if the windows had been open, the cat likely wouldn’t have understood my English. And yet, the cat did exactly what I wanted, meaning it understood what I wanted through nonverbal communication, proving my point.
I once had a dream that suggested there are many people out there who have had similar experiences communicating with animals, and that some do it regularly but have simply been unwilling to talk about it, especially in the Church, for fear of negative labels and derision from others. I firmly believe that people often don’t want to take risks and share things because they feel unsafe—and often times other people make it unsafe to share. My hope is that by opening this subject up we can help empower people to start conversations about this topic and walk forward into greater communion with the Animal Kingdoms together. Let’s get started!
