A note about animal communication skeptics
Horse psychics sometimes face a great deal of skepticism and are held to impossible expectations by skeptics. In a poor attempt at humor, I have heard the notion that “if the animal communicator can read my credit card number when I show it to my horse, only then I will give it to them!” I do understand where this mentality is coming from, and the hesitation some people carry about horse communicators. We live in a very scientifically and intellectually driven society, and when we can’t quantify certain phenomena or don’t understand it, we tend to disregard or disbelieve it.
I have long struggled to convince skeptics of my sincerity and genuine nature of animal communication. I have offered proof through anecdotal evidence, studies of psychic phenomena, government research, changes in behavior after an animal communicator has been involved, veterinary identification of unknown ailments that the animal communicator has noticed, etc, etc, etc. Always there is some loophole for the skeptics to escape through; a chance to retain their own carefully nurtured disbelief: the research was too loose, the horse communicator just used her knowledge of horses to assume the answer, anyone could guess that the mare might have a shrunken ovary, the owner probably changed her own behavior to cause a change in the animal, etc, etc, etc.
Frankly, I’m flattered that someone would hold my equine knowledge in such high esteem as to assume I could identify medical and training issues from a photograph and/or description! It used to really bother me when people would rudely invalidate and disregard my profession (I bet many lawyers feel this way too!), but I finally realized that everyone is exactly where they are, and it’s just fine for them to be there. Nothing I say or do can change their views. I no longer participate in the futile practice of trying to “prove” anything; the results speak for themselves. Yet I will mention last point that some clients have used with skeptical friends and relatives: even if all that happened was that an experienced horseperson gave you insight and advice into physical, mental, or training problems with your horse, and this advice led to solving or eliminating these problems, who really cares how it works? Isn’t that what you pay a trainer for anyway?
Now, let’s examine that credit card idea again. One of the greatest disservices we can do for our animals is to assume they are human in intelligence, emotions, and behavior. Animal communication may help you realize that your horse is much more aware than you ever realized, but this still doesn’t mean that he is a person. If you hold a credit card up for him to see, he’s probably going to spook or try to eat it. He might be able to send the horse communicator a brief image or impression of the card, like a silver square or a red, white, and blue blob, but he looks at the object as a thing, not a device that holds information. Moreover, even if he could conceptually understand what a credit card is, you would have to teach him to read and comprehend the English language before he could possibly tell me what numbers were on it. This goes for lost animals too; I can’t simply ask the dog what street he’s on because he would have no way of understanding the name, even if he is clever enough to look for a sign!
Fortunately, there are enough open minded people out there to compensate for those few stubborn skeptics. More importantly, even if your horse can’t read, the insights a horse psychic can provide about training, behavioral, or medical problems will vastly outweigh the knowledge you would ever gain from a credit card. If you would like to learn more about the science and studies behind animal communication, I highly recommend the book Dogs that know when their owners are coming home: and other unexplained powers of animals. In the mean time, get cracking with those flash cards, and I’m sure your horse will have the alphabet down in no time. Tallyho!
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