One way or another, everything in life boils down to our perceptions, or the light through which we view our world. Is it bright, light, spacious and airy? Has a bank of clouds obscured the light completely? Or is there a thin, dark veil that cast a shadow over all that we see? We view the world as we expect to see it. We project our perceptions of what we expect to see out ahead of us. Then the world that we see is what we expect. Even if there is another perspective easily discernible, we are conditioned to see what we have told our brain to expect.

Animal communication changes our perceptions. The very essence of communicating telepathically with another being is simple acceptance that energy bridges exist between beings. We then choose to use them to achieve a union of consciousness where thoughts can be exchanged. It is an activation of something that already exists. In the case of communicating telepathically with an animal rather than another human, we must be aware of any thoughts we have about them being inferior in intelligence or awareness to ourselves. If we think of them as less than us in any way, then we limit our ability to understand them and perceive them as they truly are. If we think of them as substandard, then we are projecting that perception into our interactions with animals. Our own expectations get in the way of experiencing our animals in the way they truly are. That is, amongst other things, a beacon of telepathic communication.

Animals’ perception of things, more often than not, is not the same as ours. We can go through the same series of events and have a very different experience. Sometimes these differences of perception come down to very practical living circumstances. Dogs who are aggressive with guests may feel they have to protect their domain. A cat may suddenly stop using the litter box because the living room furniture was rearranged. When we communicate with our animals on a day-to-day basis, we begin to think in a different way over time and we begin to take into consideration what they are thinking. We begin to look at situations and circumstances in a different light. This is possible because we have trained our brain to expect to see something else.

The Reticular Activating System (RAS)

The reason for this change—particularly when animal communication is used often and over time—is because of an area of the brain called the reticular activating system (RAS). It is a loose network of neurons and neural fibers located in the brain stem. It has numerous functions but one is to act as a portal through which almost all information—except smell—enters the brain. It then acts as a filter for the volume of information you are receiving every second. If we didn’t have a filter in place the amount of information would be overwhelming. This filter affects what gets our attention, and what we do not pay attention to. The information it filters out does not get the attention of our brain. If something is familiar, we expect the stimuli, then we pay attention to it. If something is new or a novelty, we will also pay attention. If we hold the expectation, consciously or unconsciously, that something cannot be, then we do not pay attention to that piece of information. “Perhaps the most important function of the RAS is its control of consciousness: it is believed to control sleep, wakefulness, and the ability to consciously focus attention on something. In addition, the RAS acts a filter, damping down the effect of repeated stimuli...preventing the senses from being overloaded,” WiseGeek.org mentions.

We can think of the RAS as an information matchmaker in our brain. It takes our belief system, our perspectives, and it matches them with stimuli from the outside world. However, the RAS filters according to our conscious and our unconscious beliefs. It does not differentiate between our conscious belief in animal communication and our unconscious belief that only crazy people talk to animals and hear voices in their head. We are all exposed to this way of thinking by our society, consistently and over a long period of time. It becomes part of the fabric of our unconscious belief system. But that is not to say that we cannot change how our RAS filters information. The RAS responds to repetition and also to visualizations and images. It also plays a role in dreaming. It has low activity when we are sleeping, but when we dream the activity raises up to similar levels as wakefulness. As we accept the possibility of communicating with animals we become more aware of the animals, around us and their behavior. As our awareness grows, we notice things like them making eye contact, or turning to face us just as we send a thought their way, or asking a question and “hearing” or “feeling” an answer. The more we accept, think about and visualize these things, the more we are training our brain to see more of this. It’s a newly created perspective and it’s OK to see things related to it. Visualizing and thinking about our animal communication experiences before sleep and upon waking is very effective as well.

Animals are eager for us to be receptive to their communications. They want us to shed our cultural programming that has us believing they are less intelligent and don’t experience life in the fullest. Now more than ever, animal voices are meant to be heard. We need to let them educate us. We begin this by believing the images, thoughts, impressions and perceptions we receive from them. We accept our moments of clarity and acknowledge our flashes of inner knowing. The more often we use this, the more opportunities we will have to use it. We will begin to see it everywhere we look. The results of our change in perspective will speak for themselves. As we begin to live more harmoniously with those around us, we will feel more at ease and will be able to enjoy what’s around us every day. And by doing so, we open up even more space for positive changes in our life and our world.

Gwen Gangi, an animal communicator all her life, lives in Monroe with her husband, son, three dogs and two parrots. Gangi also owns a local pet sitting business. Connect at FurtoFeathers.com, [email protected] or 203-610-2444.