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Secret Lives of Animals

Caitlin McGrory
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Have you ever noticed your dog staring off into space with a Buddha-like zen? Science is suggesting that animals are indeed capable of having spiritual experiences. Research shows that spiritual experiences arise from deep within primitive areas of the brain--areas that are also found in the brains of animals.

Kevin Nelson, professor of neurology and author of the book "The Spiritual Doorway in the Brain," available January 2011, has spent three decades studying the process of spiritual sensation. Detailing how the arousal system changes modes of consciousness, Nelson said, "In humans, we know that if we disrupt the (brain) region where vision, sense of motion, orientation in the Earth's gravitational field, and knowing the position of our body all come together, then out-of-body experiences can be caused literally by the flip of a switch. There is absolutely no reason to believe it is any different for a dog, cat, or primate’s brain." Nelson also relates the scientific likelihood that animals experience the same “tunnel” and “white light” experiences as humans.

Marc Bekoff, a professor emeritus of ecology and evolutionary biology at the University of Colorado, Boulder, also believes animals have spiritual experiences, which he defines as “experiences that are nonmaterial, intangible, introspective and comparable to what humans have.”

Both he and Jane Goodall watched chimpanzees dancing next to a waterfall with near abandon. Some of them even appeared to put themselves in trance-like states, just as humans have done in religious and cultural rituals since ancient times. This sparked Jane Goodall to ponder the emotion inspiring the acts -- “feelings akin to wonder and awe.”

Bekoff wrote an article for Psychology Today speculating  that “perhaps numerous other animals engage in these rituals, but we haven’t been lucky enough to see them.” The evidence that is in existence affirms humans are not the only ones capable of spiritual experiences, and hopefully more research will follow up on this soon.

 

Image by Milestoned on Flickr courtesy of Creative Commons Licensing

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Comments

Interesting. What I can say

Submitted by auditioning hunters on Thu, 10/28/2010 - 19:36.

Interesting. What I can say I've witnessed about animals is their reverence of nature, which may be a form of mysticism for them. Somehow, even though nature is, for most creatures, their entire world, they still are delighted and awed by it, as per the Jane Goodall story above. It's fascinating. And inspirational.

Once I came to a beach at night during a full moon and saw three big Dungeness crabs standing on a piece of driftwood on the beach. They were facing the water with their front claws raised in the air, towards the moon, it seemed to me. They were all very still, and then, as though they sensed me, they scuttled off. But I was utterly stunned to see this. I had the strong feeling that I witnessed something powerful. There didn't seem any physical or practical need for them to do this. I'd never even seen crabs that large on land. Since then I've suspected all animals to have secret lives.

Goldie

Submitted by Leon Night on Fri, 10/29/2010 - 05:12.

      I used to spend time backpacking in the Adirondack's with my daughter's dog who was always off-leash. One afternoon I was gazing out over the landscape from the top of Mt Marcy looking over toward Lake Placid. When I turned to make sure Goldie was near me I noticed that she was gazing out over the topography seemingly lost in a reverie of her own.

      I've since often wondered what she was experiencing because her behavior sometimes had a tendency to be un dog-like, if you know what I mean.

      I also used to wonder why she would look me in the eyes when I spoke to her, instead of looking at my lips move...

That's because ...

Submitted by Peter Meyer on Fri, 10/29/2010 - 08:48.
... dogs can't lip-read, but they can see through the windows of the soul.

go science!

Submitted by lancerobotson on Fri, 10/29/2010 - 16:31.
so animals can have their spirituality reduced to a neurological phenomena as well? triumph of materialism.

why wouldn't they?

Submitted by Five on Mon, 11/01/2010 - 17:17.

Animals live in a richer spiritual world than humans.... their psyche much more blended with the natural world...more intuitive, more aware.

"If we use excessively elaborate apparatus to examine simple natural phenomena nature herself may escape us."

Karl von Frisch, 1953

Great Article / Let's Learn

Submitted by Earl Rhodes on Wed, 11/03/2010 - 20:50.
Thank you for posting this. We need to value the experiences of animals, and stop treating them as secondary to our experience of the world. In Aztec culture, there is the concept of Nahualli or "nigual"/"niguel". The idea is that animals are spiritual doubles, and that by needless killing them, you may be harming other people, or yourself. I can tell you that my cat often sees things that most everyone else can't detect. He will often start batting at things that "aren't there" in the current understanding of the tangible. The reason I know this is because, I myself see spots and lights and streaks and outlines and all types of shit on a constant basis, so it's really interesting when this other creature can see them, too. I remember watching a security video within the last year of a dog in a New York office. There was an earthquake, but perhaps 30 seconds before it happened, the dog got up and ran. Then the event happened and people started doing the same. Animals can see and feel things that humans simply aren't aware of. We've known this for awhile, so now it's time for us to start taking it seriously again. We share the space with them, so perhaps we should again focus our attention on learning from them.