Jim Nollman of Interspecies Communication (IC) and a veteran in experiences with whales, dolphins and many other creatures, has found that you can't communicate with whales and dolphins if you want to control the interaction. On the other hand, conventional scientists say one can't do hard science without control. There is overwhelming evidence, however, that there cannot be any true objectivity. This means there can be no results (of any experiment) which are not in any way influenced by the human who conceived the experiment, who puts emotional energy into his/her work, who does something with a certain intent (see also Peter Fenwick: Chickens Don't Lie in NETWORK Dec 1996). But if it would be accepted that this absolute control is illusory because of this subjectivity, if we are aware of the aspect of emotional involvement in any science we do, if we admit, accept and acknowledge it, we can then utilize it to enrich our research. We won't always be busy trying to get rid of something that we cannot exclude, that continuously and always is an integral part of everything we do.
Thus there seems to be a wealth of phenomena that can only be experienced, which is usually labelled as "non-scientific" or "subjective", because it is causally unexplainable. As Kurt Dressler has already described in his talk Time (NETWORK Dec 1999) there seems to be a holistic non-local background, call it a field if you like, within which everything is connected, in a more fundamental basic way than linear time and space. Thus meaningful interactions between two beings perceived by us as taking place in time or space arise out of their connectedness in this field.
Synchronistic events, including telepathic communication, can be understood if we keep this connectedness in mind. The two communicators thus are part of one event (like "entangled particles" are). Typical for such deeply connected communication is that it must be meaningful for those involved, i.e. an emotional connection or interest must exist.
Traditionally, the shaman was scientist, artist, priest and healer, in deep communication with the environment he or she was a part of. Jim Nollman has a vision of a new "shamanic" science where this connectedness can be incorporated. Science would gain a new quality, a new approach, where there is no polarization or separation between the scientist and the world he or she investigates. If science could open up to include this quality it would gain very much and lose nothing.
Stories:
First a personal story by Barbara: In July 1990 we met Freddy, a wild North Atlantic bottlenose dolphin, near Amble (North of Newcastle). The eye-to-eye contact which only a sentient being would actively seek, his considerate movements (he was huge: 400 kg, 3 m long with a powerful fluke), his trust and playfulness were overwhelming. I went into a timeless state, a happy trance, we "danced" in harmony. Once we dived down at the exact same time, turned around to the surface, "dolphining" up, he leaping exuberantly clear of the water, I only up to the waist...
Traditional:
Some ancient traditional communication and interactions between humans and animals are still alive today. For example, Aboriginal people in Northern Australia still practice cooperative fishing with the help of dolphins. They first perform a ritual using song, dance and clap sticks, not to call the dolphins, but to get into a state which they call the "dreamtime" where they can communicate with the dolphins, using mental images. On the other side of the globe the Imragen people in Mauretania also fish for migrating mullet in the Atlantic with the help of dolphins (also recorded by Cousteau in a section of film). Many Pacific Islanders think like Waipu Pita, a Maori elder, who says dolphins are human relatives living in the sea, "We only call the dolphins when we need help in a rough sea or are in difficulty, or if there is something we would like to know about relatives at a distance over the ocean."
In Native American societies of the Great Plains hunters experienced another type of connectedness with animals: hungry and desperate, they had a vision or dream of a deer; they then would wake up, go to the place in the dream and find the animal standing there, as if it were presenting or sacrificing itself. The connection in this relationship was not to an individual animal but to "the Deer" as a collective being.
Similarly, Leo Frobenius describes in his book "Unbekanntes Afrika" (1905) how pygmies in the jungle of the Congo drew an antelope in the sand before going on a hunt. They "killed" this antelope when the first ray of sunlight struck the drawing. The first arrow hit the drawing in the neck. They then went hunting and came back with an antelope killed by an arrow in the neck in the exact same spot as in the drawing. (J. Gebser: Ursprung und Gegenwart, Vol 1, p. 89)
Messages from Afar
There are many incidents where people get "messages" of dolphins about to arrive: in the summer of 1991 the Japanese healer Nakagawa, whom we once met in Zurich with his friend Shizuko, was on a sailing ship in eastern Australia with the intention of meeting dolphins or whales, when a woman got a "message" with the number "five" and "dolphins". After 5 days, just before Nakagawa had to leave, hundreds of dolphins gathered around them, leaping and playing. A humpback whale rose up out of the water next to the ship and looked Nakagawa in the eye (H. Dobbs, 1992).
During John Lilly's attempt to create a human/dolphin community in 1983 in Careyes, Mexico, Fred lay on the floor of the boat, listening to guitar music and suddenly said, "Three dolphins told me they'll be arriving from the south in ten minutes." ..."Actually, it wasn't ten or even minutes." Fifteen minutes later three dolphins appeared from the south (Nollman 1999).
Sometimes whales or dolphins appear in dreams. A member of a film team in South Australia, sleeping next to the "Whale Rock", a cliff shaped like the fluke of a whale, dreamed that he was dancing on a back of a whale. He woke up and told his friends the story. Later an Aborigine man in the group woke up and laughed at him saying how great it was seeing him dancing on the back of that whale! Whales then appeared nearby that day. (Recounted at ICERC conference, Nov.1999, Paris.)
Visualisations and Communication
Often visualisations seem to be involved in direct telepathic communication: Frank Robson grew up among animals on a farm in New Zealand and often experienced telepathy with animals and some people, especially his family, and later with Australian indigenous people. As a fisherman he once wanted to get a buoy; wild dolphins nearby "received" the picture in his mind and brought him the buoy. He also tells of how when captive dolphins learned a new trick in one pool, others 200 m away knew the trick immediately. The ex-dolphin trainer Ric O'Barry (who now rehabilitates captive dolphins back to the sea) once did not know how to teach a new trick to his dolphins - then he saw they already knew what he wanted by demonstrating the trick. A similar story was told by a trainer from Britain's Sea World.
As so many of these incidents involve dolphins and whales, we sometimes forget other animals, such as wolves or buffalo. Jim Nollman, playing his guitar meditatively, once encountered bison buffaloes on the North American prairie. He began to "see" a ring of yellow light around the herd. Whenever he stepped over the "ring" the lead buffalo would lower his head threateningly; the "ring" varied in size according to the state of the animals (Nollman 1985).
A Common Phenomenon
Rupert Sheldrake's survey (NETWORK Aug 1999) shows that around half of the pet-owning population experiences telepathic communication with their cats and dogs. This is no surprise to me, as I remember just having to think, "Where is Elsa?" when our cat would answer and crawl out from a hiding place as if called by voice. As this phenomenon is so commonplace, we can assume it could even be a factor in pharmacological tests with lab animals where assistants often have a caring relationship to their charges.
Dolphin Empathy
Since ancient times dolphins seem to have a special relationship and empathy for humans. Classical Greek mythology is full of stories where dolphins help humans or become their friends and it was considered a sacrilege to kill them (Cochrane and Callen 1992, Nollmann 1999). Dolphins seem to have a special sensitivity to the needs of people in distress (psychological and physical), the question is: how do they get information on a person's state? Their ability to scan bodies with ultrasound is only one diagnostic means. How can a dolphin know when someone needs a breath? In one incident Tjarkowsky, who ran an underwater birthing and baby swim centre at the Black Sea, was under water holding a month-old baby when dolphins rushed in and brought the baby to the surface. He was startled but realized that he had made a mistake in counting the seconds (Cochran and Callen, 1992).
Horace Dobbs started Project Sunflower when he realized that dolphins have an uncanny knack for healing humans in deep emotional distress, including chronic depression and anorexia - his documentary film on three people's path back into life with the help of wild dolphins is very moving (Horace Dobbs, The Dolphin's Touch ). Bill Bowell, whom I met in 1992, was finally able to smile again after 12 years of deep depression which no other therapies or medication could influence, let alone heal. Now he talks to other people about his healing experience with dolphins.
Dolphins seem to exude trust and many people seem to lose their fear of water near them. Joan Ocean in Hawaii knows many men like Sam who at 45 was still terrified of deep water. He donned lots of gear to keep him afloat but wouldn't let go of the life preserver. When the dolphins came he relaxed and started to breathe with the snorkel. In three days he was swimming by himself. He said the dolphins looked at him and invited him to play and demonstrated all their techniques (J. Ocean 1989)!
When we went snorkelling in the Red Sea in 1999 our daughter's friend Marina had trouble with the snorkel, with holding her breath and diving down. Then we met "Oline", the wild dolphin near Nuweiba, and Marina seemed to forget her fear of diving, she became a "dolphin person".
Peter Binz and Barbara Jäckli are biologists working with ETH Zurich and their Cortona initiative for young people Email: bijack@bluewin.ch.
References:
Cochran Amanda and Callen Karena, Dolphins and their Power to Heal, London: Bloomsbury, 1992.
Dobbs Horace, Journey into Dolphin Dreamtime, London: Jonathan Cape, 1992.
Dobbs Horace, Dolphin Healing, London: Piatkus, 2000.
Dobbs Horace, The Dolphin's Touch, video, International Dolphin Watch, 10 Melton Road, North Ferriby, East Yorkshire HU14 3ET, UK. idw@talk21.com
Gebser Jean, Ursprung und Gegenwart Sec 1: Fundamente der aperspektivischen Welt. 4th ed. Munich dtv 1992.
Nollmann Jim, The Charged Border, New York: Henry Holt, 1999.
Nollmann Jim, Dolphin Dreamtime, London: Anthony Blond, 1985.
Ocean Joan, Dolphin Connection, Australia and Hawaii: Spiral Book, 1989.
Robson Frank, Dobbs Ferry, NY: Pictures in the Dolphin Mind, Sheridan House Inc., 1988.