Reiki and Animal Communication - with Carolyn Musial

Animal Communication is not Animal Reiki but they support each other.  Learn how Reiki brought Carolyn and Pam to Animal Communication along with tips, advice and a meditation that brings you into the perspective of an animal.

Pam's Information
Classes:  Information and Classes and Hidden Brook Farm full Calendar
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email:  pam@hiddenbrook.ca
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Carolyn's Information
Facebook:  ReikiCare with Carolyn Musial
Website:  www.reikicare.com
email:   carolyn@reikicare.com
book:  Animal Talk: Interspecies Telepathic Communication by Penelope Smith

Meditation music Licensed from:
Nate Miller https://www.emanate7.com/ and https://www.youtube.com/user/Emanate7
thank you to Music from Pixabay for the intro music

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pam@reikifromthefarm.com

Transcript

Reiki and Animal Communication with Carolyn Musial

 [00:00:00] 

Pamela: On this week's podcast, we are talking to Licensed Reiki [00:01:00] Master Teacher, Carolyn Musial. She's also a mentor teacher and director of the Licensed teachers.

She's been a full-time Reiki teacher and practitioner since 2003. She lives Reiki with everything she does and with every breath that she takes. She recognizes and understands that all is one. And that we share a connection through the Divine within Carolyn is also known for her talks at the Reiki Retreat on Animal Communication and so I just knew that our listeners would want to hear from you today. Welcome Carolyn. 

Carolyn: Thank you, Pam. It's really awesome to be here. This subject is just so near and dear to my heart and hopefully between two of us, because you're obviously doing animal communication also, and I think we'll be able to share information and experiences, maybe even some of the stories and the different things we've learned from the animals. And I hope always is just to give [00:02:00] people maybe a look at things from a little bit of a different perspective and how open to a deeper awareness of the world around us. And maybe even walk a little bit differently on the earth. So I thank you for inviting me. I'm happy to be here, but with that said, would you like to introduce yourself for the, the people that are with us 

Pamela: I probably should. I'm also a Licensed Reiki Master Teacher with the International Center for Reiki Training. And I am also an Animal Communicator and have taught Animal Communication sessions for years. I intend to write a book about Animal Communication very soon. So I thought it might be really fun for us to have a conversation. And like you said, really help people see from the animal's perspective what's happening. But before we begin, I just wanted to let people know about some of the classes that we have coming up on the farm.

In mid [00:03:00] September, I will be starting a new Reiki Master Mentor session for people who are Reiki Masters and would like a little help to get their businesses going, or would like to have a mentor and these are group sessions. You can find out about that in the link in the podcast. I also have some Licensed Reiki and Animal Reiki classes as well, coming up in October and in December, some Licensed Reiki and Animal Reiki and also an Animal Communication class coming up. And those are mostly in the Atlantic and Eastern time zones. They're all online. Carolyn what do you have coming up?. 

Carolyn: Well, I'm in the Eastern time zone also, cause I'm actually physically located in Buffalo, New York and I've got my Reiki classes coming up. I teach a couple of times a month, so I've got actually come now that I think about it, September is an Animal Reiki one and two and then in October I've got, I have a Masterclass in November, a regular Reiki, one and two [00:04:00] class and in December, another Master class. So my information maybe in the link also?

Pamela: Yes. I'll also have a link to your website and I think your calendar is right there. It is. It is very definitely 

Carolyn: on my, so yeah, anyone's interested reach out and we can answer any question.

Pamela: Thank you so much. And further before we get into our conversation, I just like to ask everybody to join me in an invocation so that we can all bring our Reiki energy in today. So I invite you to close your eyes, take some deep breaths and bring your hands into Gassho with your thumbs at your heart and breathe.

As the light of the Divine Earth flows up through the bottoms of your feet and the light from the Heart of God shines down through the top of your head and they meet together in your heart,[00:05:00] 

causing your heart light to shine out in front of you behind you on each side above you, below you and within.

Many people believe that telepathic communication originates in the head, but in fact it is in the heart space.

And so just allow that expansion of your own heart space 

today, inviting your Reiki energy to flow,

inviting any symbols to join you. If you have symbols

and today we invite you to consider a different perspective. The perspective of the animals. We are all [00:06:00] here together today because of a deep love of the animals and of the earth for all of our differences.

We want to leave the earth a better place.

We open our hearts and receive the opportunity to learn through the consideration of another perspective today. Aho and Namasté. 

Thank you. 

Carolyn: Lovely, Thank you Pam.

Pamela: Carolyn, you are known for your Animal Communication talks at the ICRT Reiki Retreat, which is actually happening this weekend. I wonder if you can tell me a little bit about your Reiki journey and how it led to you becoming an animal communicator or [00:07:00] learning animal communication?

Carolyn: Okay. I actually took my first Reiki class in April of 1998. Very hard to believe that 23 years ago, and my background is left brain analytical. I worked in corporate America for 28 years. I love sharing that with people because I'm not the far out one who saw auras and talked to angels and... no, I was left brain analytical, that's the way that they, I used to test one in corporate America when they used to do those tests.

But I reached a point where I knew something was missing in my life and I had to go find what it was. And I found Reiki or Reiki found me as we well know it does. And started working with Reiki and certainly daily self Reiki from that very first class in 1998. And then I've always adored animals.

I've always had a connection with animals, cannot say that I always had a communication with animals, but it was what was frustrating for [00:08:00] me is that I always felt that the animals could understand. I always felt they could, whether or not they wanted to do what I wanted them to do with something else.

But I knew they understood me. I didn't know how to understand them and how to communicate better with them. So the more that I worked with Reiki and the more that I opened up and did some of my own self healing and open to the guidance that I actually was guided to take a class in animal communication actually took three different classes back, I am not even sure how many years ago, probably 20 years ago at a farm in downstate New York, that was a rescue farm. And my teacher, Dawn Hyman was like a farm girl who had talked to animals all her life. And they really opened me up to a different way of being and it was just a shift in perception that really opened me to, again, a different way of being in this world.

And when we're talking about animal [00:09:00] communication too I think, I just want to make sure that everyone understands, we're talking about all of nature. You could communicate and have a connection with any animal or bird or tree or lake or mountain. So that's how I started with it.

 And along the way, I've only taught a few classes and Pam and I were just talking about that. Who knows where she and I will be teaching animal communication down the line. But but the animals have always wanted me to share the information so that people can open up and understand that they can do this on their own. That's one of the most important things. 

Pamela: I love that. And it's interesting too, Carolyn, isn't it because it's not something that was natural for me either. It's something Reiki brought me to, and it was actually through another course through a horse clinic around Linda Kohanov's Tao of Equus work that it opened up for me that I could communicate.

And [00:10:00] before that I was so resisting opening up to, my intuition was pre-cognitive and it frightened me and I shut it down but the Reiki energy really wanted it opened back up again. And And I remember I wound up teaching that horse clinic and word got around that people could hear the animals. They could understand the animals after they took the horse clinic and a dear, she's a dear friend now, but I didn't know her at the time called me and said, now, listen, there's a bunch of us, we hear people can hear the animals after your horse class. And I said, yeah, that's true. We don't want to do a whole weekend. We don't want to do all that spiritual mumbo-jumbo. We're not even interested in horses, we love cats. We want you to teach us in one day, just how to communicate. Can you do that? And I said, no, I don't think I can. I wasn't interested in teaching another course. 

But one of the things about animal communication, you said, you wind [00:11:00] up communicating with everything and that's a little, a disclaimer, or a little warning that I put on my Animal Communication Class is that this also opens you up to hearing spirit or hearing God or the other side, whatever name you'd like to use. And so I remember after I told her, no, I couldn't do that, I got a tap on the shoulder and I was told you can do that. It would be quite easy. I was shown how the agenda would have to change and what to take out and what to add in. And so I guess for the last 11 years I've been teaching Animal Communication, thanks to her. And I'm really grateful to her for that.

Carolyn: And then I think what's interesting about that, pam is mine was just the opposite. I was getting information from Spirit and I'd be working with a client or something and I'd have information. And then, and I can picture myself still, like it was my first day of animal communication class and I was like, why can't I do this with an [00:12:00] animal? And I had a real clear vision of one of the horses from that the farm, her name was Gypsy, and what she said was Spirit is Spirit. She said, honor the spirit and not the shell. And it opened things up for me to, again, it was just that awareness. So I'm sure there are a lot of people out there who, when they're doing Reiki receive some kind of information or knowing, or however it comes in. And in fact for me, that was the place to start because people always say how do I start? And where do I begin?

And to me it's two things. Number one is attitude. Because first of all, you have to know it's possible. Even if you don't believe you can do it, you've got to know it's possible. Because if you think you can't do it, it's like anything else in life, if you're saying I can't do this, you won't do it. Cause you won't be open enough to do it. And that's part of it, but when I say attitude, more about respecting the animal .That you've got to view them as a spiritual [00:13:00] being that you want to appreciate and communicate. They're not inferior. I'm sure you agree, I think animals are much more spiritually advanced than we are.

They understand they get it. They, they know what it's all about. But so attitude and that respect for all life and being humble as you try to open to communicate. And I think the other thing that I've always thought is really important is understanding that all communication is telepathic.

We don't think of it that way. We think that it's words and we don't think of it as telepathic. And I bet you've probably heard me say this before, but I just love to say to people, what happens if I say the words, chocolate cake?

Do you see the cake? Do you smell the cake? Do you see that picture again of the cake? I pretty much can say that no one out there saw the words, "chocolate cake" [00:14:00] on a piece of paper. So I love to use that as an example to say, this is how you're already communicating. Telepathy, is connecting with someone across a distance.

All communication that you're doing is telepathic. You just need to shift your awareness ever so slightly to really realize you're already doing this. In fact, I'm sure you've had the same thing. I don't necessarily do the animal communication professionally, but sometimes if I, connect for a friend or something, and the animals are always like " my mom hears me."

 Sometimes they're just totally confused as to why you're even trying, "because they hear me." They might hear you, but they're not consciously getting it. But I'm sure you are already doing this cause that's pretty much the way that it works. So yeah. All communications just think about chocolate cake...

Pamela: Well, and now I'm salivating but no, I love that example and you're right. Even scientifically they [00:15:00] talk about how only 10% of communication is verbal, like of all communications. So when we think we're having a verbal conversation, it's our body language. It's our thoughts, our feelings, our emotions, people are getting all of it.

And so you're right. It really is below the surface and telepathic. And I notice that there's almost an unlearning that has to take place because I think so often as children we may have been told stop talking to your imaginary friend. And I think children were maybe talking to their spirit guides or their angels or something like that.

I think that's probably who the imaginary friend is. And I have people tell me, my cat is so stupid, she just sits there and looks at the wall. And she's not looking at the wall, there's an energy in your house that she's aware of. And so I don't know if you have anything to say to that, but 

Carolyn: I do. I just feel that they're so tuned in and yeah, I would [00:16:00] agree with that as children. And even, there probably are children who, what is the parent going to say when the child's telling them what the dog wants? That's not encouraged as a child.

Or more than anything. I think sometimes, as children, we probably all had that level of communication with animals, with our guides and so on, but no one verbally talks about it. And then as you get older, as you really begin talking and more and more with, with communication, with conversation, that's where the focus is.

And then we forget, we know the focus is not there. So we forget about all the rest of it and I think we do leave it behind. So I just think it's an innate ability that everyone has because again, I repeat, we're doing it already. It's just a shifting the awareness a little bit into receptive mode because if you're, if you really do want to communicate it, it can take all the different [00:17:00] forms we've mentioned.

It could be pictures. It could be feeling, it could be words. I have a tendency, Pam and I were just talking about this. I have a tendency sometimes to, I can go into automatic writing and have a whole conversation and beautiful words coming from the animal. But sometimes it's more of a melding of a oneness that is then sometimes difficult to translate. It's an amazing feeling. But if I were trying to share it with someone else, it can be a little bit difficult to explain. So you know, the communication can take any form. And however it's coming to you. And a lot of us work in many of those ways, not just one way. So it's just that openness and awareness of the many different ways that the information can come in or we're not attached to one way that we think it should happen. 

Pamela: That's I think what holds a lot of people back is they think [00:18:00] it's supposed to be maybe like our conversation right now. And so if it's something else, if they're getting pictures or feelings or knowledge they don't believe it's coming through. And I know you said the animals say, but they already hear me... 90 to 95% of the animal communication I do is simply confirming what the animals' people already know.

And I have no way of knowing that, but will go in and I'll say, "this is what your animals telling me." And most of the time they're like, yeah, that's, that sounds exactly that's what I was getting too. So it's almost like just a confirming if somebody that has no way of knowing. Is saying the same things then that's what happens.

And I also find it interesting. The other thing that you said, just how do we explain that? Because I usually have a 50, 45 to 50 minute session for animal communication. And I book off about that much time. And [00:19:00] probably less than five minutes is spent communicating with the animal. And the rest of the time is spent explaining the communication and what that means to the person.

And I don't know if you've had any experiences like that. 

Carolyn: Oh it's like anything with, remember the dog whisperer on TV? It's the people are the ones that are the tough they're the ones that sometimes need to be trained. That's not what we're talking about here, but yes, very definitely.

Definitely. And the other thing, when we're talking about all these different ways the pictures and so on and so forth, it's really something to remember when you are communicating again with an animal, and I repeat when I say animal, all of nature. But the word anima means "spirit breath living" from the Latin word. So remembering that, like an example that I like to use is if you're trying to train a dog, that's barking too much, what do we say? No barking, [00:20:00] stop barking. The picture you're giving them is barking, 

Pamela: Barking, barking, barking.

Carolyn: They're confused because they think they're doing what exactly, you have to tell them, you have to imagine, you have to picture the feeling what you want them to do. If you want them to stay out of the street, you don't go into your fear of them running into a street because that's the visual that you're sending them. What I found is that the visual and the feeling and the emotion is much stronger than the words when we're talking about communication here.

Pamela: Yeah. I know. I send pictures with a feeling and that seems to be how most of my communication is. I was always jealous of people who got words because I never. The odd animal, I would get words because it also seems to vary a little bit by animals. And most of my conversations are concise and whatever.

But once in a while I would get what I call a chatty Cathy [00:21:00] that would talk and talk. But I always said Carolyn, when I teach people to train horses, the animals and the Universe don't hear the word don't. So if you're training a horse and you're saying don't buck, please don't buck. Just what you said, I'm giving them a picture of them bucking and bucking.

And finally, after three or four of these pictures, the animal says, that's what you want. Okay. And I think about people who are so worried about not getting in a car accident and then they get in a car accident. Because we send out the picture of what we don't want. William said that once. Worrying is praying for what you don't want.

Carolyn: Exactly. And you just hit on something too, is sending out the picture because when you're really trying to communicate, it's best not to send out. It's best and I'm sure we're going to get into how we recommend people do this, but it's best to just quiet and be in stillness.[00:22:00] Message after message. I ask, the tree, the animal, " what do you recommend? How do we tell people to do this better?" And it's always to be in stillness. You've gotta quiet that busy mind. And again, it's interesting that, especially when I started, I was doing the automatic writing when I was with the animal. But to me, I know that was because it was keeping my left brain busy. Remember, I'm talking about, the analytical part of me. I needed to keep my left brain busy, and it was coming and I was writing it, but we need to be in stillness.

Marker

Carolyn: The very first message when I was taking my class; well, in retrospect, I realized that I had gotten them many times before, but again, we're not aware, but I went out to go talk to that same horse. And she was in her stall and I was talking, I was so excited. I was so excited to do this and I'm standing there, "Hi, my name is Carolyn" and now we were sent out to try and, [00:23:00] to have a conversation and, "w will you work with me? And I'm really excited to be here." And I'm like du de du de du, I'm going on and on.

And the first words that I clearly heard were "BE QUIET". It was like Oh, okay. And I think I spent, I don't know how long. I sometimes say, I think I spent the next 15 minutes trying to quiet my mind because I kept, we're, we're not used to that. We think about what we're going to say next in a conversation.

 Many people are not really good at listening and hearing, and you have to shift into that quiet mode. Receptive mode if you will. But that just means stop the busy mind. We send out energy like a fire hose. You're not going to get too much back there's no room for anything to be coming back.

And I think that applies with all communication, let alone animals. So it's that being in the stillness and shifting [00:24:00] into that receptive mode, because otherwise, you have no opportunity to hear or feel or see or sense anything if all you're doing is sending out.

Pamela: I love that because I tried for months to learn animal communication with books and courses, and I wasn't successful until I took this Tao of Equis course, but I think my mind was so busy that it wasn't until I learned Reiki that I could really quiet my mind and you do need to be quiet in order to do animal communication.

I always tell people that even just having other people in the house, that other people's energies that I had to be aware of was a little too much for me. So I would book all of my professional animal communication sessions when the children were at school because now I can cut through some of the busy-ness, but at first I certainly couldn't [00:25:00] and just needed it really quiet.

So Carolyn, both of us teach Animal Reiki and I'm often asked the question, what's the difference between Animal Reiki and Animal Communication? And I know sometimes people wonder which class they should take? One or the other. And I tell them it's very different, but how do you explain it?

Carolyn: I guess I would say at least in the past, I would say that Animal Communication is about that deep connection where you feel or sense or hear, or know what the other being, animal or nature being would like to share with you, which is sometimes my question to them. What do you want me to know?

Sometimes I have a question, but a lot of times it's just, what do you want me to know? So people very definitely can do animal communication without Reiki. Yes. Can do animal communication without Reiki. However, as we've both already shared what the [00:26:00] Reiki has done for us is help us to learn, to be in that meditative, quiet state where we're much more open.

And well, in fact, I'll give you an example. When I took that first course, that first weekend, the animals were really clear that they didn't want me to be doing Reiki, which shocked me because I was so used to automatically just doing Reiki, but their point was this is for you to learn and we don't want you in the giving mode, we want you in the receiving mode. I understood that right away. Instead of me focusing on trying to give to them, they wanted me to focus on receiving from them information and healing and everything that comes along with that. So yes, you can do communication again without Reiki. But Reiki does, doing Reiki for an animal does move us into that connective space.

And in fact, even more, since I first started with Reiki because [00:27:00] of my love of animals, but with the new Animal Reiki classes that, we have with the International Center for Reiki Training that you, thank you. Thank you. Thank you. From the bottom of my heart, Pam, you and Colleen and Robin and Sioux, the new class that we're teaching has its own energy and frequency. And it is a really deep Reiki in itself, a really deep connection with the animals and with nature. So a lot of people, just by that Animal Reiki class are very definitely opening to the communication cause it's already putting them in that space where they're in that quiet space.

 But I do think sometimes there is that, as the animals told me, being in the receiving as opposed to the sending. And sometimes it's both, sometimes it's just that melding. So I'm not sure if I'm explaining it exactly what the differences, how would you say it? What would you explain the difference between the two?

Pamela: I guess when I think about it, I just think about my course and the fact that, that it is so [00:28:00] different. We talk about the things that can get in the way of animal communication, like judgment and projection of your own ideas. And just a lot of the things that we have to unlearn. And we talk about things like the animal's perspective of death, which is so different than what most of us as humans believe. So I really try to take people into a lot of the understanding of where the animals are coming from so that they can shift into that perspective.

So I'm not very good at explaining it, but I guess I try to explain that, one is about sharing Reiki. The other is more about sharing ideas and information, and sometimes you may get ideas and information through the Reiki, and sometimes you make get a Reiki session breakout through the ideas and information.

And in fact, most of my sessions are combined. Almost every time, one of the things [00:29:00] that surprises me is that I'm contacted by an animal's caretaker who wants me to communicate with their animal to help the animal. And once I connect in the animal says, oh good, you're here. She really needs your help, or he really needs your help. So from the animal's perspective, they've I think been involved with orchestrating it so that their person can get some assistance because it's such a beautiful back and forth between the animals and their people. So I don't know if I said that very well.

Carolyn: I think when all is said and done, hopefully everyone just follows their own guidance as far as what class they take or who they take something from. That's all, any of us can do. But just adding to what you just shared about the animal's calling someone in to help their person, I sometimes share a story. This happened a lot of years ago, but one of my friends was asking me to connect with her cat, who I knew. His name is Michael. The cat's [00:30:00] name is Michael. And she said, he's like getting up at four o'clock in the morning and he's got this. mrow and she has this really unusual, meowing. And she goes, I just don't know what's wrong. He just keeps waking me up doing this. And when I connected with the cat, I'll never forget it because I was as shocked as anyone else with the cat told me he was doing was chanting. Wow. And when I said chanting a little bit surprised, he said, am I doing it wrong?

He said she needs to open her throat chakra. So he was trying to get her to chant. So he was like you said, he was totally grateful that I was connecting because now I could tell her what the reason was and what he knew she needed. So you know, that was what that was all about.

He was just trying [00:31:00] to help her, and now as I say that, this chanting cat as we find what, animals are, I sometimes want to say like people in that, with some animals you're going to get philosophy and some animals are going to want to talk about their blue ball.

 And some are funny, so I've learned to have no expectation and to just be open without labels, and think, oh, he's a cat. So he's probably going to "X" you know, I've had more than one cat tell me that the reason they pur is to get their their, they usually say parents, they almost always say, mom, but to get their people to come into a peaceful frequency. That's that's why they purr.

Pamela: Cats have told me that they regulate our heartbeat and they slow our heartbeat, and that's why, a lot of times they go on our lap or our chest so that they can slow our heartbeat.

Carolyn: So again, you can have the philosophy and all of the different things that they can teach us, or you can have, I [00:32:00] shared this story before with Pam and I one time did a distance session for friends, the playful black lab, who could not understand why I couldn't play with him. It was a distant session. I wasn't physically in his presence, but I was so real to him that he didn't understand why I couldn't play with him. So there, it was a little difficult to explain to him why couldn't play with him. But again, it's just, this is the difference in the animals and you know what their perspectives are.

And you get some animals who can reach right in and get that one thing that you don't even want to admit to yourself sometimes that they'll nail you with it. But I know, that, again, going back to that first conversation with Gypsy, I thought she was going to tell me all about how she liked being a horse and eating hay and whatnot, and that kind of a thing and why she was there and about her horse friends, and that kind of a thing.

That was my expectation [00:33:00] as I was starting with this. And what she did was at the time, this is again, many years ago, I had a fear of my own path. And I understand, that I came to understand that accepting your power is understanding that a higher power works through you.

But after she told me to be quiet and then had me sit there for awhile until I could get quiet. She pretty much, she said, you've got to let go of that fear. And I was astounded. Fear and that's not why I was there that weekend.

I was not, it's you gotta let go of that fear. She said, you tell me, that I'm magnificent, but you're no less. She was pretty serious about what she was telling me. And that was, again, not what I expected. So I have learned to just be open and they can be funny.

Yes, they can. I think sometimes too, it's about speaking through their perspective. It's going to be different. Like I've done some volunteer work at a rescue center near [00:34:00] here, and actually, the director asked me to communicate with an Eagle that had come in that had wind damage.

And she does her own, but she does it in a different way. So she wanted me to connect with the Eagles. So he was oh, magnificent. He just was this majestic bird. And, so, I sat down and explained who I was and asked if he wanted to say anything. And after a little while he said to me are you a mouse catcher?

Okay. No I knew I didn't make that up cause I'm a mouse catcher and he repeated it again. Are you a mouse catcher? And it took me a few minutes to understand that he wasn't used to humans. And the humans that he had been seeing were bringing him mice to eat. Where do you get a mouse other than to catch them?.

So that was his correlation with humans. Was, are you a mouse catcher? He knew enough to be afraid of humans, but are you a [00:35:00] mouse catcher? So sometimes there is that, that awareness that there it's like talking to a, to someone from another culture, they don't always necessarily have the same kind of a viewpoint that we have.

Have you found that to be the case? Have you had any?

Pamela: I love that you brought that up and the perspective, because that's the whole purpose of this podcast is to have an opportunity to interview different people so that we can get all these different perspectives on Reiki and living life. And I love talking to people from different cultures and the same way I love talking to different animals.

You had mentioned that, some just want to talk about their ball and like just the depth of conversation. Most of the clients that come to me, there's a healing component involved. And because I say a prayer and say, just, please only bring me the clients that need me that need my special like perspective or take on it. [00:36:00] And I know that sometimes an animal will be like, this is the problem. This is the treatment. This is what they've got to do dot dot dot. Tell them to do this, tell them to do that. Sometimes I'll ask an animal, your person says you're not well and the animals I know. And I'll say, so what's going on? I don't know. I was hoping you could tell me. And it makes me think of a human in a doctor office, some will go in just, I think it's this I think, and some will go in going, I don't know. This is just, so interesting to get all of those perspectives, but I love Carolyn.

I just want to swing back because I'm realizing that in our very first conversation, my first conversation was also with a horse and I wasn't there for what... like they were very similar. The horse wanted me to open my intuition and I had been deliberately not opening my intuition. I was very scared of it, very frightened of the [00:37:00] power that, that it had and didn't understand it.

And I just kept saying, no, that's not what we're doing today. I just want to learn to be a better horse trainer. I'm just trying to learn to train horses better. Can you help me with that? And the animal just kept saying open your intuition. No. So I think so many times when we become open to the communication and open to their perspective, they become our teachers.

And like you, I have a lifelong love, I've studied a degree in science in agricultural science and all about the animals and started off in pre-veterinary medicine. I love animals and always have, and yet it's been when I learned to step back and look at things the way they did, I've learned more from that than any of my education or schooling or, oh, 

Carolyn: I think I would agree with that.

And again, going back to the gypsy, there were a couple of things that she said to me, and then, [00:38:00] remembering that this is really the first time that I was aware that I was communicating. And again, I was writing everything down and I was thinking, I didn't even say it to her I was like, "am I making this up?" And she said, no, you're not that good, she was like you're not that talented to make this up. Like, all right. She told me it's and again, these things that go through your head, it's that's not me. I would not, I would sometimes say like mouse catcher. I would not use those words.

Pamela: I get pictures of carrot bags of carrots. And I know that's not me. That's my horses saying, bring me bags of carrots. And I remember coming in and relating a conversation from one of our horses Jasper and my husband was still on the fence about whether this animal communication was real or not. And he looked at me and he went, "that's funny." And I said, "I know." " You're not funny."

' No, I'm not." And he goes, "okay. I don't think you made that [00:39:00] up. I don't think you're capable of making up something funny."

Carolyn: Again, talking about different perspective of what am I love this story actually was one of my teacher's stories. It wasn't mine. It was one had done. She was doing a reading for actually with somebody in our class.

And the woman said that she had a golden retriever and she had, I don't know, three or four cats. And they all had free reign of the house. A friend of hers who had gone through a breakup came to live with her and she was in her room staying in the room and she had her own two cats, but they, she kept the cats in her room for a while until they were going to see how everybody was.

So she was keeping the cats in the room, but the dog kept sitting outside the room and she said, can you, I don't understand why he's doing that. Can you ask him why he's sitting outside her room? And when she connected with the dog, the dogs said, okay, where's their dog because he knows that he lives with cats?

 And he knows there's cats in the room. So he [00:40:00] said, where's their dog. And then he said, did they eat him? He just, he like, he could not comprehend or figure out where, why don't they have a dog? This is the way his life is. So again, it's that different perspective. And it can be funny.

 I've had, more stories about the things that, you just really don't expect them to stay. And then, I just love to ask them, what do you want to tell me? And it's what you just said, Pam, I've learned so much from different animals. In fact, I'd like to, can I share a story? 

Pamela: I was going to ask you if you would, 

Carolyn: I was really feeling called to share this story. This is from a thoroughbred horse. Her name is Mariah. And she was just, in her stall, happily in her stall. And I realized that she had an opalescent sheen over both of her eyes and right about the time [00:41:00] that I thought to myself and realized that she was blind.

What I heard her say was "you don't need eyes to see." And I'm going to read some of it. I like to read. So I actually have, things written down. Okay. I once I heard her say that you don't need eyes to see. And then I introduced myself, which I like to do.

And I asked if she would like to talk with me and, if that was okay and she walked right over to me and she put her head like her third eye, the third eye, to my head, and I could feel her trust. I had this deep feeling emotion of trust. And I thanked her immediately.

And she said, we really see when we look with our heart. And then she went on. I said, what is important to you? And she said, gentleness and peace. When I first lost my sight, I was so scared. And Don later confirmed that she was [00:42:00] born with sight, but she had an illness at a young age. And that's when she went blind at a very young.

She said my world changed and I saw only darkness. I was terrified. And then slowly I learned that I had never really seen anything before. You must look with your heart to understand. You must open your heart to see. And then she paused and she said to me, you fear your vulnerability. Whoa, there we go. To the heart of it. I wrote chills of truth ripple through my body. And I'm always amazed at how animals can reach in. And I, but I couldn't deny it. And I just said yes. And she said, look at me. I did it. And so can you can learn one step at a time, let down your guard and open your heart. Once you understand you will no longer fear.

You [00:43:00] have compassion. It is necessary along with gentleness because the world can be harsh, but gentleness is strength. Wow. She said, I still, she said, I still get scared sometimes, but look at me. And I found myself like looking into that opalescence and I went into a meditative state where, then I closed my eyes and I saw her like, sheen bubbles of light is the way that I saw her assets.

 And she, I could feel her smile. And she said, you begin to understand. Tell them, look with your heart. These are not empty words. I have lived this lesson. And then she started walking around her stall, not touching, not knocking over the pail.

She was just totally walking around and I closed my eyes and I felt like I was riding a horse with the [00:44:00] wind moving through and just a whole different experience. And she said, now, do you see? And then she said, no pun intended. I can't even write that in there. But then this is the other part that I just wanted to share.

 She said, now you must learn to look from your heart with your eyes open. It's easier for me. She said, and I just said, how do I do that? And she said, be as a child open and curious and living in the moment, it's really all you have. And then I just asked her if she had anything else to share. And she said, yes, you hear with your heart. That's the kind of lesson and I think it's a story that I was really guided to share today because it is how we open to communicate. We have to open our heart and I think that's the way that you teach it. Also. 

Pamela: I do, I teach people how to connect from the heart.

Yeah. And get still. [00:45:00] And what was that again? That she said open and I thought it was beautiful, like a child. And she said, 

Carolyn: oh, be as a child, we is, where is it? I've got pages and pages. Be as a child, open and curious and living in the moment. 

Pamela: I love that. That's basically the formula for happiness. And the formula for living your best life, those three tips.

Carolyn: It's all there, because as we've said, those are the steps you have to be instilling and that childlike wonder and appreciate it. Appreciation is another thing that I sometimes use with the animal, just looking at them and appreciating and marveling at, or the flower or the tree. And when you moving into appreciation also helps you get into that without the thinking, thinking if you're thinking.

Yeah. 

Pamela: I agree. I do have a funny story about a [00:46:00] tiger once though at a zoo. And I know that they don't want to hear things like you're so beautiful, you're so beautiful or, but they will accept that feeling of appreciation. And I also I talk in my class. I don't know Carolyn about what you think about this, but I talk about permissions and how important it is to have permission, not only from the animal to talk with them, but also from the animals caregiver, because the person that's connected with that animal is, they have a caregiver and they have a divine life purpose together.

And so just out of respect and there's always people that say, oh yeah, but, and I'll say, let's just think about it this way. Imagine somebody going in and doing something with your animals that you don't understand, or don't like, just, or without your knowledge or permission, how does that feel?

And when I really take people into it, they feel that way. But animals that are in the public domain, you can [00:47:00] usually just connect with. So I connected with this stunning tiger and he looked at me really surprised and he went, "you can hear me." And I said," yeah," And he just stared at me and I stared at him and I gave him a feeling of appreciation for him, but I wasn't going to talk about, "does he like it there?" Or anything like that because what am I going to do about it?

 It's not okay to talk to an animal about anything that you can't affect or make a change about. So I just stood there with appreciation and he looked at me for two or three minutes and then finally said you don't really have anything interesting to say, and he walked away.

I thought that was brilliant. 

Carolyn: I get the one who can hear me and doesn't have anything. Doesn't have anything decent 

Pamela: to say, like nothing interesting at all. 

Carolyn: But that's an excellent point though, Pam. I do agree on the permission. I do. I definitely agree on the permission and the other thing too.

The animal. I [00:48:00] have absolutely no doubt that every animal hears us, but they don't always want to communicate. We can say that about ourselves. We don't always want to talk. They don't always want to communicate. They might not want to communicate with you, but they might not want to communicate at all.

And people like when they're doing training, the animal doesn't understand. Yeah. They do. They might not want to do what you're asking them to do, but that doesn't mean that they don't understand. So there's that awareness too. So I use that as an example to say, if you're trying to communicate and you're not getting anything, then just be in appreciation cause that's going to happen.

So just be in appreciation. We have a tendency then to get right down on ourselves and I I knew I couldn't do this. So it's just being aware. 

Pamela: I've learned to go ahead and ask the animal before our session, will you talk with me? Because sometimes I would get into the session and the animal would say, I'm busy and I'd say, what are you busy doing?

[00:49:00] Sleeping or eating or playing with my friends, or, licking myself. And I'd be like could you take a break and talk to us? And then I realized that I wasn't being respectful enough of their time and their participation. So after a few sessions where I had to rebook for another time or send a refund because the animal was busy and couldn't talk with me.

I learned that when I booked the session, I go ahead and connect with the animal and say, look, your person has booked a session at 2:30 on Tuesday. Are you going to be available? And then even if they are eating or playing with their friends or whatever, when I go into connect, they're like, " I said I would be available." Because you're right, they don't always want to. And what we don't necessarily deem important. Like it's very important sometimes for an animal to be "that's the time that I play with my friends." And this was a horse that told me that, and this was the time that he would be turned out with his friends and the rest of the time he was in his stall.

[00:50:00] So he, wasn't going to give up his friend time to talk with me. And I don't blame him. Carolyn. This is this is wonderful. I just wonder before we move into a meditation, if there's anything else that stands out to you that you'd like to leave people with today about animal communication and Reiki. And, 

Carolyn: I think just recapping on how to do this. Certainly if you have Reiki, activate your Reiki. Be Reiki. Start the Reiki for yourself and get into that Reiki place if we want to call it that, which is my way of saying, moving into stillness. Another way of saying it is, sometimes when I'm even want to do journaling, it's I can feel myself start in my head and then I totally just bring my awareness into my heart because that's where you want to be to stop that busy mind.

But if you do Reiki by all means again, I'm going to say, start with self [00:51:00] Reiki. I'm not even saying start with Reiki for the animal. No, I'm saying start with self Reiki to get you into that quiet place. Of moving into stillness. And then I physically, that's the wrong way to say it, but I intentionally open my heart.

Yes. And as you say, a heart to heart connection with the animal. Again, use your Reiki. Use the distance symbol for your highest self to their highest self. If you use, Karuna, you can use Iava for that communication. And then say, once you're in that quiet place and you've opened your heart, then you just simply say hello or Namaste or whatever words you want to say to start. Don't start "hi, my name is Carolyn and I want to talk to you." And like I started the first time you just sit back and be patient and ask if they do want to communicate so that I just [00:52:00] wanted to sum up about, how people, cause people say but my left brain and left brain people will be like tell me the give me the steps and tell me how to do it.

And in general that's how I say, would you say anything different or would you say something, 

Pamela: no something I was thinking of that I wanted to add, I definitely start in the heart and let them take the lead for sure. 

One of the things I would mention is just the importance of asking Reiki to help you suspend your judgment and projection. So often any inaccuracies that occur when we are working with animals or because we put our own issues or injuries or judgments or beliefs on things, and you mentioned it, Carolyn, just how important it is to be open.

And one of the things I did want to mention is it can be harder to talk to your own animals [00:53:00] than someone else's. So I encourage my students as they're practicing to see if they can practice with other people's animals, because it, you don't hear your animals as well. I was embarrassed my first time, because that was going to be the first exercise was to communicate with the animals and everybody in the class trotted out. And then the instructors mom was helping. And I went to her and said, Marilyn, I can't do this. I've been trying for months. And I can't hear the animals at all. And she said "no one can hear their own animals Pam they're too emotionally involved with them, go out and see if you can hear ours." And then they had taught us how to make that heart connection.

And that's the secret right there and to get still. And I was writing as well. And I couldn't write fast enough. The horse actually came up and put his head over my shoulder and started wiggling his lips on the page because after he was done with messages, for me, he actually had messages [00:54:00] for her.

So I think that was for his person his owner, which was the girl who was running the clinic. So I did want to mention that, so if you do have someone else's animals and it makes no difference whether an animal is deceased or living, I find, in fact, I can't quite tell the difference. When I connect, I can't tell if an animal is deceased or living. If I'm connecting at a distance. 

Carolyn: All right then. That's why it's really like difficult. None of us ever want to do it if it's a missing animal because you can't tell a lot of times you can't tell it there because they're just happy.

So you can't tell if they're here or there because, and that's another thing that always, the question that always gets asked is I can say without hesitation, that I've never met an animal who hasn't been willing and wanting to move on. If the animal has come to the end of their life, you never make the decision.

If you have to actually take them to the vet to help them, you never make that decision alone. You wouldn't be thinking about it if they weren't. [00:55:00] Most of the time, they're still hanging on for us. They know it's not the end. They're ready to move on and they are only hanging around for us. So I always do like to bring that up because I think it's really important because most of us, kill ourselves with that, why do I have to do this? Why do I have... but it's acknowledging the and honoring the spirit of the animal and what we know for them. So I think actually that's in the Animal Reiki manual, are you prolonging their life? Or are you prolonging their death? I think that's the wording. And that, it's a beautiful way to say it. So I always do like to bring that up when I'm talking about communicating with animals, because you just don't make that decision alone.

You won't make that decision until they're a hundred percent ready. And again, it's usually, you're the one that has to be ready 

Pamela: Quite often, the animal's ready much before the human. It's usually us and they'll hang on beyond what they're comfortable hanging on until we can get [00:56:00] ready. I had a dog that asked to be put down as soon as she became incontinent and I just said I'll, I don't mind. I'll just pick up your messes. That wasn't what she wanted. And she hung around for three more years because she knew that I couldn't do it until she died a natural death, but we looked back on that and went, " we had her hang on much beyond what she would have wanted to." And that happens to all of us, she was just so sweet, I couldn't let her go. And she forgave me. She forgave me for that because she knew how I felt about her and that. Yeah. So I think that's, those are some excellent points to end on Carolyn. I wonder you have a beautiful meditation. That's inspired by one of your teachers. And I think we're going to just mention your her book in the links. Yeah. Do you want to mention? 

Carolyn: One of my teachers, she's not the one I originally studied with, but her [00:57:00] name was Penelope Smith. And Penelope Smith taught animal communication for 35 years. She has retired. So she knows why I was in her last class. I just was able to get in. But I think of her as she's like the grandmother of animal communication.

Cause she was doing it long before anyone else thought that there was anything to it. And so I recommend anything by her, but one of my favorite books by her is this book, it's called "Animal Talk" and it's by Penelope Smith. It's just that easy. And it would be a good place to start when you're talking about wanting to begin to communicate, but she has a meditation in here about becoming an animal that we'd like to do with the hopes of having you move into, shifting into an animal's perspective. So it gives you a different point of view that will help you with communicating when you're trying to communicate. So if we could do that, Pam, that sound like it's that's okay. 

Pamela: That's great. I love it. 

Carolyn: [00:58:00] So I would invite you to be comfortable. Sit back, lean back. If you're not already there. And close your eyes and take a couple of really nice deep breaths. If you are attuned to Reiki, then put your hands wherever you're comfortable on you and let the Reiki flow.

Feel the the Reiki as you take again, those deep breaths and feel your connection to the earth. Send those roots deep down into the earth, feeling yourself centered and grounded, breathe Reiki into every cell. And be receptive and childlike. It means curious open,

and now I would like you to either choose an animal or a nature being, or simply allow one to appear.[00:59:00] 

Imagine them very clearly and notice their physical features.

Now notice something you never noticed about them before,

and just allow yourself to feel their essence, their being their spirit.

Now notice their breathing

and begin to synchronize your breathing with their breathing.

Make the conscious intention now [01:00:00] to open your heart and allow yourself to shift gradually until you feel that you're inside the animal's viewpoint,

see through their eyes,

feel your feet on the ground or your body in contact with the environment.

Notice how your body parts feel legs or other appendages. Head. Skin. Fur. Fins. Leaves. feathers.[01:01:00] 

If you can move around in this animal body,

What do you notice about your environment?

Now allow yourself to express emotions through your animal body. How do you do that?

How does it feel to sense or smell or hear or touch?

Meet another animal of your type.[01:02:00] 

What is your response?

And now approach an area where there are humans or allow some humans to come near you.

How do you feel about them?

Establish any comfort, any contact that is comfortable for you.

Do you perceive their thoughts, emotions?[01:03:00] 

How do they feel toward you?

Ask a question or try to get something you want from a human. How do you do that?

Do they understand?

How are you different from humans?[01:04:00] 

How are you the same?

What things are most important?

How do you feel about yourself?

Now go back to your favorite environment alone and just allow yourself to experience and enjoy this animal body. This nature of being. [01:05:00] Just enjoy.

Now become aware of your breathing once again,

slowly shift yourself and the animal form back to your current human viewpoint. Once again, looking back at that animal or nature being.

How do you feel about them now?

Do you know now that you didn't know before?[01:06:00] 

Then, when you're ready, take a couple of really nice deep breaths. Bring your awareness back to your breath, breathing back into the present moment. Open your eyes. Come back.

Pamela: Thank you, Carolyn. 

I know some people might like to take some time to write down about their experiences. I just loved that. That was beautiful. Thank you so much for being on the podcast today. And I just want to say thank you to the listeners. So glad that you joined us and please join us next week, where we will be talking [01:07:00] with William Rand about Reiki and the environment.

Carolyn: I just just stop really quickly to say, give it a try. You got nothing to lose. Open. They'll make you laugh. They'll make you cry. They'll teach you. They'll open your heart and they'll help you to understand. And just to completely end with the words of Corey, the Lama, what Corey said was "tell them how easy it is. You need only listen and believe the world is a magical place and anything is possible."

Pamela: Oh, I love that. Carolyn. Thank you so much. 

Carolyn: Anything is possible. And just try you. You won't be disappointed. So thank you, Pam. It's been wonderful. Thank you so much for having me and thanks to everyone for your time. 

Pamela: I appreciate it. Thank you. Namaste. 

Carolyn: Namaste.