Animal talk: It’s all in the mind

Mumbai’s Juhu resident, Isha Gosalia was surprised to find that her 10-year-old Labrador Jenny had given up on walking. Lying motionless in one corner of the house, Jenny began detesting her daily walks. Moreover, the vets and test results revealed no abnormalities. As a last resort, Gosalia reluctantly sought help from an animal communicator that her friends recommended, who would ask the dog what was wrong. And so, animal communicator Joy Fromental – who was thousands of miles away in France – received a picture of Jenny and what followed came as a shocking revelation to Gosalia.

“This lady didn’t know me and we had never interacted before, but the details she revealed about my family were astonishing. Soon after she ‘spoke’ to my dog, Jenny started walking again and was fine,” says the 31-year-old. Gosalia says she simply sent a picture to Fromental without revealing any information. And what did the dog say? “Jenny was upset because my father, who lived with me, had recently shifted to my brother’s place. She missed the treats he gave her under the table. Jenny also asked for my husband to return, who at the time was travelling for six-seven months, as she missed their morning walks together. How could Joy know all this unless my dog told her?”

Born With It

Animal communication has been around for a while, with some referring to the people who participate in this mystic art as ‘animal whisperers’ or even ‘animal psychics’. But according to Manjiri Latey, Founder of Earthwise – a telepathic animal and nature communication organisation – this is an ability that everyone is born with. “I founded Earthwise with my husband Indrajit 10 years ago. The term ‘animal whisperer’ was commonly used after the release of the movie Horse Whisperer (1998). But the minute we add the word ‘psychic’ or ‘whispering’, people relate this to the occult, or refer to it as a special gift granted to a few, which is not true.” The organisation’s tagline – Leave no trace – means to reduce dependency on the experts as a medium to facilitate communication. And the name sprang out of a decision to make this “myopic race” more aware of its surroundings. “The name was conceptualised from the notion that we are accountable to the earth for our every action or decision,” says the 40-year-old Pune resident.

Using telepathy as the crux, Latey trains people to have a conversation with animals, plants, nature and landscapes. “Whether it’s Reiki, Pranic healing or healing that uses chanting – the premise we use is ‘energy following thought’. The analogy being rivers flowing into the same sea,” Latey explains. When communicating, her students receive information via the five senses – images, sounds, smells, taste and touch. “You get visuals, or hear the animal, or sometimes even the taste in your mouth changes,” Latey says. She further explains the only difference between psychics and communicators. “Psychics are not always aware of who is providing information. So many times they’re posing questions out into the universe. Animal communicators, on the other hand, are fully aware of whom they’re having a conversation with.”

(Manjiri Latey and her husband Indrajit started Pune-based Earthwise – a telepathic animal and nature communication organisation – 10 years ago)

Wild Talk

After witnessing one of her four dogs communicating, Gosalia travelled to Pune for one of Earthwise’s half-yearly, two day workshop in September 2018. Being surrounded by animals at home and at work, in her Nails 2 Tail pet salon in Andheri, she figured this would be the next step. Soon after Gosalia was equipped with the training, she assisted in rescuing a jackal, which was reported in a leading national daily.

It was the 10th day of the immersion of Ganpati effigies at the back pond in Andheri’s Lokhandwala. Gosalia, who often walks around to feed strays or rehabilitate them, spotted an animal that looked very much like a dog at the end of a lane but he soon fled the scene. A video taken of the animal confirmed her suspicion that it was a jackal. “He had a wound on his head, his body was covered in maggots, and he was blind in one eye.”

Over the course of the next few hours, Gosalia made multiple attempts to find the jackal but they were in vain. So she started communicating with the animal who replied saying he didn’t want his hideout to be known because he didn’t trust people. After much coaxing for more information and further communication, the jackal revealed saying, “He was in hiding because it was too hot and the group of stray dogs that he camouflages behind were nowhere to be found.”

Later that night, Gosalia got another message. “At around 9, the jackal told me that he was waiting for me and so I went to the place he sent me mental visuals of. As I moved inside the lanes, even the people prompted me where to look for him.” He was later found near the mangroves. “My friend and I called up RAWW (Resqink Association for Wildlife Welfare). It took around 24 hours to rescue the jackal,” she says. However, due to severe injuries accompanied by tick fever, RAWW confirmed that the jackal passed away earlier this month. But before he died, the jackal had one last word with Gosalia. “He said I trusted you and look what you’ve done to me.” While this story could well remain in the realm of mystery, there seems to be more and more evidence of communication between man and animals.

(Clockwise): Basic telepathic animal training workshop in progress at Earthwise; Manjiri Latey poses with a swan; Akruti Choksi performs the body process on a horse; the rescued jackal; Isha Gosalia communicates with an animal through a photograph

Afterlife Connect

As whales and dolphins communicate with each other across hundreds of miles through echolocation, the process of telepathy is also believed to take place through an invisible medium. For most communicators ‘energy following thought’ is what’s used. Latey, who trains her students to speak with animals within the first five minutes of any workshop explains, “In my thought process I know the energy of the soul I am speaking to. So a unique telephone number is dialled telepathically and a natural process then follows where the animal is present in the conversation with us. I also involve the family in the discussion with the animal and it almost resembles a concall.”

The language through which the conversation is carried out is not important here, but the receiving of messages is. Using this form of communication, some like Latey, reach out to their dead pets to find closure. “Our body is only the vehicle but our souls are the same [understanding all languages],” says Latey, adding, “the soul energy continues to live on.”

Plug Into Minds

For 35-year-old Akruti Choksi – who has worked with dogs, cats, turtles and birds – horse dentistry was her calling in life. The Mumbai-based equine dentist has travelled all over India and also to Sri Lanka for work. To enhance her connect with horses she travelled to the US to do a course called Conscious Horse Conscious Rider. “It’s kind of like the movie Avatar,” she begins, “the scene where the lead male actor connects with the horse-like character by attaching his neural queue [tail] to one of the animal’s antennae... My teacher explained it as plugging into the horse’s mind. They read our thoughts and we can read theirs.”

Choksi says that being a telepathic communicator has enabled her to arrive at a faster and better diagnosis. By plugging into horses’ minds, she can move their energies around in their bodies. “When their [horses’] energies get blocked somewhere, I can facilitate a change in their body for them to be at ease in whatever they’re doing. If medical issues prevail, we can run body processes for the horse to rid them of pain or even increase immunity.”

Elaborating on this process she says, “I touch the horse’s body and activate what it requires. It could be for pain or to release tiredness.” The equine dentist also conducts telepathic sessions for animals to connect them with their owners. Admitting to communicate with animals that are no longer in the living form, she says they don’t view death as a frightening concept. Choksi is also of the opinion that animals are more emotionally advanced than we can imagine. “They intuitively know about so many things. I have asked my dogs about property dealings and they have warned me about certain people [involved in the dealings] and in fact they were right!”

Pagan Territory

For many, talking to animals may seem like a scene straight out of the 1998 film Dr Dolittle, where the doctor possesses the ability to talk to animals from a young age but his family and colleagues consider him insane. Even the takers of the programme find it difficult to relate to at some point. Choksi, who also enrolled for the Earthwise workshop, says, “I was very sceptical of this practice wondering if animal lovers really believed they can now talk to them?” However, the course, she says, taught her that “animals aren’t as emotionally traumatised as we make them out to be. It was a very balanced and empowering approach to teaching animal communication. From then on I ask the horses what they would like.” This could mean anything from their dietary preferences or special placements in the stable to even being placed closer to another horse that s/he is friends with. “I once came across a really jittery horse, who suffered from colic (stomach issues). When I communicated with this horse I found he wanted to be situated somewhere in the back,” says Choksi, who then coordinated with the horse’s caretaker to shift the ailing horse to another stable. “I asked the horse to choose his own stable and after he did, he never suffered from colic again and actually did very well in his career.”

Though doubtful to some, Latey explains animal communication as a process of reuniting with nature. Although she acquired this ability early on, the real learning, she says, started when she interacted with those who live in tandem with nature. This resonates with a form of early pagan worship that venerated natural phenomena over all else. “My interaction with them helped me learn more,” Latey says. 

Considering the giving nature of a tree, she explains the relevance of telepathic communication today. “More than ever before, man needs to start becoming aware of his surroundings. Every time you chop a tree down, some may feel sad for it, but if they understood what the tree was communicating they would know that the trees are in turn looking with sympathy at man, because we’re digging our own graves.”