Soul Dog by Elena Mannes

Author:Elena Mannes
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Spirituality/Animal Communication
Publisher: Inner Traditions/Bear & Company
Published: 2018-09-25T16:00:00+00:00

9

Something behind the Eyes

WHEN ONE FEELS A CONNECTION WITH ANOTHER BEING—human or dog or another sentient being—one has a sense of their emotions and how they're experiencing themselves in the world. We get an idea of who they feel themselves to be. I had certainly come to know Brio and how he saw himself. He obviously never doubted who he was. From that first day I met him as a tiny puppy waving at me, to when he trotted out onto the New York City sidewalks, to his strong spirit that never wanted during illness, he showed utter confidence in himself. Nothing and no one could diminish or defeat him. I think it was that clarity of self-knowledge that so many people recognized in him. He was always present within himself and in the moment he was living.

Once I took Brio sailing on a friend's boat. He'd never been out to sea. He had to get into a dinghy for the trip from the dock and then jump up onto the sailboat. No problem. Then he sat beside me in the cockpit as we took off, happily smiling into the wind and riding the waves like a veteran as the boat heeled over. He was in his element—as he always seemed to be! There's no other word for it: he had that presence—consciousness of himself—fully at home in his own skin as well as the living moment.

Any belief that our fellow animals are able to communicate telepathically or through some extrasensory ability must rest on one assumption—that they have consciousness.

Many philosophers have grappled with the concept of consciousness over the centuries. What is it? How do we define it? There is still no conclusive agreement about the nature of consciousness—human or otherwise—although it's generally accepted that a defining characteristic or prerequisite of consciousness is awareness. That means awareness of the surrounding world and awareness of other beings. It's about experience and feeling. But is it purely a creation of the physical brain? Is it just about neurons processing information?

Neuroscientists wrestle with theories and struggle to find evidence for those theories. Does consciousness derive from something else? Or is it something fundamental, something that just is? The debate continues with no conclusion. As Christof Koch, a well-known consciousness researcher and neuroscientist said, “I am conscious. Any theory has to start with that.”1

Recently, there's been mounting interest among scientists wanting to conduct empirical studies examining the intelligence, cognitive abilities, memory, and emotion of nonhuman animals. Some of these studies have been noted in earlier chapters. There's the study by the Comparative Ethology Research Group in Hungary (referenced in chapter 3) that found dog and human brains lit up in similar locations when they heard emotional sounds—crying or happy barks or human laughing.

Also, there are the dog brain scans done by neuroscientist Gregory Berns of Emory University (referenced in chapter 3 as well). These too indicate that dogs have emotion. There's the booming research field studying animal cognition and intelligence, with the amazing

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