Have you ever suspected that
your dog or cat might have a psychic ability. Did they ever behave out of character right before a natural disaster? Did they
ever come up to you when you where thinking about them, or did they ever get lost away from home and found their way back
to you all by themselves? Many pet owners have had similar experiences with their pets and some believe it is because animals
may have their own psychic abilities just as people do.
Early parapsychologist J.B. Rhine and his wife Louisa had studied many cases in which animals travelled great distances to
find their way home. They found that ESP had to be the only explanation for those animals being able to find their way back.
Rhine called this ability by animals psi-trailing. The US Army also believed in the possibility of animals having psychic
abilities when they had Rhine and his Parapsychology lab research the ability of dogs locating land mines in the early 50's.
Although the animals great sense of smell was what brought the most success in the experiments, it was still one of the earliest
studies of this kind.
There are many people these
days that believe they can communicate with animals by actually hearing their thoughts. These people call themselves either
pet psychics, animal communicators, or animal intuitives and seem to be gaining popularity. These pet psychics help pet owners
with all sorts of problems. Some folks want to know how they can get their pet to stop misbehaving, others have dying or very
sick animals and want to know if their pets want to be put to sleep or not, some people want to know how they can get their
pet that has run away to come back home, and others just want to see what's on their pets mind. One pet psychic, Sonya
Fitzpatric has become so popular that she was given her own program on Animal Planet. There is even some pet psychics that
act as pet mediums that actually claim to be able to communicate with the spirits of deceased pets. Only a small percentage
of pet psychics act as mediums though.
Their
is a lot of skepticism on this topic however, probably more than most other paranormal
subjects. Many feel that animals that appear to be displaying psi abilities are actually obtaining information from super
sensitivity. For example; animals may be able to feel movements and changes in the earth that occur just before an earthquake
takes place. Other explanations given for animals appearing to be psychic are natural instinct, and simply coincidences. More
scientific research and studies need to be done on this subject. Animal psi does not seem to be getting as much attention
as other paranormal subjects. It is being overlooked when in fact it may bring much
more light on the subject of psi in general if it was to be researched more often.
- by Max Rodegher
Author of Studies of the Paranormal
