Notes from an Animal Psychic's Casebook

A Great Teacher

By Elaine Harrison

I must start by saying sorry for missing my PLW slot last month and a big heartfelt thank you to all of you who sent me your healing thoughts by email and ether. My physical body had reached some sort of crescendo of confusion and I really didn't know what had hit me for a couple of weeks. However, along with such major releases come pure nuggets of gold, providing insights and inroads to a new way of being.

Each and every one of us is an intricate balance of the physical, mental, emotional and spiritual, and whenever any one of these aspects of us starts taking precedence the scales are tipped and equilibrium is lost. If, as was the case with me, the physical scale is weighted down, then it is time to take a look at what needs adding to the other three to attain balance once again. And to ask 'why did you tip that scale?'

This has been a time of much soul-searching and hard work. I have been forced to look at issues consciously understood but not fully integrated throughout my whole being. It has been empowering, enlightening and, at times, damned difficult. But it hasn't been lonely! Oh no, as usual my animal friends (and of course my wonderful human friends) have stood firmly around me, offering me valuable reflections and benchmarks for my attention.

How well I have been reminded what great teachers the animals are. During my state of dis-ease all the members of our own animal family have either supported me with unconditional love and healing or mirrored back some of my own health issues… with a twist. Particularly poignant is the relationship between myself and my beautiful horse friend, Chantivvy, who, like me, suffers with skin and lung problems.

For both of us the allopathic route has sometimes been the only option when the going has got tough, but for neither of us has it ever actually removed the problem for good. Rather, the part of us that has created the symptoms in order to achieve something has refused to be ignored and quietened, so it just shouts a little louder next time. We have both been told we have allergies and by avoiding 'things' we could be okay, but neither of us totally buy into that theory, because how come some days, when we are feeling good, those 'things' don't bother us at all? Are we allergic some days and not others?

However, while suffering over the last few weeks I did start to believe in the allergy theory again (yes, I am told I am allergic to animals), so my partner, Pekka, looked after the horses. He reported home that Chantivvy's skin problem was getting worse and she was getting very frustrated and fed up with her itchiness. She was getting frustrated! How could she do this while I WAS ILL!! Yes, I really thought that for a while. I actually felt angry with her for distracting attention from me. What a big "Aha!" moment that was.

I decided it was time to go and see Chantivvy. I stood for a while a good distance away from her, not wanting to spark my allergies, then as I moved towards her she flashed such a furious face at me, swished her tail and stamped the ground. She was SO angry. As I went to touch her she made as if to bite me! My immediate response was a feeling of anger, so I stepped back, sat down and explored what had just happened.

I recognised her anger within myself. Often, when unable to breathe properly, or irritated with itchiness, I feel like striking out when others get too close. Yet inside of me a small voice is crying out for attention, wanting to be hugged, loved, nurtured, and looked after. I asked Chantivvy if this was what she was feeling and immediately felt her tears. We connected, spirit-to-spirit, then slowly joined up physically and we both got our hugs. It was a precious moment - and our physical symptoms got better, not worse.

The above is a somewhat abridged version of a truly magical process of discovery, with Chantivvy selflessly offering herself as my teacher and guide, but I hope it serves to illustrate just what can be learned if we are simply prepared to 'listen'.

So what have Chantivvy and I learned through this process? Firstly, that we have both created symptoms to achieve or obtain something we felt was lacking. And in many cases it has worked. We get ill - we get showered with love and attention. Yet on occasions we also get angry: 'WHY do you only take any notice of me when I am ill?' Then frustrated: 'I don't want to be ill, but how else do I get loved?' The crazy thing is we ARE both very loved and looked after, so where do these feelings come from? The second thing we have learned is that these feelings come from and belong in the past. Yes, that great myriad of events, experiences, memories, relationships and happenings that reads something like a cook's list of ingredients. Add a bit of this, some of that, a few pinches of the other, stir, and you have Elaine, or Chantivvy, or you.

So, what do we do? Scrap the finished dishes and start again? In one respect we have already done that, because the cells of our physical bodies are continually renewing, so we aren't even the same person from one day to the next. Of course, knowing this also means that we understand this process (at least mentally) and, since we now understand where the problem comes from and how it has become manifest, then surely it should be gone - shouldn't it? Unfortunately, such intellectual analysis rarely cures anything.

So how about our emotions? Let's change them and then we'll both be okay. Trouble is, that's like breaking the BIGGEST habit in the book since emotions are always going to come and go. Okay, so we'll both opt for some spiritual healing then. After all, we KNOW energetic releasing works; we are witnessing it all the time. But, hold on, if it has worked for us time and time again, how come we are still repeating the pattern? WHY are we not getting better? The answer is, partly because we are not staying 'present', not living in the 'now', but instead are continually re-stirring the past and, by doing so, continually creating anxieties about the future! But there seems to be more…

So many questions. All begging one answer: What is the KEY to optimum holistic health. What is it that makes some people and animals ill and others not? Does it lie in physical, mental, emotional or spiritual well-being? If it is all four then how should time be divided to ensure optimum attention to all? If we stay in the 'now' does that mean we will always be well? And what does being 'well' actually mean?

It is actually incredibly difficult to separate any of these areas, as they are all inextricably linked. You start looking at one and, lo and behold, you wind up paying attention to another. You really do have to look at the whole picture holistically. If we start, for instance, by addressing the physical need for nutrition and the part it pays in creating this optimum state, I cannot help but turn my attention to mental and emotional well being, too. Read on and see what I mean...

Many times I hear myself likening bodies to cars, because they both need fuel to keep them going and the better the fuel the better their performance. However, there is one huge fundamental difference: bodies don't just need good fuel to operate, they need it to be. Our animal friends and ourselves are what we eat and drink and without food and water we die a physical death.

There is so much information available to all of us nowadays about nutrition, and we are empowered to make the best choices based on constantly emerging facts and figures. If we want our animals to be physically fit and healthy, we have to feed them the very best nutritional building blocks. I know so many people who eat organic foodstuffs themselves, avoiding additives and pesticide residues like the plague, only to feed non-organic, chemically-laden food to their animals!

Another easy trap to fall into is to feed your animals in a way that would please you as a human, or in a way that is most convenient to you. Remember, they have very different digestive systems and needs. And I don't just mean nutritional needs either. Thousands of years of evolution have dictated not just 'what' but 'how' they should eat. For instance, horses are designed to move and graze for most of the day, yet many people stable them in a 12' x 12' space and feed them two or three times daily, often leaving them for hours with nothing to chew on.

Thankfully, people are beginning to wake up to the fact that it is this very 'humanly convenient' management that is creating many physical and psychological problems for horses and there is an emerging move towards more 'natural' horsemanship. Colic, lameness, and what we term 'bad behaviours' are almost without exception a result of man's interference with equine life.

Dogs are hunters and in a natural environment would spend considerable time scavenging and hunting - and even fasting between kills. This whole process is psychologically as well as physically satisfying for them, yet we strip them of this by placing one or two bowls of processed food in front of them daily. For some dogs this leads to digestive problems, obesity, behavioural problems (what do they do for the rest of the day?), leadership problems (who eats what and when is a constant and clear indicator of pack order which is vital to a canine's sense of well-being) and dental problems (do wild dogs floss?).

Many dogs adapt incredibly well to our daily dish-fulls, but it is an area worth looking at if your canine friend is displaying either physical of psychological problems. Tearing raw meat apart is a great way to keep canine teeth clean, and hiding food in buster cubes or kongs is a great way to keep your dog occupied for a length of time.

Cats being cats - unless they are kept indoors - are, thankfully, reasonably free to express their feline instincts as much as possible. Even cats who are free to roam are usually fed their daily man-made dish-full, but at least they can hunt as is natural for them - be it for food or 'fun'. Keep a cat indoors, however, without re-channelling that energy and you may well end up with all manner of problems.

See what I mean? Start paying attention to one of the four scales and you soon find yourself adjusting the other three. When looking at optimum health you must always take a holistic view - nothing is separate, everything is linked. Everything is part of the whole. And with that statement I will explain a little more about what Chantivvy helped to teach, or re-mind me of, over these last few weeks.

All living beings have needs to be met to achieve balance in their lives. As humans it is our responsibility to help the animals we befriend to achieve that balance within our human-dominated world. But what is it they are wanting to achieve through that balance - what is it they 'really' want? It is something each and every one of us already has! One-ness, wholeness, be-ing-ness; that state of bliss that transcends all. We have it - we are it. It simply gets lost within our physical-ness at times and so we find all manner of ways to strive for it, to fill what can sometimes feel like an empty void within. Next time you, or your animal friends get ill, ask what it is you/they are wanting and be prepared to listen. Then re-mind yourself and them that you and they already have it. When I forget this truth, I get asthmatic, Chantivvy gets sore and itchy... what do you and your animal friends do?

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Elaine was born and raised right in the very heart of England, in the County of Nottinghamshire. Able to see spirits and auras from childhood, she tried to put a lid on her apparent 'differences' as she left school and ventured into the world of journalism. As a writer, Editor and Marketing Manager she enjoyed many years working for a number of prestigious titles and travelling the world in the process. Of course her spiritual quest could not be ignored and soon any spare time was spent exploring mediumship (studying at the world-famous Stansted Hall in England) and healing. Animals have played a major role in her life and animal healing and communication work now take up much of her time. Elaine is also a qualified TTEAM (Tellington Touch) Practitioner. Elaine currently divides her time between her animal work, lectures and demos, mediumship and freelance writing. You can reach her by email here.

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