By Callie Kellem, animal intuitive facilitator

It was during a blissfully, mindless, “doom-scroll” session one evening, in my parent’s spare room in southern Colorado, that I came across a post that snapped me back into attention. 

 “Desperate” “Still Missing” “Anything helps at this point” followed by a series of photos of a young, smiling, wire-haired mutt posted by Cassidy, a lovely, young lady with brown hair and bright eyes.  Her heartache was palpable through the Facebook post pleading for any scrap of information of her missing dog.  By that point he had been gone 5 days; alone in the cold, open landscape of Montana just 30 miles North from my own home. 

“5 days is a long time out in this cold weather with coyotes and wolves around.  He’s probably a goner at this point” was my initial thought.  But there was something about this post that held my attention.  I try not to insert myself uninvited into situations like this; the whole permission thing and all.  But in the grander scheme of things, I realized this was the ultimate “permission” broadcast so I said “what the hell” and decided to tune in and see if I could get a lead on the situation.

Now at this point I had been dabbling in intentional animal cognition for about 4 years.  I say “intentional” because if I’m honest with myself, I have been listening to and connecting with animals on a deeper level my whole life.  It wasn’t till I was in my late 20’s that I was able to let go of some mindsets that held me back from fully engaging with this work out of fear of ridicule or (in the cowboy circles I used to run with) being called a “hippie”.  Which I realize now is just a blanket term for anyone with a wholistic approach to anything! HA!

By this time, I had come across a number of cases of missing pets and was sitting with a track record of about 7 out of 8 successful recoveries.  So being armed at least with some confidence and a moderate amount of experience I settled in to “see what I could see” with “Kong”, the young rogue wire-haired pup.  I should mention that at this time I was feeling a little bit of dread as to what I might find. From where I was sitting it really didn’t seem like a real hopeful case.

But as fate would have it, and to my initial astonishment, he seemingly leapt into my awareness as if to say “Yes! I’m alive! And I sure am glad to see someone!” I did some double checking to make sure my imagination hadn’t muscled its way in just trying to make me feel better.  But sure enough everything that was coming through was loud and clear from Kong.  He was indeed alive and in relatively good spirits (though I could tell he was getting pretty nervous about how lost he had gotten and getting pretty hungry) I asked him several questions about his overall state of health and he seemed strong and determined to find his way home.  He expressed to me that he and a companion had gotten very involved with a deer chase and before he knew what happened, he had absolutely no idea where he was or which way home was.  The other dog had eventually made his way home but Kong, being in some very interesting surroundings (coupled with a highly distractable mind) didn’t have the same luck and was in a real pickle.

As you might imagine, I was starting to get pretty excited about all this.  Now the tricky part… contacting his momma and not coming across as a lunatic.  I had found myself in a very foreign situation.  What does one say? “Hi, I talk to animals sometimes and I have information about your dog?” or maybe “Hi, you don’t know me and I am in a different state than you right now but I just had a chat with your dog and he is trying to find you?”     

I finally came up with an eloquent and non-creepy way to approach Cassidy, however, and to my delight she was not frightened.  In fact, she was very receptive and she was up for a phone call that very evening. I relayed the information that I had already gotten and then, with a few more specifics from her, we were able to really dial in on some helpful details.  She was willing to go into a guided meditation that ultimately put something like an ethereal marker, a beacon/ beam of light straight on top of Kong’s destination.  I checked for confirmation from him that he could see it and sure enough, got an image of him immediately taking off in that direction. 

It took him another entire day and a half to finally make it back home and his poor feet were pretty raw and he was very hungry; but apart from that he was totally unscathed.  Cassidy was over the moon to have her best friend back and I was both honored and humbled to be able to assist in that reunion.  It is one of my fondest memories in animal communication to this day. 

“Comfort is the worst addiction.”
-Marcus Aurelius

The Distortion

There is a tremendous amount of disharmony that is happening in the world of Humans due to the way our societies are structured, particularly in the modernized, Western world.  The domestication of the human is quite a conundrum. It has caused us a great deal of confusion and misery in leu of excess comfort and radical convenience; the likes of which have never been experienced before in our recorded history.  Often, we don’t even realize how miserable and disconnected we are because it is “normal” and we can retreat into an array of avenues of instant gratification and distraction from every discomfort through food, alcohol, television and dopamine hits from scrolling on our phones or even through drugs and sex as a way to keep us momentarily satisfied.

We live mostly separate from the very basic parts of the natural world.  For example, we are born inside, under artificial light, in a totally sterile environment; our first touch is by gloved hands and synthetic fiber blankets; the umbilical cord is cut way too soon so we don’t have time to absorb the blood and nutrients from the placenta that is vital for our first part of life. Our first moments in the open air are brief in transit from the hospital to our home, then brought back inside with more artificial light, synthetic carpets, walls covered in chemical paint, wearing synthetic diapers and clothes, getting fed through plastic bottles, then eating canned baby food that is devoid of both life and nutrition.  Then the story continues with artificial social systems such as school, and later on into work environments with structured hours that keep us perpetually indoors away from the lifegiving sunshine on our skin, fresh air in our lungs and the grounding earth on our feet.  We develop an array of sicknesses almost from birth, that will progress and worsen throughout our artificial, indoor lives.

Is it any wonder why depression, anxiety, insomnia, mental illness and physical sickness is the normal state of being for the majority of humans in the western world?  This rabbit hole goes on and on in relationship to illness but it does not have to be that way.  The solutions, and indeed, reversal to these things is simple.  So simple in fact that most people aren’t interested.  We tend to want treatments that come with scientific evidence, shiny labels and an attractive salesperson to convince us of the cure.  Most people want a pill that will fix it all without having to put forth any real effort on their part.

But the pill that seems the hardest to swallow is the understanding that through connection with the natural world via nutritious food, time outside, conscious awareness and connection with our true inner nature is the real medicine.

“We often forget that we are nature. Nature is not something separate from us. So, when we say that we have lost our connection to nature, we have lost our connection to ourselves”.
-Andy Goldsworthy

The Antidote

What does all of this have to do with spending time with our animals?  Quite a lot actually. 

Dog Parents!  When do you find yourself spending the most enjoyable quality time outdoors? On walks with your pup? Throwing a stick for them into a pond?  Witnessing their unbridled joy through the simple act of rolling in the grass?  You may not be fully aware of how deeply you sink into the present when you are witnessing and partaking in those moments. 

Horse Riders!  At what other times in your day or life do you feel more grounded, awake, aware and at peace than when you are with your beloved horse working on patterns in the arena or out on the trail listening to that blissful cadence of their hooves thumping the dirt underneath you?  Or the simple peace you feel when you are brushing and scratching them.  Those moments of connection when you are in their presence in a silent dialogue of connection is a moment that they have just brought you into the doorway of the only time that exists, the now time, where your “problems” only exist in the periphery of your busy mind. There are also moments of high intensity when it comes to horses that get our adrenaline up and our emotions high.  Those moments are some of the most intense “in the moment” experiences of our lives!

Cat Caretakers! Think of the times when you notice your cat doing a Zen meditation in a sunny window rhythmically breathing, inhaling the restorative power of the sun while it warms them to the core.  They have no thoughts, worries or concerns in any corner of their being in those moments.  Have you noticed that when you observe them in that place, you yourself, whether you realize it or not, are transported to the same state of being even if only for a few seconds. 

This is just a tiny glimpse of what is being offered to us through the eyes, hearts and energy fields of animals.  They live in a deep connection to the true nature of our beautiful world even though they are “domesticated”.  Their souls are still wild and very deeply rooted into the realness of life that we have become desensitized to as domesticated humans. 

The animal kingdom has been a profound teacher for me that has opened up both my eyes and heart to life changing realizations and deep life connections to something I’ll call here, “The Bigger Picture”.  It’s due to my willingness to peer through these windows of their souls that my awareness and perspectives of life have changed for the better.   Through these connections with animals, I have learned more about myself and the true nature of things than I ever would have on my own. The moments that I am still and present with the outdoors, in literally any setting, are the experiences that matter the most to me.  Those moments calm my nervous system, they physiologically ground me and they create a space of “no time” that metaphysically rejuvenates my body.  I will go into the science of this in a later post.

Here's what I think the big memo is from the animal kingdom, (as well as plants, insects, and all aspects of the natural world).  They are offering up opportunities for us to connect to deeper levels of awareness to nature as well as ourselves. This happens through gateways of their love, intelligence and their subtle but profound state of presence. They offer assistance for us to wake up from the unhappy dreams that we have been living in. I believe we are being offered a chance to step deeper into our true nature as the rightful caretakers of this Earth and that we are being called to reinvent our divine destiny as Humans. 

Callie Kellem is the animal intuitive facilitator for Lightbody Academy. She offers one on one sessions with pet owners of all kinds to open the floor for a deep and meaningful dialogue for human-animal communication. We will focus on your specific needs and intentions in relationship with your pet, horse or any other animals in your life.

Her emphasis is on connecting with information from the collective consciousnesses of all different
facets of the natural world. She has a unique approach and perspective to animal cognition that helps to bridge our human participation in the unfoldment of the new dream of Earth that affects all life. Through the windows of their souls and the depth of their state of awareness, animals and other beings are offering guidance to those of us willing to listen.

Listen to the podcast episode "Natural Connections: Beyond Words with Animal Intuitive Callie Kellem"