Animal Communicators
            QUESTION from Lynn on October 6, 2003

Hi,

I hope this is being asked in the right section, please accept my apologies if it isn't. I am interested in your opinion on whether animal communication (where the communicator professes to be able to provide insight into what's going on in the minds of various furbabies) can be legitimate without being tainted with the "new agey" kind of trappings that seem to be associated with a lot of people who do this sort of thing.

In a nutshell, the basis of being able to communicate this way is the theory that, since animals tend to think and communicate in pictures, in order to communicate with them some form of telepathy is used to "talk" with them in pictures (their language).

I guess that has to bring up another question - does all telepathy fall in the same category as fortunetelling, etc. that's condemned in scripture? Or can this be a strong empathic sense that we had and then lost in the fall and it's deteriorated since? Is it neutral? I wonder this since children often seem to be extra sensitive to thoughts from adults and animals both.

I did try to do a search on this and was quite dismayed to see how many "animal communicators" call themselves psychics, and use Reiki and other such things that are dangerous.

But, as someone who believes that every good gift of God can be and is counterfeited, I am wondering if maybe there are those who have and can use this ability in good conscience as Christians? Is this how St Francis did it?

Your thoughts and directions to appropriate further study is appreciated.
Lynn

             ANSWER by John-Paul Ignatius, OLSM on October 13, 2003

Dear Lynn:

I do not believe that anyone communicates with animals through any form of telepathy. There are some animals that can be trained in some limited communications skills using images and gestures such as chips and dophins, but an "animal psychic" is nonsense.

Even if it were possible, we are forbidden to dabble in such things.

The Catechism states:

Divination and magic

2115 God can reveal the future to his prophets or to other saints. Still, a sound Christian attitude consists in putting oneself confidently into the hands of Providence for whatever concerns the future, and giving up all unhealthy curiosity about it. Improvidence, however, can constitute a lack of responsibility.

2116 All forms of divination are to be rejected: recourse to Satan or demons, conjuring up the dead or other practices falsely supposed to "unveil" the future. Consulting horoscopes, astrology, palm reading, interpretation of omens and lots, the phenomena of clairvoyance, and recourse to mediums all conceal a desire for power over time, history, and, in the last analysis, other human beings, as well as a wish to conciliate hidden powers. They contradict the honor, respect, and loving fear that we owe to God alone.

2117 All practices of magic or sorcery, by which one attempts to tame occult powers, so as to place them at one's service and have a supernatural power over others -- even if this were for the sake of restoring their health -- are gravely contrary to the virtue of religion. These practices are even more to be condemned when accompanied by the intention of harming someone, or when they have recourse to the intervention of demons. Wearing charms is also reprehensible. Spiritism often implies divination or magical practices; the Church for her part warns the faithful against it. Recourse to so-called traditional cures does not justify either the invocation of evil powers or the exploitation of another's credulity.

Attempting to communicate through telepathy falls under attempts to tame occult powers.

Is is possible for human beings to have some kind of preternatural ability as a remnant of the pre-Fall period. Yes, there is some evidence of this. But we are not to try to cultivate any such ability, or use any such ability in combination with other occult or new age methods and practices, or to use any such ability fo divining the future or hidden knowledge.

I will have to ask my colleague, Joe Meineke, for further clarification on this one. This area is more his specialty. I will see if he can post a more direct answer to your question.

God bless,
Bro. Ignatius Mary

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