All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or including photocopy, recording or any other information storage and retrieval system, without prior permission in writing from the publisher.
Publisher: Narisa Chakrabongse
Editor: Narisa Chakrabongse
Cover Design: Benjarat Aiemrat
Design: Ruetairat Nanta
ISBN 978 616 451 093 7
Publisher: River Books Press Ltd., Bangkok, Thailand
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Printed and bound in Thailand by Parbpim Co., Ltd
Making a Sound Map
Listening to sounds provides an unending source of knowledge. Sound mapping is a classic exercise that we use to study nature through listening. As with the previous exercise, we sit still and listen to the sounds around us in all directions, but this time we also note the locations of the sources of the sounds in relation to where we are sitting in that landscape. Geographers like to use North as a reference point, so face north, and mark your location in the middle of a blank sheet of paper with an arrow pointing to the North at the edge. Listen to the sounds you hear and mark them on the paper at the directions and relative distances from where you are sitting. The marks could be words or symbolic icons representing the sounds. Loud noises could be drawn in big bold letters, for instance, while quiet sounds could be shown in light tiny lines. Contemplate the sound map you have created. It will tell you a lot about what was going on at that place at that time, and who was doing what and where.
We can make repeated sound maps of a given place and it is particularly interesting when we combine the information from many people who were sitting at different spots. What we then get is a sound map of the habitat of our locality. It becomes a kind of treasure guide.
Noticing the directions of sounds while on a hike also helps us stay orientated to where we are. I like to note the sound of running stream in a forest as it’s a useful reference point.
Listening to bird language
The next exercise is to learn to listen to birds. This is not only to identify different species of birds, but to actually understand their language. Try focusing on just one common bird species. In Thailand the garden bird the Oriental Magpie Robin is a good choice. Note the array of sounds this songbird actually makes, and observe its behaviour and activities along with those sounds. Before long, you will begin to be able to decode their language, at least to a certain extent. Why birds?
Within the animal community, birds are like the inter-species
lookouts. When there is danger looming, they give a warning call. If we learn to listen, we can more or less work out the kind of danger they are calling out. This may vary in different localities. Around my house in Bangkok, the warning call I hear every day is a fairly subdued alert they give among themselves, saying “Cat alert! Behind that car! Be careful!”. The warning call rises up many levels, however, when the danger becomes a snake. Often, many bird species join forces, screeching for help from other animals, like from that human tapping away on her laptop nearby, because the snake is trying to eat their nestlings.
Chapter 4
Go beyond the realm of the senses
“They say that when you get old, as I am, your body slows down. I don’t believe it… I have a theory that you do not slow down at all, but that life slows down for you. …Everything becomes languid, as it were, and you can notice so much more when things are in slow motion. The things you see!
The extraordinary things that happen all around you, that you never even suspected before.”
“Take flowers”, she said, pointing at the blooms that filled the room. “Have you heard flowers talking?”
~ Mrs. Kralefsky in My Family and Other Animals by Gerald Durrell
When we slow down and are more receptive, we begin to detect clearly subtler energies within our body, or what is coming into our body. It could be light, fluttering vibrations, flashing flushes, spiral currents, electrifying sensations, dull thuds, or whatever. It is not all that different from other physical sensories, only that it’s so fine and subtle you might need to stay still to feel it.
In Thailand, many of us first notice electro-magnetic energy in our body when we learn to practice vipassana meditation. This practice in Theravada Buddhism involves focusing on seeing things as they are, which requires practitioners to observe the world from a state of tranquility and full awareness. In a vipassana class, the teacher guides us to simply observe the sensations that occurs without reacting to them. Just observe whatever happens and then see it disappear. We are urged not to pay much attention to them other than simple acknowledgement. However, energy sensations can sometime be a language, a signal pattern informing us of something. It varies in different individuals. Each one of us has to figure out our own meaning.
Chapter 6
Communicating across species
“Some people talk to animals. Not many listen though. That’s the problem.”
~ Winnie the Pooh, by A.A. Milne
When I was a kid, stories from distant lands and other cultures were full of talking animals and plants. They were the regular roadside creatures that the protagonists met, not fantastic beasts from a magical realm beyond a rabbit hole that Alice fell through. Some stories even began with “Once upon a time when people could still talk to animals….”
Those of us who have grown up in a modern society may see them as just fun stories to entertain children. But even today we can find that there are still some hunter-gatherer tribes who do actually talk to plants and animals.
The Inupiat of Alaska have a culture that is tied up intricately with whales. The relationship there between humans and whales is so much more than simply that of hunters and prey. They can actually talk and exchange information.
In 1986, Harry Brower Sr., a 61-year-old Inupiat, received a message from a young bowhead whale who lived around his hometown 1,000 miles away from where he was in hospital. It told Harry how his mother had been harpooned to death by a group of men. The whale saw all the faces of his mother’s killers, which included Brower’s own son. Upon investigation, it turned out that the incident really did happen. Scientists then decided to go and learn about the lives of whales from this tribe in order to improve their conservation efforts.
Today, if we talk to people who act as wildlife interpreters, one of the first names to come up is that of Anna Breytenbach. She is probably the world’s most famous animal communicator. More precisely, she is an interspecies communicator, for she can talk to both animals and plants. Her work, however, tends to involve animals. She is from South Africa, a land that still has rich arrays of wildlife. Inevitably, conflicts between
There are, therefore, two parts that need training: the sending out of a message, and the receiving of a message.
Sending out a message may be easy, but it needs to be clearly intended. We emit energy all the time even when we are idle. It is important that our projection is not intense, but it is clear. Think of a time when we are sensing energy from other people. What makes you feel that a person is somewhat unsafe and it is better to keep a good distance; yet, another person seems relaxed and approachable?
That’s how it is with intention. If you come on too strong, too directed and sharp, it is scary, like being targeted by a hunter. Everyone wants to hide away. Instead, we need to be still and relaxed, sending out an intention in a light, gentle manner, which is yet clear and powerful.
Put aside doubts and worries. Clear away busy thoughts and emotions. Those have nothing to do with you right now. Then stand up erect, back straight and feet grounded, as if you have a very deep root. The top of your head is held up and connected to the sky. Breathe in deeply to clear the body, like opening windows to let in fresh air, expelling stale air, dust, and any negativity down to the earth to process them, so they become fertilizers to the soil. Then open up all the senses to receive the world. Finally, zip open your heart, and invite an animal, plant, or any other being you wish to communicate with to connect with you.
You may then feel pulled towards a certain direction. Trust that feeling, and follow it.
When you find the being that you are connected to, try to open up a conversation. Perhaps start with introducing yourself.
To receive a message, it is even more important to be still and empty. It is far too easy to interpret a message with a projection of your personal experience. It is actually not that different from deep listening to our fellow human beings in the way we need to listen to the subtle energy of the person we are talking to, not just what she/he says verbally.
I learn Kungfu at Thai-Shaolin Kungfu School. Master Zhu, whom we call Sifu, has a way to teach us to perceive intentions. With me, Sifu would say things in Chinese that I’m not familiar with (as it is, I only know how to count 1-10 in Mandarin). If I react to a word I don’t
not been so blunt, and I could pick up a remote message like picking up a phone, the little snake would not have had to wait around for hours. Sometimes I feel all beings in nature are infinitely patient with us. When I thought back about this story ten years later, I was amazed by such a strange incident.
The woman who stayed at the house turned out to be someone who tried to cheat me a few years later. It was the only time a highly poisonous snake appeared at home, coiling itself beside her luggage, and behaving in the oddest manner by waiting hours for me to return home to see it leave the house. I could not help but wonder a little if it was trying to tell me something. Perhaps it was acting as a messenger to greet and communicate with me in a similar way to the seal of the Salish Sea.
When such thoughts emerged, I would check myself and tell myself to stop. I was afraid of being delusional, preferring to choose logic and reasons.
Nonetheless, I believe that inter-species conversation is a trainable skill. I once took a course taught by Judy McAllister of the Findhorn Foundation when she visited Thailand in 2017. The process she taught was not so different from what Anna Breytenbach said. She just broke it down into a detailed process and led us through in small steps, such as grounding and setting up an energetic boundary where communication would take place. Doubts, worries, rambling thoughts are put down outside the circle. Hearts are open and connected.
Judy is a wonderful teacher. There is a certain energy about her that allows us to feel her authenticity. She is down to earth, very articulate, straightforward and very clear. She never beats about the bush or try to be diplomatic. Everyone can accept her frankness, because it comes from kindness. She speaks to our hearts and has such faith in us. She knew right away that I could sense things but was not ready to accept them. However, the skill Judy taught requires regular practice, and I still have to develop it. It is not a tangible technique that one can teach like knitting. The teacher can only guide us, the same way as we have to practice vipassana or other meditations.
There are times though that I received messages clearly. It is the story of the next chapter.
Chapter 8
Blend the outer and the inner worlds
“Kungfu is balance. Balance is Kungfu”
~ Qiguo Zhu, Thai Shaolin School
The midday sun in an open savanna forest during the hot, dry season in Huai Kha Khaeng Wildlife Sanctuary in Western Thailand is no joke. It is fierce, bright and scorching. I tried to stand still, raising my face and opening up to the glaring sun, trying to imagine and pretending to be a tree.
After just 10 minutes I had to retreat for a cover under the shade of a tree and gulped down some water.
I get it. Trees are not like us. They receive energy directly from the sun, making their own food. An animal like me cannot really imagine what it’s like. But the sun is not just the source of energy and temperature that living beings need, it is also heat that sucks up water from our bodies. This is a problem trees have to deal with. The biggest challenge, however, is whenever a problem confronts them, they cannot run away from it like we animals do. They need to rely entirely on their own capacity to deal with the issue, face on.
I was doing field research on forest fire ecology at the time. It aroused a sense of awe in me and a deep respect for trees. These beings had to deal with fire hotter than 700 degree Celsius. How did they cope with the heat? More than that, how do their offspring, the baby seedlings and teenage saplings, cope with it and gather enough strength to grow into big trees that can take on the world. Trees never escape problems.
Looking at the world from the perspectives of other species and how they meet challenges has since become an approach I often use in my scientific communication with the public to instigate fascination. It invites appreciation of how brilliant other species are, often a brilliance so very different from our own.
Nonetheless, while I thought I was delving deep into my heart to appreciate and understand, as I racked my brain in search for new angles of looking at challenges, my work tended to present a narrative based on science.
