September 25, 2024 • 28 mins
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This episode is for you if you have ever felt the weight of your own mind trying to talk you out of your dreams or bucket list goals.
Maybe you have a recurring thought that you want to learn to talk to animals. But then your mind tells you that you are too old, too young, too busy, too new to the field to make an impact, too whatever to give it a try.
I get it. I have been there too.
For every reason why not, your creative mind can dream up a reason why. The best reason I've ever uncovered is that learning this interspecies language changes lives.
In this episode, we cover:
🌟 Why the timing is always right but you won't see it until you look back
🌟 How our own pets will invite us to the animal communication party!
🌟 What learning animal communication will teach you about yourself
🌟 The most beautiful gift learning animal communication will give you
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:12):
Welcome.
My name is Shannon Cutts.
I'm an animal intuitive andsensitive, a Reiki master
practitioner, an animalcommunication teacher and, most
importantly, your friendlyneighborhood hostess, and I
thought, before we get too muchfurther along, I would answer
some frequently asked questions,one of which is how did you
(00:35):
become a professional animalintuitive?
This is such a good question.
It's one of those questionsthat sounds easier to answer
than it actually is, especiallyif you have achieved a certain
number of decades under yourbelt.
Perhaps, like me, I happen tohave personally five decades of
(00:58):
life under my belt to date.
And so, looking back, kind ofrewinding my consciousness, my
awareness of my conscious lifetoday, looking back to when I
was in my 40s, my 30s, my 20s,my teens, as a young child,
would I have ever believed it ifyou had told me that one day I
(01:23):
would be a working professionalanimal communicator?
Oh heck, no, no, I would not,which is, of course, part of the
magic of coming to this 3dplanet and signing up for an
incarnation is sure.
We've got some major highlightsthat we want to hit, perhaps
(01:45):
some major lessons that we wantto tackle, some major
opportunities that we want totake advantage of, some
important meetings that we havewith our fellow souls of all
species.
But in no way shape or form doI personally believe that it's
(02:07):
all set in stone.
Remember that it's allmeticulously mapped out in
advance.
In fact, so much of whatinforms my awareness of kind of
how our lives are maybe mappedout or brainstormed before we
come here, really is informed bythe animals and how they show
(02:29):
me that there are lots of whatwe might call sliding door
realities, different paths thatwe could choose, different ways
to achieve major soul evolutionand growth.
Major soul evolution and growth.
(02:51):
And I feel like saying yes toanimal communication, saying yes
to learning it, saying yes toteaching it, saying yes to
hanging out a shingle andoffering my services as a
working professional was one ofseveral options that could have
propelled my soul, my embodiedspirit, forward on her journey,
and so I do look at it as a truemiracle that has unfolded in my
(03:13):
life, probably the best of manyoptions that could have moved
me forward in my learning andeducation and conscious
unfoldment in my learning andeducation and conscious
unfoldment.
So let me take you back,especially if you are watching
this episode and you're lookingover your life trajectory to
(03:35):
date.
Maybe you're looking at yourprofessional resume, like I
sometimes do, maybe you'reseeing what kind of looks like a
train wreck, like how did youget from A to B to P to T to C
to R?
And now you're here.
It's like, well, I couldn'thave told you at the time.
(03:57):
But looking back now, all ofthose seemingly unrelated
experiences, not only do theymake a lot more sense now in
terms of some important skillsthat I have been able to add to
my toolkit that I needed forthis part of my earthly journey,
but in a strange way each ofthose separate experiences also
(04:22):
add up to be more than the sumof their parts.
So if you're in a season of yourlife perhaps where you're
looking at what you're doing orwhere you are in life and you're
thinking it just doesn't makesense to me, hang on, it will,
(04:51):
hang on, it will.
There is a reason.
This is where we start to kindof build a firmer foundation for
soul level self-trust, to beable to make choices as they
present themselves and say, nomatter what, whether this works
out in the short term to be thequote unquote right choice,
quote unquote wrong choice,maybe we need to do a little
(05:13):
course correct.
I trust that ultimately, mysoul path will be revealed,
because my goal, my intentionthis is something that I'm so
passionate about, especiallywhen I teach animal
communication and definitely inevery session that I facilitate
(05:33):
is to look back to ourfundamental intention.
My intention is good, myintention is positive, my
intention is of the light, myintention is to grow, as my late
best friend, marcy, who is aReiki master and a beautiful
soul.
She used to always remind me.
(05:55):
We're here to grow in wisdomand learn to love better, which
I believe is a quote from TaraBrock, whom she loved, is a
quote from Tara Brock, whom sheloved.
But I think about that often asI look back on the windy road
that led me here and I think,ultimately I have achieved and
continue to achieve thatfundamental guiding intention to
(06:18):
grow in wisdom, to learn tolove better and in fact, that
fundamental guiding intentionnot only has gotten me through
some really hard challenges inlife and some really big oops
course correct decisions thatI've needed to make, but has
also opened up the door andgiven me the courage to say yes
(06:41):
when the opportunity to embarkon learning animal communication
really honestly kind of droppedin my lap.
So let me just rewind you.
Let's go back to.
Well, I'll start you at thebeginning.
Even as a young child, I wasalways kind of animal obsessed,
especially birds and turtles.
I feel like I came here with aspecial heart for the less
(07:05):
visible of our planet.
Mates, the ones that either areperceived as not having a voice
, either because they're silentor largely silent, for instance
turtles and tortoises.
They don't make a lot of sound,so they have to find other ways
to catch our attention whenthey need help.
Birds, which, when I wasgrowing up, the term bird brain
(07:29):
was considered an insult.
Now we know, thanks to Dr IrenePepperberg and her beautiful
bird Alex.
We know that that's actuallyquite a compliment.
So I was really alwaystransfixed by those particular
animal species.
But we have lots of pictures inour family albums of me
stalking frogs and pattinghorses and following roadrunners
(07:52):
, just being fascinated by thenon-human animals we share our
planet with.
However, I grew up in a musicalfamily and so while I was on the
stage a lot when I was youngand when I was growing, and I
was a singer and a songwriter ifyou look for Shannon Cutts,
you'll find a whole list oforiginal songs that I've written
(08:13):
and recorded and published toshare, and then I just had a
really windy road.
I was a college recruiter for awhile.
I founded and ran a charity fora decade called Mentor Connect
that provided mentors to peoplerecovering from eating disorders
.
It was a free support charityservice and was a freelance
(08:38):
writer for a decade.
So lots of different winding,curving roads, but throughout
one of the connect the dots kindof themes is that I always had
an interspecies family andfrequently when I would run into
insecurities or challenges orquestions, I would hire animal
(08:59):
communicators.
Now my path really intersectedwith animal communication and
maybe what might sound like alittle bit of an unorthodox way
when I started, I came acrossand started reading the books of
Dr Temple Grandin, who is mostwell-known and famous worldwide
(09:20):
for two things, one of which isbeing an extremely high
functioning PhD who's alsohappens to be autistic, and two
for her groundbreaking work incommercial livestock welfare.
She is the one that goes boldlyinto commercial farming and
(09:41):
ranching and meat productionfacilities and works with the
management to redesign theliving conditions to provide
humane options for everythingthese animals need, from getting
their food and water to havingtheir senescence and their
medical checkups and even to thepoint where they end their
(10:05):
earthly lives, and it's a toughtopic for me to talk about.
But there you have it.
And she is such a pioneer and Ilook up to her so much.
There was so much about whatshe shared in her introductory
book, where she talked aboutthinking in pictures and how,
because of her autism, becauseof her autistic brain, she was
(10:28):
able to naturally understand theanimal's point of view, how
they saw the world, how they seethe world, how they perceive
moments of opportunity or thingsthat are fearful in their daily
environment.
And that is what has given hersuch a gift and an ability to
(10:48):
work with these managers andhelp the animals navigate their
situations with less fear andwith more of a healthy daily
life.
And so I started reading herbooks and then I began to
encounter a whole world ofanimal-themed books.
I've always been an avid,voracious reader and it was
(11:12):
natural.
I spent years reading booksabout different species,
learning everything I couldabout tigers and giraffes and
elephants and cockatiels and theturtles and tortoises of the
world, and learning about peoplewho work with animals.
And then one day and I was juston the cusp of my fifth decade
(11:33):
of life at that point I wasmeditating and I've had a
meditation practice since I was19.
So this is nothing that'sunusual for me, nothing that
felt foreign or anything Iwouldn't be inclined to trust.
If I received a message inmeditation, I would be more
(11:54):
likely than not to take it inand incorporate it right away
into my daily life.
And the message that I receivedthat morning was delivered by
the same small still voice thatI have heard from.
Every so often, at criticaljunctures in my life when I
really needed a little bit of anextra nudge or a push, or maybe
(12:17):
even a shove, this little voiceappears.
And in that particularmeditation, that particular
morning, I was kind of in alittle bit of a delicate or a
sensitive emotional state.
I had just split off from mypartner of many, many years.
The relationship was just atits end, let's just put it that
way.
But it was a huge relationship,a huge teaching relationship in
(12:40):
my life, and I was definitelyfeeling very wobbly without it.
And so I was meditating and allof a sudden, right out of
nowhere which is the wonderfulway that our soul voices often
reach us I heard the words youare an animal, sensitive and
intuitive Right, and it capturedmy attention fully and I
(13:02):
thought to myself that'sfascinating, sounds important.
I have no idea what it means.
And right around that time Ithis information became kind of
an anchor point for me, kind ofa glimpse at the light at the
(13:32):
end of the tunnel, so to speak.
And one of the things thathappened right after that is my
dearest best friend passedunexpectedly, the one that had
often talked about growing inwisdom and learning to love
better, my dear heart friendMarcy.
Growing in wisdom and learningto love better, my dear heart
friend Marcy.
And another thing that was justunfolding right in that same
period of time was my fatherentered his final transition
(13:54):
very suddenly, very unexpectedly, and so, right in the middle of
just these catastrophic lossesor at least they felt that way
to me the most important peopleof my life, one by one, seemed
to be peeling away.
In the middle of all of that, Ihad started studying with my
(14:14):
intuitive teacher, sonia Shilkat, and I was taking a number of
her online courses.
I was participating in hercommunity, I was a member of a
live group program and wasparticipating in a small group
offshoot of that program, and so, luckily, I had somebody in my
world.
I had kind of this new groupthat I was beginning to connect
(14:36):
with and I had a little bit ofresource, the ability to go to
someone and say what does thismean?
Animal, sensitive and intuitive?
And for context, maybe it mighthelp if I share that I really,
truly I grew up in a community,in a family, just in a time
period where nobody ever talkedabout being able to develop
(15:00):
intuitive skills.
In fact, I don't ever rememberhearing the word intuitive or
psychic.
I had no idea what those wordsmeant.
Of course I was hiring animalcommunicators to talk with my
inner species family, because Ididn't think it was something
that you could develop.
I thought you had to be bornwith it, kind of like a voice
(15:20):
capable of winning the voice, orAmerican Idol or whatever
reality show is popular rightnow, and so I just didn't have
any idea that I could possiblybe able to unfold those gifts in
me.
And so, again, if you'relistening to this or you're
watching this and you'rethinking, I wonder if I might be
intuitive, or I wonder if Imight have psychic gifts, or I
(15:43):
wonder if I might have soullevel gifts that I'm not really
tapped into yet.
Just the fact that you'rewondering that, just the fact
that you're watching thisparticular episode right now.
If I was a betting gal whichI'm really not, but if I was a
betting gal, my bet would be onyes, you do.
(16:03):
Yes, you are betting gal.
My bet would be on yes, you do,yes, you are, and so I
encourage you to keep followingthat For me, luckily, I have
very sweet parents who lovedgiving birthday gifts, and I was
turning 50 and my mom and dadasked me what would you like for
your birthday?
And I said I really want asession with my intuitive
teacher, sonia Choquette.
It was a bit of an investmentsession with my intuitive
(16:26):
teacher, sonia Choquette.
It was a bit of an investment.
And they said absolutely.
So I ran it by her and I saidyou know, I've been meditating
since I was a teenager and I hadthis really interesting
meditation the other day and Iheard the words you are an
animal sensitive and intuitive.
And Sonia, if you're familiar,she is just delightful.
Sonia, if you're familiar, sheis just delightful.
(16:49):
She loves the joyful expansionthat occurs when we begin to
tune in with our intuitiveselves.
And she said oh, that's alovely way to put it.
Those are even prettier wordsthan I would have chosen.
She said you're an animalcommunicator and I mean it felt
like I had just won the lottery.
But it was also really hard todigest at first because I just
didn't really have a frame ofreference for me in that field.
(17:13):
It came out of just believingthat everybody that did that
work just came out of the womband probably lived on a
beautiful farm in some ruralplace and all the insects and
the birds and the animals justspoke to them and it was very
natural.
I didn't realize that thosethings could be repressed or
suppressed or simply justignored if we're not born into
(17:36):
an environment that's richlynourishing and encouraging of
those right from the get-go.
So looking back now again, as Ishared at the beginning of this
episode, the pieces start toput themselves together.
Random experiences start tomake more sense.
I start to look back and seethe thread that was there all
(17:58):
along but just wasn't beingemphasized.
Nobody was really pointing to itand I just hadn't cultivated a
community of like-hearted soulswho were boldly headed into the
subtle realms, into theintuitive pathways, into the
(18:19):
kinds of experiences where weswitch from using the outer GPS
that we find on our phone to theinner GPS that comes
pre-installed in our humananimal operating system, and
this is one of the things Iabsolutely love to talk about
when I am teaching a new classof animal communication students
(18:41):
communication students.
It's about getting the manualto us.
I don't know about you, but Ihave so often, I have so many
memories of feeling likeeverybody else got some kind of
secret manual for how tonavigate life and they must've
run out when I got to the headof the line because I just don't
get it and it was becausenobody had bothered to explain
(19:04):
to me, maybe because nobodyaround me realized it either.
But there's a whole intuitiveanatomy that's also
pre-installed, along with ourouter facing conscious senses
our eyes, our ears, our nose,our mouth, our skin, our fight
or flight or sympathetic, andour calm and restore our
(19:26):
parasympathetic nervous system.
Along with all of those outerfacing senses, we also have our
inner facing senses throughwhich we can receive information
through different channels.
And the easiest example of thisthat I love to share, when
somebody says I I don'tunderstand interfacing senses, I
(19:47):
don't understand intuitivesenses.
Often what I'll say is well,have you ever just had the phone
ring and you knew who wascalling you before you went to
look at your caller ID.
Have you ever just beenthinking about somebody and then
either they reached out to youor you got some news about them?
Have you ever been in a roomwith a bunch of people and
(20:13):
suddenly you felt like someonewas staring at you and you
turned around and sure enoughthey were.
Have you ever just gotten agood vibe about somebody new
that you've met, or a newopportunity, or a bad vibe about
(20:34):
somebody you've just met, or anew opportunity?
Have you ever followed thosevibes?
Have you ever ignored thosevibes?
These are your intuitive,inner-facing senses.
At work and coming from thebackground.
(20:55):
I came from as truly a wildlyintuitive, deeply psychic
individual who was totallyunaware of both of those facts,
individual who was totallyunaware of both of those facts.
I had not realized how much Iwas actually relying on that
intuitive anatomy because theouter, conscious 3D ways of the
world just didn't add up for me.
(21:18):
So often they didn't add up.
But have you ever had anexperience where you're talking
with someone and they're sayingall the right things and their
facial expressions are verywelcoming and open, and yet
you're just not vibing with them?
You're like there seems to be asubtext here, but I'm not
hearing anything consciously,verbally or overtly that would
(21:41):
suggest to me that everythingisn't in alignment Right, and so
what I was always tuning into,without realizing I was doing it
, was that subtext, and that waswhy that outer conscious rhythm
of daily life wasn't making alot of sense to me, and often I
felt socially awkward orisolated or different than, and
(22:04):
I often felt closer to, theanimals around me and to my
fellow human animals becausethere was no subtext.
What you felt was what you weregetting, and for any of you who
may be watching, who also havea very strong felt or what I
(22:25):
call a subtext component to you,you may be able to identify
with just feeling a little bitdifferent than, or struggling to
find your people, or notunderstanding why the way that
you are doesn't seem to work aswell for you as you would like,
or just wondering why you arethe way that you are.
I certainly spent years,decades, wondering that myself.
(22:48):
So all of this sparked a pathforward for me where, thanks to
one human being who was reallyaffirming my teacher, sonia, she
said you are an animalcommunicator, you need to get
yourself into a class, you needto start talking with animals.
The animals are waiting to talkwith you.
(23:10):
And I said to her well, brendaand I from your small group
course have been talking aboutmaybe signing up for a class,
and she said you need talkingabout it, thinking about it, you
need to do it already.
Get yourself in a class.
And I said well, who should Istudy with?
And she said it doesn't matter,the animals are your teachers,
(23:31):
just get yourself into a class.
And I said well, who should Istudy with?
And she said it doesn't matter,the animals are your teachers.
Just get yourself into a class.
You can get some basicstructure and get a kind of a
sense of how this new fieldworks and some basic things that
you need to think through.
And don't worry about the rest,because the animals will teach
you every step of the way.
And she was right.
(23:52):
And it was such a beautiful newopportunity to look forward to
in a time when everything aboutthe life that I built for myself
, the life that I knew at thattime, 90% of the most important
people in my life were fallingaway and there was nothing I
(24:12):
could do about it.
And the other huge gift that Iwas given during this time is
that because I was studying theintuitive arts, because I was
learning not just to connectwith pets, who are still
embodied in their physical,greedy bodies, but animals who
are in the spirit realm, I wasable to maintain an inner
(24:36):
connection with my loves, whoare transitioning In very short
order.
I lost my significantrelationship, my beautiful
rescued box turtle whom I loved,who indirectly brought me to
animal communication.
That's a whole other story, awonderful story for another
episode.
But I lost them.
(24:57):
And then my dearest best friend, marcy, my precious dad and
then my soul, bird Pearl, who'dbeen with me for 24 years, all
left their bodies and because ofthis beautiful new path of
animal communication, I've beenable to stay in touch with each
(25:22):
of my loves.
Because this is something thatwe so often forget.
We say animal communication andwe automatically, because of our
left brain education, becauseof our training, because of the
taxonomies and theclassification charts, we forget
that being an embodied humansoul also means that we're a
(25:43):
human animal.
So animal communication is apathway through which we can
maintain and cultivate anddeepen the inner connection with
all of life, with all sentientlife animals, plants, bodies of
(26:03):
water, areas of land and witheach other areas of land and
with each other and, mostimportantly, we can deepen our
connection with our soul self.
So that is the very, very, veryshort version of how one
(26:26):
embodied human, who happens tobe named Shannon me, became a
professional working animalcommunicator.
If you have questions, if youwant to hear the long version,
if you are animal communicationinterested or curious yourself,
I would love to hear from you.
(26:46):
I'd love to hear what questionsyou have.
Maybe they will show up in afuture episode.
For now, I send you my dearfellow spirit and your inner
species family all my love.
See you soon.
Bye for now.
Welcome.
My name is Shannon Cutts.
I'm an animal intuitive andsensitive, a Reiki master
practitioner, an animalcommunication teacher and, most
importantly, your friendlyneighborhood hostess, and I
thought, before we get too muchfurther along, I would answer
some frequently asked questions,one of which is how did you
(00:35):
become a professional animalintuitive?
This is such a good question.
It's one of those questionsthat sounds easier to answer
than it actually is, especiallyif you have achieved a certain
number of decades under yourbelt.
Perhaps, like me, I happen tohave personally five decades of
(00:58):
life under my belt to date.
And so, looking back, kind ofrewinding my consciousness, my
awareness of my conscious lifetoday, looking back to when I
was in my 40s, my 30s, my 20s,my teens, as a young child,
would I have ever believed it ifyou had told me that one day I
(01:23):
would be a working professionalanimal communicator?
Oh heck, no, no, I would not,which is, of course, part of the
magic of coming to this 3dplanet and signing up for an
incarnation is sure.
We've got some major highlightsthat we want to hit, perhaps
(01:45):
some major lessons that we wantto tackle, some major
opportunities that we want totake advantage of, some
important meetings that we havewith our fellow souls of all
species.
But in no way shape or form doI personally believe that it's
(02:07):
all set in stone.
Remember that it's allmeticulously mapped out in
advance.
In fact, so much of whatinforms my awareness of kind of
how our lives are maybe mappedout or brainstormed before we
come here, really is informed bythe animals and how they show
(02:29):
me that there are lots of whatwe might call sliding door
realities, different paths thatwe could choose, different ways
to achieve major soul evolutionand growth.
Major soul evolution and growth.
(02:51):
And I feel like saying yes toanimal communication, saying yes
to learning it, saying yes toteaching it, saying yes to
hanging out a shingle andoffering my services as a
working professional was one ofseveral options that could have
propelled my soul, my embodiedspirit, forward on her journey,
and so I do look at it as a truemiracle that has unfolded in my
(03:13):
life, probably the best of manyoptions that could have moved
me forward in my learning andeducation and conscious
unfoldment in my learning andeducation and conscious
unfoldment.
So let me take you back,especially if you are watching
this episode and you're lookingover your life trajectory to
(03:35):
date.
Maybe you're looking at yourprofessional resume, like I
sometimes do, maybe you'reseeing what kind of looks like a
train wreck, like how did youget from A to B to P to T to C
to R?
And now you're here.
It's like, well, I couldn'thave told you at the time.
(03:57):
But looking back now, all ofthose seemingly unrelated
experiences, not only do theymake a lot more sense now in
terms of some important skillsthat I have been able to add to
my toolkit that I needed forthis part of my earthly journey,
but in a strange way each ofthose separate experiences also
(04:22):
add up to be more than the sumof their parts.
So if you're in a season of yourlife perhaps where you're
looking at what you're doing orwhere you are in life and you're
thinking it just doesn't makesense to me, hang on, it will,
(04:51):
hang on, it will.
There is a reason.
This is where we start to kindof build a firmer foundation for
soul level self-trust, to beable to make choices as they
present themselves and say, nomatter what, whether this works
out in the short term to be thequote unquote right choice,
quote unquote wrong choice,maybe we need to do a little
(05:13):
course correct.
I trust that ultimately, mysoul path will be revealed,
because my goal, my intentionthis is something that I'm so
passionate about, especiallywhen I teach animal
communication and definitely inevery session that I facilitate
(05:33):
is to look back to ourfundamental intention.
My intention is good, myintention is positive, my
intention is of the light, myintention is to grow, as my late
best friend, marcy, who is aReiki master and a beautiful
soul.
She used to always remind me.
(05:55):
We're here to grow in wisdomand learn to love better, which
I believe is a quote from TaraBrock, whom she loved, is a
quote from Tara Brock, whom sheloved.
But I think about that often asI look back on the windy road
that led me here and I think,ultimately I have achieved and
continue to achieve thatfundamental guiding intention to
(06:18):
grow in wisdom, to learn tolove better and in fact, that
fundamental guiding intentionnot only has gotten me through
some really hard challenges inlife and some really big oops
course correct decisions thatI've needed to make, but has
also opened up the door andgiven me the courage to say yes
(06:41):
when the opportunity to embarkon learning animal communication
really honestly kind of droppedin my lap.
So let me just rewind you.
Let's go back to.
Well, I'll start you at thebeginning.
Even as a young child, I wasalways kind of animal obsessed,
especially birds and turtles.
I feel like I came here with aspecial heart for the less
(07:05):
visible of our planet.
Mates, the ones that either areperceived as not having a voice
, either because they're silentor largely silent, for instance
turtles and tortoises.
They don't make a lot of sound,so they have to find other ways
to catch our attention whenthey need help.
Birds, which, when I wasgrowing up, the term bird brain
(07:29):
was considered an insult.
Now we know, thanks to Dr IrenePepperberg and her beautiful
bird Alex.
We know that that's actuallyquite a compliment.
So I was really alwaystransfixed by those particular
animal species.
But we have lots of pictures inour family albums of me
stalking frogs and pattinghorses and following roadrunners
(07:52):
, just being fascinated by thenon-human animals we share our
planet with.
However, I grew up in a musicalfamily and so while I was on the
stage a lot when I was youngand when I was growing, and I
was a singer and a songwriter ifyou look for Shannon Cutts,
you'll find a whole list oforiginal songs that I've written
(08:13):
and recorded and published toshare, and then I just had a
really windy road.
I was a college recruiter for awhile.
I founded and ran a charity fora decade called Mentor Connect
that provided mentors to peoplerecovering from eating disorders
.
It was a free support charityservice and was a freelance
(08:38):
writer for a decade.
So lots of different winding,curving roads, but throughout
one of the connect the dots kindof themes is that I always had
an interspecies family andfrequently when I would run into
insecurities or challenges orquestions, I would hire animal
(08:59):
communicators.
Now my path really intersectedwith animal communication and
maybe what might sound like alittle bit of an unorthodox way
when I started, I came acrossand started reading the books of
Dr Temple Grandin, who is mostwell-known and famous worldwide
(09:20):
for two things, one of which isbeing an extremely high
functioning PhD who's alsohappens to be autistic, and two
for her groundbreaking work incommercial livestock welfare.
She is the one that goes boldlyinto commercial farming and
(09:41):
ranching and meat productionfacilities and works with the
management to redesign theliving conditions to provide
humane options for everythingthese animals need, from getting
their food and water to havingtheir senescence and their
medical checkups and even to thepoint where they end their
(10:05):
earthly lives, and it's a toughtopic for me to talk about.
But there you have it.
And she is such a pioneer and Ilook up to her so much.
There was so much about whatshe shared in her introductory
book, where she talked aboutthinking in pictures and how,
because of her autism, becauseof her autistic brain, she was
(10:28):
able to naturally understand theanimal's point of view, how
they saw the world, how they seethe world, how they perceive
moments of opportunity or thingsthat are fearful in their daily
environment.
And that is what has given hersuch a gift and an ability to
(10:48):
work with these managers andhelp the animals navigate their
situations with less fear andwith more of a healthy daily
life.
And so I started reading herbooks and then I began to
encounter a whole world ofanimal-themed books.
I've always been an avid,voracious reader and it was
(11:12):
natural.
I spent years reading booksabout different species,
learning everything I couldabout tigers and giraffes and
elephants and cockatiels and theturtles and tortoises of the
world, and learning about peoplewho work with animals.
And then one day and I was juston the cusp of my fifth decade
(11:33):
of life at that point I wasmeditating and I've had a
meditation practice since I was19.
So this is nothing that'sunusual for me, nothing that
felt foreign or anything Iwouldn't be inclined to trust.
If I received a message inmeditation, I would be more
(11:54):
likely than not to take it inand incorporate it right away
into my daily life.
And the message that I receivedthat morning was delivered by
the same small still voice thatI have heard from.
Every so often, at criticaljunctures in my life when I
really needed a little bit of anextra nudge or a push, or maybe
(12:17):
even a shove, this little voiceappears.
And in that particularmeditation, that particular
morning, I was kind of in alittle bit of a delicate or a
sensitive emotional state.
I had just split off from mypartner of many, many years.
The relationship was just atits end, let's just put it that
way.
But it was a huge relationship,a huge teaching relationship in
(12:40):
my life, and I was definitelyfeeling very wobbly without it.
And so I was meditating and allof a sudden, right out of
nowhere which is the wonderfulway that our soul voices often
reach us I heard the words youare an animal, sensitive and
intuitive Right, and it capturedmy attention fully and I
(13:02):
thought to myself that'sfascinating, sounds important.
I have no idea what it means.
And right around that time Ithis information became kind of
an anchor point for me, kind ofa glimpse at the light at the
(13:32):
end of the tunnel, so to speak.
And one of the things thathappened right after that is my
dearest best friend passedunexpectedly, the one that had
often talked about growing inwisdom and learning to love
better, my dear heart friendMarcy.
Growing in wisdom and learningto love better, my dear heart
friend Marcy.
And another thing that was justunfolding right in that same
period of time was my fatherentered his final transition
(13:54):
very suddenly, very unexpectedly, and so, right in the middle of
just these catastrophic lossesor at least they felt that way
to me the most important peopleof my life, one by one, seemed
to be peeling away.
In the middle of all of that, Ihad started studying with my
(14:14):
intuitive teacher, sonia Shilkat, and I was taking a number of
her online courses.
I was participating in hercommunity, I was a member of a
live group program and wasparticipating in a small group
offshoot of that program, and so, luckily, I had somebody in my
world.
I had kind of this new groupthat I was beginning to connect
(14:36):
with and I had a little bit ofresource, the ability to go to
someone and say what does thismean?
Animal, sensitive and intuitive?
And for context, maybe it mighthelp if I share that I really,
truly I grew up in a community,in a family, just in a time
period where nobody ever talkedabout being able to develop
(15:00):
intuitive skills.
In fact, I don't ever rememberhearing the word intuitive or
psychic.
I had no idea what those wordsmeant.
Of course I was hiring animalcommunicators to talk with my
inner species family, because Ididn't think it was something
that you could develop.
I thought you had to be bornwith it, kind of like a voice
(15:20):
capable of winning the voice, orAmerican Idol or whatever
reality show is popular rightnow, and so I just didn't have
any idea that I could possiblybe able to unfold those gifts in
me.
And so, again, if you'relistening to this or you're
watching this and you'rethinking, I wonder if I might be
intuitive, or I wonder if Imight have psychic gifts, or I
(15:43):
wonder if I might have soullevel gifts that I'm not really
tapped into yet.
Just the fact that you'rewondering that, just the fact
that you're watching thisparticular episode right now.
If I was a betting gal whichI'm really not, but if I was a
betting gal, my bet would be onyes, you do.
(16:03):
Yes, you are betting gal.
My bet would be on yes, you do,yes, you are, and so I
encourage you to keep followingthat For me, luckily, I have
very sweet parents who lovedgiving birthday gifts, and I was
turning 50 and my mom and dadasked me what would you like for
your birthday?
And I said I really want asession with my intuitive
teacher, sonia Choquette.
It was a bit of an investmentsession with my intuitive
(16:26):
teacher, sonia Choquette.
It was a bit of an investment.
And they said absolutely.
So I ran it by her and I saidyou know, I've been meditating
since I was a teenager and I hadthis really interesting
meditation the other day and Iheard the words you are an
animal sensitive and intuitive.
And Sonia, if you're familiar,she is just delightful.
Sonia, if you're familiar, sheis just delightful.
(16:49):
She loves the joyful expansionthat occurs when we begin to
tune in with our intuitiveselves.
And she said oh, that's alovely way to put it.
Those are even prettier wordsthan I would have chosen.
She said you're an animalcommunicator and I mean it felt
like I had just won the lottery.
But it was also really hard todigest at first because I just
didn't really have a frame ofreference for me in that field.
(17:13):
It came out of just believingthat everybody that did that
work just came out of the womband probably lived on a
beautiful farm in some ruralplace and all the insects and
the birds and the animals justspoke to them and it was very
natural.
I didn't realize that thosethings could be repressed or
suppressed or simply justignored if we're not born into
(17:36):
an environment that's richlynourishing and encouraging of
those right from the get-go.
So looking back now again, as Ishared at the beginning of this
episode, the pieces start toput themselves together.
Random experiences start tomake more sense.
I start to look back and seethe thread that was there all
(17:58):
along but just wasn't beingemphasized.
Nobody was really pointing to itand I just hadn't cultivated a
community of like-hearted soulswho were boldly headed into the
subtle realms, into theintuitive pathways, into the
(18:19):
kinds of experiences where weswitch from using the outer GPS
that we find on our phone to theinner GPS that comes
pre-installed in our humananimal operating system, and
this is one of the things Iabsolutely love to talk about
when I am teaching a new classof animal communication students
(18:41):
communication students.
It's about getting the manualto us.
I don't know about you, but Ihave so often, I have so many
memories of feeling likeeverybody else got some kind of
secret manual for how tonavigate life and they must've
run out when I got to the headof the line because I just don't
get it and it was becausenobody had bothered to explain
(19:04):
to me, maybe because nobodyaround me realized it either.
But there's a whole intuitiveanatomy that's also
pre-installed, along with ourouter facing conscious senses
our eyes, our ears, our nose,our mouth, our skin, our fight
or flight or sympathetic, andour calm and restore our
(19:26):
parasympathetic nervous system.
Along with all of those outerfacing senses, we also have our
inner facing senses throughwhich we can receive information
through different channels.
And the easiest example of thisthat I love to share, when
somebody says I I don'tunderstand interfacing senses, I
(19:47):
don't understand intuitivesenses.
Often what I'll say is well,have you ever just had the phone
ring and you knew who wascalling you before you went to
look at your caller ID.
Have you ever just beenthinking about somebody and then
either they reached out to youor you got some news about them?
Have you ever been in a roomwith a bunch of people and
(20:13):
suddenly you felt like someonewas staring at you and you
turned around and sure enoughthey were.
Have you ever just gotten agood vibe about somebody new
that you've met, or a newopportunity, or a bad vibe about
(20:34):
somebody you've just met, or anew opportunity?
Have you ever followed thosevibes?
Have you ever ignored thosevibes?
These are your intuitive,inner-facing senses.
At work and coming from thebackground.
(20:55):
I came from as truly a wildlyintuitive, deeply psychic
individual who was totallyunaware of both of those facts,
individual who was totallyunaware of both of those facts.
I had not realized how much Iwas actually relying on that
intuitive anatomy because theouter, conscious 3D ways of the
world just didn't add up for me.
(21:18):
So often they didn't add up.
But have you ever had anexperience where you're talking
with someone and they're sayingall the right things and their
facial expressions are verywelcoming and open, and yet
you're just not vibing with them?
You're like there seems to be asubtext here, but I'm not
hearing anything consciously,verbally or overtly that would
(21:41):
suggest to me that everythingisn't in alignment Right, and so
what I was always tuning into,without realizing I was doing it
, was that subtext, and that waswhy that outer conscious rhythm
of daily life wasn't making alot of sense to me, and often I
felt socially awkward orisolated or different than, and
(22:04):
I often felt closer to, theanimals around me and to my
fellow human animals becausethere was no subtext.
What you felt was what you weregetting, and for any of you who
may be watching, who also havea very strong felt or what I
(22:25):
call a subtext component to you,you may be able to identify
with just feeling a little bitdifferent than, or struggling to
find your people, or notunderstanding why the way that
you are doesn't seem to work aswell for you as you would like,
or just wondering why you arethe way that you are.
I certainly spent years,decades, wondering that myself.
(22:48):
So all of this sparked a pathforward for me where, thanks to
one human being who was reallyaffirming my teacher, sonia, she
said you are an animalcommunicator, you need to get
yourself into a class, you needto start talking with animals.
The animals are waiting to talkwith you.
(23:10):
And I said to her well, brendaand I from your small group
course have been talking aboutmaybe signing up for a class,
and she said you need talkingabout it, thinking about it, you
need to do it already.
Get yourself in a class.
And I said well, who should Istudy with?
And she said it doesn't matter,the animals are your teachers,
(23:31):
just get yourself into a class.
And I said well, who should Istudy with?
And she said it doesn't matter,the animals are your teachers.
Just get yourself into a class.
You can get some basicstructure and get a kind of a
sense of how this new fieldworks and some basic things that
you need to think through.
And don't worry about the rest,because the animals will teach
you every step of the way.
And she was right.
(23:52):
And it was such a beautiful newopportunity to look forward to
in a time when everything aboutthe life that I built for myself
, the life that I knew at thattime, 90% of the most important
people in my life were fallingaway and there was nothing I
(24:12):
could do about it.
And the other huge gift that Iwas given during this time is
that because I was studying theintuitive arts, because I was
learning not just to connectwith pets, who are still
embodied in their physical,greedy bodies, but animals who
are in the spirit realm, I wasable to maintain an inner
(24:36):
connection with my loves, whoare transitioning In very short
order.
I lost my significantrelationship, my beautiful
rescued box turtle whom I loved,who indirectly brought me to
animal communication.
That's a whole other story, awonderful story for another
episode.
But I lost them.
(24:57):
And then my dearest best friend, marcy, my precious dad and
then my soul, bird Pearl, who'dbeen with me for 24 years, all
left their bodies and because ofthis beautiful new path of
animal communication, I've beenable to stay in touch with each
(25:22):
of my loves.
Because this is something thatwe so often forget.
We say animal communication andwe automatically, because of our
left brain education, becauseof our training, because of the
taxonomies and theclassification charts, we forget
that being an embodied humansoul also means that we're a
(25:43):
human animal.
So animal communication is apathway through which we can
maintain and cultivate anddeepen the inner connection with
all of life, with all sentientlife animals, plants, bodies of
(26:03):
water, areas of land and witheach other areas of land and
with each other and, mostimportantly, we can deepen our
connection with our soul self.
So that is the very, very, veryshort version of how one
(26:26):
embodied human, who happens tobe named Shannon me, became a
professional working animalcommunicator.
If you have questions, if youwant to hear the long version,
if you are animal communicationinterested or curious yourself,
I would love to hear from you.
(26:46):
I'd love to hear what questionsyou have.
Maybe they will show up in afuture episode.
For now, I send you my dearfellow spirit and your inner
species family all my love.
See you soon.
Bye for now.
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