Decades ago Rex Harrison delighted screen audiences with his charming portrayal of Doctor Dolittle, a somewhat eccentric veterinarian in Victorian England who spoke a variety of animal languages. In 1998 comedian Eddie Murphy revived the familiar character in the remake of Dr Dolittle, based on a series of children's books by Hugh Lofting.
But it was the big-screen classic The Horse Whisperer that lent credibility to the concept of inter-species communication, as celluloid hero Tom Booker, played by Robert Redford, helped heal a seriously injured young girl and her psychologically-scarred horse.
Many pet owners would be surprised that the question is even raised considering that they conduct a regular dialogue with their animals.
Biologist and researcher Dr Rupert Sheldrake, author of Dogs That Know When Their Owners Are Coming Home, conducted experiments that indicated a telepathy between pet owners and their animals.
But others, including veterinarian Peter Baker, are sceptical: "I've worked with animals for 30 years and have never had one speak to me. And I've been listening."
In a bid to learn more I signed up for an animal communications workshop at the Knysna Elephant Park with facilitator Anna Breytenbach. Working with people we had just met, we focused on photographs of their pets so that they could authenticate messages or feelings we received. The results were surprising.
"Animal communication is not a gift," Breytenbach insists. "It is a natural ability that everybody has. It is simply a matter of getting in touch with our intuition and accessing something that isn't part of our everyday five-sensory reality.
"Indigenous tribes like the San Bushmen were able to communicate telepathically with all of nature and didn't consider this unusual."
Inter-species communication courses are relatively new in South Africa, although the benefits are increasingly being appreciated by people involved with animals.
"I'm not teaching people anything new," Breytenbach says. "I'm helping them remember what's already within them. When we experience a direct empathetic connection with another being we're much more inclined to understand the perspective of that animal and the challenges it faces."
Recently she was called in to communicate with a black leopard named Diablo after he mauled the owner of Jukani Predator Park, a sanctuary near Mossel Bay, and was refusing to come out of his shelter.
Breytenbach established that the former zoo inmate was deeply distressed by his past and also had negative associations around his name - diabolical and devilish.
The park's Jurg Olsen told the animal that he was beautiful and would in future be known as Spirit - the spirit of the sanctuary.
"Without doubt there was an inter-species communication," says Olsen. "Anna asked us things he wanted to know, that we could only confirm with his previous owner.
"Anna then told us that he had agreed to meet us outside his night shelter the next day. Bearing in mind that he hadn't done this in nearly six months, l was sceptical.
"To our astonishment when doing the morning rounds, Spirit was waiting for us outside. When I greeted him he answered in a deep croaky voice, as if he hadn't spoken for some time.
"I now respect him for what he is and how he wants to be treated. He has changed my interaction with the rest of our feline and human family very positively. Through Spirit I have been taught more about respect for the needs and feelings of humans and animals than in my life up until then."
Breytenbach says that communicators can be especially helpful in enhancing relationships between medical professionals and their animal patients. "Vets can find out directly what the animal's experience of their pain or discomfort is; where in the body it occurs; what might have caused it; and even what might make it better.
So how does it work?
"Animals communicate through physical action (body language), complex languages (vocalisation) and telepathically. People receive the messages to the degree that they are listening and can tune in, like twirling the dials of a radio, to be on the same wavelength.
"Telepathic communication involves the direct transmission of feelings, intentions, thoughts, mental images, emotions, impressions and pure knowing."
While working in the US, Breytenbach discovered that inter-species communication was well established there. She studied through the Assisi International Animal Institute, which operates from the premise that all animals - human and non-human - are sentient beings and can express their intelligence and communicate.
Breytenbach works with domestic and wild animals, runs workshops and takes on pro bono work including baboon rehabilitation, whale and dolphin research, white lion reintroduction and elephant management.
Her goal is to mentor many more communicators to help resolve the challenges of living harmoniously with animals, domestic and wild.
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