Animals and the Afterlife (6 page)

June’s devotion had become a priceless gift in my life. I felt blessed by her presence, and I wondered where I’d be without her. My priorities had changed, and I found it ironic that I had been rescued from the “rat race” by, well, a
rat
. Others had shared with me how June had changed their lives as well. They had previously bought into the societal notion that rats are pests to be hated and exterminated. June had taught them otherwise and opened their minds, and for this they were genuinely grateful.

Looking at June as an example, I began to realize what the animals teach us: total honesty, innocence, and forgiveness; and the importance of expressing anger or hurt, feeling it fully, and then letting it go. Humans tend to hold on; animals teach us how to let life flow. Most of all, animals offer us unconditional love. Through their example, many of us learn for the first time what unconditional love truly is. It’s not about being perfect; it’s about really being ourselves, and loving each other regardless.

If only I could learn to love half as well as June, I would indeed be an exceptional person.

*Vegan (pronounced “VEE-gen”)—One who uses/consumes no animal products (no meat, dairy, eggs, etc.) and gets their nutrition exclusively from the plant kingdom.

-
C
HAPTER
3
-

Conversations with a Rat Named June

… soul is the same thing in all living creatures, although the body of each is different.

—H
IPPOCRATES

S
HORTLY BEFORE
J
UNE ENTERED MY LIFE
, I had become interested in the idea of telepathic animal communication. I had read about it in a local paper and was fascinated. I learned that “animal communicators” are individuals who have the ability to communicate telepathically with animals. I wanted so much to believe it was true, but I was skeptical … and at the time, I didn’t have any animal friends to put it to the test.

So, upon June’s arrival, I promptly booked an appointment with a local animal communicator named Brigitte Noel. Now that I had my own little animal friend, I was anxious to find out if there was any validity to the idea of telepathic animal communication.

I’d had a lifelong desire to talk with animals. At times, as a child, I was certain I was doing it. I always felt that I knew what they were thinking and what they needed, and they seemed to understand me equally well. Adulthood had taken me away from all of that, but now June was bringing it back.

On the day of the much-anticipated appointment, Jameth and I headed downtown with June to meet Brigitte Noel, a very pleasant and down-to-earth person. Upon Brigitte’s request, Jameth and I waited nervously outside while she sat quietly with June for a private conversation in her office; she said it was easier for her to work that way.

After perhaps half an hour, she called us in to tell us what June had communicated. Brigitte had written several pages of messages she had received from June, which she read aloud to us. A lot of what June had apparently communicated made sense to us, based on what we knew about her background, including an incident involving her tail that had taken place just the day before (someone had made a derogatory comment about June’s tail).

We then asked June our questions, and she answered them through Brigitte. One of the burning questions was: “Is June lonely? She has
us,
but does she want a
rat
companion?”

She responded with a very decisive “No.” This was a surprise to us, as rats are very social creatures and normally crave the company of other rats. But she explained that she was a “rat ambassador” and was here to interact with
humans
—
not
other rats. In fact, she said she
preferred
it that way. So we agreed to honor her wishes (at least for the time being).

Rather than a rat companion, June informed us that she’d really like some cherries. We had never given her any, but she said she loved cherries. So after the appointment, we got her some fresh organic cherries, and she appeared genuinely grateful as she enthusiastically indulged.

Brigitte gave us our own copy of the written transcripts of her conversation with June, along with a tape recording of the session. Some of the things she said didn’t make any sense to us at the time, so we had no way to confirm their accuracy. However, the next time Michelle came to visit June, I told her all about the session, and she understood and confirmed everything June had communicated—including things that only she and June had known. I was impressed.

O
NCE
I
BECOME INTERESTED IN A SUBJECT
, I want to know everything I can about it. I was now fascinated with the idea of telepathic animal communication. One day while browsing through the mail, I came across another article on the subject. I called the number at the end of the article for more information and was offered a nationwide list of dozens of professional animal communicators, which I gratefully accepted.

Although I had been extremely impressed by the appointment with Brigitte, I was still skeptical of the idea that there were
so many
people out there who could really do this. I’ve always considered myself an “open-minded skeptic.” It sounds like a contradiction, but somehow, in all areas of my life, both my open-mindedness and my skepticism are very strong, constantly keeping each other in balance. My years in the alternative health field reinforced the importance of both, and I was ever mindful not to allow open-mindedness to become gullibility nor to allow skepticism to become cynicism.

I’ve never been the type of person who falls for things easily, so I knew this new belief system was going to be a “hard sell” for my logical mind. However, my intuitive mind insisted that there was something real here, something I needed to check out and incorporate, so I listened.

I called several of the animal communicators on the list and discovered that they all offered long-distance phone appointments, so I scheduled appointments with them right away. I then began calling various animal communicators on a regular basis, repeatedly testing them for accuracy. I wanted to be sure I was receiving accurate information, so I never told them anything other than June’s name and the fact that she was a rat; and I always made appointments with several animal communicators in different parts of the country, never telling any of them that I also consulted
others
with the same questions. I wanted to see if June’s communications matched up, from one animal communicator to the next; and to my amazement, they did.

Still a diehard skeptic, I constantly tested the animal communicators, not telling them
anything
that might influence what they received from June, and they repeatedly amazed me with their accuracy. I often scheduled phone appointments back-to-back, ruling out the possibility that some of the animal communicators might know each other and exchange information between phone calls; and their unrelenting consistency astounded me. Most of them had never worked with a rat before and were quite charmed by June. That part didn’t surprise me at all.

I called them somewhat regularly, whenever health concerns or other issues arose during June’s life, or when I simply needed further validation that this was real; and I was ultimately convinced that it was.

One time, I called an animal communicator to find out why June was lethargic and didn’t seem to feel well. The first thing the animal communicator said was that the back of June’s hand hurt. I wondered why that could be; it made no sense to me. Later I recalled an incident that had occurred just the day before, which the animal communicator had no way of knowing about:

June had been on the kitchen counter, where she often kept Jameth and me company as we prepared meals or washed dishes. We always soaked various beans, grains, and seeds in glass jars filled with purified water and covered with plastic lids. June always flipped the plastic lids off of the jars to sample what was inside. However, this time one of the jars had been covered with a heavy ceramic saucer instead of the usual lightweight plastic lid, so when she flipped it up, it slammed back down on the back of her hand.

I watched helplessly as she squeaked and held her hand in pain, looking just like a little person holding an injured hand as if to say, “Ouch!” I felt awful about it and did my best to comfort her. She soon went about her business as if nothing had ever happened, so I assumed everything was okay.

A
S
I
NOW RECALLED THIS FORGOTTEN INCIDENT
, I thought to myself,
No wonder the back of her hand hurts!
I was continually impressed with the accurate, detailed information I received whenever I consulted an animal communicator.

There were several animal communicators in particular with whom I felt an extra strong connection, so they became the ones I called most often. Even after I had become convinced of the legitimacy of animal communication and no longer needed to make multiple calls, I felt it was good to be in touch with several different animal communicators so that, if an urgent question or crisis arose and one of them wasn’t available, I had some backup.

Initially, when I worked with animal communicators over the phone, I had trouble swallowing the notion that they could communicate with June from so far away. However, I came to realize that, unlike verbal communication, telepathy has no distance limits.

I also had trouble understanding how telepathic animal communication could be received in actual
words
(in addition to pictures and feelings), since animals don’t speak in words. I came to understand that telepathy is a universal language that, when received, is automatically interpreted in a manner understood by the receiver.

I then recalled one of my favorite childhood pastimes: reading my friends’ minds. Of course, I didn’t know what the term “telepathy” meant at the time, but that’s what it was, I now realized. I really don’t recall exactly
when
I began noticing that I understood the thoughts of others before they ever opened their mouths; it seems it was just something I
knew
I could do as a child. I also don’t recall exactly when I
stopped
doing it. Somewhere along the way, such things had been educated out of me.

I suddenly recalled the many times in my youth when I had experimented with telepathy. My experimentation had started quite by accident….

One day after school, my best friend and I were playing inside an upright storage cabinet in the garage, trying to entertain ourselves with something new, as children often do. We both liked to draw, so we had our drawing pads and markers with us. We were both quite small and could fit just perfectly in the cabinet in a seated position, facing each other with our knees up. She put her drawing pad up against her thighs and began to draw. I couldn’t see what she was drawing, since I was facing the back of her drawing pad.

“What are you drawing?” I asked. She told me it was going to be a surprise, a picture for me, but that she didn’t want me to peek until it was done. So, I decided to draw a picture for her, too, and wouldn’t let her see it until
I
was done. While we were drawing, I suddenly felt an indescribable connection to her. We were best friends, we looked a lot alike, and we were seated in identical positions, so I figured that accounted for the connection I felt. I shrugged off the feeling and continued drawing.

When we had finished our drawings, we showed each other our masterpieces. We were both stunned. We had drawn
exactly
the same picture, right down to very specific and unique details. In that moment, I knew it was more than a mere coincidence, but I really wasn’t sure what to make of it.

Throughout my childhood, I came up with many “guessing games” which, in hindsight, were actually psychic experiments. The results never ceased to amaze me.

Later, when I was in high school, a new girl moved to town during my sophomore year. She and I had a lot in common, and I soon discovered that she shared my passion for paranormal exploration. On the weekends, we often had “psychic slumber parties”—just the two of us—as we practiced our psychic skills into the wee hours.

We continually astounded ourselves. At first, she would look at various photographs of people I didn’t know, without showing them to me. I would focus on her and then describe what I was seeing in my mind’s eye. When she then showed me the photograph, it was always identical to that which I had just described.

Then she began drawing pictures or symbols and focusing on them without letting me see them. I would focus on her and then draw what I saw in my mind’s eye. When she then showed me her drawings, they were always identical to those I had just drawn. No matter how many times we did this, we were continually delighted and amazed at the results.

We began to wonder if distance would alter the results of these experiments, so we decided to find out. One day at school, we agreed to focus on each other at a specific time that night, when we were each at our own home (in completely different parts of town), and then write or draw whatever we saw in our minds. That night at precisely ten o’clock, as arranged, I went into my bedroom and closed the door, sat quietly, and closed my eyes. I focused on my friend. I soon saw very specific pictures in my mind, so I quickly began drawing on a sheet of paper everything I was seeing.

The next morning we met at our lockers, and on the count of three, we presented our drawings to each other. They were
identical
. We were speechless. We had drawn very specific and unusual things, and everything was the same, right down to the placement of each individual item on the two pieces of paper. In a way, it was unnerving, and we remained silent as we headed off to class, not sure exactly what to say.