Well that’s a big word – but, what is anthropomorphism, and how does it relate to Animal Communication?
Anthropomorphism is,
the attribution of human traits, emotions, or intentions to non-human entities.
(Wikipedia)
What that means is that we humans tend to assume, or describe, our animals feelings in the same way that we would identify our own. It could be something as simple as ‘he’s feeling sad today’ for instance.
Now, there are some emotions that definitely overlap or are experienced in the same (or very similar) ways by both us and our horses or pets. And, when you’re closely connected to your animals you definitely have a deeper intuition about what’s going on with them, and how they’re feeling. You’ll also likely have learned over time how to read their body language to some degree.
But, really, we can never fully know how it ‘feels’ to be that animal, and what emotions they’re actually experiencing. And, if we allow ourselves to ‘assume’ that they feel a certain way, we can be glossing over, or even ignoring or making excuses for, what’s actually going on.
That all said, I suddenly this week thought about anthropomorphism and Animal Communication.
In Animal Communication, the common assumption people have is that you ‘hear’ animals talk and possibly even have conversations with them in that way. The reality is that each animal communicator receives their information in a different way – whilst some do ‘hear’ the animal, others ‘see’ pictures, or colours, and some ‘feel’ emotions, or even just ‘know’ things without necessarily being able to explain how.
(I personally don’t get streams of conversation. I get pictures, colours (particularly relating to energetic health, and physical issues), feelings relating to emotions (eg fear, unhappiness etc), and, I get answers to questions that I ask. When I do a physical scan of the horse’s body I get stopped in areas where there are issues then investigate further from there.)
This week, one of my students asked me about an experience she’d had. Her horse had shown her something very specific in their animal communication session, and she asked me how he could possibly have known that!
My answer was that often the answers or information isn’t actually coming from the animal itself, but rather from the Universal Energy as a whole. In other words, all the information is out there, we just need to learn not only how to tap in to it, but also how to interpret it. And, for her, being shown that particular thing was how she could best interpret or understand it.
Which brought me back to anthropomorphism.
If we are tapping into energy (see the video below for my explanation of that), and interpreting that info in the way that works best for us, might we also be anthropomorphising it?
And, especially with those who ‘hear’ the info, or have an actual conversation with the animal, might we be ‘personalising’ it even more, and possibly to the detriment of the animal?
Or, does it just come through that way because that’s how we’ll be able to understand it best?
What do you think? Let me know your thoughts in the comments!
If you’re working on developing your own Animal Communication skills, contact me to go on my waitlist for 1-1 mentoring.
Keep connecting with your horses,
Trisha x
About Trisha
Trisha Wren has been an equine professional for most of her adult life. She rode, competed, and taught Western Riding for 15 years in Scotland, then taught horse and rider biomechanics in New Zealand and Australia for 10 years. She’s been a full time horse and animal communicator since April 2016. Find out more about Trisha here and sign up for her self paced Animal Communication course here.