Clairvoyant Laurie Conrad is a pianist and composer living in Ithaca, NY. She is the author of The Spiritual Life of Animals and Plants, a collection of true stories.

Laurie, how did you first discover that animals have a spiritual life?

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Hello Lightkeeper!

The discovery that animals have spiritual lives was the result of observation - I had no preconceived ideas on the subject. One of the first things I noticed was that the animals in my care seemed attracted to both paintings and statues of saints or Divine Beings, and of all religions. Although, I did notice a religious preference in some animals - for instance the cat in the story, "The Cat Who Would Only Follow Buddha." One of the most striking instances of spiritual attraction - well, many things I observed were striking, and still are - was when my ordinarily very shy and terrified little dog Dominique followed His Holiness the Dalai Lama up an airplane ramp, an airplane with its engines running... ("Dominique Meets The Dalai Lama of Tibet") Little Dominique who had been chased out of the lake by the single quack of a lone duck, and who rarely left her little plaid LL Bean bed. She was almost on the plane before one of the monks finally shooed her back in my direction ...

Thank you, Laurie.

What behaviors do you see in animals that leads you to believe that they are spiritual? You discussed dogs and cats, but what about animals in the wild and birds?

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Good morning, Lightkeeper! As I wrote, my views were (and are) dependent on observation. Therefore, I cannot speak of lions and tigers - well, we do not have them here in Ithaca, NY. However, I can speak a bit of the birds, squirrels, horses and other animals and insects I have personally met. And since those meetings are generally brief - I cannot say as much about the ins and outs of their overall spiritual lives and attitudes, but only something about the time we had together.

Although - if people are interested - there are wonderful stories about St. Francis and St. Anthony, and St. Martin regarding wild animals. And many books and stories have been written about these great saints and their relationship with wild animals.

As an adult, I have always had beautiful gardens - and have spent many hours in them, either working or resting. In this way I have met many creatures that otherwise I might have overlooked. For instance, injured insects of all sorts. And when I come across an injured insect - I send them healing. And I send them healing by putting my hand over them, a few inches above them. A very high percentage of the time - even if they are very injured - they are healed, and fly happily away.

This in itself indicates a spiritual bent.

I can think of two stories to tell tonight. One is about a small bumblebee that I found near the front sidewalk, under the carport.

This bee was struggling, and clearly on his/her way to other realms. Understandably, as I bent down to take a closer look, my small friend struggled even more desperately - well, I was a giant. I inwardly said a few words of greeting and intention, and put my hand an inch or so above the small being. Then I asked that the Divine Healing Love come through me, to injured insect. As I did so, the bee stopped struggling. That Love is so strong, it is unmistakeable to any creature. The insect went rather limp really, soaking up the healing energy. After a certain amount of time - the bee began to send me Light and Love. Whether this was personal or not - I will never know. Perhaps the Divine Love I was sending the bee filled it so completely that the bee naturally and effortlessly began to radiate it. In any case: the bee was fully healed and flew away, a blur of radiant Light. And frankly: I have rarely received that sort of Light and Love from any fellow creature, human or otherwise. And I will never forget that small bee and the moments we spent together.

This other story is about a wasp I found in the front garden. The wasp was also near death - and in the end did not physically survive his/her injuries. However, we spent some quality time together before that unhappy outcome.

I am terribly allergic to wasps, so as I bent down I inwardly said a few words of greeting and my intentions. I also added: please do not sting me, I could die. Then I put my hand an inch or so above the struggling little wasp. As with the bee, the wasp became quiet and started to bask in the healing I was sending. After a few minutes, another, healthy wasp arrived from down the street - and sat not very far from me - watching. I inwardly repeated my greeting and intention to this new arrival, and asked this second wasp not to sting me because I could die. This second wasp sat and watched for some minutes, and then seemingly satisfied that I meant the first wasp no harm - flew away.

Again, my time with these two wasps was brief, and I could only examine a few moments of their lives. But both wasps recognised the Divine healing emanating from my hand, and neither stung me - although I was pretty much a sitting duck so to speak ... (No insect has ever stung me as I sent healing.) And in my view, the fact that the second wasp came to make sure I would not harm his fellow wasp - in itself shows a spirituality unfortunately sometimes lacking in my fellow humans.

If you wish, I can tell you more stories tomorrow... ?

Thank you for these wonderful stories. It sounds like bees can teach us about "beeing".

I would love to hear more stories.

Do you think animals, have spiritual practices? If so, what have you observed?

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Good evening, Lightkeeper!

Thanks for the bee chuckle ...

I have endless stories. I am trying not to use stories and ideas from my books - but some of those stories are posted on my website, under A Mystic's Journal if anyone wants to read them. There is also a chapter on animals in Realms of Light, but after this story I will not use any more stories from my books. (I am trying to give you new ones, like the bee and wasp stories.) I am retelling this story because it is a special one ...

Actually, instead of retelling the story - I am just going to post the whole story here for you.

The Dog on Staten Island

Several times a year I would stay with friends on Staten Island, sometimes for weeks at a stretch. They lived in St. George, which is near the ferry. And on the way from the ferry to their house I passed a grocery store guarded by a large tan brutish dog on a chain – whose aura, by the way, was terrible. The dog was chained outside the store in all weather, and the owner mentioned that at night the dog was locked in the basement. Not a great life for a dog, or any other being for that matter.

The dog growled if you came anywhere near him, and was in general otherwise non-responsive and churlish.

In time, as I learned about the spiritual yearnings and the spiritual development of animals, I decided that this dog needed spiritual training – for the sake of his own soul, but also for the souls of those around him, including his master.

Following a low, short growl from my student-to-be, I stood before him and inwardly told him of Jesus and Mary and the saints. I told him that if he were a good doggie, one day he would go to a beautiful realm filled with love, where there were gardens and beautiful, kind, people and saints and dog biscuits and everything else he could ever want – and I sent him a mental image of such a place, bathed in Sunshine and Peace.

He pretended that he was annoyed and not listening, but I could see that he was listening, and that he was even thinking. I mentally asked St. Francis to come and speak with the dog, and to watch over him in general. I told the dog to pray everyday: i.e. to tell Christ and Mary that he loved them and that he wanted to be a good doggie.

Since the grocery store was only a block away, and on the main street, I saw him many times that visit. I repeated my lecture every time I saw him, and his aura did seem somewhat improved by the time I left Staten Island.

I returned to Staten Island a few months after. I had actually forgotten about the unhappy guard dog, but as I turned the corner to the main street – the dog was waiting for me, his head turned in my direction, as though he knew I was coming. Even though he was chained in front of the grocery store halfway down the block, I saw him instantly. I saw him instantly because his aura was so filled with Light that he shone. Out of all the people and strollers and stores and buses and cars and a plethora of other perceptions – my attention was riveted on the dog's Light. The dog began to pray as I walked towards him, and I say this because of his posture and also because his aura brightened further.

To see such a change in a being, in such a short time, was remarkable, and I told him so. He acted a bit shy with me – although he still maintained his guard dog persona, which was appropriate. In short, he was a changed dog. I saw him almost every day of my visit, and encouraged him to continue his practices when I left Staten Island.

A few months later, back in Ithaca, late one night (and I'm embarrassed to say that I was watching Star Trek on television), suddenly, as sometimes happens, a little movie started playing in my head. I closed my eyes to better see, and there were dogs, hundreds of dogs, all sizes and shapes, colors and breeds, sitting in a single line, one behind the other, it seemed for miles – as far as one could see to the horizon. They were all well behaved, and seemed happy and expectant, a little excited, yet sitting quietly in that long, very long, orderly row. Then, as though the camera taping the show zoomed in for a close-up, suddenly I was standing over the tan dog from Staten Island. There was no mistake about it, it was him. Wonderingly, I turned in the other direction, to see where all these dogs were facing, where the line began.

There were only a few dogs ahead of the dog from Staten Island – and at the head of the line stood Christ. Other dogs were playing and running in a beautiful countryside nearby. Then the inner movie dissolved.

I didn't know what the clairvoyant movie meant.

Six months or so later I returned to my friends on Staten Island. As I came to the corner, I expected the Staten Island dog to turn his head my way, and greet me with his prayers as he had done on my last visit. He did not, in fact he wasn't there.

I went inside the cluttered grocery and found the owner. "Where's your doggie?" I asked. Of course, no one in the world, I'm sure, had ever called his guard dog a doggie before. He looked a little puzzled and then offhandedly said "Oh, the dog – he died about six months ago," and then he turned and talked loudly with a customer.

About six months ago was when I had watched the clairvoyant vision. And even as I write this, so many years later, I am filled with such love for the dog on Staten Island who accomplished so much so quickly – a poor guard dog who freed himself from his difficult life and gained a beautiful realm where Christ Himself would come.

Hello Lightkeeper! I know you wanted to hear more of my stories of animals in the wild ... When I speak inwardly to any animal - they stop and listen. Even if I send an animal across the road, or quite some distance away from me a saint, or Jesus or Our Lady - the animal will not only stop what they are doing and initially look in my direction, but then they will begin to look around in more than one direction, as though seeing the Divine being or beings... You can try this yourself, you do not need to be clairvoyant to see this response.

A good friend of mine insists that animals have their own spirituality and do not need our help - but I do not entirely agree. The dog on Staten Island obviously was not unfamiliar with spirituality, or he would not have responded so quickly and easily to my suggestions and instruction. Yet, possibly because of his difficult life, chained up during the day, alone in a basement at night, trained as a guard dog, an unsympathetic owner - he was struggling spiritually when I first met him. And if nothing else, he needed to be reminded. Just like human beings, animals can get caught up in their thoughts and feelings and the situations and events around them - i.e. forget the spirituality that is beyond the material world and our perceptions and responses to those events.

And this would be equally true of animals in the wild.

It is said that birds from far and wide came to hear St. Francis speak. And fish did the same with St. Anthony.

As I wrote earlier, I have not met most wild animals in the wild, nor observed them in their natural habitat. But I recently read, in the New York Times, that in a human-led experiment, monkies refused to eat when they realised that whenever they opened their food container another monkey nearby received an electric shock. The monkies preferred starvation. This shows that animals are capable of empathy and compassion, both spiritual traits - which in my view is more than we could say about the humans conducting the experiment.

I also saw a nature show on Animal Planet recently where a hungry and tired polar bear attacked a colony of walrus; he was mortally wounded during the combat. As soon as the walrus realised the polar bear was no longer a threat - they left him to die peacefully, and in their midst. Some, including mothers and children, were but a mere ten or so feet away ... And they went about their usual business, with a certain respect for their enemy and his final personal struggle - that many humans on the battlefield do not have. The polar bear was not unaware of this either; he first glanced around him, before he then calmly and resignedly chose a final resting place.

And in my earlier example, of the wasps - the second wasp came from quite far away to check on his dying fellow wasp, to protect him from further harm.

In addition to this empathy and compassion, animals in the wild exhibit certain ethics and abide by unwritten laws - which is the first step towards a truer spirituality.

I think that is enough for tonight. Thank you for this discussion, Lightkeeper!

The Staten Island dog story is beautiful. Your stories remind me that many of us live a very limited existence. There is so much going on around us that we miss. What I have sensed from you is that you have very heightened awareness. Do you think that would have been developed if you hadn't spent so much time alone as a child?

Thank you for the information on animal compassion. There are many stories where people's cats and dogs have saved their owner's lives.

I welcome any stories you have about your experiences with animals.

Have you had any experiences with plant life?

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Good evening, Lightkeeper! Hmm ... That is something I had never really considered. Possibly. I know that sometimes I would just put my head down on the kitchen table and cry ... and then the angels would come and listen to me sing. In the afternoons I was allowed to go outside, and I would often go into the woods. And I was so happy to be there! It could be that my clairvoyance started then, I do not truly remember when it began.

Well, as I have said - the stories are endless. Animals as healers - even healing each other, by putting a paw on their little friend's head as I have so often done with them ... Animals loving classical music. Animals being drawn to paintings of sages and saints, or other Divine Beings ... or statues.

When I say "drawn to", I mean an animal sitting or lying in front of a religious statue for long stretches of time, even in the rain, or putting their head against paintings of Divine Beings - especially when sick or injured or dying. You need not be clairvoyant to see this. The next time you pet is very injured or very sick - try it. They seem to feel the Love and Light emanating from the picture or statue. I tell numerous stories about this in my little book, which I will not repeat here. In my experience, if dying - they will sleep near a picture or statue, often with their head touching it - and many times prefer that even to their owner's company. I often will scotch tape a little picture of a saint or Christ near where they are sleeping in their last days, and it seems to bring them reassurance and relief.

I have no doubt this would also be true of animals in the wild.

There have been many times when I have called on a saint to heal an animal - and the animal has turned to the saint and shown them what part of their body hurts - even if they will not let me approach them. You do not need to be clairvoyant to see this either. And you can do this from quite a distance ...

On one visit to friends in New York City, many years ago - one of my friends said that whenever I meditated their Cat (Junior) sat and watched me the entire forty-five minutes. This might not sound strange - unless you knew Junior. Junior never sat still. There were numerous occasions where we had to lower a basket from the back terrace to the courtyard below, because Junior had either slipped off or jumped off the balcony ...

Here are two stories from Realms of Light that you all might enjoy: Princess and Angela. I include these two stories partly to say that animals do not "die", they are the soul - just as we humans do not "die" and are the soul. And that the love that we hold for each other exists between realms, and is eternal ...



Princess was Janet and Lenny’s little cat. A week or so before Princess “died”, I went to visit Janet. It was a beautiful, sunny day and JF, as I often call her, was working in her front garden, weeding and moving some plants around. As I came up, I saw Princess by the front steps leading up to the house. She was watching Janet working in the garden in such a sad and wistful way that for the first time in the seventeen years I had known her - and for a reason I did not completely understand - I went over and patted her and inwardly said, “It will be all right, Princess.” We then went indoors and I thought nothing more about it.

A few days later Janet called and left an urgent message. Something was wrong with Princess. She wasn’t eating or drinking. When I clairvoyantly asked what was wrong, I “got” that it was a kidney problem - and that Princess was going to leave her earthly life. I was not allowed to interfere, to prevent it.

I called JF and told her to take Princie to the vet, and we all went together. The veterinarian confirmed that it was a kidney problem, and that the cat was very, very sick. But as we all looked at the healthy, plump cat on the examination table, with her silken, healthy fur - it seemed impossible that Princess might leave.

A few days later Janet called with the message that Princess only had a few hours left, would I come over. I was leaving town for the day, but I stopped at Janet’s on the way. And as I approached the house I saw Karima, Princess’ mother, who had left for other realms the year before. She was a small bundle of radiant Light standing between the front sidewalk and the house. Karima was with another, more human-sized bright, Radiant Being, and there was so much Light surrounding this Being that I could not make out a form, see who it was. I went inside the house and said my goodbyes to this sweet, gentle cat named Princess. As I was leaving I said to Janet, “Don’t worry Janet. Karima and a very Bright Being are outside on the front lawn waiting for Princess.” At this, Lenny went outside and sat on the front porch. Perhaps to be near Karima, whom he loved so dearly. But he also well knew that when Princess left, she would immediately go to her mother and the Bright Being that was with her.

For the rest of the day I felt as though I were between realms - this one and a Higher one. When I returned to Ithaca, in early evening, a Bright Being met me on the corner and walked home with me. The Being was so radiant, I could not determine who it was. The very air I traveled through and that surrounded me itself seemed alive, radiant and crystalline. I must admit that these sorts of occurrences are not uncommon in my life, and mostly I do not even ask myself who the radiant Being might be or why they have come. But I would have to assume that in this case, the supernatural Visit was in some way related to Princess’ journey to other realms.

Angela

My beautiful long-haired cat Angela reached the age of seventeen earth years, raised Sergei and Igor Alexander during her final year here on earth - and then left for other realms.

The kittens stayed with Angela those last few days, lying happily on the bed upstairs with her while I did my various chores and errands. When I was able I joined them, and on one of these visits during her last day with us - I clairvoyantly saw my dogs Dominique and Guinivere, whom Angela had loved so deeply. They were hovering above and a bit in front of Angela as she rested in the upstairs bedroom. It appeared as though a transparent sheet of glass or some other substance, separated us from them. And both dogs had their noses pressed against this glass, or the edge of their realm, and were looking directly at Angela - not at me, but at her. Dominique was actually wagging her tail, a thing she rarely did while on earth. This clairvoyant vision persisted well into evening. Dominique and Guinivere were obviously waiting for Angela, and were there to greet and perhaps guide her to wherever she was supposed to go.

This vigil continued throughout the afternoon and evening, and on one of my visits upstairs, I gently put my hand on Angela’s soft head and she left the body soon after. Several hours later, I realized that the clairvoyant vision of my two dogs - had disappeared. And it never returned.

Later, I thought what comfort the presence of Dominique and Guinivere must have given Angela that last day. For if I could see them waiting for her - certainly my little clairvoyant cat could.