Photo: Gene Flipse, Conscious Breath Adventures
This week, I’ll be traveling to the Silver Bank, off the coast of the Dominican Republic, to join a wonderful group of colleagues and friends and my beloved “family” of Atlantic Humpback Whales.
I’ve been preparing for this trip for a long time–it has been four years since I have been with the whales “in person”. I’ve had the privilege of taking this journey three times in the past, and each time it has been profoundly life-changing. If you missed the story of how the whales called me back this year, you can read it here: Living in the Flow of Grace: Seashells in the Desert.
Last week, in preparation for the journey, my dear friend and colleague Kristin Thompson invited me to offer a class through the Animal Spirit Network Cafe Mastery Hour. The class was called, “Opening to the Heart of the Universe: Conversation and Connection with Cetaceans.” (Click on the class title if you missed it and would like to access it through the ASN Cafe).
Fully-Embodied Multi-Dimensional Awareness
The whales have shown me that one of the things that they want to teach humans is how to become aware of “complete multi-dimensional awareness in physical form.” In other words, there is an integration of spiritual, energetic, cosmic awareness simultaneously with being fully present and embodied and experiencing the details of physical life on earth that the whales are able to maintain effortlessly.
We humans, with our mind/body split, often struggle with this kind of inter-dimensional, multi-dimensional awareness. We are either “here” or “there”, embodied or not, in touch with physical life or in touch with spiritual life, but not both.
The whales are teaching me how they can help people to heal this split and experience expanded, universal consciousness, without leaving the physical body or the physical plane. I wanted to bring a bit of this experience to the group who joined me for the class, and also to have the whales show us more deeply how we can experience this kind of awareness through our human form.
In preparing for this class, I asked the whales what they wanted to share with people, and what they wanted me to bring to them. The whales said, “Give them an experience of us. Show them how to feel our essence, energy, and vibration in their bodies. Have them chant.”
And I said, “HUH? Have them chant? Really? Uh, that wasn’t my plan…” Guess I still have that argumentative teenager in me….
Laughing, I followed their guidance–I’ve learned that while my human mind doesn’t always understand, the whales have never, ever, steered me wrong. And I’ve also learned that, well, to be completely honest, my plans are often useless.
Chant
The whales have taught me that there is an energy and vibration in their song that is also carried by other beings, and in other forms, all across the Earth. It’s in the purrs of cats, the chanting of monks, the cawing of ravens…when I heard my yoga mentor, Rama Jyoti Vernon, chant for the first time, I wept as I heard the sound and felt the vibration of the whales echoing in my body.
The sound of OM, as chanted in many eastern spiritual traditions, is known as the Divine Sound, the Vibration of the Universe, or the Eternal Cosmic Vibration. There are other sounds and other vibrations that also resonate in this universal way. When we chant OM, we set up a vibrational resonance in our bodies and our energy fields that has the effect of connecting us both to the magnetic energy field of the earth and all of her creatures, and also to the vibrational fields of all that lies outside of the physical boundaries of our earth: our solar system, galaxy, and universe.
So, we chanted. And the whales came in and filled the space and we felt their energy and awareness in our bodies and hearts and souls. People wept. My body filled with immense tenderness and gratitude for this precious gift.
As we concluded, I promised links for more resources for whale song and chanting. Here they are:
Whale Song: Conscious Breath Adventures Captain Gene Flipse, whose journey and boat we are going on, has some wonderful recordings of humpback whale song on his website and SoundCloud.
River of Sound: Chant with Rama Jyoti Vernon
River of Sound
Rama Jyoti Vernon
What Can We Do to Help the Whales and the Planet?
Many people are concerned about the whales, both in the wild and in captivity, and the devastating effects of environmental degradation, pollution of the oceans, damage by sonar…good-hearted people feel helpless, and ask, “is there anything that we can do?”
This question was asked by many participants in the class. When I asked the whales for their guidance, they gave us three practical things that we can begin to do immediately that will have positive implications not just for them, but for all of us.
1. See our Earth and all of her precious inhabitants as HEALED.
We now know through quantum physics that the reality we see is what we expect to see and choose to see. Even if we don’t believe in “metaphysics” or “visualization”, we now understand both through science and spirituality that we actually CAN create through our thoughts.
When we collectively hold the vision of a healed Earth that is clean, clear, and supports all life in harmony and balance, matter will begin to arrange itself accordingly. We may be given tools and technologies that will begin to allow what has been made wrong to be made right.
The whales are still here. Through the pressures of whaling, pollution, near-extinction of some species…they are still here. I believe that this is a choice that they have made. They can be anywhere, go to any reality, any time-line, that they choose…and they do…and still, they remain, here on this Earth.
I feel that this is a choice of service, and ultimately a choice of love. They are here because they still want to be here. They haven’t given up hope. Neither should we.
2. Realize it is not all up to humans
It’s a typically human-centric idea that we as humans are solely responsible for “saving” the whales, the animals, the planet. Yes, our species is primarily responsible for the tremendous imbalance in our ecosystems. Yes, we as a species have a sacred duty to collectively take responsibility for our errors and do all we can to right them.
Yet we are not in this alone.
As much as we want to save the whales, we also need to know this:
They are saving us.
The whales, and many other animal species, are also working, using their unique gifts and abilities, to rebalance the imbalances and right the wrongs. They are partners with us–and through their benevolence, wisdom, and love, they assist us.
The whales have shown that they mitigate and balance many events on earth, both “natural” and “man-made”, with their awareness, their spiritual energy, and their song and movement and physical form. After the earthquake and tsunami in Japan, and the subsequent disaster at the nuclear power plant in Fukoshima, the whales showed me that the event could have been potentially even more devastating than it was, if not for the powerful and deep work that they did in the hours and days both preceding and following the disaster.
This is but one example of many that I’ve been shown in my practice. Many cats have shown me that they work with the magnetic field of the earth. Spiders have a particular gift for balancing energy in the ground and in the air. There are many other examples of ways in which the animal and plant kingdoms are working in partnership to rebalance the ecosystems and restore Gaia to balance.
Thankfully, gratefully, we have help. It is truly not all up to us. And it’s a good thing…because, to paraphrase Einstein, “we can’t solve problems with the same energy that created them.”
3. Practice Love and Forgiveness.
The whales hold the vibration of love in the cells of their physical bodies, in their energy bodies, and in their spiritual awareness. As detrimental as human actions toward them and their environment have been, each person who interacts with them inevitably comes away with a feeling of profound benevolence, understanding, and pure, unmitigated love.
The whales are not filled with resentment and hatred toward humans. They teach us compassion, understanding, and forgiveness for ourselves as individuals and as a species. This does not absolve us of responsibility to clean up our actions, both individually and collectively towards them, but rather to work on this responsible clean-up from a place of love, forgiveness, and grace.
The whales ask us to practice love and forgiveness, first for ourselves, and then for each other, and then for our species.
New Whale Classes in April
The whales have let me know that they will be giving teachings that they want me to bring back after I return from the trip. So, I’ve scheduled two classes on April 18 and April 25…more information will be forthcoming.
I don’t know for sure what the structure of these classes will look like, as I haven’t been given it yet! But if you resonate with the whales and would like to join me when I return, set aside the dates. If you are on my newsletter mailing list, you’ll receive the info as soon as I have it! Sign up in the upper right hand column of this page.
Much love and whale blessings to you. If you’d like to follow our journey, I encourage you to sign up for the Cruise Reports newsletter on the Conscious Breath Adventures website.
