The Soul of An Animal
Do Animals have souls? I give my explanation for my answer and for evidence of continuity of individual consciousness through my hundreds of communications with animals who have passed over. In this episode I tell a few stories that give me confidence that we have more than one life, and so do our animals. Being able to communicate with animals means that we are not limited by space, time, or physicality. Explore the possibility of death as a doorway to a new connection, not an ending. There is great peace to be experienced even as we process deep grief, through connecting with our animals who are no longer with us here and now.
Listen to Episode #28 Now:
Transcript:
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<Announcer> This is Pet Life Radio.
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<Announcer> Let's talk pets.
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<Announcer> Welcome to The Human-Animal Connection show, where we believe we can communicate with all animals.
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<Announcer> Join us as we explore the 33 principles and healing methods of The Human-Animal Connection.
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<Announcer> As animal lovers, we know that you share our commitment to making the world a kinder place for all creatures.
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<Announcer> Together, let's embrace the transformative healing power of The Human-Animal Connection.
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<Michael Overlie> All right.
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<Michael Overlie> Hi, folks.
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<Michael Overlie> Welcome back to The Human-Animal Connection show.
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<Michael Overlie> I'm your host, Michael Overlie, and we are with the amazing yet humble Genie Joseph.
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<Michael Overlie> Genie, how are you?
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<Genie Joseph> I'm humble.
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<Michael Overlie> I'm excited about today.
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<Michael Overlie> This is so much fun.
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<Genie Joseph> Yeah, today, we're diving into the spiritual dimension.
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<Genie Joseph> We're on part three of the book, and this episode is all about the soul of an animal.
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<Genie Joseph> Do animals have a soul?
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<Genie Joseph> What does it mean to say an animal has a soul?
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<Genie Joseph> Do you believe your animal has a soul?
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<Genie Joseph> It's okay if this is new to you or maybe never considered that before, so we're going to just jump in and give you a little taste, and whatever you choose to believe is up to you.
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<Michael Overlie> Everybody's in a different place.
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<Genie Joseph> It really is.
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<Genie Joseph> I just, you know, like when I was writing this book, a lot of people, oh, don't go there, don't include the spiritual stuff.
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<Genie Joseph> You know, some people are going to not take you seriously if you start talking about the soul of an animal.
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<Genie Joseph> And I thought about that because I understood their opinion, but I really feel like I have a responsibility to speak about this.
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<Genie Joseph> So I don't have a responsibility to convince anyone of anything, but I do have a responsibility to say, hey, consider this.
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<Genie Joseph> This is something to think about, and if it's not true for you, it's not true for you, but just considering the possibility that animals have souls changes everything about how we engage with them.
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<Genie Joseph> So that's why we're doing it.
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<Michael Overlie> It's a powerful message, too, in multiple ways.
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<Michael Overlie> Your willingness to speak up and say what is true for you and something that you know and realize is absolutely powerful.
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<Michael Overlie> Other people may be uncomfortable with the message, and that's okay.
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<Michael Overlie> They're not in the same place.
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<Michael Overlie> But being authentically you sends this powerful, powerful message, I believe.
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<Genie Joseph> Thank you for saying that, because I've taken a lot of criticism on this one, and I do think it's important.
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<Genie Joseph> And the truth is that I don't know for certain.
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<Genie Joseph> Do you know what I mean?
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<Genie Joseph> But I've had so many experiences that lead me to believe that this is true, and I'll tell some of those stories so that I am now on the more believing it side than the not believing it side, but I completely understand if this is too out there for some people, that's okay.
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<Genie Joseph> And you know what?
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<Genie Joseph> It's like it might be out there for you today, but then you might have an animal pass, and you want to talk to that animal, and you call an animal communicator, and you get this message, you realize, oh my God, that's my dog, or that's my cat.
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<Genie Joseph> Only my dog or my cat could have known that.
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<Genie Joseph> So, you know, this is how it works, is that it's a process of coming to understand what's true for you.
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<Genie Joseph> That's just, we're all in that together.
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<Genie Joseph> Thanks for your encouragement about diving into this.
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<Michael Overlie> Oh, absolutely.
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<Michael Overlie> And yeah, my thoughts on this have changed as well.
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<Michael Overlie> Not that many years ago, I would have said, ah, you're nuts.
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<Michael Overlie> But the experiences I've had in the last, what, six years, be like, whoa.
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<Genie Joseph> Everybody's in a different place with this experience.
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<Genie Joseph> And so just, yeah, if you're listening to this, and you're not a believer, that's okay.
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<Genie Joseph> We're just all in this together.
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<Genie Joseph> And just consider this like a buffet.
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<Genie Joseph> You can take what you want and leave the rest.
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<Michael Overlie> I'm starving now.
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<Genie Joseph> Starving for truth, yeah.
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<Michael Overlie> So when you say animals have a soul, what do you mean?
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<Michael Overlie> How does that equate to humans having a soul?
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<Michael Overlie> Let's get deep into this.
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<Genie Joseph> Yeah, yeah, definitely, thanks.
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<Genie Joseph> Yeah, well, I think it's the same thing.
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<Genie Joseph> In the same way we could talk about a human having a soul, we can talk about an animal having a soul, because we're animals.
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<Genie Joseph> And what that means is that consciousness, the who you are-ness beyond your personality, beyond where you live, beyond what you do for a living, the essence of you, your Michael-ness beyond this lifetime even, is your soul.
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<Genie Joseph> So to say that animals have a soul is saying that consciousness has continuity past death.
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<Genie Joseph> In other words, the physical death is a transition, and there is something that remains, and what remains is consciousness.
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<Genie Joseph> So it's beyond personality, it's beyond the details of a particular lifetime, it might even be beyond species, and we'll tell some stories about animals who've said that they've experienced other lives as humans.
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<Genie Joseph> And some traditions believe in reincarnation, some don't.
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<Genie Joseph> Some traditions believe that once you're a human, you never go back to being an animal, but other traditions say you can go up and down, back and forward, side and back, you know, that people can be people, and then come back as an animal.
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<Genie Joseph> Like a lot of people said, I wish I could come back as your dog.
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<Genie Joseph> That's really what we're in a conversation about, and inviting people to just consider the possibility that maybe this is something that could be true, or just see what it feels like, see what it feels like.
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<Genie Joseph> I mean, just Michael, when I say to you that animals have a soul, how does that feel to you?
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<Michael Overlie> It feels warm to me, right?
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<Michael Overlie> It feels comforting.
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<Genie Joseph> Yeah, it's comforting.
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<Michael Overlie> But I feel very, very differently about animals than I did.
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<Genie Joseph> Right.
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<Genie Joseph> If we just think of animals as these things that come and go, it's a little bit different.
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<Genie Joseph> I mean, of course, we grieve either way, whether we feel they have a soul or not.
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<Genie Joseph> But if we feel or believe that they have a soul, then there is a comfort in that, that they may not be with us physically and in the body, in the form that we know and love.
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<Genie Joseph> That doesn't mean that they're not with us.
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<Genie Joseph> I don't mean that they're hanging around all the time because they've got better things to do.
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<Genie Joseph> But they can be connected.
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<Genie Joseph> You can connect in.
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<Genie Joseph> And sometimes when you really need them, you can talk with them.
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<Genie Joseph> Like JL and Boone did, he wrote a book and was published in 1956 called Kinship with All Life.
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<Genie Joseph> I couldn't remember for a second.
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<Genie Joseph> Kinship with All Life.
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<Genie Joseph> And he had a relationship with a German shepherd dog named Strongheart.
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<Genie Joseph> And Strongheart passed, and he continued to talk with him.
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<Genie Joseph> I don't know if it was daily, but a lot.
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<Genie Joseph> He would write him letters, and he felt that Strongheart continued to teach him in his work with other animals.
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<Genie Joseph> So that's pretty profound.
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<Genie Joseph> I think that's pretty interesting.
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<Genie Joseph> Of course, that's just one story among millions, though.
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<Genie Joseph> I mean, there are a lot of stories like that.
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<Michael Overlie> It all intrigues you folks.
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<Michael Overlie> It's a short book, but it's fantastic.
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<Michael Overlie> And how their relationship came to be is a story all on its own.
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<Genie Joseph> Yeah, it's just really, really powerful.
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<Genie Joseph> And there are some spiritual traditions that say that animals have a group soul, like the buffalo soul or the deer soul or whatever, which I think is true.
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<Genie Joseph> But I think they also have an individual soul.
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<Genie Joseph> So there's an individual deer soul, an individual rabbit soul.
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<Genie Joseph> And I'm going to tell you a story about a rabbit that I think is very strong evidence for individual souls.
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<Genie Joseph> And I think that in the wild, animals are very connected to their group souls.
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<Genie Joseph> But when we domesticate animals, I think that it's just like as we become domesticated as humans, we're less in contact with our nature spirit, our nature protection, our natural selves.
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<Genie Joseph> And so animals, especially domestic animals, sometimes can lose their sense of connection with their soul, and sometimes we have to help them.
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<Genie Joseph> But yeah.
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<Genie Joseph> In fact, let me just tell you that story, because that rabbit story, this is from Paloma.
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<Genie Joseph> She is an animal communicator in Switzerland.
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<Genie Joseph> And I was on her show, and I think Michael is going to be on her show.
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<Genie Joseph> And she told me a wonderful story that I just asked for permission to tell, because I think it's so powerful.
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<Genie Joseph> So there was a rabbit named Spot, and she wanted to communicate with Spot, with this rabbit.
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<Genie Joseph> She was practicing her animal communication.
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<Genie Joseph> I think it was a little bit earlier in her work as an animal communicator.
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<Genie Joseph> And she really wanted to communicate with this rabbit named Spot.
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<Genie Joseph> So she went to him, and she said, I'd like to communicate with you.
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<Genie Joseph> And Spot, the rabbit, said, I'm a philosopher.
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<Genie Joseph> I'm way above you.
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<Genie Joseph> You won't understand me.
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<Genie Joseph> Go and learn some more and come back.
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<Genie Joseph> Right?
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<Genie Joseph> And she was like, oh, okay.
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<Genie Joseph> So she went and learned some more and studied some more and worked on herself and did her spiritual practice and came back in six months.
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<Genie Joseph> Same answer.
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<Genie Joseph> Comes back in a year.
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<Genie Joseph> Same answer.
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<Genie Joseph> Year and a half.
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<Genie Joseph> Same answer.
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<Genie Joseph> But at this point, she's thinking that she's just making it up, right?
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<Genie Joseph> So two years later, after doing all her work, she comes back and he says, okay, we're going to write a book together.
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<Genie Joseph> So they're writing a book together.
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<Genie Joseph> So I just, you know, it's so wonderful that this rabbit was like, you know, I'm not going to just chit chat with you.
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<Genie Joseph> You have to kind of come up to my level.
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<Genie Joseph> And I've had other, I've had a horse, I had a horse tell me that once.
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<Genie Joseph> You've heard the story about Blue, you know, he will only talk to me if I'm kind of in my highest level of capacity for consciousness and experience.
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<Genie Joseph> And he's not interested in chit chat, but he will absolutely talk to me if I come to him at a very, at my capacity for, you know, the highest level of peace and compassion and understanding, and then he's, he'll just chat away.
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<Genie Joseph> So there are these stories of animals who can talk about their human lives.
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<Genie Joseph> There was once, I forget what, I think it was a parrot who had been a Zen monk, and he, you know, told the whole, you know, story of his life as a Zen monk and everything.
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<Genie Joseph> There's no way this parrot could have known all these details, you know?
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<Genie Joseph> So it really starts to get your curiosity going, you know, makes you wonder who's sitting next to you in that, in the bed next to you, you know, Lulu, our foster dog over there in the corner, is like, who is she really?
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<Genie Joseph> Sometimes when I look at her, it's like, well, who are you?
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<Genie Joseph> And just asking that question, even if I can't answer it, or she doesn't answer it in that moment, just asking the question of your, of the animal who shares your life, who are you?
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<Genie Joseph> It's a really powerful thing to do.
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<Genie Joseph> Yeah.
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<Michael Overlie> I had a, my neighbor's horse, I was doing some work with a couple years ago.
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<Michael Overlie> She had two horses.
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<Genie Joseph> Uh-huh.
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<Michael Overlie> And one of them was just, she was like 38 years old, right?
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<Michael Overlie> Her name was Penny.
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<Michael Overlie> And she would just, she would just like wrap herself around me, and she had some beautiful experiences.
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<Michael Overlie> Her other horse, he was interesting.
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<Michael Overlie> He was much younger, and very standoffish and skittish, and he had been, you know, abused and beaten.
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<Michael Overlie> And when I tried doing some work with him, he's like, ah, dude, no, you need to back off.
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<Genie Joseph> Right.
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<Michael Overlie> I don't want it.
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<Michael Overlie> And I was like, whoa.
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<Michael Overlie> And so I learned to give him, you know, more of a trust technique type thing.
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<Michael Overlie> And I gave him that space, and I just kept showing up for him.
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<Michael Overlie> And then next thing I know, one day, there he is in my arms.
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<Michael Overlie> And, you know, I just had tears streaming down my face.
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<Michael Overlie> Yeah.
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<Michael Overlie> It was beautiful.
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<Genie Joseph> Yeah.
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<Genie Joseph> Yeah, that's great.
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<Genie Joseph> I mean, Lulu, the foster dog that we're working with, has come from tremendous adversity.
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<Genie Joseph> And so if a man comes over to the house, she just goes, she turns into Godzilla, right?
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<Genie Joseph> She just goes crazy.
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<Genie Joseph> And yesterday, you know, she did her Godzilla routine, but it was only for about five minutes, and maybe 10.
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<Genie Joseph> And 10 minutes later, she was crawling into his lap, and it was so cute, you know, because having Lulu crawl into your lap at 56 pounds is not the same as having a puppy crawl into your lap.
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<Genie Joseph> But it was very cute to watch her go from being, I'm going to kill you, watch out, I'm bigger than anything, I'm a monster, you're going to die, you know, to I want to be in your lap.
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<Genie Joseph> You know, it's fun to watch that, fun to watch that.
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<Genie Joseph> So yeah, so I think what's, you know, exciting about, if we think that animals have a soul, then the question is, can we communicate with these souls?
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<Genie Joseph> And that's both when an animal is here with us in physical form and also when an animal passes, can we continue to communicate?
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<Genie Joseph> Because the notion of a soul implies that there is this continuity of consciousness that doesn't die.
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<Genie Joseph> So while the physical body dies, the soul continues to evolve.
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<Genie Joseph> And I believe that souls are in a continual process of growth or development.
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<Genie Joseph> And it's not that they're broken or anything, but it's just that they continue to grow.
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<Genie Joseph> There's a process of evolution.
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<Genie Joseph> So we can continue to communicate with animals who passed.
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<Genie Joseph> And occasionally, I just check in with some of my animals who passed, and it's just a very comforting experience to just be recognized, oh, yeah, there's Wolfie, or there's Serafina, there's Oscar.
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<Michael Overlie> I get that from Darby now and then.
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<Michael Overlie> I don't even have to attempt or be thinking about him, and I'll be meditating or something, and then bang.
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<Michael Overlie> His face pops in, and she's checking in on me.
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<Genie Joseph> Exactly.
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<Genie Joseph> And in most cases, unless it's an unhealthy attachment, they're not hanging around, but they will visit.
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<Genie Joseph> And it's nice.
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<Genie Joseph> Sometimes you can call on them, but it's nice to have them just drop in as they choose to, because you want to respect that they are busy.
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<Genie Joseph> They have their own life now.
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<Genie Joseph> They are engaged in their world, so we don't want to pull on them.
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<Genie Joseph> But occasionally, we can say, hey, how are you doing?
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<Genie Joseph> Just experience their is-ness, their nature, their who they were.
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<Genie Joseph> I'll just speak for myself, when I feel their presence, it's them, but it's them plus.
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<Genie Joseph> I can feel that they've evolved.
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<Genie Joseph> They're at a higher capacity for connecting and experiencing.
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<Genie Joseph> And that's kind of inspiring too, because that takes away some of the fear of death, because we realize that, okay, well, death is the end of this cycle of living, and that can be a sad thing, but it's also exciting to think about, well, now what?
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<Genie Joseph> Now what's possible?
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<Genie Joseph> Who do I want to be now?
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<Genie Joseph> And where do I want to go and see and be and feel and experience and know and all of that good stuff?
00:14:33.740 --> 00:14:38.260
<Genie Joseph> So that's kind of inspiring for us humans who worry about things.
00:14:38.600 --> 00:14:43.660
<Genie Joseph> They say cats think about death kind of like a doggy door.
00:14:43.680 --> 00:14:50.640
<Genie Joseph> Not that they want to die, of course, but when they do, they're just like, OK, out of this one to the next one, let's see what happens here.
00:14:50.920 --> 00:14:59.100
<Genie Joseph> They don't have that kind of fear that we humans have, because we humans are not certain that there's anything else after.
00:15:01.160 --> 00:15:02.960
<Michael Overlie> We have a hard time trusting, right?
00:15:02.980 --> 00:15:12.040
<Michael Overlie> I think animals, they're so in tune with everything else, at least more so than we are, that they just naturally understand that, yeah, that's OK.
00:15:12.680 --> 00:15:13.820
<Genie Joseph> Yeah.
00:15:14.480 --> 00:15:18.580
<Genie Joseph> Well, I think on that note, why don't we take a short little break and come back in just a bit?
00:15:18.940 --> 00:15:19.260
<Genie Joseph> Yeah.
00:15:20.240 --> 00:15:21.000
<Genie Joseph> We'll see you in a moment.
00:15:25.640 --> 00:15:30.080
<v SPEAKER_3>Hey, friends, if you like what you're hearing and want to learn more, check out Dr.
00:15:30.100 --> 00:15:36.900
<v SPEAKER_3>Joseph's book, The Human-Animal Connection, Deepening Relationships with Animals and Ourselves.
00:15:37.620 --> 00:15:44.260
<v SPEAKER_3>Or visit the website, thehumananimalconnection.org, to book an online consultation.
00:15:44.800 --> 00:15:46.660
<v SPEAKER_3>Thank you for loving animals.
00:15:47.180 --> 00:15:48.140
<v SPEAKER_3>Now back to the show.
00:15:50.320 --> 00:15:53.480
<v SPEAKER_1>Let's Talk Pets on PetLifeRadio.com.
00:15:59.663 --> 00:16:01.323
<v SPEAKER_1>Hey, folks, welcome back.
00:16:01.363 --> 00:16:03.803
<Michael Overlie> I'm so excited to continue this conversation.
00:16:04.483 --> 00:16:13.643
<Michael Overlie> I think a lot of us don't understand even our own connection to our own soul, and thinking about animals having souls may be a little uncomfortable.
00:16:13.823 --> 00:16:15.303
<Michael Overlie> So yeah, let's keep going.
00:16:15.363 --> 00:16:16.183
<v SPEAKER_3>This is great.
00:16:16.563 --> 00:16:23.203
<Genie Joseph> Yeah, well, you know, this whole conversation, it's not like communicating with animal souls independent of human souls.
00:16:23.203 --> 00:16:26.403
<Genie Joseph> It's like animal souls, human souls, same thing, same deal.
00:16:26.523 --> 00:16:31.003
<Genie Joseph> Same, you know, maybe it's a different model of car, but it's the same.
00:16:31.323 --> 00:16:32.203
<Genie Joseph> They both are the same.
00:16:32.223 --> 00:16:34.323
<Genie Joseph> The soul of an animal, the soul of a human is same.
00:16:34.683 --> 00:16:44.243
<Genie Joseph> And especially when we start thinking about the possibility of people going back, choosing to come back as an animal or an animal choosing to come back as a person.
00:16:44.263 --> 00:16:45.723
<Genie Joseph> I mean, I'm sure you've met some dogs.
00:16:45.743 --> 00:16:47.803
<Genie Joseph> It's like, oh my God, this was a person.
00:16:49.003 --> 00:16:49.463
<Genie Joseph> I don't know.
00:16:49.483 --> 00:16:53.303
<Genie Joseph> I mean, there's some dogs, it's like, man, this is a dog, you know, and that's great.
00:16:53.463 --> 00:16:55.123
<Genie Joseph> Absolutely, nothing could be better.
00:16:55.443 --> 00:16:57.283
<Genie Joseph> But every once in a while, you meet a dog.
00:16:57.283 --> 00:17:02.383
<Genie Joseph> It's like, whoa, the level of understanding and you just, I don't know, there's just something different.
00:17:02.463 --> 00:17:13.243
<Genie Joseph> So it's an exciting thing to just play around with and just treat it like a little mental exploration, see emotional exploration, see what you come up with.
00:17:13.503 --> 00:17:15.243
<Genie Joseph> Yeah, but it was interesting.
00:17:15.263 --> 00:17:18.743
<Genie Joseph> There's another animal communicator and her name was Netta Whittles.
00:17:19.183 --> 00:17:24.983
<Genie Joseph> And she told a story about communicating with the llama and asking the llama about this question, do animals have souls?
00:17:25.943 --> 00:17:33.823
<Genie Joseph> And the llama said to her that they have both a group soul, meaning the llama soul, and an individual soul.
00:17:34.183 --> 00:17:43.823
<Genie Joseph> So in the case of the group soul, like when the llamas are all together in a place, they were in a sanctuary, I think, these llamas.
00:17:44.743 --> 00:17:49.043
<Genie Joseph> The llama said, well, we know everything that's going on in the other llama's experience.
00:17:49.063 --> 00:17:58.923
<Genie Joseph> Like we know when they're eating or giving birth or sleeping or in pain or happy or sad or sad or whatever it is, that they have that group awareness as well as individual awareness.
00:17:59.843 --> 00:18:07.963
<Genie Joseph> And that was such an interesting concept, because as humans, we really don't normally walk around having kind of group soul experience.
00:18:07.983 --> 00:18:10.543
<Genie Joseph> We're just really just busy with our own.
00:18:10.563 --> 00:18:13.843
<Genie Joseph> It's enough to just handle my own experience.
00:18:14.703 --> 00:18:17.883
<Genie Joseph> But the llamas were saying that they really can feel it.
00:18:17.883 --> 00:18:20.723
<Genie Joseph> So what hurts one llama hurts all of the llamas.
00:18:21.263 --> 00:18:21.843
<Genie Joseph> Do you know what I mean?
00:18:22.303 --> 00:18:24.503
<Genie Joseph> And that really changes how you think.
00:18:24.523 --> 00:18:27.243
<Genie Joseph> I mean, what if that were true about, let's say, all dogs?
00:18:27.263 --> 00:18:37.723
<Genie Joseph> And then how does my three dogs that are having a beautiful life here with homemade food in my house, are they affected by the dogs that are in the shelter 50 miles away?
00:18:37.743 --> 00:18:38.583
<Genie Joseph> You know what I mean?
00:18:38.903 --> 00:18:45.823
<Genie Joseph> Like, is that part of what they're doing when they're sleeping is just helping those other animals and helping them?
00:18:46.603 --> 00:18:47.083
<Genie Joseph> Who knows?
00:18:47.323 --> 00:18:49.823
<Genie Joseph> I mean, I think different animals have different purposes in life.
00:18:49.883 --> 00:18:52.543
<Genie Joseph> Not all animals are going to be that tuned in or whatever.
00:18:52.783 --> 00:18:55.083
<Genie Joseph> I'm not saying they all are, but I know some are.
00:18:55.443 --> 00:18:58.763
<Genie Joseph> I know that some animals will be busy working.
00:18:58.883 --> 00:19:14.383
<Genie Joseph> After this podcast, I have a session with a client, with an animal who was highly traumatized, raised in a puppy mill, doesn't have a normal life in any way, but has a Buddha-like existence, very, very peaceful, and will spend a portion of her time.
00:19:14.663 --> 00:19:17.503
<Genie Joseph> She'll be working with other animals, including other species.
00:19:17.523 --> 00:19:19.303
<Genie Joseph> And I've heard that from other animals.
00:19:19.303 --> 00:19:26.523
<Genie Joseph> So it's really interesting when you start communicating and you start hearing these stories about what else is going on, you know what I mean?
00:19:26.843 --> 00:19:28.383
<Genie Joseph> It's not just having a nap.
00:19:28.383 --> 00:19:31.903
<Genie Joseph> They're maybe having a nap, or they might be doing some inner work.
00:19:32.123 --> 00:19:39.203
<Genie Joseph> And just to recognize that possibility kind of changes how we look at our co-lives together.
00:19:40.523 --> 00:19:40.843
<Michael Overlie> Yeah.
00:19:40.923 --> 00:19:44.043
<Michael Overlie> Darby, my last dog, he was the wonder dog.
00:19:45.983 --> 00:19:50.703
<Michael Overlie> I lived in the mountains for a while, and he would hang out with the deer.
00:19:51.103 --> 00:19:51.443
<Genie Joseph> Yeah.
00:19:51.663 --> 00:19:54.623
<Michael Overlie> I'd go outside, and he's standing next to a deer, and they're both eating grass.
00:19:55.023 --> 00:19:55.543
<Genie Joseph> Wonderful.
00:19:55.703 --> 00:19:56.223
<Genie Joseph> Wonderful.
00:19:56.443 --> 00:20:00.343
<Michael Overlie> He'd nap with the cat, or the squirrels would come over and check him out.
00:20:00.363 --> 00:20:04.403
<Michael Overlie> They thought something was wrong with him because he wasn't chasing them.
00:20:04.583 --> 00:20:05.103
<Michael Overlie> Yeah.
00:20:05.263 --> 00:20:08.523
<Michael Overlie> He was connected on this whole other level I had never seen before.
00:20:08.783 --> 00:20:09.163
<Genie Joseph> Right.
00:20:09.523 --> 00:20:13.123
<Genie Joseph> Yeah, it's really interesting to see how it all goes.
00:20:13.823 --> 00:20:18.003
<Genie Joseph> And did I ever tell you the story about Nohea the dog in the shelter?
00:20:18.023 --> 00:20:19.083
<Genie Joseph> Did I ever tell you that story?
00:20:19.103 --> 00:20:19.303
<Genie Joseph> Mm-hmm.
00:20:19.483 --> 00:20:24.383
<Genie Joseph> When I was volunteering here, there was a dog, and she was not what you'd call a pretty dog.
00:20:24.783 --> 00:20:26.863
<Genie Joseph> She wasn't like a cute little white fluffy thing.
00:20:26.883 --> 00:20:34.063
<Genie Joseph> She was kind of like an African dingo, black, and she had some eye trouble, so a big swollen eye, and so you had to be given medicine.
00:20:34.083 --> 00:20:43.963
<Genie Joseph> But she was just what we call a pancake dog, just laying on the floor, not wanting to interact, not wanting to take treats, not getting any comfort from the presence of a human.
00:20:46.203 --> 00:20:49.203
<Genie Joseph> And she couldn't even be in a regular kennel because she was just so...
00:20:49.863 --> 00:20:56.823
<Genie Joseph> People would think she was dead walking by, and she was just not interested in anything, not even delicious treats, not even hot dogs, right?
00:20:56.843 --> 00:20:59.603
<Genie Joseph> So nothing got her motivated.
00:21:00.143 --> 00:21:03.523
<Genie Joseph> I recognized that she had been separated from her soul.
00:21:03.543 --> 00:21:06.323
<Genie Joseph> Now, when I say that, I don't mean that the soul separated from her.
00:21:06.343 --> 00:21:09.383
<Genie Joseph> I mean that she didn't have a sense of connection to her soul.
00:21:09.923 --> 00:21:11.723
<Genie Joseph> She had lost her sense of her soul.
00:21:12.343 --> 00:21:21.683
<Genie Joseph> And so I did some work with her that in The Human-Animal Connection we call soul retrieval, asking her soul to come back and help.
00:21:21.923 --> 00:21:36.083
<Genie Joseph> And in doing that in her presence, to strengthen it because I can feel it, and even if she can't at first, and eventually what happens is that she gets reconnected with her soul and it's like starting the pilot light again on her spirit.
00:21:36.523 --> 00:21:40.283
<Genie Joseph> And so in the first day I did this, I thought, okay, it's not working.
00:21:40.343 --> 00:21:41.003
<Genie Joseph> Nothing happened.
00:21:41.503 --> 00:21:42.423
<Genie Joseph> Second day, I did it.
00:21:42.983 --> 00:21:44.303
<Genie Joseph> Okay, I don't think it's working.
00:21:45.143 --> 00:21:48.303
<Genie Joseph> Third day, okay, maybe it's working.
00:21:48.323 --> 00:21:58.363
<Genie Joseph> She started to come around a little bit, and then once she starts feeling a little bit more of her life force, then she could be a little more interested and would begin to take a treat from my hand.
00:21:58.383 --> 00:22:01.063
<Genie Joseph> And she was not taking treats at all.
00:22:01.103 --> 00:22:08.063
<Genie Joseph> It was really the turning point when she felt the presence of her soul, it reignited her interest in living.
00:22:08.443 --> 00:22:10.163
<Genie Joseph> And then two weeks later, she was adopted.
00:22:10.603 --> 00:22:15.783
<Genie Joseph> I don't know, I didn't get to see the adoption, so I don't know who did it, because this was not like a pretty dog.
00:22:15.803 --> 00:22:18.163
<Genie Joseph> This was not like a, oh, I love you, dog.
00:22:18.183 --> 00:22:23.423
<Genie Joseph> I mean, hopefully she's evolved more, but at the time it was like, you weren't gonna get a lot out of the steel.
00:22:23.543 --> 00:22:24.423
<Genie Joseph> You know what I mean?
00:22:24.443 --> 00:22:27.323
<Genie Joseph> You weren't gonna play ball with her, go for a run.
00:22:27.623 --> 00:22:35.163
<Genie Joseph> So it's just beautiful that somebody was able to maybe see her spirit, and she was able to reconnect with her spirit.
00:22:35.183 --> 00:22:39.863
<Genie Joseph> So it's not too often that that happens, that a dog gets disconnected like that.
00:22:39.883 --> 00:22:41.623
<Genie Joseph> I mean, it's really a very rough...
00:22:42.023 --> 00:22:42.923
<Genie Joseph> It's just like with people.
00:22:42.943 --> 00:22:46.783
<Genie Joseph> I mean, it's the equivalent of being suicidal in human terms when a dog gets like that.
00:22:46.803 --> 00:22:50.963
<Genie Joseph> So it's really just exciting to see that even...
00:22:51.343 --> 00:23:00.743
<Genie Joseph> The dogs can heal even from that level of disconnection and sense of separation and not belonging and just completely disconnected it.
00:23:01.183 --> 00:23:05.843
<Genie Joseph> It is possible to heal from that state, and that's very exciting.
00:23:06.223 --> 00:23:15.923
<Genie Joseph> And it all comes from just my willingness to consider the possibility that A, she has a soul, and B, to recognize that she wasn't experiencing her connection with her soul.
00:23:15.943 --> 00:23:18.363
<Genie Joseph> And it was just like a communication error.
00:23:18.703 --> 00:23:20.763
<Genie Joseph> The pathway wasn't open.
00:23:20.783 --> 00:23:23.283
<Genie Joseph> And once we got that open, her soul did the healing.
00:23:23.303 --> 00:23:24.363
<Genie Joseph> I mean, I did very little.
00:23:24.363 --> 00:23:27.903
<Genie Joseph> I did, I don't know, five or six sessions with her, very little work.
00:23:28.763 --> 00:23:32.503
<Genie Joseph> Because when you're doing soul retrieval work, it's the soul that's doing the work, not me.
00:23:32.603 --> 00:23:34.503
<Genie Joseph> I'm just kind of the...
00:23:34.903 --> 00:23:41.123
<Genie Joseph> It's almost like the introducer, like, hey, Nohea, meet your soul, hey, soul, come back and see Nohea.
00:23:41.263 --> 00:23:43.363
<Genie Joseph> It's just like I'm just the intermediary.
00:23:43.403 --> 00:23:44.743
<Genie Joseph> It's not like I'm fixing it.
00:23:44.763 --> 00:23:51.763
<Genie Joseph> So you have to really get out of the way when you're doing this work, and you can't be attached to any outcome because it's...
00:23:52.083 --> 00:23:57.403
<Genie Joseph> Because there is also the possibility that she didn't want to come back, that maybe she had had enough of this physical life.
00:23:57.423 --> 00:23:58.943
<Genie Joseph> So I can't know that.
00:23:58.963 --> 00:24:01.623
<Genie Joseph> So I can't just be in the mode of, I'm gonna fix you.
00:24:01.983 --> 00:24:03.723
<Genie Joseph> I'm gonna get you back to be a happy dog.
00:24:03.743 --> 00:24:04.683
<Genie Joseph> I don't know.
00:24:04.703 --> 00:24:08.043
<Genie Joseph> Well, whatever she did was good.
00:24:08.043 --> 00:24:09.523
<Genie Joseph> So she'll get about it.
00:24:09.903 --> 00:24:11.183
<Michael Overlie> That's an important point, too.
00:24:11.203 --> 00:24:14.563
<Michael Overlie> I think as humans, we want to save everybody.
00:24:14.583 --> 00:24:15.823
<Michael Overlie> We want to fix things.
00:24:15.823 --> 00:24:17.143
<Michael Overlie> We want to fix other people.
00:24:17.163 --> 00:24:18.963
<Michael Overlie> We want to fix the animals.
00:24:19.103 --> 00:24:21.603
<Michael Overlie> And maybe that's not actually what's supposed to happen.
00:24:21.903 --> 00:24:22.683
<Genie Joseph> Exactly right.
00:24:22.983 --> 00:24:23.883
<Genie Joseph> It's exactly right.
00:24:23.903 --> 00:24:28.863
<Genie Joseph> I mean, it's just really recognizing that all beings have a soul.
00:24:29.483 --> 00:24:41.163
<Genie Joseph> And just by saying that, or seeing that, or feeling that, or willing to consider that, changes something in the dynamic, in the relationship.
00:24:41.183 --> 00:24:48.443
<Genie Joseph> So you begin to look at people, not just as they're showing up in their personality or their behavior, but this is a being with a soul.
00:24:49.003 --> 00:24:58.783
<Genie Joseph> And sometimes it's really interesting if you can't connect to a human that you need to communicate with, sometimes just tune in to their soul, just see what happens.
00:24:58.783 --> 00:25:02.203
<Genie Joseph> And maybe the soul wants to talk to you, maybe the soul doesn't want to talk to you.
00:25:02.483 --> 00:25:03.703
<Genie Joseph> You don't know what's going to happen.
00:25:03.723 --> 00:25:12.503
<Genie Joseph> But it's really beautiful to recognize that we do have this capacity to communicate soul to soul.
00:25:13.283 --> 00:25:19.603
<Genie Joseph> And what's beautiful about that is that soul to soul communication is always completely authentic.
00:25:19.623 --> 00:25:24.703
<Genie Joseph> There's no pretense, there's no judgment, there's no wanting to change anything.
00:25:25.043 --> 00:25:26.903
<Genie Joseph> It's just like essence to essence.
00:25:26.923 --> 00:25:34.643
<Genie Joseph> It's like two babies meeting each other, just complete love and fullness and good stuff.
00:25:35.183 --> 00:25:40.683
<Michael Overlie> Yeah, in Daoism, they talk about the irreducible essence, right?
00:25:40.923 --> 00:25:44.103
<Michael Overlie> Everything else is removed, and then that's where that's the soul level.
00:25:44.123 --> 00:25:46.343
<Michael Overlie> That's the essence of the being.
00:25:46.723 --> 00:25:49.103
<Genie Joseph> Yeah, that's exactly it.
00:25:49.123 --> 00:25:54.123
<Genie Joseph> And yeah, I just want to finish this segment with a quote from the Dalai Lama.
00:25:54.403 --> 00:25:56.623
<Genie Joseph> And he said, let's see, let me read it.
00:25:57.643 --> 00:26:01.243
<Genie Joseph> Life is as dear to a mute creature as it is to man.
00:26:01.663 --> 00:26:08.523
<Genie Joseph> Just as one wants happiness and fears pain, just as one wants to live and not die, so do other creatures.
00:26:08.903 --> 00:26:19.003
<Genie Joseph> And so it's just really beautiful to think in those terms, instead of thinking of as humans in one whole different category, animals and some other different category.
00:26:19.023 --> 00:26:20.423
<Genie Joseph> We're all in the same category.
00:26:20.663 --> 00:26:21.663
<Genie Joseph> We all have a soul.
00:26:22.083 --> 00:26:25.323
<Genie Joseph> And at the soul level, we're all equal and we're all connected.
00:26:25.343 --> 00:26:27.023
<Michael Overlie> I love that.
00:26:27.343 --> 00:26:35.063
<Genie Joseph> So I hope you'll join us because our next episode is Animals on Purpose, talking about purpose and the lives of animals.
00:26:36.803 --> 00:26:37.503
<Genie Joseph> Wow.
00:26:37.523 --> 00:26:38.363
<Michael Overlie> I can't wait.
00:26:38.663 --> 00:26:39.283
<Genie Joseph> Yeah.
00:26:39.983 --> 00:26:42.663
<Genie Joseph> So we will see you hopefully in the next episode.
00:26:43.163 --> 00:26:43.763
<Michael Overlie> See you then.
00:26:43.863 --> 00:26:44.603
<Michael Overlie> Aloha for now.
00:26:45.183 --> 00:26:45.883
<Genie Joseph> Aloha for now.
00:26:51.078 --> 00:26:54.038
<Announcer> Thank you for tuning in to the Human-Animal Connection show.
00:26:54.378 --> 00:26:58.698
<Announcer> Please visit our website, thehumananimalconnection.org.
00:26:59.098 --> 00:27:05.618
<Announcer> There you can sign up for our free email newsletter, book a consultation, or check out our blogs and resources.
00:27:05.958 --> 00:27:10.678
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00:27:10.978 --> 00:27:16.918
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00:27:17.398 --> 00:27:29.478
<Announcer> You can reach Michael Overlie, author of Let Your Dog Lead, musings on how to create an exceptional life, on his website at dogsandmen.com, or email michael at dogsandmen.com.
00:27:32.618 --> 00:27:38.618
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