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I was a dolphin trainer for the
day at the Mirage Hotel in Las Vegas last month. I have been really excited to
share these photos and this adventure with all of you.
The Mirage has a beautiful dolphin
habitat. They are a research and breeding facility and are
open to the public for visits, but don't offer dolphin
performances (the public can watch training sessions).
When I arrived there I wanted to cover the
most important question first: are the dolphins happy and are
they treated well? The dolphins' answer: yes. They are
happy overall, but sometimes as individuals they have issues arise
that lead to unhappy moments. (Very similar to the rest of
us I would say.)
When I connect
telepathically with animals, I receive the "messages"
as feelings. When I am offering a consultation, I do my
best to translate those feelings into words and sentences so I
can share the information. During this
dolphin experience I had no desire to translate. I allowed
myself to just experience the feelings of the dolphins. That
was glorious, and I wouldn't change it for the world, but it
leaves me wondering what to say to all of you!
As I look at dolphins
it is hard to resist personifying them. The physical
characteristics of their mouth makes them look like they have a
big happy smile. When I tuned in with the dolphins it
was easy to realize that the way they display and experience joy
and affection is different from us. The smiles, hugs and
kisses that you see in these photos are trained behaviors.
They are not actual displays of affection (because dolphins
aren't humans, they don't share our body language). The
dolphins that I worked with mostly enjoyed the trained behaviors
because they are highly reinforced with fish and mental
stimulation (learning).
The times when I felt affection
from the dolphins were moments where we were quiet together,
just floating and understanding one another. For the most
part I witnessed the dolphins having more of a working
relationship with humans and more of a family relations amongst
themselves. The male dolphins also had some pod disagreements
with each another.
At first I was concerned about
them being captive. I wasn't sure if being kept in this
way was the best life for them (there are pros and cons for
dolphins in captivity). The dolphins we were working with were
born in captivity. However, that does not mean they
don't innately know of the bigger ocean. I have
felt the same feeling of "missing the big world" from
domestic birds and cats. Even cats who have never been
outdoors will long for hunting in the grass. Does it mean
these dolphins or your apartment cats would do well if set
free? No. However, when trying to understand these
creatures, it is helpful to keep in mind what their natural
setting is meant to be.
On a personal note, I gained a
sense of inner peace from my experience with the dolphins that
was truly profound. As some of you know from facebook, my
cat Number Five died a few weeks before I trained with the
dolphins. I have chosen not to talk about the details of
his passing because I find that for now, I bring myself back
into distress when I talk about it. After his passing I
was having daily panic attacks. I was really stressed by
my trauma over the events surrounding his death (he is at peace
and not traumatized). Communicating with him helped, but I
was still holding onto my own trauma. Immediately after
the first training session with the dolphins I felt peace over
his passing and have not had a panic attack since.
Dolphin trainer for the day =
best
day ever!
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