Another Tale of Animal Psi

 When I was a kid in New York City I remember watching with awe a movie called Lassie Come Home.   About a lost dog and the adventures finding its way back home—I was enthralled by this story, myself not having a cat or dog in our small apartment.  At that time, I had no idea about dogs or people with so-called “psychic” abilities.  When I grew up, however, I started to hear stories about psychic people, and had  some odd experiences myself.

 

Discussing the idea of psychic ability with a fellow graduate student at Columbia University, he told me a story hard to forget. When he was a small boy he and his family moved from a house on Long Island about forty miles to an apartment in Manhattan.  The boy had a pet dog he loved but pets were not allowed in the new apartment.  So the family had to leave the little terrier behind with a neighbor.  The boy, needless to say, was unhappy about losing his canine buddy.  

 

So the family moved to the big city and left poor Nino behind.  About two months later, however, the boy was on a lunch break outside the elementary school he was attending.  Suddenly, his long absent dog Nino, dirty and looking worn out, was at his heels.  His dog had come home! Imagine the boy’s heart.  The mental connection is all they had, but the dog found him through forty miles of houses and traffic and a river he had to cross.  

 

There are lots of stories like this. I recommend an excellent book on animal psi by Rupert Sheldrake, Dogs That Know When Their Owners Are Coming Home. Animals, like humans, display unexplained powers, often when they’re most stressed out or highly excited. With humans, the most spectacular example is the near-death  experience.

 

Danger, stress, even looming death often seem to liberate extraordinary mental powers. Nino the terrier was an example of a stressed out dog who against all odds found his way home. Stories of strange animal behaviors would be fun to share, and useful to remind us of one of the great mysteries of nature.  All living things seem to be linked together in what seems to be a great mind at large.