Animalspeak: The animal soul

Have you ever wondered if animals have souls?

Have you ever glimpsed at a distance a pet who has passed away? Or felt something furry but invisible rub against you? Or heard the familiar meow or bark of a favorite animal companion who has left this world?

I have. The manifestations are many but they all prove a point – animals have souls, too.

It’s a good point to ponder on while remembering departed relatives and friends during All Souls’ Day.

While reading Richard Bach’s best-selling novel "The Bridge Across Forever" years ago,  my eyes devoured a page that described how Bach and his former wife practiced astral travel every night until they were finally able to do it together.

Before turning in for the night, they would agree to let their souls fly around the house together then they would go back to their bodies and write about the experience when they woke up.

After doing this several times, they saw their fluffy white Persian cat float up to join them. The cat was fast asleep in his basket on the floor and a glowing silver thread connected him to his soul.

The cat’s silver cord was very much like the silver cords that linked the couple to their bodies.

The thought that animals have souls just like us intrigued me. Richard Bach, who also wrote "Jonathan Livingston Seagull", is a respected author and I had no reason to doubt him. I had never really given the matter much thought. So I began researching on the subject and asking people about it.

In a subsequent conversation with animal welfare stalwart Nita Lichauco, who pioneered the movement in the Philippines, my curiosity turned to passion as I listened to her recount her experience with a favorite cat that had to be put down due to a terminal illness.

Feeling depressed and very lonely, Mrs. Lichauco went directly to the house of a friend who happened to be out at that moment. As she sat on a chair to wait for her friend, a cat bearing a striking resemblance to the one that had just died approached her and rubbed himself against her legs.

She stroked him for a few minutes then watched as the cat walked away and into a room. When her friend arrived, Mrs. Lichauco asked about the cat that had not exited the room. Imagine her surprise when she was told that there were no cats in the house.

A quick check on the room revealed that it led to a windowless bathroom. Needless to say, there was no cat.

Mrs. Lichauco believes that the feline who came to her was her late cat who just wanted to say goodbye and assure her that everything was all right.

Such experiences are not alien to me. After my 11-year-old brown dachshund Pepper passed away, I heard her scratching on the door to my room every night for several months. I would open the door and only darkness greeted me.

Years later, my gray and silver Persian cat, D’Artagnan, was seen scratching at his litter box for days after he died.

So do animals have souls? I believe they do and they stick around for some time when they have unfinished business, particularly if the parting was sudden. Or when their human guardians are just not ready to let them go.

But people are still divided over this question. Even dictionaries differ in their definitions. Most ascribe the soul only to humans while a few say even animals have souls.

Greek philosopher and mathematician Pythagoras was a believer. “Animals share with us the privilege of having a soul,” he wrote.

For Roman politician and philosopher Cicero, “Whatever that be which thinks, which understands, which wills, which acts, it is something celestial and divine, and on that account must necessarily be eternal.”

There are accounts aplenty of animals that came back after they died in order to save their human families.

In his books "Animal Immortality" and "The Psychic Powers of Animals", Bill Schul documented the experiences of many people whose animal companions returned from the grave to protect them from harm.

He cited the case of Raymond Peters, who awoke to the sound of his dog Mac’s insistent barking in his ear. Flames had engulfed his house and he just had enough time to pull his wife and two children to safety before the structure collapsed.

The dog’s barking had saved them. Even the neighbors heard the frantic barks. The catch? Mac the Scottie had died three months earlier.

In ancient Egypt, people mummified their household cats when the animals died. Both people and animals were mummified to help their souls recognize their bodies when they returned to be reunited with them for eternity.

The American Indians performed ritual dances and made offerings to appease the souls of the animals they were about to kill for food and clothing.

Some Asian cultures believe that the souls of animals also reincarnate. And many pet owners will swear that their deceased animals have found their way back home to them either looking exactly like they used to when they were still alive or in unfamiliar looking bodies. They say although the body is different, the mannerisms are the same.

So why do many people still insist that animals have no souls?

Perhaps the answer lies in French mathematician Rene Descartes’s concept of the “animal machine” that can feel neither pleasure nor pain. This belief freed scientists at that time from the guilt of seeing animals bleeding and screaming to death on their experiment tables.

There is also the concern that if animals do have souls, then people would hesitate to kill them for food and clothing, sport and research.

The debate on the animal soul continues to rage on. But more and more people are now convinced that when a beloved animal dies, the soul crosses over to Rainbow Bridge where pets wait to be reunited with their human companions.

The place is supposedly a happy and peaceful place in nature where animals will never be sick nor hungry and where play is the order of the day. — BM, GMA News