Interviewing Animals Through Animal Communicators

What is it about?

Animal communicators use a technique called intuitive interspecies communication (IIC) to exchange information with animals. This technique does not include visible or audible signs, but involves an exchange of visions and other sensations, such as emotions and physical feelings. It takes place ‘in the mind’s eye’. IIC is an accepted and widely used form of communication in Indigenous contexts, but the booming number of animal communicators worldwide, are generally not from these contexts. As there is a need for multispecies methods to access animals’ perspectives, I researched if this empathic technique is suitable for use in academic research. I did interviews with wild and domesticated cat species, working with multiple animal communicators as interpreters, and described the successes and challenges involved. The responses confronted me and the animal communicators to reflect on our perspectives, expectations and assumptions. The article explores how IIC can be approached in the light of novel insights regarding the consciousness, intelligence and communicative abilities of a wide variety of animal species, as well as how it fits in the developing theoretical insights from the ontological and species turns. The technique and its use as a method in academic research may not only transform insight in the relationships between human and non-human beings, but also ideas about the relation between academic and other, non-dominant worldviews and ways of knowing.

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