Power Animals and Spirit Guides
I believe that everyone can have a connection with their animal spirit guide or power animal. Often we will have more than one as each brings different wisdom. Black Hawk said that there was a time that we all could talk to animals with the same ease as we speak to other human-animals. Learn how each animal brings its own guidance and connecting with your animal guide can help us navigate the twists and turns of our life with greater ease. Perhaps you would like to learn how to see signs in clouds as is done in the Hawaiian tradition. Or to see signs in all aspects of nature. Life gets easier and richer when we can receive guidance from the animal and nature kingdoms.
Listen to Episode #31 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: 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 I'm with Genie Joseph, and have we got an episode for you today.
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Michael Overlie: Welcome, Jeannie.
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Genie Joseph: Thank you so much.
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Genie Joseph: Yeah, today, we are talking about power animals and spirit guides.
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Genie Joseph: Yeah, I mean, we maybe think of it as woo-woo, but we have to remember that just about every indigenous culture that we've studied has some kind of belief in power animals and spirit guides, animal spirit guides.
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Genie Joseph: And so in a way, us in modern civilization are kind of getting caught up with what's been known for very many, many thousands of years.
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Genie Joseph: So, but anyway, here we are.
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Genie Joseph: So, but maybe for some people, it's new, you know, not everybody has been thinking about power animals.
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Genie Joseph: And so we want to, and we do this with our high school students in our high school class, canines teach compassion.
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Genie Joseph: We do a meditation where we introduce them, help them find their power animal.
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Genie Joseph: And some of them find it in class, some of them will do it later.
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Genie Joseph: But it's really powerful when you connect with your power animal, because sometimes there's an emptiness or a loneliness that we have that a human can't fill all of those holes that we have.
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Genie Joseph: And sometimes the power animal can be just what we're missing.
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Michael Overlie: We've talked about Ted Andrews before in his work.
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Michael Overlie: And I wanted to share this real quick.
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Genie Joseph: Okay, tell us what you're showing us.
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Michael Overlie: That is Sue or Lakota Sue, and it's Mtekoye Oyasin.
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Genie Joseph: Okay, that's a tattoo that...
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Michael Overlie: It's a tattoo.
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Michael Overlie: Yeah.
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Michael Overlie: Oh, sorry, folks.
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Genie Joseph: For those of you listening, he's showing us his tattoo.
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Michael Overlie: And it's in an eagle feather below it.
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Michael Overlie: And it means the direct translation is all my relations.
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Michael Overlie: And for us albinos and white folks, it means we are all one, right?
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Michael Overlie: We are all the same.
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Michael Overlie: They come from the same place.
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Michael Overlie: So, yeah, I love the Indigenous teachings.
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Michael Overlie: There's so much there that we can learn from.
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Genie Joseph: Yeah, there's so much of value there, just the notion that we're all breathing the same air.
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Genie Joseph: You know what I mean?
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Genie Joseph: I mean, it's like, it's so easy as humans to think that our world is separate from animals, or our world is somehow better than animals.
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Genie Joseph: And all of that is really not necessarily the case, you know?
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Genie Joseph: I mean, there's so much wisdom that animals have.
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Genie Joseph: And when we think about having a relationship with our power animal, what we're talking about is really having a wise guide who we can turn to for like, when we're not sure about something or we are confused, we need some help or we just want some comfort or sense of safety.
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Genie Joseph: And all the different animals bring different qualities.
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Genie Joseph: So we might have a primary power animal, and we might have other animals that we engage with from time to time when we have a specific issue.
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Genie Joseph: So I won't ask you to tell me your power animal, Michael, because that's usually confidential.
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Genie Joseph: You usually only share that with a very close person.
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Genie Joseph: But let me just ask you this, do you work with a power animal?
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Genie Joseph: Do you have a power animal as part of your reality?
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Genie Joseph: Are you connected in some way?
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Michael Overlie: Mm-hmm, I do.
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Genie Joseph: Yeah, and do you do that as part of a, like, do you talk every day?
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Genie Joseph: Do you talk just what's needed?
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Genie Joseph: What's your relationship like with your power animal?
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Michael Overlie: It's not an everyday communication.
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Michael Overlie: It's as needed, and then obviously when something tougher comes up, I'm like, okay, I need to go spend some time with my power animal.
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Genie Joseph: Yeah, it's just a really great thing to do.
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Genie Joseph: And different cultures have different ways and different rituals, so there's no wrong way to do it.
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Genie Joseph: But just by recognizing that you have a power animal, maybe more, maybe you have a group, and certainly others that you visit from time to time, because each one of them brings wisdom.
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Genie Joseph: And I encourage people to read the different books that people have written, so many books on the meaning of power animals.
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Genie Joseph: But I also encourage you to just use that as kind of like a place to start, not necessarily assume that what the book says is the way it is, that you might find that an animal that doesn't say in the book, oh, this animal brings this attribute, doesn't mean that that isn't what that animal is bringing to you.
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Genie Joseph: So it's just a place to kind of get your thoughts going, your awareness, but not to turn it into Bibles.
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Genie Joseph: So I think that's important for people is that it, what everybody else, I'll just pick an animal, like let's say what everybody else says an elephant is all about, may not be what that elephant is in your life for.
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Genie Joseph: So just we have to have that willingness to sort of take other people's experiences and knowledge as a place to start.
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Genie Joseph: But go for our own truth and wisdom.
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Genie Joseph: Because that I think is the most important lesson that power animals bring us is that we do need to be listening to our inner knowingness and the ways in which we are connected to our power animals.
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Genie Joseph: So we are not separate from our power animals.
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Genie Joseph: We have the ability to engage with them.
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Genie Joseph: So they're an aspect of ourselves.
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Genie Joseph: And maybe we had a lifetime as that animal.
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Genie Joseph: I don't know.
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Genie Joseph: It's just a really interesting thing to think about.
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Genie Joseph: And sometimes people like they don't know that they have a power animal, but they collect elephants or they collect giraffes or they collect frogs or something.
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Genie Joseph: You go to their house and you ask them to say, oh, this is interesting.
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Genie Joseph: I don't know why I collect them.
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Genie Joseph: I just do.
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Genie Joseph: I've always had them.
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Genie Joseph: I always liked them.
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Genie Joseph: And sometimes that's a sign that that animal is very important in their life.
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Genie Joseph: Yeah.
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Genie Joseph: Do you have more than one that you regularly work with?
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Michael Overlie: I have three.
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Genie Joseph: Okay, that's great.
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Genie Joseph: You don't have to say who they are, but do you want to tell us a little bit about how they help you?
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Michael Overlie: Well, I have speed, I have protection, and I have flight.
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Genie Joseph: Nice.
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Genie Joseph: Really good, because sometimes we absolutely need to have a sense of flight.
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Genie Joseph: We need to get out of situations that aren't good for us or get perspective from flight.
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Genie Joseph: So power animals that are masters at flight can be really good.
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Genie Joseph: It's giving us that sense of, hey, you're not stuck here just because you're standing on two feet doesn't mean that this is the only place you have to stand or the only way you have to view the world, because the way a bird sees the world is very different from the way an ant sees the world, and it's nothing against ants.
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Genie Joseph: It's just that these are different.
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Genie Joseph: There's a German word for it called Umwelt, and it basically means your perspective.
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Genie Joseph: So the perspective of a giraffe is different from the perspective of an ant, and it doesn't mean that they don't both have valuable wisdom, but they're going to see the world differently just because their anatomy is different.
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Genie Joseph: So how they experience everything, their perceptions change.
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Genie Joseph: And we can learn from these different animals, and sometimes we can call upon giraffe energy to maybe have some perspective when we're too close to a situation or we're not seeing a wider view.
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Genie Joseph: We can't understand why another person is thinking or feeling or behaving the way they are.
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Genie Joseph: We can ask a giraffe to look at the situation for us and give us some understanding from a different vantage point.
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Genie Joseph: Yeah.
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Genie Joseph: So I know, I think, did we mention, I can't remember if we were talking about before we got on the air or after, but Ted Andrews has written several books.
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Genie Joseph: He's like, I don't know, when did he write them?
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Genie Joseph: In the 50s or the 60s?
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Genie Joseph: Or I don't know, 70s?
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Michael Overlie: 50s, 60s, 70s maybe.
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Genie Joseph: Somewhere in there, yeah.
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Genie Joseph: He's been gone a while.
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Genie Joseph: Yeah.
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Genie Joseph: So he really at least opened it up for non-native people to really think about this.
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Genie Joseph: And I remember he tells a story about the praying mantis, which is an insect.
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Genie Joseph: It's interesting all these different cultures, because many cultures have a praying mantis power animal.
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Genie Joseph: And in the Chinese tradition, there's a martial arts styles that follow these different animals.
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Genie Joseph: And one of the attributes that Ted Andrews says you can learn from the praying mantis is the ability to stay very still and watch.
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Genie Joseph: So not to pounce, not to charge, not to move fast, not speed, but to step back, wait, and then pounce.
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Genie Joseph: So that's the wisdom in that martial arts style that is working with the praying mantis power animal when you need that wisdom.
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Genie Joseph: And then sometimes, just the ones I can remember, he talks about a swan as being really helpful for having a sense of your inner beauty and your inner power.
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Genie Joseph: But what he warns with the swan is that you can't expect other people to make you feel beautiful if you don't feel it from within.
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Genie Joseph: And that's just one of the wisdoms of swan.
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Genie Joseph: So they mate for life, and they're very good if you're looking for partnership to connect with your swan energy.
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Genie Joseph: But just to remember that the work starts from within first.
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Genie Joseph: It's not about finding the right partner to make you feel loved.
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Genie Joseph: You have to feel lovable before you can love and accept love.
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Genie Joseph: So that's swan energy.
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Genie Joseph: So it's just interesting to learn about some of the different power animals and what are the different things that they bring to us.
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Genie Joseph: Because each of them comes with their own gifts, their own perceptions, their own ways of perceiving.
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Genie Joseph: And sometimes we need one view, and sometimes we need a different view.
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Genie Joseph: It just depends on, like you mentioned, speed.
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Genie Joseph: Sometimes you need to move faster, right?
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Genie Joseph: Sometimes you need momentum or energy, right?
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Genie Joseph: So you would want to connect with an animal who's a master at speed.
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Genie Joseph: That's fast-moving animals, yeah.
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Michael Overlie: What about Black Hawk?
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Michael Overlie: What did Black Hawk say about talking to animals?
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Genie Joseph: So he said that there was a time when we could all talk to animals, and we could talk to the trees and the plants.
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Genie Joseph: And this was just as natural and normal as you and I talking together here.
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Genie Joseph: And he says that we forgot that, generally, the civilized cultures, that we forgot that ability, and therefore we stopped doing it.
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Genie Joseph: And it's like if you look at young children before the age of seven, let's say, many of them will talk to the trees or the flowers or the animals or the birds and the bees, and it's just normal.
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Genie Joseph: And then some adult goes, okay, time to stop that.
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Genie Joseph: You have to go to school and act normal now or whatever.
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Genie Joseph: If a child continues to talk to animals and trees, somebody might tell them that's not true or whatever.
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Genie Joseph: So we get lost from that.
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Genie Joseph: But most young children believe that that's natural or normal to talk to animals, and they hear animals and they hear fairies and flowers and trees and bees and things, talking to them.
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Genie Joseph: And it would be nice if we didn't restrict that, if we encouraged that so that we didn't have to lose that as we got to be seven and a half, had to let all that fun stuff go.
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Michael Overlie: Yeah, we get adulted, right?
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Genie Joseph: We get adulted.
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Michael Overlie: Because the adults forgot what they used to do, and that they had this ability in this, and I think of it as a superpower, and I was the same way, but I got it back.
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Michael Overlie: This morning, I was working on a presentation that I gave earlier, and this tiny little gnat, maybe gnat, landed on my hand.
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Michael Overlie: And I'm like, okay, so I set my hand down, and I was trying to write with one hand and talking to him.
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Michael Overlie: He's like moving up my hand towards my arm a little bit, and I'm like, buddy, I'm going to need that hand back in a minute.
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Michael Overlie: And then he just...
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Genie Joseph: Just left, yeah, great.
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Genie Joseph: A nice little harmonious little interaction.
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Genie Joseph: It could be easy to think of bugs as being bugging.
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Genie Joseph: They bug us, but yeah, if you can connect to the animal, you don't have to go out and murder it.
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Genie Joseph: Listen, I can't do this all the time, and I don't do it well with mosquitoes because I hate them, and so they bother me all the time.
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Genie Joseph: They bite me all the time.
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Genie Joseph: I can be sitting next to someone, and I've got 10 bites, and they've got none, and we're sitting right next to each other.
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Genie Joseph: So I haven't worked out my mosquito issues yet.
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Michael Overlie: That's because you're so sweet.
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Genie Joseph: I know, I am just delicious and sweet.
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Genie Joseph: I have to think of it that way.
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Genie Joseph: But anyway, point being is that one does one's best, right?
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Genie Joseph: And like you said, to just have respect and conversation to the best of our ability.
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Genie Joseph: And we've talked before about J.
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Genie Joseph: Alan Boone, who wrote a book in 1956, I think it was published, or 57, somewhere in there.
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Genie Joseph: And he was able to talk to flies and ants and ask them to do what he needed.
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Genie Joseph: He had this one fly named Freddie that he talked to, I think for a couple weeks or something, two weeks or something, but he said to Freddie, you know, you can hang out with me, but just don't land on my skin.
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Genie Joseph: And the fly would hang out with him and do all these acrobatics but never land on his skin.
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Genie Joseph: And what was great about that was that when J.
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Genie Joseph: Alan Boone traveled the world and he went to all places, Africa and different places, all the flies got the message and they never landed on his skin, even when they were landing on people standing right next to him.
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Genie Joseph: So that's, you know, I mean, that's like my role model.
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Genie Joseph: I wish I could be that way with mosquitoes and have that kind of grace.
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Genie Joseph: I don't, but every once in a while, you know, there are situations where I can master that, you know, outside and with little creatures and do what's in your lane to do.
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Michael Overlie: I get that.
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Michael Overlie: Let's take a quick break here.
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Announcer: Hey, friends, if you like what you're hearing and want to learn more, check out Dr.
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Announcer: Joseph's book The Human-Animal Connection, Deepening Relationships with Animals and Ourselves.
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Announcer: Or visit the website thehumananimalconnection.org to book an online consultation.
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Announcer: Thank you for loving animals.
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Announcer: Now back to the show.
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Announcer: Let's Talk Pets on petliferadio.com.
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Michael Overlie: Hey, folks, welcome back to The Human-Animal Connection show.
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Michael Overlie: I'm loving this conversation about power animals and spirit animals.
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Michael Overlie: It means a lot to me in the work that I've done to help myself heal.
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Michael Overlie: I think a lot of people will just continue to learn more and more and just dive into this.
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Michael Overlie: So let's get back at it.
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Genie Joseph: Yeah.
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Genie Joseph: Well, I want to tell you about the Hawaiian tradition called amakua.
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Genie Joseph: And what amakua is, is basically your spirit animal.
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Genie Joseph: And in the Hawaiian tradition, the belief is that, you know, this spirit animal has been with you before birth and will be with you your whole life.
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Genie Joseph: And there's not to say that you won't have others that join, but this amakua could be a shark, it could be a rabbit, it could be, you know, any animal.
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Genie Joseph: And I've met lots of people who had sharks as their amakua.
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Genie Joseph: Like in the Native American traditions, you often don't tell people who your power animal is, because there was also a belief that someone could try to steal your power through working, you know, through manipulating things with your power animal.
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Genie Joseph: But the Hawaiians don't quite have that belief, so they don't mind telling you that their amakua is a shark or an octopus or whatever it is, and, you know, all the different creatures that could be.
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Genie Joseph: And they are very deliberate about, those people who pay attention, are about in communicating with their amakua and asking them, you know, just even small things or small decisions, you know, daily issues to connect with their amakua.
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Genie Joseph: And it's really interesting, the people that I've met, I've met some very gentle people who had sharks as their amakua, you know.
00:15:53.680 --> 00:15:55.760
Genie Joseph: It's really interesting.
00:15:55.780 --> 00:15:59.600
Genie Joseph: There's no judgment about one animal being good and another animal being bad.
00:15:59.740 --> 00:16:02.340
Genie Joseph: They just all have different qualities that they bring to us.
00:16:03.040 --> 00:16:08.900
Genie Joseph: So that's kind of a fun thing to do if you go to Hawaii and maybe the turtles or different animals.
00:16:08.920 --> 00:16:14.660
Genie Joseph: And, you know, they create a reverence for life when you have the idea that there are amakua.
00:16:14.680 --> 00:16:16.820
Genie Joseph: It's like, well, don't go kill that shark.
00:16:16.840 --> 00:16:18.960
Genie Joseph: That might be someone's amakua, you know.
00:16:19.300 --> 00:16:28.860
Genie Joseph: I mean, it's like it just makes your own wealth changes when you think about the idea that all animals have gifts.
00:16:29.220 --> 00:16:36.960
Genie Joseph: And to open ourselves up to that, it's like, you know, if you live on a farm and you name an animal, it's hard to eat that animal if you named it.
00:16:37.480 --> 00:16:40.760
Genie Joseph: You know, so it's like recognizing that they have individual purpose.
00:16:41.100 --> 00:16:48.160
Genie Joseph: And this is something that I believe that, you know, like while all the sharks have a group soul, shark soul, they also have individual souls.
00:16:48.680 --> 00:16:50.540
Genie Joseph: So each one of them is an individual.
00:16:50.540 --> 00:17:01.020
Genie Joseph: They can tune in to their group soul, the buffalo soul or the bison soul or whatever it is, but they have an individual spirit or soul connection.
00:17:01.040 --> 00:17:06.380
Genie Joseph: So you can have a relationship with an individual animal, not just the species.
00:17:08.440 --> 00:17:11.460
Michael Overlie: I've swam with some really large sharks before.
00:17:12.020 --> 00:17:14.340
Michael Overlie: And I'm still here, right?
00:17:14.620 --> 00:17:15.440
Genie Joseph: Yeah, you're still here.
00:17:15.460 --> 00:17:18.420
Michael Overlie: They didn't hold any judgment against me.
00:17:19.300 --> 00:17:20.660
Michael Overlie: They didn't attack me.
00:17:20.680 --> 00:17:21.560
Michael Overlie: They weren't out to get me.
00:17:22.140 --> 00:17:24.660
Michael Overlie: I don't think they believe that we taste that good, folks.
00:17:24.680 --> 00:17:26.300
Genie Joseph: No, I don't think we taste that good.
00:17:27.400 --> 00:17:34.180
Genie Joseph: I mean, there's a lot of imbalances now in the world and in the ocean, so imbalances can happen and things can go haywire.
00:17:34.200 --> 00:17:36.180
Genie Joseph: But compared to all the other...
00:17:36.200 --> 00:17:42.100
Genie Joseph: If you look at how many people die in car accidents versus how many people die with shark bikes, it's ridiculously different.
00:17:42.120 --> 00:17:44.480
Genie Joseph: I don't remember the numbers, but it's very low.
00:17:44.500 --> 00:17:45.760
Genie Joseph: I did meet...
00:17:46.360 --> 00:17:47.840
Genie Joseph: There was a young girl surfer.
00:17:47.860 --> 00:17:48.860
Genie Joseph: At the time, she was a young girl.
00:17:48.880 --> 00:17:51.700
Genie Joseph: She was, I think, 12 or 14.
00:17:51.720 --> 00:17:59.720
Genie Joseph: I can't remember now, but she did have her arm bit off by a shark, and she was an expert surfer and a very peaceful person, and it was an accident.
00:17:59.740 --> 00:18:00.740
Genie Joseph: It might have been something that...
00:18:01.080 --> 00:18:03.300
Genie Joseph: She had a piece of jewelry or something that attracted the shark.
00:18:03.320 --> 00:18:06.960
Genie Joseph: So I don't think the shark meant to bite her arm off, but it did.
00:18:06.980 --> 00:18:11.820
Genie Joseph: And she was very kind about it.
00:18:11.840 --> 00:18:12.480
Genie Joseph: I mean, she didn't...
00:18:12.940 --> 00:18:21.740
Genie Joseph: She wanted to go back into the ocean when she could, when she healed, and it was hard for her to surf without the two arms, but she became a surf photographer.
00:18:21.760 --> 00:18:27.720
Genie Joseph: And it was a very powerful experience for her and for everyone around, because it was really shocking at the time.
00:18:27.740 --> 00:18:31.020
Genie Joseph: This was when I was living in Hawaii, so I got a chance to interview her.
00:18:31.040 --> 00:18:35.420
Genie Joseph: But it's so hard to know what something like that, the true meaning of it is.
00:18:35.440 --> 00:18:37.480
Genie Joseph: But I think it reshaped the course of her life.
00:18:37.860 --> 00:18:38.380
Genie Joseph: It really did.
00:18:39.500 --> 00:18:43.880
Michael Overlie: Now, I believe there's more to the stories that we don't understand.
00:18:44.080 --> 00:18:45.580
Michael Overlie: We tend to make up our own.
00:18:47.000 --> 00:18:51.040
Michael Overlie: But who knows what her lesson is in all of this, right?
00:18:51.060 --> 00:18:51.540
Genie Joseph: Exactly.
00:18:51.560 --> 00:18:59.460
Michael Overlie: If she hadn't had to experience this setback or trauma or whatever you want to frame it as, where would she be now?
00:18:59.480 --> 00:19:00.540
Michael Overlie: How would her life be different?
00:19:00.560 --> 00:19:03.900
Michael Overlie: Maybe it's much more fulfilling than she had been on a path originally.
00:19:04.400 --> 00:19:14.780
Genie Joseph: Exactly, and I'm sure that's not easy to know at the moment, but I do believe that about her, that her life has unfolded in the way it was supposed to.
00:19:14.800 --> 00:19:25.960
Genie Joseph: And also cautionary tale that even though many people can swim with sharks, but there are these occasional situations with the oceans being out of balance and all kinds of things.
00:19:25.960 --> 00:19:28.120
Genie Joseph: So things do happen.
00:19:28.140 --> 00:19:33.340
Genie Joseph: I mean, I think we have to recognize that animals are still animals, and for them to bite is just a normal thing.
00:19:33.400 --> 00:19:34.040
Genie Joseph: You know what I mean?
00:19:34.060 --> 00:19:34.960
Genie Joseph: They bite every day.
00:19:34.980 --> 00:19:38.560
Genie Joseph: It's just that we happen to be in their path sometimes.
00:19:38.580 --> 00:19:39.140
Genie Joseph: You know what I mean?
00:19:39.200 --> 00:19:42.600
Genie Joseph: So they're not doing anything terrible to us in most cases.
00:19:42.620 --> 00:19:44.560
Genie Joseph: They're not trying to hurt us.
00:19:45.180 --> 00:19:47.260
Genie Joseph: But these things can happen and do happen.
00:19:47.280 --> 00:19:54.260
Genie Joseph: So this is like we're, as you can, those of you who are watching on video will see Lulu, the dog behind us, the dog we're fostering.
00:19:54.860 --> 00:19:59.200
Genie Joseph: We have to be careful because she has a history, and we have to just be smart.
00:19:59.240 --> 00:20:01.860
Genie Joseph: You can't be ignorant about these things.
00:20:02.380 --> 00:20:13.420
Genie Joseph: Anyway, one of the things I want to tell you, when I was living in Hawaii, there was this woman shaman that I knew, and I'm just looking up because there's a huge hawk flying in the air.
00:20:14.060 --> 00:20:16.240
Genie Joseph: So you're watching on video.
00:20:16.260 --> 00:20:17.080
Genie Joseph: That's what I was doing.
00:20:17.100 --> 00:20:18.200
Genie Joseph: I was watching this hawk.
00:20:18.920 --> 00:20:31.340
Genie Joseph: Anyway, so in the Hawaiian tradition, we'd be walking and talking, and all of a sudden she would stop and look up at the clouds, and we'd be in the middle of a conversation, and she'd just go silent, and she'd be looking at clouds for a moment, and then she'd go right on talking.
00:20:31.680 --> 00:20:33.440
Genie Joseph: And I'd say, so tell me what you're doing.
00:20:33.460 --> 00:20:35.340
Genie Joseph: And she said, well, I was talking to the clouds.
00:20:35.900 --> 00:20:36.680
Genie Joseph: I said, what do you mean?
00:20:36.700 --> 00:20:40.520
Genie Joseph: She said, well, in the Hawaiian tradition, there are signs everywhere.
00:20:41.000 --> 00:20:44.900
Genie Joseph: So what the clouds are doing is a form of communication.
00:20:44.920 --> 00:20:46.760
Genie Joseph: I mean, they're doing what they're doing for their own reasons.
00:20:46.780 --> 00:20:54.540
Genie Joseph: But as humans, we can, if you set up a communication channel with the clouds, you will get the feeling, oh, look up.
00:20:54.540 --> 00:20:57.240
Genie Joseph: Just like all of a sudden, you just get this feeling, I should look up now.
00:20:57.260 --> 00:20:59.660
Genie Joseph: And you look and you see something.
00:20:59.680 --> 00:21:01.380
Genie Joseph: And you see, I do this a lot.
00:21:01.640 --> 00:21:08.700
Genie Joseph: I'll see something that is meaningful to me in terms of a pattern or shape that may be reminding me of a power animal or something.
00:21:08.720 --> 00:21:11.080
Genie Joseph: I'll see a rabbit or, you know, I do this a lot.
00:21:11.100 --> 00:21:12.540
Genie Joseph: I'll see patterns and things.
00:21:12.560 --> 00:21:14.700
Genie Joseph: So that was her thing.
00:21:15.180 --> 00:21:17.700
Genie Joseph: So the clouds always communicated to her when she needed.
00:21:17.720 --> 00:21:20.800
Genie Joseph: And when she needed guidance on something, she'd just go out and look at the clouds.
00:21:21.200 --> 00:21:23.780
Genie Joseph: And she'd have to maybe sit for a few minutes and wait.
00:21:23.800 --> 00:21:24.860
Genie Joseph: It wasn't always instant.
00:21:24.880 --> 00:21:28.720
Genie Joseph: But if she sat until she needed to, she would get the answer that she needed.
00:21:28.740 --> 00:21:30.220
Genie Joseph: The clarity would come through the clouds.
00:21:30.740 --> 00:21:32.560
Genie Joseph: Were the clouds spelling out letters?
00:21:32.580 --> 00:21:33.300
Genie Joseph: No, they aren't.
00:21:33.880 --> 00:21:40.100
Genie Joseph: They are doing something in terms of their shapes that's meaningful to her that she can interpret as a message.
00:21:40.120 --> 00:21:42.440
Genie Joseph: So it's a cooperative thing.
00:21:42.800 --> 00:21:44.020
Genie Joseph: And I have a thing like this.
00:21:44.380 --> 00:21:51.260
Genie Joseph: My dog Sophia and I, my little Sophia, we have a thing with yellow daisies, the wild ones, the weed daisies.
00:21:52.340 --> 00:21:55.360
Genie Joseph: And we can be out and about, and there'll be no flowers.
00:21:55.380 --> 00:21:59.160
Genie Joseph: Like we were once in Patagonia, Arizona, this huge barren field.
00:21:59.180 --> 00:22:05.380
Genie Joseph: I mean, nothing alive for just, I don't know, yards and yards, a very, very big open space, nothing that you could see.
00:22:05.720 --> 00:22:11.400
Genie Joseph: And all of a sudden Sophia sort of took off and went just 30 feet to the right, and she peed.
00:22:11.440 --> 00:22:14.380
Genie Joseph: And I went over to see, and it was of course a little yellow daisy.
00:22:14.760 --> 00:22:18.080
Genie Joseph: And that was a moment for me to stop and go, okay, what's the message here?
00:22:18.100 --> 00:22:23.360
Genie Joseph: I need to just get really, I was quiet, but I need to get even quieter to hear what is it.
00:22:23.380 --> 00:22:33.980
Genie Joseph: So whenever she or I, either she pees on every yellow daisy or stops and smells one, or I see one, it's a moment for me to turn inward and see if there's a message waiting for me.
00:22:34.360 --> 00:22:35.480
Genie Joseph: And I love that.
00:22:35.600 --> 00:22:39.240
Genie Joseph: It's something that the more you do it, you strengthen the communication muscle.
00:22:39.260 --> 00:22:43.580
Genie Joseph: So somebody else, maybe they're not even going to see that daisy, and they don't even notice it.
00:22:43.600 --> 00:22:44.960
Genie Joseph: Well, I'll be going on a walk with someone.
00:22:44.980 --> 00:22:46.460
Genie Joseph: I said, did you see that yellow daisy?
00:22:46.480 --> 00:22:47.160
Genie Joseph: They're like, what?
00:22:47.240 --> 00:22:47.540
Genie Joseph: Where?
00:22:47.560 --> 00:22:50.340
Genie Joseph: But they don't see it because it's not for them.
00:22:51.580 --> 00:22:53.340
Genie Joseph: It doesn't have any meaning other than a weed.
00:22:54.080 --> 00:22:59.500
Genie Joseph: But for me, I know when I see that, I need to go inward, I need to check in and listen.
00:22:59.520 --> 00:23:01.600
Genie Joseph: And it's not necessarily that I've asked a question.
00:23:01.620 --> 00:23:04.620
Genie Joseph: It's just that maybe there's a message that I need to get.
00:23:05.060 --> 00:23:10.920
Genie Joseph: So we can establish these little devices with birds, with trees, with clouds, with rivers, with animals.
00:23:11.560 --> 00:23:21.620
Genie Joseph: And if we're consistent about it and do it with reverence and with gratitude, we can develop a communication channel that becomes very, very reliable and very, very comforting.
00:23:23.200 --> 00:23:24.040
Michael Overlie: That's amazing.
00:23:24.480 --> 00:23:25.840
Genie Joseph: Yeah.
00:23:25.860 --> 00:23:26.600
Michael Overlie: You've got mail.
00:23:27.100 --> 00:23:27.900
Genie Joseph: You've got mail.
00:23:27.920 --> 00:23:28.660
Genie Joseph: Exactly right.
00:23:28.800 --> 00:23:29.500
Genie Joseph: Exactly right.
00:23:29.520 --> 00:23:32.540
Michael Overlie: Thank you, Sophie, for helping point that out.
00:23:33.980 --> 00:23:37.780
Genie Joseph: And I just wanted to finish this episode with a quote from Ted Andrews.
00:23:38.320 --> 00:23:39.300
Genie Joseph: Can I read that to you?
00:23:39.580 --> 00:23:40.120
Michael Overlie: Oh, yeah.
00:23:41.900 --> 00:23:53.820
Genie Joseph: It's a little long, but when we learn to speak with animals, to listen with animal ears and to see through animal eyes, we experience the phenomena, the power, and the potential of the human essence.
00:23:54.540 --> 00:23:57.960
Genie Joseph: And it is then that animals are no longer our subordinates.
00:23:58.680 --> 00:24:02.040
Genie Joseph: They become our teachers, our friends, our companions.
00:24:02.980 --> 00:24:05.760
Genie Joseph: They show us the true majesty of life itself.
00:24:06.800 --> 00:24:16.220
Genie Joseph: They restore our forgotten childlike wonder at the world, and they reason our lost belief in magic, dreams, and possibilities.
00:24:16.720 --> 00:24:17.860
Michael Overlie: Well, that is beautiful.
00:24:18.140 --> 00:24:18.820
Genie Joseph: Is that nice?
00:24:18.940 --> 00:24:19.680
Genie Joseph: Is that nice?
00:24:19.920 --> 00:24:20.300
Genie Joseph: Yeah.
00:24:21.280 --> 00:24:23.660
Genie Joseph: So I think that's a good way to end.
00:24:23.680 --> 00:24:28.340
Genie Joseph: In our next episode, we're going to be talking about ethical connections with animals.
00:24:28.360 --> 00:24:29.860
Genie Joseph: So that's some of the tougher stuff.
00:24:30.160 --> 00:24:32.820
Genie Joseph: Well, I hope you'll be willing to join us for that one.
00:24:32.840 --> 00:24:34.520
Michael Overlie: Sounds great.
00:24:34.540 --> 00:24:35.640
Michael Overlie: Hope to see you guys there.
00:24:35.720 --> 00:24:37.080
Michael Overlie: Thank you, everyone, for being here.
00:24:37.440 --> 00:24:37.980
Genie Joseph: Thank you.
00:24:38.180 --> 00:24:40.280
Genie Joseph: And we'll say aloha for now.
00:24:46.902 --> 00:24:49.782
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