Author Nancy Crowe

How a Let Animals Lead® session works

Nancy Crowe 1 Comment

If you are considering Let Animals Lead® to support a beloved animal’s well-being, it may help to know more about what happens during a typical session. Let Animals Lead® is a meditation-based form of Reiki, a stress relief modality that also promotes healing.

Getting there

For in-person appointments in the Fort Wayne, Indiana area, which last about an hour, I come to your home, barn, or clinic. When I arrive, we can get acquainted and talk about whatever concerns you may have. Then I’ll find a comfortable place to sit or stand near the animal. After I say a silent prayer and gain the animal’s permission to share energy, I will enter a peaceful, meditative state. The animal is free to lie still, stand, move around, eat, get a drink of water, go out for a pit stop, etc. The energy, which means the force that animates all living things, will go to work wherever it is needed.

Why it works

It works for two reasons. First, the energy comes not from me but from a higher power: God, the Universe, All That Is. There are many names. I’m the conduit, not the source. Reiki is not affiliated with any particular religious tradition, but at the same time, it is based on the notion that the energy comes from a safe, loving place where all living beings are connected.

Second, I am sharing the energy with the animals rather than doing something to them. During a session, cats or dogs will often come closer, curl up next to me, or settle in my lap, but they sometimes prefer to be a few feet away or even leave the room. That’s OK; I won’t chase after them. However they want to participate in a Let Animals Lead® session, or not, is up to them. It’s really not the same model of the Reiki client lying on the table and the practitioner moving around him or her using the hand positions.

That’s why it works. More often than not, we don’t know how, and that can be hard to get our heads around. I’m a skeptical journalist who never expected to be doing anything like this, and I wouldn’t keep doing it if I didn’t see the benefits.

Peaceful presence

A Let Animals Lead® session is not about fixing the animal or getting rid of what’s wrong. It’s about creating and sharing a peaceful space that promotes whatever healing needs to happen. The animals usually have a better sense of that than we do, which is all the more reason to let them lead.

You and any other humans or animals present are welcome to participate and may also benefit from the session, but I generally keep conversation to a minimum during the meditation. After about 30 minutes, I will gently bring the meditation to a close and we can talk about any feelings, questions, or impressions that arose. Most animals (and humans) feel relaxed and rejuvenated after a Reiki session.

We can then discuss and/or make an appointment for further sessions. The benefits are cumulative and it helps the animal to get to know me over multiple visits, so I generally recommend a series of three sessions over 10 days to three weeks, depending on the animal’s circumstances and needs. Then I’ll be on my way, and you are encouraged to contact me with any questions or concerns.

Let Animals Lead® and animal communication

I sometimes send distant Reiki energy as part of an animal communication session. However, a Reiki session is a time of meditation and quiet healing, and an animal communication session is about gathering information and insight. So, while there is some overlap between the two, the objectives are different enough that I handle them separately. Please see my animal communication page for more information.

Anthropomorphism and animal communication

Nancy Crowe

Today’s $40 word (there are no more $10 words available; I checked) is anthropomorphism, which means giving human feelings, behavior or characteristics to non-human creatures and things.

In addition to clever photo editing, that’s what’s happening in this image of a dog in sunglasses with a stylish sweater, scarf and sport coat. We see it in children’s literature when animals dress, live and act like humans to entertain or make a point.

Probably little, if any, of this is done with intent to disrespect animals or miseducate young humans. However, it’s all too easy for humans of any age to project a human motivation or emotion onto a companion animal’s behavior. It also misses an opportunity to see something from the animal’s point of view.

My job as an animal communicator is to go into any session with knowledge about the species I’m working with. For example, when I began doing farm work I read up on the health and behavior of pigs and goats. That helped me understand a former house pig with some adjustment issues, and I learned about polioencephalomalacia (sometimes known as goat polio) while working with a rescued, malnourished goat.

Regardless of species or issue, it’s most important to actively listen to what this animal is telling me about his or her world. Learning to blend knowledge, skill and presence this way reminds me very much of my seminary education.

The code of ethics I follow also calls interspecies telepathic communicators to “walk in humility, willing to recognize and clear up our own errors in understanding others’ communication (human and non-human alike).”

That is, until a young rabbit pillages your garden and leaves behind part of his wardrobe as evidence (I see you, Peter Rabbit and friends).

(Image by Taras Yasinski from Pixabay)

It takes a neighborhood

Nancy Crowe

On the other side of this sign is a bin full of toys. Stevie Wonder was not in the yard when I walked by, but I would happily have chucked a ball (even though I throw like a girl).

I am always touting the benefits of animal enrichment, not to mention community support, with clients. So this made my day. Kudos to Stevie Wonder for getting someone with thumbs to design and execute it!