Animals Like Us

THE complex mental and emotional activity evidenced in the kingdoms of nature — from microbes to man’s best friend — was largely unappreciated by science until recent years.

Perhaps we were too lost in our large physical brains to notice our interconnectedness with nature.

Intellect develops in man at the expense of instinct, according to Theosophy. And what remains is a “flickering reminiscence of a once divine spiritual omniscience.”

“Reason — the badge of sovereignty of physical man over all other organisms in nature — is often put to shame by the instinct of an animal,” Blavatsky wrote in Isis Unveiled.

A human’s brain is larger and more complex than that of any other creature, and his intellect is therefore more pronounced.  But, intellect alone “serves humans only for material concerns” she says.

Mentality is incapable of leading us to any useful appreciation of either the innate order, or the spiritual intelligence displayed by nature.

It Takes a Community

“We’re going to have to start changing the way we think about microbes,” writes Hayley Birch in “Bugging bugs: Learning to speak microbe,” March 5, 2010 NewScientist.

“Bacteria aren’t just isolated cells, or even isolated populations, but multi-species communities that communicate with each other and, crucially, us.”

Birch concludes that “we are, almost certainly, more intimately connected with the bacteria that inhabit us than we ever would have believed,” and quotes microbiologist Steve Atkinson at the University of Nottingham in the UK:

“We’d be naive to believe that we exist in splendid isolation from all other organisms — we’ve thought that way for too long.”

Can We Handle the Truth?

Taking it Personally

Eastern religions are accused of crude ignorant superstition because they personified and even deified the chief organs of the human body. “Foolish” Hindus speak of the small-pox as a goddess, Blavatsky writes, “personifying the microbes of the variolic virus.”

In her article Kosmic Mind, she also mentions the “Tantrikas,” who are

“… a sect of mystics, giving proper names to nerves, cells and arteries, connecting and identifying various parts of the body with deities, endowing functions and physiological processes with intelligence.”

“The vertebrae, fibers, ganglia, the cord, etc., of the spinal column — the heart, its four chambers, auricle and ventricle, valves and the rest — stomach, liver, lungs and spleen,” she said — “everything has its special deific name, is believed to act consciously.”

A century in advance of today’s biological discoveries, Blavatsky concluded:

“… the whole body of man is composed of cells, and these cells are now being recognized as individual organisms and — quien sabe — will come perhaps to be recognized some day as an independent race of thinkers inhabiting the globe, called man! It really looks like it.”

Deepak Chopra: “The Wonder of You”

Gaia’s Village

Microorganisms are essential members of Earth’s closely knit family, actively promoting the balance of health and disease thoughout nature.

Ecologically, they are being used in the production of biofuels, and eating excess methane, just two of many important areas of current research.

Culturing Dunaliella algae

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Blavatsky concludes:

“In losing instinct, man loses his intuitional powers, which are the crown and ultimatum of instinct.”

As quoted in the recent post Healing the Beast:

“Reason is the clumsy weapon of the scientists — intuition the unerring guide of the seer.”

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Superhero Animals

“Like everything else which has its origin in psychological mysteries, instinct has been too long neglected in the domain of science. ‘We see what indicated the way to man to find relief for all his physical ailings,’ says Hippocrates.”

Blavatsky continues…

“It is the instinct of the earlier races, when cold reason had not as yet obscured man’s inner vision. . . . Its indication must never be disdained, for it is to instinct alone that we owe our first remedies.”

"Angel" saved owner's life.

The God-like

Our god-like nature is usually engulfed by reason, and we shut ourselves out from “the divine light of intuition” often displayed by animals.  (Yes, we are linking instinct with intuition.) — “The one crawls, the other flies.”

Setting aside “finite reason,” man has potentially, she writes:

“… instantaneous and unerring cognition of an omniscient mind.”

Army Dog Saves Lives

Brave and courageous are just two of the words the Army is saying about Treo as the army dog earns the PDSA’s Dickin medal for saving lives in Afghanistan by locating explosives devises.

The Army says that Treo has saved countless soldiers and civilian lives.

The Black Labrador Treo received the medal, which is the animal equivalent of the Victoria Cross, for his work searching for roadside bombs in Afghanistan that have been laid by the Taliban.

"Treo"

The 8-year-old dog was posted to Afghanistan in March 2008. One of his biggest finds was a daisy chain IED which is two or more explosives wired together to maximize casualties.

Within a month Treo found a similar device that could have caused major casualties for his platoon.

Princess Alexandra awarded Treo the award accompanied by his handler for the last 5 years Sergeant Dave Heyhoe. 63 animals have been awarded the medal since it began in 1943. Treo has now retired and will have an easier life just searching for balls.

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To be continued……