Chris Michell - Whales and Dolphins

WE DO NOT SUPPORT HOLDING DOLPHINS AND WHALES IN CAPTIVITY!  PLEASE DON’T SWIM WITH CETACEANS IN DOLPHINARIA…   EVER!   IT IS CRUELTY TO CETACEANS….
If you want to interact directly with whales and dolphins, then do so, respectfully, in the wild and open ocean. There are many responsible operators who do good whale and dolphin watching trips in small boats or kayaks, worldwide. See wdcs.org <http://wdcs.org>  for information.
 
ALSO:  WE TOTALLY OPPOSE KILLING CETACEANS, FOR ANY REASON WHATSOEVER… INCLUDING IN THE NAME OF SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH…. 
Please contact wdcs.org <http://wdcs.org>  for ways to protest against the killing of Cetaceans. Chris Michell has been an Honorary Life Member of WDCS since the early nineties.

The Healing Power of Dolphins
Chris Michell
Article published in Chalice magazine, UK, 1993; The Whole Person, Australia, 1994; The Crete Courier, Greece, 2008   

In Ancient Greece, to kill a dolphin was regarded as a crime punishable by death. The mammals represented the vital power of the sea and were revered as sacred creatures and symbols of creativity and good fortune. Apollo, the Greek Sun God whose attributes included music and healing, assumed the form of a dolphin and presided over his divinatory shrine at Delphi (the Greek word for dolphin, ‘delphys’ also meant womb). A dolphin Goddess known as Atargatis was worshipped in the Nabatean culture. Far away in Mornington Island, Northern Australia, Aboriginal shamans were said to communicate telepathically with dolphins to engage their help with healing and magic. And in the Amazon, the fresh-water Boto dolphins are still seen as fortunate fertility symbols by the natives.

Now that cetaceans are facing planetary extinction, it seems that we, at last, realise that dolphins and whales are very special beings who have much to teach us. Indeed, some visionaries claim that the whales and dolphins act as a kind of ‘immune system’ for the planet and that, if they are wiped out, the consequences for the human race will be disastrous.

There have been numerous examples of dolphins coming to the aid of human beings. Once, I met a girl who had fallen from a yacht off the coast of South Africa.  As she went under water for the third time, believing herself to be drowning, a pod of dolphins appeared as if from nowhere, and kissing her cheeks with their snouts, lifted her up so she could be rescued. It was the most miraculous and transforming experience of her life.

My personal experience of dolphin magic occurred one summer a few years ago when my daughter Sophie (then nine years old) and I swam with Freddie the wild dolphin at Amble, N. England. Sophie had been born within a year of her elder brother Thomas’ death. I felt intuitively that swimming with a dolphin would have a wonderful effect on both Sophie and me.

Sophie swam with Freddie on two occasions. Both times, he deliberately lay belly-up about a foot under her, aligning his body with hers. At first, Sophie was very scared of Freddie, but then became totally confident and joyful with him. The second time they swam together, Sophie underwent a  sort of catharsis, crying hysterically and letting go much grief. It may be coincidence, but she soon became a much more confident child, doing extremely well with her schoolwork. Sophie, herself, believes that swimming with Freddie was a transformational turning-point in her life.

That dolphins appear to have an uplifting effect on the human spirit has been attested by many people. Bill Bowell, severely depressed at the time, said his swim with the dolphin called Simo in Pembroke, S. Wales, changed his mental outlook. Bill insisted that it did more to lift his depression than twelve years of psychiatric treatment. In a similar way, Jemima Biggs, then chronically anorexic, reported that she had regained her sense of self-esteem sufficiently, after swimming with wild dolphins, to go ahead and gain a first-class honours degree. She claimed the dolphins had restored her sense of self-worth.

At Dolphin Plus Centre in Key Largo, Florida, Dr. Betsey Smith worked with groups of autistic children in a therapy research programme. She observed that neurologically impaired children responded positively to close contact with dolphins. For example, Michael Williams, a non-verbal, autistic 18 year old started to communicate for the first time after having played with dolphins, in a series of clicks which imitated the mammals. He also became more relaxed, happy and enthusiastic. Eventually, Michael clicked not only to live dolphins, but also to visual images of dolphins. The study concluded that dolphins were able to stimulate uncharacteristic spontaneous and communicative behaviour in an autistic person.

Mothers about to give birth also seem to attract the magical help of the dolphins. In the 1960’s, Igor Charkovsky, a male mid-wife and swimming instructor, pioneered underwater birthing. He observed that babies born under the water developed faster that those delivered in the normal way. In 1987, Charkovsky assisted 15 pregnant women to give birth in the Black Sea. He repeated the procedure in 1988 with 35 women. In both cases, a pod of dolphins appeared voluntarily to assist... they seemed to be acting as ‘dolphin mid-wives’. All the babies were safely delivered. Furthermore, these children later appeared to be more intelligent and physically advanced than normal and were able to swim under water for exceptionally long periods.

Interaction with dolphins or with their ‘energies’ seems to have a profoundly beneficial effect on humans, both on a mental and physical level. The mammals appear to emanate a feeling of total, unconditional love and joy. Their very energy field has an uplifting effect on us. Perhaps it is their abundance of ‘chi’ or life energy which we can draw on. Dolphins beam out sound waves, sonar, to create a sound picture or hologram of their environment. When swimming with a human, the dolphin bounces the sonar off the human’s body to scan us, but it also seems to make us feel better! When I swam with Freddie the dolphin, I believe that he consciously cleansed, balanced and opened the chakras or energy centres of my body, particularly my heart chakra.

It also seems possible that dolphins can use sound-waves in the form of sonar to diagnose illness. There was the case of a woman who was butted so severely in the ribs when she swam with some wild dolphins that she had to go to hospital to have an X-ray. Imagine her surprise when a malignant tumour was located at the exact point on her body which was butted by the dolphin.  Did the dolphin ‘see’ the tumour with his sonar, or was it merely a coincidence?

For many people it is not possible to swim with a wild dolphin. However, images and music with dolphin sounds also seem to transmit a healing energy. After the death of my son Thomas Oliver in 1980, I had a profound spiritual experience.  I abandoned my career playing classical flute in symphony orchestras and became interested in healing, especially with sound and produced an album called Dolphin Love (1990) inspired by and channelled from dolphin energies. From letters received in response to the album, I learned that the dolphin music appeared to help release blocked emotions, lift stress and could even help alleviate insomnia, tinnitus and eczema. Children with autism, cerebral palsy and Down’s Syndrome also responded very positively to the music. It was also said to have a very soothing effect on the passing over of terminally ill cancer patients.

In India and Tibet, it is well known that the visual image of an ‘avatar’ ( the embodiment of Divine Love), such as His Holiness the Dalai Lama or Mother Meera, for example, can emanate a healing effect to their followers. Could it be that the dolphins also embody and give out Divine Love, linking to the Universal Consciousness to a much greater extent than we do? And is this perhaps why images of dolphins have such an uplifting effect on many people? The dolphins seem also use their sonar in a healing way. Sound is undoubtedly a carrier -wave of consciousness and can be used with healing intent to bring about the healing frequency. The dolphin energy  seems to be beneficial. It cleanses and uplifts us from the mundane. It can be experienced on a telepathic or psychic level or assimilated by contact with live dolphins. It can certainly be transmitted through music or visual images. It can be felt as orgasmic waves of energy, rather like W. Reich’s orgone energy. It opens up our creativity, sense of cosmic identity and gives a sense of total freedom. It is the same vibration of energy which is pure LOVE.

THE LAST WHALE album
A Royalty of 3% from the sale of each album is given to Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society Registered Charity No 1014705  
Click here to view album page

DOLPHIN LOVE album
This album has been sold to help raise money for International Dolphin Watch and Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society.
Click here to view album page