An Exchange of Love: Animals Healing People in Past, Present and Future Lifetimes

Madeleine Walker's An Exchange of Love pushes the boundaries of what it is possible to achieve through telepathic animal communication beyond what we might have ever imagined. There is no other way to say it.

As any animal communicator will tell you, it is the animals themselves who are our best teachers. Through her work with animals, initially as a communicator and ultimately as a holistic healer, Madeleine has been transformed by the animals she has worked with, and her trust in their messages, and in the messages of her spirit guides, has enabled her to accomplish many small miracles.

Ms. Walker's philosophy is deceptively simple. As she explains it:

"The words, 'an exchange of love,' represent the ability and willingness of one to

heal another. This form of communication works on many levels. First there is

the one-to-one link between myself and the animal on a physical and mental level.

All I feel at this point is a giving and receiving of overwhelming love. When trust is

established, even the most apparently aggressive and dangerous animal relaxes,

and the communication begins."

Among the challenging cases that Madeleine Walker chronicles in her heartfelt account is that of Shannon, a mare who had become anxious, unpredictable, and even dangerous. Though Shannon's person seemed to understand that her dear horse harbored no malicious intents, she had begun to despair because it had become virtually impossible to work around Shannon, let alone to ride her. As Madeleine began to communicate with her, Shannon revealed that the source of her agitation was to be found in many of her past lives, when she had been a victim of a predator or had been powerless to escape from some attack:

"She showed me a lifetime when she had been a dray horse in London during the

blitz. A bomb had fallen on the building where she had been stalled and she had

been hit and mortally injured by the fragments of metal, wood and stone. The

sense of helplessness and inability to escape was overwhelming. This seemed to

be a repeated pattern as she showed me many lifetimes of trauma."

To help animals like Shannon, whose present-day behavior belies trauma, injury, or terror suffered in previous incarnations, Madeleine has developed a technique whereby she processes the energetic "holograms" of the animals's past selves by allowing them to pass through her and then, after they have been transformed, she reintegrates them back into the animal. With Shannon, as with so many of Ms. Walker's animal clients, this unique form of "soul retrieval" has often successfully restored a sense of peace to formerly tormented animals.

For animals who have physical ailments which have stymied medical diagnosis or have not responded to conventional veterinary prescriptions, Madeleine conducts what she describes as "psychic surgery," whereby she uses "the power of the mind to move and change energy," a technique she has learned from the animals themselves. Using her intention, visualization, and her sincere desire to work for the highest good of her animal client, she creates "light crystals," which "do not exist as a physical reality," but which can be placed "within or around the body. . .depending on the specific needs of the client." They have achieved wondrous results on horses with inexplicable back pain and even on dogs such as Toby the Lab, who refused to walk on wooden floors until Madeleine placed a cushion of energetic crystals between the pads of his feet.

For aspiring animal communicators or for anyone who would like to enhance her connection with animals through the use of telepathy and intention, Ms. Walker has encouraging words:

"Everyone who is open to the concept of telepathic communication can learn to

communicate with every living thing on the planet--and possibly the spirits of

those who have died, too. It's simply a question of remembering our long-buried

skills. It only depends on how committed you are to deepening your connection

to all that is. . .Learning to listen is the first part; really hearing is the important bit."

An Exchange of Love is a collection of profound and moving stories, and best of all, they are all true. They will expand your understanding of what animals feel, sense, think, believe, and experience, and most poignantly, allow you to peer into the depths of animals' connections with their human companions, and of ours with them.

The Horses of Proud Spirit and Hoof Prints: More Stories from Proud Spirit

To-date, the lives of more than 150 horses, ponies, and donkeys have been saved because of the quiet but steely determination of Melanie Sue Bowles and her husband, Jim, who have devoted most of the hours and minutes of their days to Proud Spirit Horse Sanctuary for the last 15 years.

In The Horses of Proud Spirit, and its recent sequel, Hoof Prints: More Stories from Proud Spirit, Melanie Sue Bowles recounts, with heartfelt emotion, candor, and sometimes, anguish, the stories of dozens of the abused, neglected, discarded, and needy horses who have been fortunate enough to find a permanent home, and loving care, within the boundaries of her sanctuary, now located in Arkansas.

She knew little about horses when she purchased her first one, the broken and unloved thoroughbred mare, Cody, who turned out to be the catalyst for Melanie's personal journey of self-discovery, one in which she would learn from the horses themselves what they needed to heal their wounded hearts.

Along the way, Ms. Bowles also paints a graphic picture of some of the horses who are made to endure horrific suffering at the hands of so-called "horse people" whose abuse too often goes unnoticed and unpunished, people who think that "animal communication" means showing a horse "who's boss":

"I refused to adopt this erroneous philosophy of showing the horse who is boss,
even though it was told to me over and over again by numerous horse people.
There must be respect, certainly, but
more than anything there needs to be trust.
And this respect and trust must be mutual.

Equine communication in its truest sense (means) communication that allows
the horse to be a partner and respond out of understanding and a desire to
participate, rather than fear or pain."

Without Ms. Bowles' personal intervention, scores of horses would have died cruel deaths by shotguns, slaughterhouses, or even purposeful neglect. They are safe now, and their spirits are running free.

Melanie Sue Bowles' stories are not only well-told, they are vital for anyone who wants to develop an understanding of the plight of horses in this country. Even the "bluebloods" are at risk of being cavalierly cast off when they are deemed to be no longer "useful." Her accounts of the "lucky" ones who made it out alive are not always easy or comforting to read, and I cringed in the knowledge that Proud Spirit Horse Sanctuary cannot save them all.

Talk with Melanie Sue Bowles of Proud Spirit Horse Sanctuary at the Next Teleconference on Thursday, March 26th

I am pleased to announce that the next "Conversations with Animal Authors" interview will feature Melanie Sue Bowles, who will discuss her books, The Horses of Proud Spirit and Hoof Prints: More Stories from Proud Spirit during a free hour-long teleconference on Thursday, March 26th at 8:00pm (EDT).

Ms. Bowles, along with her husband, Jim, is the founder of Proud Spirit Horse Sanctuary, which originally opened in Florida and is now located on 320 rolling acres in the heart of the Ouachita Mountain Range outside Mena, Arkansas, where it is currently home to 63 horses who roam free as a herd on the open land. Proud Spirit Horse Sanctuary is one of the longest-existing privately run sanctuaries for horses in the United States. It was the inspiration for an Emmy-winning PBS documentary, "The Horses of Proud Spirit," based on Ms. Bowles' first book.

In The Horses of Proud Spirit and its recent sequel, Hoof Prints, Melanie Sue Bowles recounts, with heartfelt emotion, candor and sometimes, anguish, the stories of dozens of the abused, neglected, discarded, and needy horses who have been fortunate enough to find a permanent home, and loving care, within the boundaries of her Sanctuary. She knew nothing at all about horses when she purchased her first one, the broken and unloved mare, Cody, who turned out to be the catalyst for Melanie's personal journey of self-discovery, one in which she would learn from the horses themselves what they needed to heal their wounded hearts.

All royalties from the sales of The Horses of Proud Spirit and Hoof Prints are earmarked for the support of Proud Spirit Horse Sanctuary.

Callers who are interested in listening to Melanie Sue Bowles discuss her books, and the horses who live at Proud Spirit, can access the 60-minute "Conversations with Animal Authors" teleconference by calling 616-347-8100 and entering PIN #1063739. Long-distance charges may apply. For those who would like to hear the interview, but cannot participate live, a recording of the call will be posted on this site within a few days after the event.

The Healing Art of Pet Parenthood

On the March afternoon that my dear cat, Casey, had undergone surgery to have an anal sac tumor removed, I breathed a sign of relief. I actually saw the tumor, and thought that now that it had been expertly excised from her body, it couldn't hurt her anymore. For the moment, I clung to the belief that she had been cured, and that we would live happily ever after.

That sense of relief was short-lived, however, and when the the pathology results revealed a more ominous prognosis, I was faced with a terrible choice: put Casey through chemotherapy, which might offer an eight-month reprieve with potentially gruesome side effects, or opt for a more holistic approach, which would support Casey's quality of life while giving her an uncertain number of days to enjoy it. I opted for the more natural, less proven course of treatment, and for nine months, Casey thrived on it, even as the cancer continued to spread through her body and eventually caused it to surrender.

Having so recently gone through this experience with Casey, I was magnetically drawn to Nadine M. Rosin's account of her transformative journey with her cancer-striken dog, Buttons, in The Healing Art of Pet Parenthood.

Long before holistic veterinary medicine had begun to take hold as a viable alternative to traditional allopathic techniques, Ms. Rosin bravely trusted her own instincts and intuition, in defiance of conventional wisdom, when her veterinarian prounounced that Buttons would be dead in a matter of weeks unless she adhered to the recommended "slash and burn" protocol. But rather than focus on destroying the virulent squamous cell carcinoma that was invading Buttons' tail, Nadine charted a roadmap to wholeness that would eventually not just stop the invasive march of the cancer, but would support Buttons through another 11 years of vibrant and joyful life.

Of course, Ms. Rosin's determination to forge a holistic path for Buttons was not born in a vacuum. Throughout her adult life, she had instinctively shunned artifice and artificiality, gravitating always toward a natural way of living, one that was in sync with the flowing rhythms of life. And so when she was confronted with the prospect of seeing Buttons's body maimed and her spirit mutilated, Nadine simply chose another way.

The surprise of the book, reflected in its title, is that this is a saga not just of Buttons' healing journey, but just as importantly, of Nadine's. She seesaws between periods of health and physical disintegration, all the while sustained by her love for her dog and Buttons' love for her.

At one point, when she had reached a particularly painful nadir of despair, she became convinced that even Buttons had forsaken her. But when she confided that fear to a friend, he laughingly but knowingly admonished her:

"'Your dog loves you more than most people are loved by anybody. And
that is not my opinion, that is fact.

'How do you know that?' I questioned.

'Because,' he stated emphatically, 'if she didn't love you and want to be
with you, she would just leave.'

'She couldn't. I watch her all the time. She never has the opportunity to
get away.'

As if he were explaining to a child, my friend then very slowly and
exactingly said, 'She absolutely could leave you easily. She would just
have the cancer come back and die.'"

In that instant, Nadine re-embraced Buttons' unconditional love for her, and it gave her the strength to soldier on, successfully battling many more personal crises and health challenges, buoyed by her bond with the dog whom she lovingly called, "her daughter."

And as for Buttons' cancer, it never returned.

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I recently interviewed Nadine M. Rosin for the "Conversations with Animal Authors" teleconference series. You can listen to it here.

Talk with Nadine M. Rosin of The Healing Art of Pet Parenthood on Thursday, February 26th!

I'm simply delighted to announce that my guest on the next "Conversations with Animal Authors" teleconference will be Nadine M. Rosin, author of The Healing Art of Pet Parenthood, a book that's creating a big buzz among animal lovers across the country. I'll be interviewing her "live" on Thursday, February 26th at 8:00pm (EST), and I hope you'll join me.

In The Healing Art of Pet Parenthood, Ms. Rosin chronicles her 19-year journey with her beloved dog, Buttons, who was diagnosed with sqamous cell carcinoma when she was eight years old, and given just six weeks to live unless she had her tail amputated and followed a grueling course of radiation and chemotherapy.

Devastated, but undeterred, Nadine refused to accept that grim prognosis, and took matters into her own hands. She tapped into her background as a trained energy worker and created a revolutionary holistic regimen for Buttons, eliminating all household toxins from her environment, cleansing her body of all residual toxins, and giving Buttons' body the nutritional support it needed to heal itself. The results were dramatic. Buttons was not only cured, but she thrived for an additional 11 years, passing peacefully of old age a week before her 19th birthday.

If you are grappling with the serious illness of one of your own pets, or if you would like to hear, first-hand, what you can do to enhance your animals' health and longevity, you won't want to miss this free teleconference.

You can participate in the hour-long conversation by calling 616-347-8100 and entering PIN #1063739. Long-distance charges may apply.

Cat Writer Dusty Rainbolt Headlines First "Conversations With Animal Authors" Teleconference

I'm pleased to announce that award-winning writer, Dusty Rainbolt, will be my guest at the inaugural "Conversations With Animal Authors" teleconference, to be held on Thursday, January 29th at 8:30pm (EST). Ms. Rainbolt will discuss her recent book, Ghost Cats: Human Encounters with Feline Spirits, which was recently reviewed here.

The hour-long teleconference is free and can be accessed by calling: 616-347-8100, and entering PIN #1063739. Long-distance charges may apply. For those who are interested in hearing the interview, but cannot participate live, I'll be posting a link to a recording of the event a few days later.

Dusty Rainbolt is the host of the Pet Life Radio program, Paranormal Pets." She has written several other books, including Cat Wrangling Made Easy: Maintaining Peace and Sanity in Your Multicat Home, and Kittens for Dummies. She is also the product editor for Catnip newsletter, published by Tufts University School of Veterinary Medicine.

Dusty Rainbolt has a distinguished record as a cat chronicler, and she has been investigating paranormal phenomena since 1998. She brings not only a first-hand knowledge of the subject, but also, a spirit of fun, wonder, and good humor. I know that anyone who joins in on this call will have a great time.

Ghost Cats: Human Encounters with Feline Spirits

What is it about cats that so captures our imaginations when it comes to the paranormal? According to author Dusty Rainbolt:

"Our cats seem to live in that mysterious realm between the natural and the transcendental, betwixt the living and the dead."

Cats do seem to dominate the literature about phantom apparitions, and if you're endlessly fascinated with their uncanny--and sometimes eerie--appearances as translucent beings, then Ghost Cats: Human Encounters with Feline Spirits is for you.

Unlike Kim Sheridan's Animals and the Afterlife, which chronicled afterlife visitations from dogs and cats who came back to the people they knew and loved, not all of the emphemeral cats whose stories are documented in Ghost Cats are known to the people who see them. Some inhabit hotels and public places, and the author even includes a list of "locations that may have ghost cats," in case you'd like to go in search of them. According to Ms. Rainbolt:

"There's a mystery and a tension that comes with cat entities when you never knew that cat in life. I selected these tales for their strangeness. In most cases, the people featured in the stories were visited by ghost cats they'd had no connection with. Why die these cats come back? Did they select the people to haunt, or were they simply trapped in their place of death?"

Often, the spirit felines are encountered after a family moves into a new home. The cats' previous human companions may have vacated the premises, but these kitties aren't going anywhere. Some of them may not even have realized that they have passed into another dimension: they continue to play with living cats and dogs and jump up on tables and beds, and on occasion, even make distinctive mewing sounds that can be disconcerting, indeed.

Most of the people whose stories are told in this enjoyable volume had no prior experience with ghosts or spirits. They are not psychic, they don't possess special powers, and they seem to have "an easy acceptance of the occurrence." Ms. Rainbolt notes that:

"Few people felt threatened or disturbed by the dead kitty's appearance. People usually felt blessed and happy about their cats' spiritual return, while they might have gone into a complete panic had a dead parent or spouse shown up instead."

Having recently lost my beloved cat, Casey, I've been hoping that she might reappear--even fleetingly--to reinforce my belief that she continues to live on another plane, albeit one where I cannot see or touch her. Ms. Rainbolt's deep understanding of the bond between cats and their people is what gives Ghost Cats its power, and what prevents it from being just another compilation of scary stories:

"During their lives with us, cats act as our companions, caretakers, nurses, counselors, and even entertainers. And after that all-too-short life comes to an end, their absence leaves a huge hole in our lives. Nothing will ever be the same. You feel incomplete, empty.

But that spirit who loved you so unconditionally in life continues to love you despite that vast invisible gulf that divides you."

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I'm thrilled to announce that Dusty Rainbolt will be my guest at the inaugural "Conversations with Animal Authors" Teleconference, on January 29th!

More details will follow!