The Best Collected Travel Tales by Travel Psychologist Michael Brein
By: Michael Brein
Tags: Travel Writing, Wildlife, Dolphins, Travel, Psychology

Mind-Reading Dolphins?

Three more sea-creatures stories

ANIMAL COMMUNICATION

DOLPHINS

MARINE LIFE

THE PARANORMAL

by Michael Brein, Ph.D.,

The Travel Psychologist

Story 1:

Mind-Reading Dolphins?

The Great Barrier Reef, Australia

The 1990s

Told to me by BB D. Can dolphins mind-read or be telepathic with humans? BB makes an excellent case that maybe they can and do. Or maybe it’s just a matter of intelligent animal perception? You be the judge.

I scuba dive a lot in Australia, on the Great Barrier Reef, and it can be pretty dangerous out there, because of the sharks. But, for me, personally, I’ve never been scared of sharks. I have actually hand fed them; I’ve worked with them at Sea World in Main Beach, on the Gold Coast of Australia.

I think dolphins and sharks are very telepathic and can maybe even mind-read with humans. They know exactly when you’re scared. They’re like dogs that way. They know when you give off the electric signals of being scared — that attracts them. But I think it’s also more than that. I think they can, in some sense, mind-read, too — or be telepathic with people.

I was stuck once in an underwater cave while free diving, and what happened was the water pushes you in there, and it’s so much pressure that you cannot get yourself out. I just didn’t panic, though. Iheld my breath.

I could see the light shining through on the surface, so I managed first to wriggle my arm out of the cave, and then I pulled myself out. And at that point, while still under water, and barely able to keep holding my breath, suddenly these dolphins just surrounded me and made like a swirling suction kind of motion through which I could funnel myself up to the surface.

Michael: They rescued you?

Yes, they rescued me; I know they did! I still get cold shivers when I think about it.

Michael: Did you have any mental communication with the dolphins?

Well, I wouldn’t necessarily say it was any direct sort of mind-to-mind form of communication, per se, but I strongly felt they knew I was in trouble. Whether it’s a form of mind-reading, telepathy, or just some enhanced chemical or electrical sense of some kind, I do not know.

I just know they are aware when people are in trouble.

And, one other time, I was in a boat which was taking on water off of Catalina Island in California. We’d been sailing for hours, and I thought a big wave had just come over us and got the boat wet, but then, I soon discovered I was up to my ankles in water. I didn’t yet realize the boat was actually beginning to take on water and was in trouble.

And, on making our way back to port, I noticed that the dolphins suddenly surrounded our boat. They know when people are in trouble — they know instinctively.

I didn’t know where they had come from or how they knew, but, obviously; they knew what was happening and had come from somewhere maybe to be helpful in some way, huh? Pretty wild, don’t you think?

If you ask me, I think they are more intelligent than anything else on earth; you know. Even though it may be some kind of highly developed electrical sensing of some kind, I can’t help but feel they were consciously aware in some way of my mental state — maybe even a form of telepathy or brain-to-brain awareness which we might label as paranormal.

The Travel Psychologist’s Take:

The Deadly Fer de Lance Snake

I think there is a degree of telepathy between some animals, but it’s not always a good kind of telepathy.

For example, I collected a story once, in my travel tales series, where this woman was on a canoe inGamboa National Park in Panama City, Panama approaching the riverbank, and suddenly, the hair on her arms stood up on end, and she got this mental message “Stop, turn around, go away, go back. Don’t come any closer!”

And then she looked at the bank where she was about to land the canoe and step off, and there facing her was this deadly poisonous fer-de-lance snake all curled up, nearly within striking distance of her, just looking right at her, staring into her eyes.

I think it communicated telepathically to her, “just don’t you come here!”

Her first thought was it must have been her ‘guardian angel’ warning her. I said it might have been her guardian angel, or maybe it was the snake itself, communicating with her telepathically?

I just brought that up half-seriously, for the sake of argument, just to entertain it as an alternate possibility, because it just seems to me snakes might just possibly be telepathic!

Who can say?

Read more of my deadly snake stories on Medium.com.

Story 2:

Sandy’s Whale Story:

Here’s Looking at You!

Baja California, Mexico

The Early 1990s

Told to me by Sandy P. I was I camped by the San Ignacio Lagoon in Baja California. It’s the place where the gray whales come in, and you can interact with them on the Mexican side.

And so, I went out into the bay in a small boat with a guide, and we waited patiently on the bay to see what would happen.

Suddenly, I saw this enormous shadow under the boat.

I knew it was a whale, so I casually thought, Okay, here’s a whale. But I had absolutely no idea what was in store for us!

The whale came up to the surface. It turned its head and looked right at me with that huge eye of his and then lifted his head high up out of the water.

Unbelievably, I was able to pet him — mind you — not just touch him once and have him disappear, but I actually stroked this whale. And then he silently and gracefully went down, disappeared, and this time came up on the other side of the boat. I pet him again!

The whale then went down under the boat again and came up again on the other side. This went on for 30 minutes.

Michael: What was going on?

I don’t know. This is one place in the world where the whales actually seek out human contact. I’m not the only one to have this experience, either.

And I had a baby whale come up out of the water, too. I almost kissed him.

And then another time there was a gap between a mother and a baby the whole time. I came to this area; I think three different times. The whole time, each time, I never felt unsafe, not even for a minute! They never, never even once hit the boat.

They were always very cognizant of where they were in relation to you, except the one time with a mother and her baby when the baby kept coming over to the boat. And the mother was trying to keep running interference.

This one time, the mother came over and knocked her head to the boat only slightly, causing us to rock-and-roll a bit.

And that was just it — just her message to us: we needed to stop interfering.

She wasn’t hostile, though, but she did knock the boat with her head a couple of times. She could have easily knocked us over, but she didn’t.

That was the simple message to steer clear of her baby.

Michael: Do you think she had the experience of being pestered by humans?

I don’t know. I don’t think so.

If they’ve done any studies on these whales here, it’s a place of peace and harmony where they birth their baby calves right outside the dunes where they can come into the lagoon, because they’re very protected there.

You know how you often hear it said you should never come in between a mother and a baby calf, right? Well, it’s definitely true. Yeah.

Michael: Now let me ask you this: when you had this huge whale I looking right at you, did you feel any kind of communication going on between the two of you?

It was as if it were looking at me to see if they could trust me enough to come up out of the water. I felt like I was being checked out. Because, otherwise, he would have just come up without the human contact we wanted to have with it. It would have just come up without any direct interaction.

But just the fact that he turned and looked at us was unbelievably bizarre in and of its own.

Michael: So what do you think whales were reading about you? What kind of person are you? A person who loves such encounters would be changed for life, I would think.

Yeah. That’s incredible.

Hummingbirds

I do have other stories which have to do with contact between humans and animals, you know, but I particularly like this next one.

We’ve had a lot of contact with hummingbirds, of all things. We had a hummingbird feeder.

Once we took care of a hummingbird inside the house for a 24-hour period. We took care of a hummingbird that crashed into the window one time and got stunned by it.

And when it recovered, my husband held it in his hands to let it go, whereupon it flew right up in front of his face and made eye contact with him as if to say, “Thank you!”

Margaret Howe Lovatt

Story 3:

“Dolphina,” the Dolphin Lady, Again!

One lady’s being upfront and personal with dolphins

Bimini, The Bahamas

2008

Told to me by Robin B. I went with a group of animal communicators to swim with wild dolphins. Being with a group of animal communicators is what made the trip even that more special because, as part of the process, we would “talk” to the animals before we went out, so they would be ready for us and be very willing.

And we just had, indeed, one such incredible experience with them, where they do come to you. You don’t go to them; they come to you.

And, if they stayed around your boat, we’d then send a couple more people into the water to see if they’d still stay around. It was a kind of stepwise approach.

And then, if they stay, it’s game on: everybody gets in the water.

And so, one day, we were all in the water. There were probably about 20 dolphins out there with us. These were bottlenose dolphins, and they were just all swimming around us. And it was absolutely amazing. They would just come within inches of your face, though never touching.

And the rule is you don’t touch them, either. You know, they’re still wild animals. You have to respect them, but they do want to interact with you. They totally come to you.

Michael: Do they feel good about humans?

Yes, they do. Especially humans who have open hearts because that’s what their messages seem to be focused on: they’re trying to help us open our hearts.

They’re such joyous, amazing creatures.

Anyhow, I was just in awe of them. Of course, you’re in probably 30 feet of water or so with snorkels. The seas were a bit rough. For our part, we weren’t all that far from land. I don’t know how to gauge the distance. You could see land off in the distance. But you know, we weren’t.

So I was out there ecstatic. They’re just coming all around us and wanting to interact,

I was having a hard time with my snorkel. And I think I must have twisted something. And the water was getting in, and I was having an increasingly hard time breathing. And I am fumbling, all the while, what with this dolphin being just upright like this (demonstrates to me), just as close as you and I are together. And it’s just watching me.

And it’s like my entire demeanor is like, Oh my god, I don’t even care that I can’t breathe because you’re so amazing you’re right here with me!

I’m thinking this.

Michael: Are you having eye contact with him?

Oh, for sure. That’s right. Oh, yeah. Yeah, yeah!

And he’s just right there all the while, being very still, just watching me while I’m struggling. And I can’t breathe.

Michael: Does he know you’re struggling?

Oh, yes; he does. But he can’t do anything. But the thing is, he just sits there and is calm all the while.

So finally, I get it together, and I’m able to take in some deep breaths and relax, you know, because, God, I’m sure the energy of just being here is the ultimate big experience that it is, huh?

And he’s just so patient. I am quite surprised. You’d think I would have kind of scared him out of the water, what with all my nervous human energy.

Yeah, but anyhow, so he just stayed with me until I totally was able to relax enough and just calm myself down. And then he just sort of looked at me and then swam off.

I’m thinking he was likely a male, as I found out later he was a male.

And then, you know, all these other ones were swimming all around. And then I noticed a friend of mine was diving down, and his fin came off in the water. So I then dove down to try to retrieve it for him and give it to him, because there was some current.

So then I started kicking really hard. And, in the process, my own fin fell off. So, of course, I give up on him because I’ve got to retrieve my own fin. So I went to swim by it, and wouldn’t you know it: there’s a dolphin just right next to the fin, about six inches away from it, just hanging with it as the current was kind of taking it farther away from the boat.

And so, I swim up to it, not wanting to swim too fast because I don’t want to spook him. But I need my fin back because it’s a little scary being out there. And without fins, given there’s a strong current out there, you can so easily get too far away from the catamaran.

And so, you have to always be conscious of staying close.

And so anyhow, I slowly creep up to the fin, slowly floating toward it. So, the fin now rests between me and the dolphin.

And it just looked at me, and I just looked at it. And then I slowly pick up the fan and put it on, and then it just kind of hangs in there for a minute. And then it’s like, “Okay, you’re okay.”

And then off he goes!

Michael: So, he connected with you. He knew you were trying to get the fin to put it on; you think?

Yeah, I think he was just kind of watching it for me, just kind of making sure I was okay. I mean, it was just a very tender feeling, you know. It’s the sort of feeling you got when you were in the water.

I am just absolutely blown away by the whole thing.

And this is happening all the while, among all this burst of activity of the people and the dolphins. All this is going on betwixt and between all that’s going on with all the people and the dolphins swimming around together.

And when I finally get out of the water because I was just so exhausted — I’d been out there for over an hour — one of the women on the boat shouts, “Oh my God, Robin, we’re all starting to call you, “Dolfina!”

And I say, “Well, why is that?”

And she says, “Because they were all around you.”

And I say, “Well, they were around everybody!”

“No, no; not like they were around you!”

I guess because, after all, they could see easier all what’s going on from their vantage point being up above.

And they go, “Oh, no; they just were around you the whole time.”

I went, “Wow, that’s interesting!”

“Yeah, I think he was just kind of watching it for me… ”

So not only was “talking” (animal communicating) with the dolphins prior to swimming with them an integral part of the process but “talking” with them, so-to-speak, afterward, was also to be part of that very same dolphin experience.

Later that night, when we returned to where we were staying, as part of our dolphin experience, we all were asked to have another “conversation” with a particular dolphin we met during the day.

So, of course, I wanted to “talk” to the two dolphins that interacted up close and personal with me during the day.

And so I call to them in my mind. And I don’t know… Michael, do you know about animal communication? Have you ever done anything with that or heard of it?

Michael: No, not much.

It’s basically telepathy.

Michael: Okay.

So you just get yourself into a quiet space. And then, you know, you start communicating.

They say some people hear; some people feel; some people get images; sometimes you get combinations of all the above. And I kind of get a bit of both — a little of a lot of those things.

I usually “hear” them, you know. I hear them along with some imagery.

And I immediately hear this little voice saying to me, “Well, that was ME both times!”

And so I say, “Oh, cool. Well, thank you very, very much.”

And I find out it was a little male under two-years-old. And what I found out afterward is that from the number of spots they have, you can kind of gauge how old they are because as they get older, they get more spots.

So the number of spots on his body was consistent with that age he told me he was, yeah, around two years old.

And so I thank him for hanging out with me when I was in distress.

And in my “conversation” with him, he said, “I wanted you to know what true compassion feels like.”

And I then got this huge overwhelming feeling of compassion come over me, such that I just sat there and cried. I mean, tears were rolling down my face.

It was as if he was then sending me this same very compassion yet again.

Furthermore, he said, “You know; you give compassion to others. And I just wanted you to know what it feels like to be on that other end, the receiving end.”

And it was all very, very sweet, and very humbling.

And then he said, “It’s very easy to give compassion to those who are loving and open and easy. But that same compassion certainly needs to go to those who aren’t so easy to love. They need that same unconditional compassion.”

Michael: And this is not something you would have ordinarily come up with yourself?

No, no, not at all! I mean, it was just this beautiful little lesson of compassion. It was just so beautiful.

So we just “talked” for a while longer. I got a some more detail about his family, and, you know, just a bit more about who he is. But, in the end, the gift that he wanted to give me was already given, and it was an amazing gift at that.

The next morning, I walked over to one of the cabins, to a woman I had befriended on this trip but never knew her all that well before this trip.

She was a sweet, sweet woman who was having a hard time on this trip. I found out later. This was her first time she’d been out without her lover who’d recently had to put her into a nursing home because of developing Alzheimer’s. So she was having a hard time with that.

And she had also been suffering from very bad rheumatoid arthritis. And she didn’t have her normal person to help her, like, to get into her wetsuit stuff, put on sunscreen in places she couldn’t reach, and so on.

I just more or less adopted her during the week because I saw she needed the help. And so that’s how our relationship started.

So, naturally, I told her the story about this little dolphin I talked to during the day because she, herself, did not go to our evening exercise thing; she went to bed early.

And here’s what’s so amazing: she says, “Robin, when you were out there swimming, I called the dolphins to you. I told them that if anybody deserves love that it’s YOU.”

Of course, it was her way of thanking me for all throughout the week of my helping her — to say to me that that’s what she was doing. So, according to her, that’s why the little dolphins came to me — they kind of came around full circle to me. It was just a really beautiful sweet moment on love.

From the Internet

There was a lady who was said to have lived and developed an unusual relationship with a dolphin named “Peter.”

Margaret Howe Lovatt took part in the 1960a in a NASA-funded research effort. It was said that in part she developed even an unusual relationship that was said to even have had a sexual component, by the way.

The director of the project was Gregory Bateson, and she met John C. Lilly, as well, a famous neuroscientist at the time with the California Institute of Technology.

The purpose of this “Dolphinarium” project was to teach dolphins human language.

So, over two years, Dr. Lilly and Margaret Howe tried to prove that human language could be mimicked by dolphins. The project had mixed success, but Margaret was so-named, or at least thought of as, perhaps, the first “Dolphina”— the Girl who Talked to Dolphins, a documentary by Christopher Riley.