This article previously appeared in the journal Species Link (Winter 2008 issue), the professional journal of animal communicators. The column was Voice of the Expert, and I wrote this response to a question from an animal communicator who was concerned because a client thought that animal communication could trigger seizures.
Dear Fellow Practitioner:
I have spent some time studying brain disorders, both when I ran a neurofeedback clinic, and working with a doctor doing brain maps (Quantitative EEG type). Many of my patients had seizure disorders, both from known causes (e.g. head injuries) and from unknown causes. The Epilepsy Foundation says that 70% of seizures are from unknown causes. Also, even the most potent anti-seizure medications are not 100% effective, so the dog having “ been drugged for x-rays earlier in the day, so he almost couldn’t have a seizure” is not necessarily true. A typical animal anesthetic for doing x-rays is not the drug of choice for preventing seizures, and may have only a tiny effect on seizures, if at all. The medication the dog received may only have caused a temporary sleep state, since during X-rays there are no invasive procedures requiring deeper anesthesis. It would be good to check with the vet about this and get some informed clarification.
How a seizure looks electrically: When you look at the brain map of a seizure, it shows chaotic and extra powerful (in voltage) brain wave spikes. When you look at the brain map during conversation of several types, both verbal, and non-verbal or telepathic conversation, there is a different pattern. The brain waves are finely modulated, with both rhythmic and variable aspects, but still orderly, both in amplitude and in physical locations in the brain. I hope this will help you understand how dissimilar seizures and communication are, in the brain. Also, multiple seizures in a short period of time are not uncommon, and the first one that day happened before your session. It is clear to me that the communication and the seizure were co-incident, that is, happening at the same time, not causal.
How the brain is safe: The skull is a pretty good insulator. The difference in the voltage of brainwaves inside the skull vs. what can be measured outside the skull is pretty big, about a thousand times more volts inside than outside. But the amount of voltage in static electricity (the kind you get in your hair when you rub it with a balloon) is over 1 million times the volts inside your brain (which uses voltage in a very delicate and fine-tuned way). The static electricity in your hair does not “penetrate your brain”. So it is highly unlikely that anything you could do during communication, with your brain, which is 1 million times less electrically powerful than static electricity, would be able to cause a seizure in the dog. Read the rest of this entry »
Once I worked with a woman whose dog was having a chiropractic session. After one particular adjustment, the dog became very thirsty. I asked the chiropractor to let the dog get a drink (and she drank a whole bowl of water right away). When I said that, the client was amazed; she said, “I