May 15, 2025

In the novel A Council of Dolls by Mona Susan Power, the character Iná tells the story of how when she was a child her Yanktonai Dakota family befriended an injured buffalo calf. She grew up in the late nineteenth century, a time when buffalo on the Dakota Plains were nearly extinct. However, one day a small herd came running over the hill behind the family’s home.

As the herd continued on, Iná noticed that one little calf had fallen down the hill and broken his leg. Iná’s mother respectfully walked up to the mama buffalo, who stood next to her calf. Iná’s mother assured the mama that if she left the calf with the family, they would nurse him back to health. When the herd returned to the area, the calf could rejoin his mama. After careful deliberation, the mama decided to trust Iná’s mother, licked her calf, and left.

The baby buffalo soon became a part of the family, bonding especially tightly with Iná. Yet the time came when he had grown, healed, and was ready to leave. He said a poignant goodbye to Iná, to which the girl intuitively listened. “We didn’t talk through words, but I heard him all the same,” she explained.¹

When I first read this story, I assumed it was an example of magical realism, a literary style in which seemingly impossible events occur as part of everyday life. I knew firsthand that animals are sentient, intelligent beings who connect with humans on deeply meaningful, intuitive levels. However, I questioned whether Iná, her mother, and the buffalo could hold telepathic discussions marked by such clarity and detail.

Yet the story stayed with me, and I realized I was wrong. It wasn’t magical realism. Rather, it was an instance of what’s frequently called animal communication or sometimes intuitive interspecies communication (IIC).

I had never outright dismissed the possibility of animal communication, but I was skeptical. I hadn’t fully accepted that people can and do communicate with domestic and wild animals in sometimes inexplicable ways.

Then, I heard Kristin Hadley, a professional animal communicator based in New York, speak about her work. Hadley said that explanations of telepathic animal communication are grounded in quantum physics. The images, feelings, and thoughts that we hold in our minds and bodies give off vibrating waves of energy that animals pick up on and “read”—and vice versa. She also stressed that everyone is born with the ability to talk telepathically with animals.

I decided to learn more. First, I found a working definition of IIC to help me better understand what it is. A team of University of Saskatchewan researchers who are studying IIC as a way to foster more respectful interactions between humans and animals define it as follows:

IIC presents as a detailed, non-verbal and non-physical form of communication between humans and other animals. Drawing on a diversity of intuitive capacities, IIC includes the mutual exchange of visceral feelings, emotions, mental impressions and thoughts, embodied sensations of touch, smell, taste, sound, as well as visuals in the mind’s eye. While these exchanges can occur while in direct physical proximity to the animal, they can also occur over great distances and without the need for visual, auditory, olfactory, voice or other cues that humans normally associate with direct interactive communication.²

I then began dipping into the deep well of resources available on animal communication. I watched The Animal Communicator, a documentary featuring Anna Breytenbach, a professional animal communicator in South Africa.³ The film focuses on her incredible work conversing telepathically with baboons, lions, and other animals in wildlife rehabilitation and conservation centers around the world. Something shifted in me, and I became a believer.

I also picked up Learning Their Language by Marta Williams, a professional animal communicator in California who has written extensively on the topic. In her book, Williams stressed that for millennia humans have communicated telepathically with animals and all living creatures. This innate skill is no longer commonly practiced within mainstream Western cultures, but for many indigenous people it continues to be a normal part of their lives.

“To them, animals, plants, and the features of the land are relatives; every form of life has feelings, intelligence, spirit, and the ability to communicate, regardless of form and species,” writes Williams.⁴

While Iná’s story initially seemed fantastical to me, it would certainly be realistic to the Yanktonai Dakota people and anyone else whose world view encompasses telepathic animal communication.  Engaging with a willing buffalo on this level is just part of being human.

All three of these women—Hadley, Williams, and Breytenbach—don’t just practice animal communication. They want other people to reawaken and develop their own innate ability to communicate telepathically with other life forms. As with any language, it’s use it or lose it. So they’re actively engaged in educating others, such as by providing in-person or virtual workshops and offering step-by-step guidance in books and on the web.

I’ve begun the journey of learning to connect telepathically with animals. There’s many good reasons to try. By listening to what animals think and feel, we as human can:

• Give animals more freedom to express themselves.
• Help them live more purposeful and healthy lives.
• Build deeper relationships with and learn from animals.

One of the great things about it is it requires me to slow down, stay present, and keep an open heart and mind. I’ve also learned that I must be purposeful and intend to receive clear communications from the animals with whom I want to engage.

As explained on Breytenbach’s website, “The key to receptivity lies in intention—which is as much a matter of the heart as it is of the mind.”⁵

For my first attempt to communicate telepathically with an animal, I chose to talk with Monty, a friend’s horse who is special to me. I had made plans to visit him, and before I left my house, I took time to meditate and go through the process of reaching out and connecting with him. I asked him how he was and what was new in his life. He assured me that except for dealing with a few aches and pains of aging, he was well. He still had the same run, turnout area, and pasture mate.

I asked again, Nothing new? He said he had a new piece of tack. I wasn’t sure exactly what it was, but I got the feeling that it was red. However, I thought I might be projecting, as Monty is a chestnut. I figured I was just picking up on the color of his coat. I asked again, What color is this new piece of tack? He said purple.

So I headed out to the barn where he’s boarded to visit with him. When I arrived, there it was—a brand-new purple lead rope tied to his gate. Maybe a coincidence, maybe not. Either way, my first experience with animal communication felt magical.

For more information

Explore the following websites to learn more about the animal communicators referenced in this post:

• Kristin Hadley
• Marta Williams
• Anna Breytenbach

Also, be sure to conduct your own research and make your own evaluations if you decide to work directly with an animal communicator.

Footnotes

1. Mona Susan Power, A Council of Dolls: A Novel (New York: Mariner an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers, 2023), 207.
2. M.J. Barrett, PhD, “Intuitive Interspecies Communication (IIC): What is it?” University of Saskatchewan, October 26, 2023, https://researchers.usask.ca/mj-barrett/research.php.
3. The Animal Communicator, directed by Craig Foster (Vyv Simson, 2012), https://www.cultureunplugged.com/documentary/watch-online/play/11936/www.nhuafrica.com.
4. Marta Williams, Learning Their Language: Intuitive Communications with Animals and Nature (Novato, CA: New World Library, 2003), xix.
5. Anna Breytenbach, “Telepathic Animal Communication” Animal Spirit, accessed May 10, 2025, https://animalspirit.org/animal-communication.