SPIRIT ANIMALS - Do animals have spirits?

Article about experiences of the Spirit World based upon the book "What to do when you are dead" by Craig Hamilton-Parker..
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SPIRIT ANIMALS - Pet Heaven

All life is one. The divine spirit animates all who share this planet and we have responsibilities towards each other. You cannot divide life into watertight, rigid compartments. All aspects of life, man and animal, must move forward together. The animal cannot be left behind while man makes his evolutionary ascent.--Silver Birch, the Indian Spirit guide, speaking through Maurice Barbanell

Sometimes. at night. my wife Jane sees the spirit of our dog William laying by the side of our bed. He still comes back and visits her. I also have received hundreds of letters and e-mails from people asking if their pets have survived death, and from people who believe that they have seen their dead pet's spirit.

Animals seem to know about death and in some cases appear to accept it. When William’s time came, the vet advised that he be put to sleep.

In my mediumistic work, I have frequently had cause to describe and name animals during public demonstrations or private sittings. Pets are often shown to me in order to add that little extra bit of evidence to the identity of the human spirit communicator. I have seen many people cry when they realize that their cherished pet is not lost forever, but will be there for them when they return to the spirit world.

It is my opinion that pets do survive death and continue to live with us in the spirit world. Let me illustrate this with an example that was quoted in a national British magazine after being confirmed by a journalist. I have changed the name to protect the woman's identity:

'Traveling such a long way to see the medium Craig Hamilton-Parker felt a little odd. Particularly as I wanted to communicate with my little 10-year-old fox terrier dog, Pip, who died two years ago.” says Susan Lloyd.

“I had no sense of Pip's spirit when he died, which came as a shock. I'd always assumed his spirit would be around in some way that I'd be able to feel. So I worried that he was lost somewhere, looking for me but unable to reach me. For a long time I was very upset.

“I had also recently lost my good friend Dave. I sat with him as he died and he talked frankly with me about the next life. He also loved terriers and I told him how he would soon meet the dogs he'd lost in the afterlife.

“Dave's death was the catalyst. I worried that I may have been wrong about the spirit dogs. I needed to know whether the things I'd said to Dave were true.

“I said nothing to the medium about anything on my mind, but Craig told me all about Dave, his personality, the way he died, and how he had left a wife and three children.

“However, his main communicator was my friend Carol. Craig put his hands on his chest and said ‘Carol is telling me that at the time of her passing everything was falling apart. She gives me the feeling of suffocation. She was severely depressed and regrets to say that she took her own life." I was amazed. Carol, who had been one of my oldest friends, had committed suicide five years previously and had confided in me about the black moods that haunted her.

“As Craig made the link he took on Carol's mannerisms and posture. His voice and particularly his laugh sounded just like hers. Eventually, Craig said that Carol had an important message for me. ‘Carol says that she wants to bring forward your dog. He is white and has a distinctive black patch on his tail. I can't hear his name but it has only three letters. She says it looks like the dog in a cartoon. Tin Tin perhaps?"

'This was the proof I was waiting for. I was a little worried because Carol didn't like animals when she was alive. But Craig put my mind at rest: ‘Carol is happy because she is now safe. She wants you to know that your dog does not belong to her or to Dave. She brought him through because she knows how much you love him and vice versa. You have nothing to worry about concerning Pip."

“I was able to drive back home with my mind at rest. I finally knew that Dave and Pip were safe and that Carol had at last found peace.”

SPIRIT ANIMALS
Where do the animals go?

Before the Chinese occupation of Tibet, the people used to sieve the soil when building temples so that not a single worm would be harmed. The Tibetans believed that souls can reincarnate in any living form, and that a human birth is a very rare and fortunate opportunity. In fact, the number of births a soul takes is so immense that one of the worms may have once been your mother in a past life.

A modern Tibetan Buddhist would probably say that it is unlikely that your mother will reincarnate as a worm, but will tell you that the Tibetans’ actions are symbolic, to illustrate how we should have compassion for all sentient beings--as if they were our beloved kin. It also poses the question whether our soul climbs up an evolutionary ladder across many species. On one occasion, someone asked my spirit guide during a trance session what happened to the souls of all the dinosaurs. The guide's reply was, "They are as here now!" The point being that the human soul is, in fact, a later stage of an evolutionary process that has been going on since life began.

Some of the ancient Greek philosophers believed in metempsychosis--that the soul evolves to human form after many lives incarnating as animals. It is a belief in many eastern religions, and my mediumistic communications appear to agree with this. However, I question at what point a living thing becomes self-aware and capable of sustaining this awareness after death. For example, does a flea have a spirit?

My spirit guide has told us that animals do not all survive as individual identities after death. Some merge to what he calls a “group consciousness.” Their spirits return to a collective awareness for that particular species and from this pool of awareness different animal souls are born. It is only when an animal becomes self-aware that its soul continues after death and starts the long process of climbing the evolutionary ladder towards human and angelic consciousness.

For many animals, this journey starts if it receives love from a human. In particular, pets and domestic animals gain a sense of identity because of prolonged exposure to humans. Our consciousness “rubs off” on them, so to speak, causing them to forsake much of their instinctive nature and start to develop free will. Some people lavish love onto their pets and treat them like their own children. Although in many ways this is a form of psychological transference, they are in fact helping the animal progress spiritually. The love they lavish on them enables the pet to quickly attain a sense of identity. The owner is thereby helping to create a new soul. I suppose you could say that pets are children in a real sense, for their souls are brand new!