ANIMAL COMMUNICATORS AND THE NATURE OF SKEPTICISM

Recently I had a puzzling conversation with an individual who stated that he had consulted with an animal communicator regarding his pet dog.  Here’s the story:

The individual told me that he sensed that his dog was in distress but could not identify the nature of its problem.  So he consulted an animal communicator.  This person, the pet owner stated, is able to communicate psychically with animals.  In this case the communicator told the pet owner that his dog had a problem with its shoulder and that the owner should take the dog to an animal chiropractor.  So that is what the owner did.  The chiropractor treated the dog, and the dog recovered.  I’m not making this up.

I had never heard of an animal communicator or of an animal chiropractor, for that matter, and decided to do a bit of research.  I did find one website for an animal communicator in my metropolitan area, and my guess is that this was the individual that the pet owner had consulted.  The animal communicator’s website states that she can communicate with pets intuitively and telepathically.  The site states that she needs a picture of the pet (which I assume can be sent digitally) and that thereafter during a phone conversation with the pet’s owner she can communicate telepathically with the pet to understand it’s problem and then pass that information on to the owner.  The communicator charges for her services depending on the length of the consultation.  Based on her website, fees start at $70 for a 20-minute consultation.  Her website recommends preparing a list of questions for her to ask the pet (telepathically) to make the session more efficient.  And, yes, a quick check on the internet disclosed that there are a number of individuals in the metropolitan area who hold themselves out as animal chiropractors.  

OK, I do not believe that dogs or other pets can communicate telepathically with humans, including describing the nature of their health problems.  I would also question the claim that an animal chiropractor could cure a dog’s shoulder problem by some sort of chiropractic manipulation, assuming that is what happened in this case.

But here is the puzzling part.  This pet owner characterizes himself as a “skeptic.”  I put the word in quotes because his definition of skepticism is apparently very different from mine.  Based on our conversation, I believe that his self-description as a skeptic is in reference to the fact that he does not believe in a personal god.  That’s fine as far as it goes.  However, my definition of skepticism is much broader than beliefs about religion.  In my view skepticism describes a more comprehensive philosophical approach to the evaluation of statements about the nature of the world generally.  It insists on understanding the evidence and rationale behind a statement.  It does not accept a statement merely based on who said it, irrespective of who that person is.  It favors statements based on objective evidence and questions statements that are not.  And it employs the tools of rational analysis and the scientific method, such as hypothesis testing, Ockham’s Razor, and the need for falsifiability.

In my opinion, the belief that there are individuals who can communicate telepathically with another person’s pet does not pass the test of skepticism.


© 2018 John M. Phillips