Post No. 2,907 - “Animals like good people”

“Animals like good people.” 

No. 

At least, not in the way that saying is often intended by people I will refer to now as the “Nominally Naïve” - NN for short. 

For a start, many animals that have not been domesticated, and too many that have, have experience of humans as predators and sources of harm. The human scent is enough to trigger a survival response of fleeing - and, occasionally, fighting - for most untamed animals. (Note that there are FIVE stress responses.)

The NN may argue that what the NN consider “good” people can calm an untamed animal, but they are too often envisaging forcibly restraining that untamed animal, and forcing it into a form of exposure therapy where the untamed animal learns that hiding its fight or flight response may actually lead to it being freed - which is NOT the same as being calm or unafraid. 

Even if there was what seemed to be a calming, the harm caused by the confinement against the animal’s wishes and will is inherently harmful - and is harm that the NN seem to be as oblivious to suffering as those appalling people who falsely claimed crabs being boiled alive are not screaming in pain. 

(I have come across descriptions of the ABA abuses [see here, here, here - note the reference to illegal action, here, here, and here, and also note the gravely disturbing connection to the appalling, discredited, and increasingly  banned anti-LGBTQ conversion practices - see here, here, and here] that involved a similar level of cluelessness on the part of those applying those abusive practices to forcibly restrained children to enforce a superficial appearance of compliance ... but I have also come across some opinions that not all ABA practices are harmful.)

I have read descriptions in Tibetan Buddhism of something that superficially seems similar, but is actually fundamentally different:   people who have such as strongly calming aura that, without forcible restraint of the animal concerned, animals may be calmed - for instance, a barking dog may cease to see the person with the calm aura as a threat, and in fact, may see the person as a friend. 

Note that I am referring to a calm aura. That is often interpreted as a spiritual person, but ... not necessarily. Apart from anything else, there can be occasions when spiritual people are manifesting a well-justified, righteous anger - for instance, at obstruction of action against the climate crisis, poverty, or dismissiveness of screaming as a sign of pain (although the emotion will not be expressed by the spiritual person in a way that is harmful ... but they may still be profoundly unsettling, uncomfortable, or otherwise unpleasant to the person who should have known better [or is evil] and is on the receiving end). 

So ... if the barking dog was to encounter a spiritual person who is justifiably angry, the dog may bark more intensely and be more aggressive. 

At this point, it is worth pointing out the unsaid undercurrent - the bit that the NN do not say out loud, and which they wrongly interpret as “the other side of the coin”: 

“if an animal is indicating dislike of a person, it means that person is “not “good”” ”

The problems with that include: 

• if a normal person who is mostly good, or even calm, is having a bad day (for instance, injury, illness, threats, or death of loved one(s)), their aura will not be calm, and they may be showing signs of distress - including anger ... but that does NOT mean they are a “bad” person, it means they are a good person having a bad day;

• the same caution applies to the animal concerned - they could be having a bad day as well. Animals can and often are traumatised by humans, for instance (especially those humans who use abusive, Newtonian, application-of-coercive-force practices that the humans mislabel as “training”), and that may manifest as a fight response that is based in a combination of fear and not having been able to escape (i.e., being forcibly confined/restrained); and
  

• this is the big one: the NN’s of of what are “good” and “bad” may actually be projection of the NN’s conscious and unconscious biases/bigotries, warped worldviews, other personal/character/logic flaws and even personal likes/dislikes/preferences - and may be being used to justify spiritual bypassing or the avoidance of personal  growth.
  

So ... if someone is categorically claiming that the behaviour of animals (by which the NN usually means their own pets, who have been subjected to the NN’s ... “influences”) is a definite indicator of something about the person on the receiving end of the pet’s/animal’s behaviour, the one thing you actually do have a good chance of knowing is that the NN has a too simplistic, unspiritual view of animal and human-animal behaviour and character. 

Such animal responses may be evidence of cause for concern, but the situation needs further consideration - especially of the character of the human-animals who own the non-human animals ...

PS - then there is also the situation of animals - not only dogs - trained in guard duties, etc. Their behaviour is unlikely to be an indication of anything other than their training ...

Possible flaws 

Where I can, I will try to highlight possible flaws / issues you should consider:

• there may be flawed logical arguments in the above: to find out more about such flaws and thinking generally, I recommend Brendan  Myers’ free online course “Clear and Present Thinking”;  
• I could be wrong - so keep your thinking caps on, and make up your own minds for yourself.
  

 

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(Gnwmythr is pronounced new-MYTH-ear)  

Remember: we generally need to be more human being rather than human doing, to mind our Mӕgan, and to acknowledge that all misgendering is an act of active transphobia/transmisia that puts trans+ lives at risk & accept that all insistence on the use of “trans” as a descriptor comes with commensurate use of “cis” as a descriptor to prevent “othering” (just as binary gendered [men’s and women’s] sporting teams are either both given the gender descriptor, or neither).

#PsychicABetterWorld

Copyright © Kayleen White 2007-2024     NO AI   I do not consent to any machine learning aka Artificial Intelligence (AI), generative AI, large language model, machine learning, chatbot, or other automated analysis, generative process, or replication program to reproduce, mimic, remix, summarise, or otherwise  replicate any part of this post or other posts on this blog via any means. Typo’s may be inserrted deliberately to demonstrate this is not an AI product.     Otherwise, fair and reasonable use is accepted under Creative Commons 4.0 on an Attribution-ShareAlike basis https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/  

 

Post No. 2,902 - Random thoughts

I mentioned here that I have been finding my colour  healing more effective: noticeably, the use of silver light to heal my lungs - including the use of these etheric objects (sigh) to both help deliver that energy in, and remove and shake out what is perceived by me as dust. 

It will be interesting to see if more specific examples of the use of colour are developed and made in coming decades. 

And various groups, some perhaps already existing, will be crucial to that dissemination ... 

... and on groups, I consider the guidance that is around for such groups (particularly on being inclusive and trauma informed - to make spaces that are safe for all, including trans, gender diverse, and nonbinary [TGDNB] ) is fantastic.

However, there are a few areas where I think they could do better. 

Firstly, deliberately and consciously addressing the issue of spiritual bypassing.

Secondly, although related to the first, the importance of making sure people are politically progressive. 

There is no place in any spiritual group for someone who victim blames the poor, or minimises or downplays the existence and effects of “systemic” racism or other forms of bigotry, or promotes individualism at the expense of the whole - there is place for a balanced combination of individualism (which ensures we can be whatever we wish/need/“should” be, whether that is focused on self, the whole, or a combination of both - and enforced conformity is also an egregious wrong), and a world which enables that - hence the progressive politics, which is a way of fulfilling the Wiradjuri saying Yindyamara Winhanganya - to live well (including mutually respectfully) in a world that is worth living well in. *

And thirdly, there is also no place in any spiritual group for someone who seeks to acquire, lives by the notion of, or flaunts social status. 

As I age, I am more and more inclined towards the realisation that the quest for social status is one of the greater evils that plagues this world - not spectacularly evil, perhaps, in the same way that war is, but so endemic that it adds up to a major blot on our copybook in many, many areas of life - I am scent its stench behind a lot of misogyny, transphobia, and enforcement of hierarchical structures. 

Oh, and on transphobia, I’ve come across: 

• some people who get their nose out of joint because they weren’t personally of the self discovery journey of TGDNB people: tough - TGDNB people have a right to assess such matters in privacy, which is the best way to do so; and 

• others who think trans people should be othered by a special term (i.e., “trans-”) but not not cisgender people, as “they’re the ones who are changing.” Setting aside the human  rights  dangers of being othered, actually, no, “they” are not - they are expressing their true self without the enforced conformity demands of politically regressive society.
  To put that another way, from the field of neurodivergence, “they” are no longer masking - and I use that with a touch of irony, as one of the nastiest transphobes I have come across in the last year was a neurodiverse person who hypocritically attacked TGDNB people using exactly the same arguments used to attack neurodiverse people.
  Either both descriptors are used, or neither.
  

On autistic masking (see here, here, here, here, here, here, here, and here), from a spiritual perspective, one of the major problems those who enforce or fail to notice masking (of any type) are likely (in my experience) to have is superficiality - an inability to see (sense) beyond the surface to the essence. 

This can potentially include people who are attracted to TGDNB people before transition, but not after: why did they not notice the mask of someone they were attracted to? 

Or were they only attracted to the “meat sack”, and not the person? 

There can be genuine sexuality and other relationship issues associated with this, but there should, in most cases, be enough of an attraction to the person to at least continue a friendship, in my opinion. 

PS - this could also be those people liking someone because of their energy, but not knowing that that does NOT equate automatically to wanting sex or a relationship with them - i.e., if they have been taught that interactions between D and H are always J, when in this case it should be L, they will respond inappropriately, including (in this instance) being caught out if that person transitions. If, on the other hand, they had been taught that there is a greater variation in interaction options, they would have behaved more flexibly all the way through.
So, to put that in other words, (in this instance, many people are taught that if you like someone who is a potential intimate partner, you are expected to pursue an intimate relationship - the option of friendship, ace relationships, friends with benefits, etc are not known - to the loss of everyone involved.

And anyone who thinks there is no pressure to conform or mask is amathiac, and I question their inclusion in spiritual groups - unless they are working at overcoming that flaw, and flawed people must be admitted to groups or there will be no members at all, so the question is: what is the basis for admission? 

I would suggest a genuine desire to attempt to change is a suitable basis ...

 * PS - it could be argued (has been, on YouTube, actually - I think here] that a failure to be progressive enough to return to Tattoine and free the slaves was one of the reasons Anakin Skywalker lost his way ...

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Remember: we generally need to be more human being rather than human doing, to mind our Mӕgan, and to acknowledge that all misgendering is an act of active transphobia/transmisia that puts trans+ lives at risk & accept that all insistence on the use of “trans” as a descriptor comes with commensurate use of “cis” as a descriptor to prevent “othering” (just as binary gendered [men’s and women’s] sporting teams are either both given the gender descriptor, or neither).

#PsychicABetterWorld   and  

Note that I am cutting back on aspects of my posts - see here, and Gnwmythr is pronounced new-MYTH-ear  

Copyright © Kayleen White 2007-2025     NO AI   I do not consent to any machine learning aka Artificial Intelligence (AI), generative AI, large language model, machine learning, chatbot, or other automated analysis, generative process, or replication program to reproduce, mimic, remix, summarise, or otherwise  replicate any part of this post or other posts on this blog via any means. Typo’s may be inserrted deliberately to demonstrate this is not an AI product.     Otherwise, fair and reasonable use is accepted under Creative Commons 4.0 on an Attribution-ShareAlike basis https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/