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Professional Writing Background
My first byline came in 1994 when I wrote a glowing review of violinist Joshua Bell for a local music magazine. I went on to become a staff writer from 1994-1995 at that publication where I wrote two monthly columns; Folk and Classical as well as covering some local events and news (including the Philadelphia Music Conference). I had the pleasure of interviewing many local folk celebrities and some classical ones too. All the while I had been working in the publishing industry by day rubbing shoulders with some great writers and editors from whom I learned much. I would remain a day worker in the publishing industry until 2001.
When I left the aforementioned publication, I joined a national music industry trade magazine as a Senior Writer. Again, I wrote two monthly columns (you guessed it) - Folk and Classical. I had the great privilege of meeting and interviewing many celebrities. The highlight of my time at this publication was interviewing my very favorite conductor - Academy of St. Martins-in-the-Fields maestro Sir Neville Marriner (Music Director, Academy Award winner - Amadeus) on my birthday at the Watergate Hotel. I also interviewed quite a few other Academy Award winners like John Corigliano (composer - The Red Violin) and Pulitzer Prize winner Aaron J. Kernis. The list also includes Grammy winners and classical and folk music celebrities such as renowned opera composer, Mark Adamo.
I also met and interviewed legendary folk celebrities like Arlo Guthrie, Mary Travers (Peter, Paul & Mary), Steve Forbert, The Nields, Iris DeMent, and so on. It was a wonderful experience. After two years there, I decided to go back to school for graphic design. I would become sabotaged by MS though in 2001 and had to leave my publishing day job to heal but not before I had an international byline with BirdTalk magazine with an article about a cockatoo conservation group I with which I was involved.
I had been studying animal communication since 1996 and launched AnimalTranslator.com in 2002. The next five years I mostly devoted to professional animal communication practice and to volunteering. Animal rescue has become the focus of all my efforts. I edited, wrote for, and produced many, many newsletters, websites, and educational materials for various animal shelters and rescues prior to founding the multi-species Bright Eyes Sanctuary in late 2007. All the while I was actively fostering and adopting out rabbits and volunteering for community shelters.
For about seven months in 2006, I worked the grueling retail pet photography circuit. Following this, I revisited my earlier training in photography and graphic design by starting a pet photography company at the urging of my family. I was elated to be doing this work but it quickly became clear that I do not have the energy required or, more importantly, the time to devote to a travel-based business of pet photography. Now my photographic work is done solely for the benefit of shelter and rescue animals as well as for the animals in my care at Bright Eyes Sanctuary. And since I really didn't make that business decision on my own, now I'm returning to what I have always wanted to do most and what I have always done best; writing.
I do not have much time for the extremely taxing animal communication business to which I have devoted the last five years but do accept a limited amount of clients at this time (see below). All the proceeds are donations to Bright Eyes Sanctuary. Animal communication is my burning passion. I have already written so much about it and have so much to write about it that providing this service to people and their animals seems counterproductive when you are running an animal sanctuary. Although the animals here certainly enjoy being a part of that practice, they would better enjoy being the center of attention. And they are the center of attention for all my writing, photography, and volunteer work henceforth.
Currently, I am finding outlet for my writing through Associated Content, the proceeds from which also go directly to Bright Eyes Sanctuary. But the sky's the limit. Stay tuned!
Animal Communication background
In my early childhood, I knew that animals had a secret. My teachers and other adult humans scoffed at my esteem for animals by denying the existence of their minds. “Animals cannot think” I remember being preached at one day by a well-meaning teacher who wanted to rescue me from the realm of fantasy and leading a misguided life as an unabashedly sentient being. But it was really this woman’s own unthinking and unquestioning mind that entrapped and imprisoned her own consciousness in it’s limited, finite universe.
While many people in those times, the 60s and early 70s, had their feet in the Descartesian cement shoes of thought, even amidst the ubiquitous social revolution, and held tightly to views like this, they were bolstered and indoctrinated into the most damaging view of all portended by the new soldiers of modern thought, the scientists. This view is encapsulated in the one word we ‘animal lovers’ have all come to hate but can’t seem to place properly into perspective: anthropomorphism.
This word is especially pertinent because the skeptic community who assail those in my field, the metaphysical field, have this as their arsenal’s most prized tool. Anthropomorphism. Do you remember where you were the day you finally were able to pronouce that word? I think all of us have carefully added this word to our vocabulary. I don’t know anyone, I mean anyone, who does not know what it means unless they have only recently had their love for animals and nature sparked by the lighting of a candle in their hearts, a candle whose light bathes all life in it’s glow. Those whose heartlight only has human vision and not sentient vision know this word the very best though.
It means “The attribution of human motivation, characteristics, or behavior to nonhuman organisms or inanimate objects.” This word has become a symbol and a powerful one. Mickey Mouse in his little red suit, Stuart Little driving a car through Central Park, Uncle Wiggily, gentleman rabbit wearing top hat and tails, and that ultimate criminal in The Court of Anthropomorphia - Dr. Dolittle - speaking, of all things, out loud in the language of pig, duck, snail, fish, etc. with his own translation technologist to assist him ~ Polynesia, the blue and gold macaw.
And yet this word was force fed to me during my childhood like a foie gras goose. But as world renowned animal behaviorist Donald Griffin pointed out with an unbiased crystalline thought ~ truly rare among the scientific community ~ this word represents a theory which presupposes its own validity and leaves it at that.1
The skeptics are shooting blanks. They forgot to load their pistol. Rushing into battle, they were unprepared and only anxious to keep the tide of change and the rising crest of consciousness from reaching its fullest expression.
I knew that animals had a secret. Walking to school for a mile or two a day, I thought the whole time about the cosmology that society shoved in front of me. And I regurgitated all of it. It was vile. It was cruel and heartless. It didn’t ring true and it wasn’t true.
The minds of animals are precious things as is any mind and Mind is Everywhere. The Universal Mind is the conduit which makes animal communication possible and I have pursued and studied this and all relevant disciplines since my earliest childhood beginning with the spark set in my heart by my favorite Englishman, Dr. Dolittle. I also now share my life with my own version of Polynesia who is called Spartacus Macaw. And he is a poet. He sends me beautiful poetry and he can even say most of it out loud although he has a strong accent.
Yes, this is the fantasy that skeptics love to laugh uproariously about and throw in my face. This childhood story of Dr. Dolittle has been, for me, a much more acceptable paradigm to align myself with than the utilitarian one which ruled my early existence. It makes sense that society is structured to look the other way during our rise to dominance on the planet. Any species will sacrifice the connection with all other life at times to ensure their own survival. But now with every passing day, our survival as a species is becoming urgently entangled with reopening ourselves to Unity Consciousness, to sing the song of life in the Universal Language, to dance together with our fellow beings instead of trampling them and disparaging them, even denying them the idea of being conscious at all. Well that’s how you feed six billion people.
We are all infinite beings. It is this infinite, unknowable, transcendent mystery of life which makes us reach out to other beings and other species for a greater, richer experience of existence, to feel alive. Animal communication makes us more alive.
Many people experience deep, abiding connections with their companion animals. In some cases, this relationship may be the human caretaker's only relationship with Nature or it may be their only link to the natural world. When we love a companion animal, such as a pet, we take a step into a larger, more fulfilling world, and we may also live longer as a result, as scientific studies have shown. Wanting to have an interactive conversation with this animal in your life is then a perfectly normal and achievable desire. I have trained for many years to be able to facilitate this type of event for you and I have extensive experience living and conversing with many types of animals as well as those of my clients.
I live my life in service to animals. Since I was a young child, I have strongly empathized with animals and experienced their viewpoints. Now my home in Western Maryland is an animal sanctuary and the recipient of 100% of my earnings. My family and I share our house with many cats, rabbits, birds, dogs, guinea pigs, and beings living in spirit. I am also extremely active in rabbit rescue. Almost all of these animals in my home were considered unadoptable; were strays or wound up here as a last resort. Others were adopted as companions and now we all live in a harmony with each other which depends on constant vigilance and understanding of each other's needs and desires. We are a ship of souls trying to stay afloat and enjoy life a little bit and live in Peace.
Naturally, living with a large and diverse population of animals makes for a myriad of rich lessons and experiences. Opening to the wonders of Animal Communication or telepathic exchange with animals was just one of the gifts I have gratefully received from my fellow animals. I have catalogued many of these experiences in my animal communication blog, The Rabbit Hole, which is going to soon be in subscription form only but with plenty of free archives available for your reading pleasure.
How I developed my skills; my mentors and muses
I have been clairvoyant all my life. In 1996 we adopted a Moluccan cockatoo named Mozart who was approximately seventy years old and impossibly clever. Suddenly I had an animal speaking aloud in English putting some real effort into my education and initiation into the psychic realm. As soon as Mozart arrived, all the other animals who lived with us joined in trying to show me that they too were as smart and clever as he and also as telepathically talented, that in fact, telepathy is the natural order of the universe and only we humans have discarded this universal language.
In 1997, I consulted with internationally acclaimed animal communicator, Jane Hallander and Jing, her African grey parrot, to talk with myself and Mozart. During that consultation, she imparted to me that Mozart had some plans for me to become an Animal Communicator myself (sadly, Jane has since passed away). At the time my thoughts were simply, "Why on Earth would I want to do that? I have a job. I make good money." But Jane, Jing, and Mozart were right. It was 'in the cards.'
I began seriously studying Animal Communication, however, with the intent of communicating with my growing clan of animals, which I came to dub 'the Henningsen Horde' (an homage to my husband's Mongolian heritage). Over the years, I've attended numerous workshops with some of the foremost Animal Communicators in the world but my greatest teachers have always been the animals in my life.
I began working as a psychic during 1998, with assistance from Mozart. It became apparent why Mozart and other animals in my life as well as other forces, were pushing me so hard to pursue a professional path in the Hermetic Arts. I was diagnosed with two degenerative brain diseases. I left my corporate career and never looked back.
Fulfilling the Vision
Through my Animal Communication practice, I offer clients a chance to see things from their pet's perspective, to understand their animal's way of thinking, uncover misunderstood feelings, behaviors and discomforts. Reversing this role, I help the animals understand their caretaker's viewpoints, needs, feelings and desires. In complement to this, I have much experience with the rehabilitation and training of behaviorally challenged animals and with the psychology of complex relationships between various types of animals within one household. And like Jane Hallender, my business partner is a precocious parrot; Pumpkinhead G. Parrot is a 19 year old Amazon parrot with a deep sense of altruism who loves to help other animals. He assists me with every single consultation for my animal clients as well as having assisted with development of customized lesson plans for my human Animal Communication students. His mate, Guff, was also an active participant in conducting business. If you are interested in a consultation, please email me or go ahead and complete the worksheet and I will contact you to schedule your appointment. I also offer Power Animal retrievals and animal communication Mentoring.
Related Interests and Skills
I am a certified Level II Tera-Mai Seichem Reiki practitioner and continue to study various forms of Energy Healing including herbalism, flower essences, aromatherapy, shamanic studies, crystallography, remote viewing, tarot and astrology. I have studied Jungian human depth psychology, animal psychology and behavior. I also am active in companion animal rescue and I have never come across a sick or injured animal for whom I have not dropped everything to get help and medical assistance. I also actively speak out on behalf of wild animals with regard to conservation issues. All of the income from this animal communication business goes directly into the care of my animal sanctuary which is home to 16 cats, 9 parrots, lots of house rabbits, 2 guinea pigs, and 4 dogs. About 30% of our household income and all of mine goes toward the care of all these animals plus countless hours of labor.
1 “When one examines such charges of antrhopomorphism, it turns out that they entail the implicit assumption that whatever it is suggested the animal might do, or think, really is a uniquely human attribute. Such an assumption begs the question being asked because it presupposes a negative answer and is thus literally a confession of prejudgement or prejudice.”
Donald R. Griffin, Animal Minds, p. 24, Chapter One, 1992, University of Chicago Press, Chicago
Patti Henningsen, - patti@animaltranslator.com