Do animals have consciousness like we and spirit

[cainam_nazier]

Do animals have spirit?  Yes I believe they do..

Are they concisous...No I don't think so or at least not at the same level as human.  Please note that I will not say which I think is higher or  lower.  

For instance, dogs.  They can activly think, they show emotion, but they must do as they do.  They can not control thier base urges, and if/when they do it is only because thier owner says otherwise.

An animal is what it is, no right, no wrong. no good, no evil.  I believe a human is concisous only because of two things.  The ability to exert control over ones self, and the ability to choose.

[bomohwkl]

Certainly animals have spirit. For example, dogs can be very intelligent (therefore there is consciousness) and capable to sense his owner feelings. Why couldn't we do the reverse? I wonder.

[lyn92]

here's a strange incident happened some time ago. I had two cats and a dog that grew up together, i've had them since they were less than a month old, at present they are going on 9 years.

one night i hear this strange high pitched robot like voice outside my bedroom door. I closed the door because the cats were making alot of noise. so the voice says "the one that is the male of us needs to go outside" so i open the door and the oldest female cat is sitting at the door. I go look for the dog and sure enough he is looking at the backdoor, he did have to go outside.

i've heard this high pitched voice about 3 times. so this cat of mine does have a conscious.

Lyn

[James S]

Yes I do think that animals both have a spirit, and have a counsciousness. I have found evidence of this more so in parrots than dogs and cats, as they are able to communicate with us more directly by being able to use speech, though I do not believe that any such animals are more or less sentient than we are.

Just because an animal does not have the same facial expressions or communication skills that humans do, doesn't mean that they are not capable of thinking and feeling just as we do. The trick is learning how to interpret their feelings or actions, without referencing it against our own standards. Animals think, act, respond differently to us in given situations.

As exmples -
I have a pet cockatiel - a small member of the parrot family. When you own a pet and have a close relationship with it (cockatiels are very sociable birds) you get to know its behaviour. I know when my bird is upset, happy, angry, frightened, peeved, relaxed. I can read the expressions not so much from his face, but by his whole body language. You can get to a point where you know what he is feeling just by looking at him. If we come home late he'll turn his back to us and give us the whole "what time do you call this?" attitude. He has learned quite a few words and knows in what context to use them. He even knows how to laugh (a human type of laugh), and he will do it when he thinks something is funny, because he has learned from us.

Second example - African Grey Parrots are considered one of the most intelligent of all birds. They can be taught to speak quite easily, can have an extensive vocabulary, and as such are capable of telling us what they are thinking, NOT just mimicking sounds. Animal behaviour researchers have proven these birds to be capable of independent cognitive reasoning, as opposed to Pavlovian trained behavior and pattern recognition. This was a cosiderable breakthrough in this line of research because many animal behaviourists had to rethink their approaches to take into account the fact that animals such as these parrots are indeed fully sentient beings. Communication barriers and human ignorance have generally been the stumbling blocks here.

James.

[Goldenshadow]

Humans are animals...

[Nick]

From what I can gather they have both consciousness and spirit, but in a different capacity than we do.

[Boo Kity]

I certainly do think that animals have consciousness and spirit.

For us to think we are any better than any other living thing on the planet is arrogant.

We all have our purpose.

Most people have no idea how another human being is feeling at any time, so how woulda person be anble to know how an animal feels or thinks.

[Leftypilot79]

YES...animals have both. But when you ask....are you talking about like the family pet? or wild animals? I think they all have both...but domesticated animals...or animals that have realationships outside of their own species (humans, and other animals)...are a little more spiritually evolved than the cow grazing out in the pasture. (Not that those cute Californa Cows aren't special too.) James Van Praagh, and John Edwards have both said that animals are the greatest teachers of PUL. They don't judge us....they only can love us...which is really what its all about. And having that realationships with other animals raises their concious awareness of other things, other then themselves.

aaron

[Fat_Turkey]

Of course animals have a consciousness, in my opinion. According to nazier's beliefs though they don't.

It depends what you really believe a consciousness is I guess.

Humans I believe do have a different capacity of consciousness than animals, that in which we can choose and we can control ourselves. But I believe that those two things also make us the only species that can kill itself and hate itself, which I find sad.

Animals and humans have spirits. Spirits I think are exactly what Rob. Bruce defines as the energy body, except a spirit or soul is the energy body with a mind in it.

Well those are my two cents, and a lot of what I wanted to say has already been said by others here.

Later
-FT

[James S]

Somthing interesting that both Fat Turkey and Cainam Nazier commented on - that animals (well, other animals) don't really have the same control over their actions that we do, mainly because of instinct.

Should this really be equated with consciousness?

The way I see it, from paying attention to the actions of a number of different species, instinct doesn't control animal behaviour as much as opportunity does. Many animal species live from one meal to the next. When we look at this from the perspective of our comfortable western civilised lives, it would be easy to forget that many people, such as those from many African nations, look upon the chance of food as most animals do. Do these people really have control over their actions? How many here own a cat, and have watched it turn its nose up at food. Anybody who's seen their dog slink out of their bedroom looking guilty will know that animals not only have consciousness, but also a conscience.

Animals choose their actions if they are in a position to do so. If you ever see an eagle turn into the face of a storm, to literally play in thermals and turbulence that would rip a small plane to pieces, you know they are doing it for fun, not because they have to.

I guess animals are not able to raise their consciousness such as we can when we meditate or AP, but then, some animals seem to have a level of perception beyond ours, and probably don't need to.

James.

[veliki grizli]

quote:As exmples -
I have a pet cockatiel - a small member of the parrot family. When you own a pet and have a close relationship with it (cockatiels are very sociable birds) you get to know its behaviour. I know when my bird is upset, happy, angry, frightened, peeved, relaxed. I can read the expressions not so much from his face, but by his whole body language. You can get to a point where you know what he is feeling just by looking at him. If we come home late he'll turn his back to us and give us the whole "what time do you call this?" attitude. He has learned quite a few words and knows in what context to use them. He even knows how to laugh (a human type of laugh), and he will do it when he thinks something is funny, because he has learned from us.

Yes, but feelings and emotions have nothing with consciousness.
Consciousness is something different. Being conscious means to be aware of being or existance.
I thing that animals react only instinctively and have no consciousness. But I can not prove that and when I think more about that I am nor sure whether thay have consciousness or not.

Did anyone of you on etheric or astral plane saw dogs or cats or other animals.
If you have experience about that please wright something down.

[jilola]

The actual physical manifestation is just a vehicle for the soul.
The soul (or the spirit) itself is a facet of the universal existence (call it god or whatever) but in itself an individual entity.
In the case of this souls incarnating in various circumstances its scope of awareness and capabilities of responding are bounded by the a) physical circumstances (worm vs. human) and b) its intended currciulum during a given incarnation (hmm example would be something to do with perspective of the soul, someone help me out?).

Thus an animal and a human are still the same and of the same as far as the spirit or the soul is concerned. Their respective abilities and levels of awareness differ, what feeling and awareness they have are te same as humans only limited to the circumstances of thei incarnate state.

Make sense?

2cents & L&L
jouni

[cainam_nazier]

I would have to say that in the end it would boil down to wether or not an animal can ask itself one question.  Why am I here?

My personal belief is that consiousness is the ability to reflect on ones self.  So unless we can actually talk to an animal and ask what it thinks of itself and its place in the world we can only specualte.

[Squeek]

Well, funny you should ask.  In my youth group for my church, somebody asked if animals had souls and went to heaven.  The moderator gave just a blatant...

"No."  Then we laughed for like 10 minutes.  I don't know why.

The kid came back next week with information.  Pythagos, the guy who made the theory on the triangles, also thought this.  He also said that pea-pods go to heaven  

So the answer, to me, is no.  They do not have a spirit, as they cannot ascend to heaven.

~Squeek

[Goldenshadow]

Do we really have control over what we do? Or are we more like the flow of water and lightning taking the path of least resistance. To say that "animals" do not have consciousness is not only denying the connection that all beings share, but also our own instincts. What about a planet like Earth or a wall for that matter? If there is a consistency...there is consciousness. Wich also means "animals" have an unconscious as well.