British biochemist Dr. Rupert Sheldrake carried out research to determine whether or not there is a telepathic communication between some pets and their owners. He published the results of his inquiries in his 1999 book Dogs That Know When Their Owners Are Coming Home: And Other Unexplained Powers of Animals.
Pet Clairvoyance Testified to in Anecdotes
Dr. Sheldrake worked from anecdotal accounts of household pets appearing to have predictive abilities. He interviewed more than 1,000 people ranging from veterinarians to horse trainers, and from pet owners to zookeepers. What he heard were difficult to explain stories:
- Dogs and cats showing an emotional response to the death or suffering of their owners, sometimes when separated from them;
- Lost animals being able to find their way home over large distances in unfamiliar territory;
- Household pets appearing to sense the return of an owner long before they could see or hear them.
Animal/Human Telepathy Theorized
From the weight of anecdotal evidence, Dr. Sheldrake came to the conclusion that there can be extrasensory perception exchanges between humans and animals.
One of the stories in his book tells of the owner of a Springer spaniel who had decided to take their own life. As the person was about to overdose on pills, the dog jumped onto its owner’s lap snarling with teeth bared. The person was shocked by the spaniel’s behaviour and put down the pill bottle. The dog then started licking the owner’s face.
Sheldrake says this and many, many other anecdotes strongly suggest a form of communication between species.
Here’s how he describes it in his book: “Natural systems, or morphic units, at all levels of complexity are animated, organized, and coordinated by morphic fields, which contain an inherent memory. Natural systems inherit this collective memory from all previous things of their kind by a process called morphic resonance, with the result that patterns of development and behaviour become increasingly habitual through repetition.”
He says this collective memory and connection explains why all the members of a flock or birds or a school of fish can change direction at exactly the same moment. What the actual mechanism for this communication is, he says remains to be explained.
When Dr. Sheldrake asserted that some pets do in fact anticipate the return home of their owners he became the subject of some ridicule among scientific colleagues. His ideas have received a warmer welcome in the non-scientific community.
Attempt to Prove Sheldrake’s Theory by Experiment
Alex Tsakiris, the California-based host of the Skeptico podcast, is trying to run an experiment that will confirm or refute Dr. Sheldrake’s hypothesis. Reporting on the study in the May 19, 2009 issue of The Globe and Mail, Rebecca Dube wrote that webcams are set up in a pet owner’s home aimed at the place where their dog usually waits for them to return. “Reviewing the webcam footage later, Mr. Tsakiris computes how much time the dog spent over all in the waiting place during the owner’s absence, and how much time it spent there during the ‘return time’ – the 20 minutes or so before the person arrived home.”
Tsakiris reports on one experiment with a dog named Jaytee that was observed more than 100 times. When Jaytee’s owner was away from her house Jaytee spent four percent of his time sitting by a window. But, when she started to return home Jaytee spent 55 percent of his time waiting by the window.
Alex Tsakiris’s study is continuing. At some point, he may be able to say that Dr. Sheldrake’s proposition is correct. Or, he may be able to label it junk science.
