Through My Eyes

He recalled a story about an instance where he was flying back from London after an extended visit, as if they knew of his imminent return his heard of elephants had started heading towards the farmhouse he shared with his wife Francoise. Francoise was radioed by the game wardens to say that the elephants had suddenly turned around and started heading back to the bush. The next moment the phone rang and it was Lawrence apologising that sadly his plane had been delayed and he would only be back two days later.

"What are you trying to say to me?" I asked Lawrence, ready for his response, "I truly believe the elephants are telepathic." Even though his statement did not shock me, it was a fantastically amazing revelation that I believed. Just like I believe my dog Riley knows whether we are going for a walk or not even before I step out my bedroom. Like right now he is looking up at me - I am convinced he can read my mind and knows I am writing about him.

In a recently released book by Susan Casey, 'Voices in the Ocean', Ms Casey explains how the paralimbic area of the dolphin's brain, which regulates emotions as it does in humans, has evolved an extra lobe. The new book discusses how this may give the animals an unprecedented level of social intelligence, and even a 'collective consciousness'. Their complex social intelligence suggests the animals may share a 'collective consciousness' and their behaviour seems to support this theory.

Dolphins have long been considered to be intelligent, but scientists are only now starting to unravel the true complexity of their brains and behaviour. Ms Casey discusses how this high level of intelligence could stem from the mammals having what's known as collective consciousness, with the author claiming they 'may know something that we don't'.

My long fascination with dolphins stems from my first visit to Ballito when I was twelve years old. During our two week holiday a school of dolphins visited my favourite beach everyday.

On the last day of my holiday I waited with tears in my eyes to say goodbye and the dolphins did not come, with my parents on the brink of a nervous breakdown, I decided to give up.

With a sad heart I started walking to the car when in the distance I saw the familiar sight and this time the dolphins came real close to where I was standing. I was so thrilled and believed with all my heart that these sweet dolphins could hear my silent calls.

The unique evolution of the dolphin brain suggests the animals are doing something very sophisticated or complex while they're processing emotions.

Their brains may even have adapted for a type of unprecedented connectivity. The idea of a dolphin collective soul was proposed in the 1980s by Paleoneurologist Harry Jerison, referred to as 'the communal self.'

However, 'collective consciousness' in other animals has been discussed for a century.

The idea was first presented by French sociologist Amile Durkheim in 1893 and is often referred to as a group having a 'shared mind' or 'hive mind'.

Yet in the 1970s, scientists began to suggest this collective consciousness could be developed and spread through species non-explicitly, through telepathic means.

Monkeys in Japan, for example, adopted and developed certain identical behaviours without ever coming into contact with one another.

Ms Casey's book explained: 'In fact, dolphins are so tightly bound to their pods that they may be operating with a degree of interconnectedness far deeper than our own.'

Now there is something cheery to think about, I am so tired of all the negativity going around, I'd rather think of dolphins.