| CAN
DOLPHIN SOUNDS HEAL PEOPLE?
May 24, 2005
Can Dolphin Sounds Heal People?
When serious illness and failed cures had weakened 3-year old
Joe Hoaglund's will to live, his mother took him to Dolphins Plus
in Key Largo, Florida, where he met Fonzie, an 18-year old dolphin
who deliberately turned Joe's life around.
Within a year, the little boy, who arrived in a wheelchair and
was barely able to hold his head up was dashing around like a
normal 4-year old and could feed Fonzie a bucket of fish while
exclaiming to visitors that Fonzie loves him and he loves Fonzie.
Captive dolphins are employed regularly to help mentally handicapped,
autistic and emotionally disturbed children. Dr. David Nathanson,
a Miami-based psychologist, said that dolphins are able to reduce
stress on children and put them in a deeply relaxed state in which
they are more receptive to learning.
"The fact that some captive dolphins make a concerted and
deliberate effort to help sick children, and they do so spontaneously
without reward, indicates that they are genuinely compassionate
towards us," says Dr. Randall Eaton, an animal behaviorist
affiliated with the University of Alberta. Eaton directs the Dolphin
Project in Costa Rica which explores dolphin interaction with
humans.
Eaton explained that for centuries around the world people have
described compassionate behavior of dolphins and orca whales,
the giant member of the dolphin family. "Then as now, wild
dolphins go out of their way to help humans in trouble. They are
the only wild animals that regularly initiate interspecies cooperation
with humans," he said.
Eaton said that interspecies cooperation goes beyond dolphins
rescuing people at sea or protecting them from sharks. "Orcas
also have rescued native Indians, but equally impressive are the
well documented cases of dolphins helping people catch fish. One
group of orcas even helped Australian whalers catch whales for
115 years, a relationship the orcas, not the humans, initiated,"
he said.
In l985 Eaton and the volunteers of His Orca Project befriended
a pod of wild orca whales in northern British Columbia, an event
publicized widely throughout North America. Now his Dolphin Project
gets volunteers up close and personal with wild dolphins near
Flamingo on the northwest Pacific coast of Costa Rica so he can
learn more about the influence of dolphin sounds on peope.
Dolphins use sonar, the equivalent of X-ray vision, to diagnose
human illness, including tumors, and they use sound as a weapon
that stuns or disorients their prey. Eaton thinks the dolphins
also may use sound to heal. He said, "Over the 28 years that
we studied orcas, we noticed that people in the water came out
feeling significantly elevated and uplifted after being sonically
scanned by orcas."
According to Eaton, many people who are scanned by orcas and dolphins
consider the experience transformative. "It opens hearts,
not unlike falling in love or becoming a parent. This summer we'll
record the sounds that dolphins emit at people in the water with
them, then play these same sounds back to naive subjects in an
eeg lab to see how they alter brain states," Eaton said.
Volunteers are invited to apply for 5-day expeditioons starting
July 18 and 30, August 10 and 22, and September 3, then in December
and January. The fee of $950 includes tents, camp and research
gear, food, boats and instruction. Student rate is $750, and family
rates are available. Volunteers have free time daily for snorkeling,
kayaking and fishing.
For additional information go to www.randalleaton.com or email
Eaton at reaton@eoni.com.
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