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Spirit of Ma'at: "Animal Connections" — Vol 3 September 2002 with Joan Ocean, M.S. by Paula Peterson
Regarded as an authority on the subject of dolphin and whale communication, Joan Ocean developed the remarkable methodologies for this pioneering work and authored two books translated into four languages: Dolphin Connection and Dolphins into the Future. For nearly two decades, Joan has led thousands the world over into the waters to swim and communicate with the dolphins; to discover the wondrous, often mystical world of these vastly intelligent beings with abilities that continue to amaze and baffle us all.
Paula: How did your work with dolphins and whales begin? Joan: It was surprise to me! I didn't even know how to swim when I first met the dolphins. It was the early '80s, and people were not as aware of dolphins back then. The dolphins came to me for the first time while I was in meditation, with a beautiful message of having much to share with humanity. The energy felt very good. But I was a little embarrassed to tell anyone that I was channeling dolphins instead of some great Ascended Master. So I kept it secret. I wondered how I could work with dolphins and whales when I couldn't even swim. Later, I released the dolphins' message to a friend, who printed it in his newsletter, which circulated throughout the United States. There was a great response to the article. Many people wrote to me making statements like, "I felt all along that one could communicate with dolphins. Thank you for sharing that information." This encouraged me to talk more openly about my experience and to continue to have more experiences. Then, as fate would have it, I was invited on a trip to the Amazon River in Peru to meet the river dolphins. Since I already had contact with them in meditation, I agreed right away. It was beautiful. I still didn't know how to swim, but I had a lifejacket on, and the water was quite calm, so I felt okay with it. After that, I began traveling to other countries, sharing stories about my experiences with the dolphins. That is how it began. Paula: Did you also begin having experiences with the whales at that time? Joan: I think the whales affected my vibrational frequency right in the beginning. Around the same time of my first dolphin meditation, I met Jean-Luc Bozzoli, an incredible visionary and dolphin artist whose art touched me right to the heart. We began traveling together — I would tell stories about dolphins, and he would show his art. As a result, people invited us to meet the dolphins in different countries. One time, we were involved with some gentle, environmentally aware people in a month-long project off the coast of British Columbia, Canada. It was wonderful. We lived in tents, and we sat around the fire at night with the others on this deserted island. There were eagles and orcas — it was a beautiful, uninhabited place. One day, we were standing on the shore when a California gray whale came in really close. He seemed to be rolling on the pebbles beneath the water, scratching his back and removing barnacles. He came in closer, at an angle that allowed eye contact. I looked into that eye, and as he returned my gaze, I felt all this love and wisdom coming to me in vibrational waves — so much of it! I felt as though he knew and understood me. It was very powerful. There came a point where I couldn't take any more of those waves of love — I thought that I might melt or disappear. The minute I had that thought, the whale stopped sending the vibrational waves. It was then that I realized that whales could communicate with us. He had received my communication and knew to stop sending those waves of love. My interest from then on has always been in communicating with dolphins and whales. I feel they have messages and wisdom to share, and I want to be the facilitator of this sharing. Paula: The Australian aborigines and other indigenous tribes consider it important when they dream about dolphins. Besides meeting dolphins in meditation, have you had dreams of them? Joan: Yes. Even before going to the Amazon, I dreamed of pink dolphins, having no idea that there even was such a thing. I remember waking up from the dream thinking, "Now wasn't that a pleasant dream — to see pink dolphins." It's interesting that in the beginning, before I met the dolphins, I dreamed about them more often than I do today. Now I spend time with them in the water day after day. They're always with me. So I don't have specific dreams of dolphins as much now as before. Somehow, our fields of energy have merged in such a way that I've become a part of them — it feels like that to me. Paula: How has your work — or should I say play — with dolphins and whales changed your life? Joan: Oh, in every way. In observing them and being with them so much, I wanted to live the way they do, very simply. I didn't want to have all these possessions and responsibilities, things to take care of. I completely lost interest in the secular life, the nine-to-five job or anything like it. I sold everything. I had decided to move to wherever the dolphins were, to live with them, and to see what would happen. I trusted that everything would fall into place and that I would have the abundance necessary to support that lifestyle. And it really worked well — it was so simple. There was some concern from others. Yet the worse that could happen, I thought, if it didn't work out, was that I would just go back to my old lifestyle. So I decided to give it a try, to follow my heart and do what I love. Everything developed out of that trust. It changed my life. The pursuit of my academic degrees in counseling and psychology had enhanced my ability to be in touch with others through empathy. Now, the dolphins further enhanced my ability in that area. Many people find that when you are able to communicate with one animal you are able to communicate with all animals, and also with insects, plants, and trees. So my communication skills in general improved a great deal. Paula: In what other ways have you noticed a change? Joan: There has been improvement emotionally and physically. I always feel very healthy, athletic, and agile — and happy, too. Of course, the dolphins really stimulate my spiritual growth. There are many teachings and experiences that they have shared with me that I now use as the basis for entire seminars. Paula: You speak of telepathic communication — or perhaps a more appropriate word is tel-empathic. What is it like to have that experience? Joan: I've used that word before — instead of the word telepathic or empathy — I combine the two into tel-empathy. I've found that the dolphins respond to feelings — that's empathy. They understand what you're feeling when you're swimming with them. I take many people out in boats and some of them don't even know how to swim. I'm honored that they trust me and trust the dolphins so much that they're willing to go into the ocean. But even though they love the dolphins, they may have fear of the water. If so, the dolphins will sense it right away and be more cautious, keeping their distance and not doing anything to startle them. The dolphins will gently approach and wait until they feel that people are comfortable. Then they come in closer. Tel-empathy is a big part of contacting the dolphins and communicating. When I'm out in the boat with a group, we meditate to start with, to contact the dolphins. I will usually send out a beam of light from my heart chakra, and another one from my third eye. A triangulation is created as the beams from the third eye and the heart connect with each other. But the most important part I've found is the empathy or the feelings. At the same time that I'm sending the image and thinking about swimming with the dolphins, I'm feeling the joy in my heart and the love I have for them. The feeling seems to be the conduit — the bio-electric conductor — that sends my thoughts and my request for them to come and swim with us. This is the energy that somehow delivers the message, and this is what they pick up. They can feel far beyond our ability to feel. And the water amplifies that ability. Paula: Would you say, then, that communication with dolphins takes place on a feeling level more so than on a mental level? Joan: Actually, it's both. The mental is a big part of it, and thoughts are important. A person may have a thought such as, I can't swim that fast, I wish you would slow down — and the dolphins will slow down. Many people have told me this. As another example, I keep records of the different dolphins based on the marks on their bodies — birth marks, or injuries they have had — and whether they are male or female. When a new dolphin comes along, I'll have the thought, "Are you a male or a female?" and in response they will roll over and show me. I can identify more than two hundred of them by name. So they can read our thoughts. I'll be with a group of dolphins and see that one is missing, and I'll think, "Is Ragged Fin here today?" All of a sudden, he will come from behind and zip right up in front of me. Dolphins also use a kind of cellular communication. In addition to sending information directly into our brains or into our minds — which they are certainly doing — I have found that dolphins also are sending information into the cells of our body. Paula: Humans don't seem to be generally aware of cellular intelligence. Do you think that knowledge of this might help us to understand more about our own behavior? Joan: Well, the dolphins are certainly aware of cellular intelligence. What's interesting in this regard is the latest research involving organ transplants. Biologists are finding that the behavior and characteristics of the organ donor sometimes show up in the recipient. It seems as though the intelligence, behavior, and feelings of the organ donor remain in the cells, even though the organ is placed into a different person. Paula: So how do you feel about eating animals? Are we taking in cellular intelligence when we do that? Joan: I think so. Many say that those here on the island who eat meat all the time — like the cowboys — have a more aggressive behavior pattern and their skin is more leathery. The way in which animals are killed for meat also causes fear in the cells of the animal's body, and people are affected by that, too. Paula: Besides tel-empathy and cellular communication, are there other ways dolphins and whales communicate? Joan: Yes, they also use a tonal language to contact us. When I was in the Azores with the sperm whales, I learned that the males can dive down more than six thousand feet, and that the sounds they make are not pretty. They make clicks and static at depths where the sounds can be more easily transmitted. The dolphins and the whales also use echo-location, which is a way of producing sound. Paula: Is that similar to their sonar? Joan: Yes. They send out sound waves that move toward the object they are focused on. When the echo from the object bounces back, it gives the dolphin or whale an acoustic picture of the environment — or the other whale, or the other person who's in the water with them. It's interesting that in order to interpret the sounds, they have to be loud enough for the echo to bounce back and short enough so that the echo of one sound bounces back before the next sound is sent out. The sounds are sent out in all directions from a cavity located in front of their brain, called the melon. If we are in the water swimming with them, dolphins and whales definitely direct these sound waves toward our bodies. When dolphins get really close to me, the interval between their clicks is so short that it's very much like a buzzing sound. Sound conveys a lot more information than light. Light is the way we humans see things through our eyes. But sound provides a lot more information. For example, studies have shown that when scanning a fish, dolphins can distinguish whether the fish is toxic or non-toxic. Paula: What kind of an effect do these sonar waves have on our brains? Joan: Interesting studies have shown that when the left hemisphere of the human brain is sedated, that person cannot speak — he or she can sing, but cannot speak. On the other hand, if the right hemisphere of the brain is sedated, then the person can speak but cannot sing. Dolphins, with their sounds, seem to be stimulating the right hemisphere of the human brain, activating the dormant potential and the higher senses — like the sixth sense. Paula: How can a person open themselves up to telepathic communication with dolphins? Joan: First of all, just ask. It's amazing how people don't think to do something so simple. When I communicate with dolphins, I enter a meditative state and become very relaxed. It helps to have music with dolphin or whale sounds, which can be very profound. When you get into an expanded state, visualize the dolphins or whales, think about them, and feel them as best you can. Imagine yourself swimming with them. Imagine diving down, staying under water, and not worrying about having to breathe. Join them in their world by visualizing it, experiencing it, and being with them in the dreamtime. Since water and the higher frequency of light are very similar, you can swim in either one of them. Once you feel you've made a connection, ask if they have something to share with you. Have a pen and pad of paper ready. You can write while remaining in that expanded state of awareness with the dolphins and whales. Just write what comes, without putting any judgment or criticism on it — just let it flow. Even if it seems awkward at first, you will eventually receive information. Some people receive messages through images, some through sound and feeling, and some through the body, kinesthetically. There also are those who receive communication from the dolphins in poetry or song. Paula: From what you said earlier, it seems as though we do not actually need to be near dolphins or whales in order to have telepathic communication with them. Joan: That's true. We can be anywhere. As I said, my contact with dolphins began with my sitting in meditation in the living room of my house. When you can get into that quiet space and focus on them, they'll be there. When you get a feeling that you want to make contact, you can just do it. I like to go into the shower, the bathtub, or the pool, since being in water enhances communication. Water is a conduit for sending and receiving information. Vibrational frequencies travel eight times faster in water than in the air. Dolphins and whales come into the dreamtime, during our sleep. And for me, they even enter into conversations I have with people. Or they will suddenly come in when I'm writing on the computer. Paula: Are there other ways that dolphins and whales affect us on land? Joan: There was a wonderful story in the Los Angeles Times a few years ago that gave a good example of the effect of whale sounds. There were peculiar circumstances with Cadillacs being driven along the Pacific Coast Highway in California. Owners of the cars were returning them to the dealers because the electric door locks and the trunk lids were strangely popping up and down as they were driving. The company recalled the cars, and their investigation revealed that the electrical systems were being set off by the sounds of the whales migrating along the coastline. We can be anywhere on land, and the dolphin and whales frequencies are reaching us Paula: Along those lines, it's often been said that dolphins have the ability to communicate in holographic images. Can you speak to us about that? Joan: It's true. I feel they communicate holographically as well as making "surround" sounds. A hologram is an image that includes all information "in one shot," so to speak. Like one burst of energy. As an example, if I said to you, "The children are playing on the beach," everyone who heard this would create a different mental image of how that looked — the age of the children, the clothes they were wearing, if they were playing ball or something else — because that information was not be in the human communication. But when the dolphins send me information, everything I need to know comes all at once — holographically. Paula: Humans often try to get animals, and in particular dolphins, to speak human language, which is difficult for them. My feeling is that we need to learn how to communicate from the heart, which is closer to their level. Joan: Yes, that's right. It's kind of sweet — like what John Lilly did in teaching the dolphins some words. It touches my heart that the dolphins are so willing to work with us that they sort of go along with it. But dolphins don't have vocal cords, and so they're not going to form words. They're making sounds out of the melon in their heads. Their communication has more to do with tel-empathy and a heart connection. The information comes in on a cellular level, into your entire body. Swimming alongside the dolphins, we may wonder, "Where did that piece of information come from? How did that get in there?" I like to say that the dolphins and whales are giving us answers before we know enough to ask the questions. They are frequently communicating in ways that are beyond our understanding. It's much like joining a foreign culture or tribe — at first, you wouldn't understand a word they were saying. Yet the longer you live with them, the more you learn the language. When we swim with dolphins, I encourage people to mimic them and make sounds as much as possible. It's very powerful to do that. When we make sounds with them, we move into a state of love. We name that vibration love — a particular vibration that feels so beautiful, joyful, and peaceful. The dolphins are already in that state at all times. And if we put out a sound that mimics theirs, we start to resonate with that same frequency. It's interesting that these sounds can take us beyond time and space — beyond third dimensional reality. Going beyond constraints, we can enter unlimited time and have experiences of traveling interdimensionally, bi-locating or just expanding time right where we are. When we get out of the water after swimming, we may look at the clock and see that we've been out there for an hour, but it might feel as though we've been out there for eight hours. Paula: What can you tell us about the dolphin's ability to heal? Joan: I've seen so much healing happen in being with the dolphins. By using their sonar, they can determine if we are missing any frequencies we need in order to be healthy. Then they can create that that missing frequency — a sound, although it's beyond our hearing — and send that frequency to heal us. There is a lot of fascinating research being done on sound healing. Dolphins also use their sonar to scan our bodies to find if there is a block or an imbalance. They will often find blocks in the body from previous surgical operations and beam sonar healing to them. Sometimes, trapped anesthetics are released in this way. You can even smell them! Paula: Is this why dolphins can have such a beneficial effect on handicapped children? Joan: Yes. I have taken many children with all kinds of disabilities out to the dolphins, and the results have been phenomenal. One such child, who was nine years old, had undergone a hundred and fifty operations on her brain. She had to be carried everywhere. But after swimming with dolphins, she could walk, even up and down stairs. This same child had a peculiar behavior: Every time she counted from one to twenty, she would skip the number sixteen. After swimming with the dolphins, she no longer skipped this number. And she was much more responsive — gentle and loving — with others. Another time, I took an autistic Japanese girl to swim with the dolphins. She had the typical behavior of autism: avoiding eye contact, being withdrawn and lost in her own world. But once she was in the water with the dolphins, she began making sounds with them. Then we brought her back on land — I'll never forget this — and after taking off her life jacket, she walked into my backyard, which is right there on the ocean, went over to a bush, picked a flower, walked over to me, looked right into my eyes, and handed it to me. It was deeply touching. Her parents started crying. Prior to this, she had never interacted with anyone in any way. Paula: That is so moving. I work part time with handicapped kids, and I love hearing stories like this. Joan: I feel so fortunate to be able to experience these kinds of things often. It's not always easy — I have to get helpers, including big guys to lift handicapped adults. We sometimes take adults who are paralyzed to swim with the dolphins, and we have to be able to lift them into the boat. It takes a lot of cooperation with people working together to make it happen. But it is always worth it. Paula: It has been said that if we want to contact alien beings we should start with the dolphins, since they are the other intelligent race that inhabits this planet. Could you comment on this? Joan: Personally, I feel it's true that dolphins are another intelligent race, and that they really are preparing us to be in communication with cultures from other planets. They are accomplishing this in an acceptable way, since people love dolphins and can relate to them. Dolphins and humans have similarities, and we can communicate with each other. They're also joyful and playful. Even though they've got a big mouthful of teeth, people aren't afraid of them. Paula: That leads me to my next question. In Dr. Michel Odent's book Water and Sexuality, he offers the fascinating hypothesis — supported by scientific studies — that humans are more closely related to dolphins than to primates. He theorizes that dolphins and humans have a common ancient ancestor. What do you think of this? Joan: I feel that it's true. I also believe that dolphins and humans can incarnate into each others' forms. That might not be true of all animals, but I feel that it's true with the dolphins. I also feel that the dolphins have remained in contact with beings from other planets, as we also were able to do back in the days of Atlantis, and at other times as well. The general human population seems to have lost even the memory of that contact, but for the dolphins it's still going on. I was personally aware, even before I met the dolphins, of energies from Sirius, the brightest star in our skies. When I first met the dolphins, I was reminded of this energy, and asked them about it. The dolphins said that they were not directly from Sirius, but that they contained the energies of Sirius within their being. Paula: Are there any ancient records or texts that allude to dolphins' coming from another planet? Joan: There are myths. The story of the Dogon tribe in Africa is well known. When explorers first discovered them and asked where they came from, the Dogon tribesmen drew diagrams of a planet with twin suns — Sirius and Sirius B. They also drew pictures, in the sand and on their boats, that were images of dolphins. So they related themselves both to dolphins and to Sirius. I had an amazing experience while inside the Great Pyramid in Egypt, when I noticed some hieroglyphs of dolphins there. With me were two Egyptologists with double Ph.D. degrees. They looked at the dolphin hieroglyphs and said, "We've never seen that before. Where did that come from?" One of the most interesting pieces of information that the dolphins have given me is their reference to a "window in time." They have shown me an acoustic image of our present reality as moving along a linear pathway — a horizontal plane that they carefully enter on a vertical angle, so to speak. Once here, they rewrite history or change some things that are going on here. Universal Law states that there cannot be interference with people on other planets than our own unless the people ask for it. But when there is a call for help, intervention is permitted. The dolphins say they have come in through a "window of time" to help humanity. They intercepted our time-line, so to speak, coming into bodies in the ocean and bringing with them the history of human-dolphin contact: the Roman and Greek history, as well as more recent stories about interactions between dolphins and people. So although it's said that the dolphins are millions of years old — and they undoubtedly are — they themselves would say, "Yes, but not on this planet." While doing research on dolphin origins, I asked my friends the Hawaiian Kahunas — the holy men of the Hawaiian people — "Why is it that in all of your traditional chants and songs there is mention of sharks, turtles, and the other sea life, but no mention of dolphins? Nothing. Even though you are descendants of a sea-faring people?" They responded that the dolphins were not here yet in the old times of which they sing. When we talk about how old the dolphins are and where they are from, we must think in terms of multi-dimensional universes — not just this one. The dolphins say that when they make these very high-frequency sounds while we are swimming with them, the sounds take us beyond time and space, and we have experiences similar to those that the dolphins themselves had when they entered our reality. They used sound to come in and create the reality of being with us. They say that they've come here, into the physical plane, to teach us about non-physical reality. Paula: I've read Douglas Anderson's wonderful book The Planet of Waters, which is a beautiful story about the planet with twin suns that was the original home of the dolphins. Do you have any thoughts to share on this? Joan: It is a beautiful story. During my seminars, I lead people into meditation and then read to them from that book. The words are so dolphin-like — it's the tone he sets, the way he strings the words together, the visuals that come up — it's the way dolphins communicate. It's like poetry, and yet it has a very profound message. I have always appreciated that book. Paula: Tribal shamans of old allowed the spirit of a dolphin or whale to enter their body and have an intimate communication which they would then share with tribal members. They could also merge with whales or dolphins and have the experience of swimming as one of them. Do you also have these experiences. Could you tell us more about this? Joan: Yes, while swimming with the dolphins for hours I do begin to merge with their essence. It's like shape-shifting. I often feel that they, in turn, are experimenting with being in a human body, and having fun with that. They become me and I become them — we merge with each other. At times, I get into such a high frequency of love that my whole body changes composition. I and many others have also had the experience of becoming invisible. I've also seen that happen in meditation, where some people achieve such a high state of consciousness that they temporarily go out of physical reality — now you see them, now you don't. The dolphins can have that same effect when you spend a lot of time with them. There have been times when I have been swimming with a group and people will start looking around for me because they can't see me. If they begin to worry, that always brings me back. Paula: What do you think is the most important message that dolphins and whales are giving us about living here on Planet Earth? Joan: They are showing us the examples of living in harmony with nature by living in harmony with each other. That is so important. And they are living examples of joy and gratitude. One other important message is that we can learn to go beyond our five senses. It's interesting that at times dolphins don't want us to touch them or even see them. Well, we already know how to do all that. They want us to stretch, to use our other senses. The dolphins and wales want us to understand, for the sake of our planet and our own well being, that we are not alone in the universe. It's essential that we acknowledge other civilizations in the universe that can be of benefit to us and are willing to be helpful. And we don't want to approach them as the enemy. We need to approach extraterrestrial beings in the same way that we approach the dolphins — with love and openness. Paula: In closing, what else would you like us to know? Joan: People have found that when swimming with the dolphins, memories from their entire lives may flash before them. Sometimes, they remember mainly negative things. They will be crying behind their swim masks. When that happens, the dolphins' messages will encourage people to focus instead on the positive, and to make positive memories, rather than negative ones, the impetus for their life choices. The dolphins once asked me, "Why does the human race focus on the negative things that happen and base their lives on this?" They want people to rewrite their past and focus on the beautiful and good things that happened, then move forward in their lives with gratitude. Paula: Thank you, Joan, for this wonderful, playful time that you've shared with us. Our love and respect for dolphins and whales can only grow as we learn more about them through dedicated pioneers like you.
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