Archive for Wednesday 21st August 2002 - Dolphin power
Do dolphins exist on a higher plane than humans?

Certainly their brain size is second only to humans, but, unlike us, their brains to continue to grow throughout their lives.

Since the earliest times there have been reports of these graceful and supremely agile creature rescuing people from drowning.

Now, ironically, they are under threat from the US Navy’s new generation of sonar devices designed to track stealth submarines. In sonic terms, the immense power of these new defence systems is the equivalent to standing next to a large jet engine. Trials in the Bahamas in the summer of 2000 caused both dolphins and whales to beach themselves and die from haemorrhaging brains.

Claims are made about the healing power of dolphins’ sonar abilities. There is evidence that some cancer patients who have swum in the ocean with dolphins experienced their tumours reducing in size after exposure to the sound waves the creatures generate.

Dolphin intelligence, however, is beyond question. In scientific experiments conducted by Dr John Lilly in the United States, dolphins continually out-guessed the professor and in the end turned the tables on him by deliberately generating sounds they ‘knew’ were beyond his hearing range. This was perhaps the first experiment performed on humans by another species. The experience of swimming with wild dolphins can be transforming. And this week I will be mid-Atlantic in the Azores experiencing it for myself. Reactions such as this are common: “Being in the presence of a dolphin is totally absorbing…It seems to set off emotional and physiological changes that are the foundation of healing and liberation.” I am hoping for a similar experience myself.

I shall report back next week.

Mark Winter