Once the eager participants took their seats, the staff introduced themselves, and then invited the participants for a group photo session. Afterwards, the learning sessions officially started! As per the workshop’s program, the first day will be spent learning theories. We wouldn’t start anything practical until the second and third day. I think it is important that we learn the theories first, because we need to learn the proper ways to link a sentient being and how to reframe our sentences. This will make linking effective and successful. These are some of the points which I think are really important. First of all, we should not feel anything, have any hidden agenda, or feel any ego when we link a sentient being as that would block us from receiving the correct answers.
There was once a man whose neighbour hit his child’s dog every time he got home from work. The man felt sorry for the dog and decided to link it to see if it wanted to be rescued. The dog’s answer was surprising. It didn’t want to leave its current home and guardian. The man was dumbfounded and couldn’t quite accept the result, so he took a photo of the dog and sent it to his friend. He didn’t give any explanation about the dog’s condition. He only asked his friend to link the dog through the photo to see if it wanted to have a new guardian. The man’s friend didn’t feel any pity towards the dog, as she didn’t know its condition. The friend came up with the same results.
Some time passed after the man linked the dog and one day his neighbour was fired. The neighbour was feeling depressed. The dog came over to comfort him. That was the last time the neighbour would see the dog alive; the dog died in his arms right there and then.
Feeling regret for having abused his dog for years, the neighbour became an animal rescuer. This was the “aha” moment. The dog’s mission was to save millions of other dogs, even though it had to sacrifice itself. If the person was influenced by his feeling of pity and re-homed the dog, the dog would have failed in its mission and perhaps, the neighbour would still be abusive to animals.
Secondly, we should not chase any validation of our answer. This classifies as an ego too. There are many sides to a matter and each individual might see the matter from different point of views. There is no wrong or right side. For example, when we ask an animal what it would like to eat, some people may get an image of the food;some may get the smell of it; some may hear the sound of the food being prepared, etc. It all depends on which of our senses are the strongest Third of all is respect, respect, and respect! Do not force the sentient beings to communicate with you and always say thank you to them before or after we communicate. We should also ask the sentient being for approval in sharing the information with their guardians. Sometimes, they won’t allow it, as the info might make the guardian sad or guilty. In this case, we could ask them how we should convey the message. Re-framing the messages to the guardians is important here. I have an example which happened in real life.
One of the participants in the linking class, let’s just say her name was Miss C, owned a cat. Sometime in the past, her cat had 2 damaged legs. She wanted to amputate the 2 legs as soon as possible, because she knew that if delayed, it could result in death. The vet though, wanted the cat’s opinion, and so he linked the cat to see if it wanted to be operated. The cat only wanted one leg to be amputated, because it knew that Miss C had a financial problem and could only pay for one leg to be amputated. The cat knew that Miss C would do anything to get money just to pay for the 2 legs to be operated, and it didn’t want that. Besides, the leg only needs time to heal and return back to normal, even though from the medical point of view, the wound looked really dangerous. The cat didn’t want Miss C to borrow money for the operation and have unnecessary debt.
The vet reframed the cat’s words because if he told the truth he would encourage Miss C to borrow money instead of preventing her. Also, would Miss C believe in linking? She might think that the vet was delusional! So the vet just said: “It might be too hard for the cat if 2 of its legs are amputated at the same time, so I’ll just amputate the worst leg, and for the second leg, we’ll just amputate it next month.” Lo and behold, the leg healed by the next month! When Miss C brought her cat to the vet for a check up, the vet told her the truth. Thus the reason how she knew this story.
We also should not repeat negative information (things that are connected with sadness, guilt, anger, etc) because by repeating, the negative energy will continue to live on.
On the second day, we spent half of the day learning theories. One of the many things we learned was to make a power totem, which was a picture made out of consonants. First, we were to write a great wish of ours. Next, cut out all the vowels and list down the consonants. From here we are to shape our totem, and observe it. Changes in our totem may be a sign of our wish. After a refreshing break from all those theories, we went into our classroom with all the tables and chairs pushed aside. Out of a sudden, the facilitators instructed us to find a comfortable position, whether it be lying down, sitting, or standing. No one had any idea on what we should do. Then, a meditative music was played for 45 minutes. The song was accompanied by someone talking, guiding us in cleaning our chakras and ridding us of any ego and hidden agenda. Most of us fell asleep in the middle of the song.
After the seemingly unending song finally finished, the participants were told to refresh ourselves and settle back to our seats when we’re ready. The facilitators asked us if we would like to share our experience or ask anything before they explain everything to us. The result of the meditative session was kind of hilarious. Almost everyone were lost and confused. A question that almost everyone had in mind was the reason behind our sleepiness. There were also words that we didn’t understand. I did wake up somewhere near the end of the song, but as I was sleepy halfway through the song, I was pretty much in a haze throughout the music and wasn’t really aware about what the guide in the music was saying. The facilitators then proceed to explain the activity we just did. They had to explain in utmost detail what each and every part of the music means. In the first part of the music, we were guided to clean and get rid of any blockings in our chakras. What are chakras? They are turbulences of spiritual energy in our bodies. There are 7 chakras in total. Chakra blockings were mostly caused by negative emotional events. When our spiritual energies are blocked, it may prevent us in getting the right answers. Now it was in the middle of cleaning our many chakras that most of us fell asleep in. The facilitators explained that our sleepiness is our body taking a rest while cleaning up our blockings. This is very much like us wanting to sleep when we’re sick, as our body needs rest to heal ourselves.
The next parts consisted of us getting rid of our ego, emotions and hidden agendas. This will neutralise ourselves into only an observer. When we finally reached the step where we are to communicate with the sentient being, it was hoped that we wouldn’t be judgemental and will get clear answers. So actually, the activity we just did was linking! The USB that we got on the first day consists of 4 versions of the meditative music. The difference between the versions was the durations of the songs. Their durations go from 45 minutes to 6 minutes. With practise, we shall be able to link faster; we may even be able to do it instantly. The facilitators said that they were able to do it anytime when they’re not tired, even when driving! It was already nearly time to finish the second day, and so we were sent home to practise to link. On the third day, it was fully practical! All the participants were grouped into 3 groups, and we practised to link with both mammals and reptiles. Some of the participants were allowed to bring their pets, as long as they had asked the sentient being’s permission. When communicating with animals, we were encouraged to use our five senses. To assist us, the instructors provided us with different imaginary tools related to different senses. For examples, they asked us to use a “sheep’s horn” when we’re trying to use our smelling sense, a “clear pond” for our visual sense, and a “sea-conch” for our hearing sense. Every person is born with one or two dominant senses. If one or more of our senses isn’t strong, we might get the answers through other senses. My most memorable from all the five senses was smell. My group practised it with one of the linking participant’s white cat. Our tool for scent is a goat’s horn. Some of the questions were things that she likes, dislikes, and of course, if she has any message for her guardian. After asking the cat a question, we were then to “hold up” the horn to our nose, and try to smell the thing that the cat answered.
When I asked the cat of her favourite things, the smell of cooked food and sweet perfume drafted underneath my nose. The cat also gave me the smell of something chemical as something that she dislikes. The cat then told me to stay away from smells like that.
During discussion time, the other members of my group said that she was hungry and wanted more food. One of them even got a detailed image of a cooked fish sliced in half, without a head and tail. As we still had time left after discussion, the guardian decided to verify what we just got from her cat. She said that her cat was on a diet and thus she was hungry. The cooked fish was her breakfast this morning! The fish was sliced in half as the other half belongs to her sister, and she indeed doesn’t like fish head. She then verified the sweet smell as her perfume that she usually uses.
The next memorable practise I had was not a sense. Guess what? It’s shape shifting! Me and my group practised with sugar gliders. As sugar gliders are nocturnal animals, and the practise took place in the afternoon, it was actually their sleeping time. Right before the practise took place, the sugar glider’s guardian made them comfortable by putting the sugar gliders into a soft, fuzzy pouch.
When I placed myself in the sugar glider’s body, all I saw was the other sugar glider and the furry brown pouch that surrounds it. All I felt was comfort and I started to drift off into a nice comfortable doze......
When the practise session ended, one of the members of my group said “Do any of you feel sleepy?” Everyone in our group agreed. Even my mom, who was in the group felt as if she was rocking into sleep. I dozed off quite a bit in the middle of it all. I guess that’s what happens when you try to shape shift into a nocturnal animal in the afternoon.
After practising our senses, we practised to link an animal through a photo. This time, we did not do it in groups. Instead, we were instructed to find another classmate that we didn’t know before. As our partner didn’t know anything about us, there is a less possibility of them having any hidden agenda of us. Every partner was to switch a photo of the sentient being that they wanted their partner to link. They also had to tell their partner the questions they wanted their partner to ask. I asked my partner to link my Indian Star tortoise. I wanted to know how he is now and if he’s happy to live with me. Originally, I wanted to bring him to the workshop, but I cancelled because I was afraid something would happen to him. I know that this workshop is safe, but I had a bad experience of bringing my tortoises to public places.
From the linking, my partner received that India is happy to live with me, and that he is surprised to have a guardian like me, who cares and loves a tortoise like him. Please keep in mind that I’m retelling exactly what my partner said, and that I’m not showing off :). India also reported that he felt dizzy and he wanted water. When my partner shape-shifted into him, she felt that her surroundings are hot and that her head feels heavy.
After linking, I could see that everyone had a fun and exciting conversation with their partners. Even after our facilitators told us that time’s up, almost everyone still kept on talking with their partners. Once everyone is back in their seats, the facilitators encouraged us to share our latest linking experience. Out of the few stories that were shared, there were funny and touching experiences.
One of the participants retold of her experience with her partner’s cat. Her partner showed her a photo of his cat, and wanted her to ask his cat’s condition. Her partner didn’t let our any information about his cat except its name. She described a beautiful & peaceful garden where the cat is in now. The cat also said that it misses its guardian. Her partner responded to this by saying “Oh, he’s already on the rainbow bridge.” This prompted her to tear up, but she didn’t want to. She treated her partner as if he was her patient who asked her help, and she definitely didn’t want to tear up in front of her patient. This is also proof that we can link the dead.
The facilitators wrapped up the event with a lot of thanks and a lot of encouragement for us to continue practise our linking and not to ever get our ego get into our way. Showing off would definitely block our answers. They also told us that in a few weeks, they will make a group chat for all of us to continue to help and support each other.
