We know — we keep finding out — that animals are much smarter than we, in our hubris, thought.
Some experiments have shown crows to have cognitive kills comparable to a kindergartener. The same is true of certain parrots (studied even at Harvard; able to pick up objects according to colors and shapes, as well as put whole sentences together); chimps and porpoises have long been touted for their brains; lions recognize trainers, even after an absence of more than a decade; dogs do incredible things, when it comes to their masters (including licking their faces during wakes or standing guard over their tombstones); cats are quiet but pensive; even ants have tremendous organizational capabilities (and memory).
But what about having a “soul”? Do they pass into an eternal realm?
We have tackled that question before (search our archives).
The issue of animals — God’s creatures — and a spiritual dimension is a fascinating one, from the communication saints like Francis of Assisi had with animals to current holy sites such as Medjugorje, where swallows famously stopped squawking and flitting about during apparitions.
In a diary about “visits” by souls from purgatory (and occasionally perhaps also demons), the German princess and mystic Eugenie von der Leyen recorded that once, when she saw a “horrid” man with shaggy hair and piercing eyes, as well as a female spirit in the chicken yard, she “saw something strange: a cat was coming towards them; suddenly she made a frightful leap to the side. So she had noticed the woman. I’m very happy that at least one cat is watching with me!”
An editor noted in a footnote that animals show fear in spots where “mortal apparitions” are seen, in one case avoiding the top of a staircase where an apparition had appeared several times.
And notes a priest who translated the Spanish version of Eugenia’s diary (“My Conversations with Poor Souls”), “The American researcher Robert Morris experimented with animals (a dog, a cat, a rattlesnake, and a rat) by putting them in a ‘haunted’ house, right in the room where a homicide had been committed.
“As reported, the dog growled and left there, and it was impossible to convince him to go back in. The cat, in its turn, bristled his hair and out of sheer fear [clawed] his master, who was carrying him in her arms, while he looked at a specific point. As for the rattlesnake, he adopted an attack stance aimed at the same part of the room that the cat had been looking at. Finally, only the rat was totally indifferent to that room.”
Have you ever noticed a pet staring at a particular spot, for no known reason? Let us know.
But a snake?
(As for rats, they aren’t dissuaded by much!)
A well-known Austrian mystic, Maria Simms, who allegedly also saw purgative souls, when asked if animals were sensitive to the presence of souls, said, “Yes, especially horses, dogs, and chickens. I know of many cases in which horses clearly refused to pass in front of buildings where it was later discovered that the souls were demonstrating to attract attention” for intercession.
Let us discern (cautiously).
“For his part,” noted the priest-translator, “Father Gabriele Amorth, an exorcist from Rome, says that in a place with alleged manifestations of spirits, ‘the behavior of domestic animals is important. It often happens that, when we have the impression that someone is in our own room, the cat or dog keeps its gaze fixed on a certain point, and they may perhaps flee in terror, as if the mysterious being were approaching them. I could narrate many interesting cases.”
Do they actually see something, asked the famous exorcist, or sense it?
We know that the Bible narrates the account of a donkey (Numbers 22-23) that was able to see or sense a spiritual presence — but in this case it wasn’t a purgatorial soul by an angel.
(It was during that apparition that the donkey — says Scripture — spoke, opening Balaam’s eyes to see the angel.)
Okay, fine. That we accept. It’s in the Good Book.
But we’re not about to deem any animal as a new locutionist or mystic!
[resources: The Amazing Secrets of Souls in Purgatory (interviews with Maria Simms) and Michael Brown retreat video]