Pet Buzz May-June 2007

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Asiq V o i g h T

Talking to the AnimalsW've all heard of Dr. Doolittle; well Asia Voight isn'tnearly as well-known, but she's gaining in popularityevery year.Voight - who has a degree in Communication Arts from the

University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh and has previously worked asa midwi fe's assistant, cranial-sacral therapist and professionalhealer - began communicating with animals professionally in1998, after studying advanced levels of animal communicationwith Penelope Smith. (Smith is considered by many to be a pioneer in the field of interspecies communication and hasauthored best-selling books on communicating with animals.)

Since that ti me, Voight says she has worked with over 12,000animals and their owners. Her work has been featured on television, radio and in magazines, as well as in Dr. Julie Kaufman'sbook "Crossing the Rubicon: Celebrating the Human-AnimalBond in Life and Death.

A professional animal communicator, Voight says her ability,though honed over the years, comes naturally and is somethingshe has been doing since she was a child.

"I feel that I was born being able to communicate with animals and at the age of five it was pointed out to me that notjust everybody communicates with animals," she says, addingthat when she was a teenager she asked that the gift be turnedoff. "I wanted to be like every other teenager and to that pointI'd not met anyone else who communicated with animals. I justwanted it to stop and just try to fi t in. "

But in 1987 she was in a car accident and suffered a neardeath experience. It was at that time, Voight says, God asked herto come back to earth and re-awaken her ability to communicate with animals and to share that with the world. So sherelearned her natural gift as an adult. That's why she believesshe can effectively teach it to others, something she does in classsettings, in addition to private readings.

"I t 's like learning another language and it takes time and12 PETBuzzIMayJune2007

practice. I'm still learning and still practicing," she says .Having been born with the gift and having a near-death expe

rience gives her a slight edge , she says , because she's able toconnect with animals on somewhat of a deeper, more spirituallevel. "But anyone can learn it, absolutely. "

Most of us communicate wjth our animals now, but it is noton the same level as what Asia does or teaches.

"I teach people how to listen and be receptive to the information that the animals are sending them, and then also how tomore effectively send information to your animals that youwant them to know," explains Voight, adding that the abilityto communicate with animals is much like tuning into a radiofrequency.

"Every living thing gives off its own radio waves or their ownsignal and I'm just able to find it and it's like a click goes of f inmy body when I have the right frequency. Sometimes the communication is more like a sensation coming into my body orthrough my heart. It's like a feeling I get from them. But manytimes it's also words," Voight says . "From there all the information comes forth . Of course a lot of it also depends on the animal's ability to communicate, too. Some are excellent communicators and it's effortless for me to understand them. With otheranimals it feels a little bit like charades."

A pet owner can ask anything, ranging from what the animal 's favorite color is to what they feel their life 's purpose is.Sometimes, though , people don't want to talk this intimatelywith their pets, she says, because they 're afraid they might learntheir pet really doesn't like them.

"But what actually ends of happening is that the people whocall me for an animal communication session already have apretty good relationship with their animals and they are, therefore, rewarded with hearing how their animals do appreciatethem, love them and actually now may name details about theirlife," she says. "And they are overly amazed with the newfound


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connection that they share on a heart and soul level with theiranimals after they've communicated with them.""Mostly people ask if the animals are happy; that's probablynumber one. They want to know how they feel physically, dothey feel good. They want to know what they can do to improvetheir pets' lives. They want to know if they like the other animalsthat they live with. And with horses, they want to know thingslike how the saddle feels and do they like the riding they'redoing together."What's the benefit to owners of Asia communicating withtheir pets? It's as unique as the pets themselves."One of my clients said that I saved her thousands of dollars

because I was able to pinpoint what was wrong with her cat andshe was able to go to a holistic and open-minded veterinarianand share with them the information that I had gotten from hercat, and her vet knew what that meant, because the cat is notnecessarily speak in technical terms," she says. "Although I didhave one cat who was owned by a veterinarian and when itspoke to me it felt like it was reading out of a medical textbook."Another of her clients had a dog that was eating the furnitureand the walls "They couldn't find a place to contain this dogwhere it wasn't destroying everything, and it was peeing andpoopi ng all over the house. So I had one conversation with thedog about this behavior and the next day it all stopped. And theynow enjoy a stress-free, loving, happy relationship with theirdog," says Voight.Jill Endries was skeptical at first, but within minutes was abeliever, and in the last year, Asia has done readings on all eightof Endries' Siamese cats.

"My cats are my best friends and I was looking to see if therewas anything I could do to enhance my relationships with them.There were a couple behavioral thing I wanted to address, butthat was not the main reason I went to her," says Endries. "Sheconducted a couple of readings and I took one of the communications classes and it was like a whole new world appearedbefore my eyes . The transformation and understanding that grewbetween me and my kitties was absolutely phenomenal."

"Asia nailed every last detail about them and their personalities as if she'd lived with them every moment of their lives. Shecould tell me things about them that I've never shared with anybody else. And they told her things about me that I've nevershared with anybody else. There's no way she could have knownany of those things," says Endries.

As far as the behavioral issues, they have cleared up, too."Now the hierarchies are gone and there is a muchgreater understanding and peace between us ," Endries saysof her and her cats.Voight is not dismayed or offended by skepticismabout her claims, saying "A fair amount of skepticism is

good because it helps weed out animal communicators who should not be practicing because they'renot good.""Skepticism is healthy and comes along withevery type of profession, even if it's someone

who's going to clean out your fireplace. Most of uscan't get up and look down inside the chimneyand really know what's going on. You have totrust the professional. It's the same in my profes-

sion ," she says . "Part of that trust comes from talking to otherswho have worked with this person and finding out what theirexperiences have been. "Voight's parents call her an animal therapist and she says partof what she does really is like having a counseling or therapy session."I am counseling them in a way and asking them questions

and sending them sensations very vividly of what they want tocreate in their life," she says , adding that the animals wouldrather have their owners feel joy and happiness than anger andfrustration. "Animals want to be smart too, but sometimes theyjust don't know what a good, smart dog looks and feels like. Icannot make them behave; I cannot make them change. But Icome to them in an absolutely supportive, loving space andwithin that space I create the option for them to transform andchange. And with the discussions and images, most of them do."

She concedes because of the radio waves and frequencies, it ispossible to get a person's pet mixed up with a neighbor's, atwhich point if the person says it doesn 't sound like their pet , shestops and starts over. There have also been about five animals inher career, Voight says, that she was unable to communicatewith - either because she couldn't find them or in one case adog who just told her it didn't want to talk. But in most casespets want to talk to their human family members as badly as thepeople want to talk to them , and the result is amazing, and thepeople usually have a greater respect for the miracle animalsare.

"People who already love their animals are shifted after thiscommunication to a whole new level of understanding of thebrilliance that the animals have ," she concludes.If you would like to share comments or would like moreinformation regarding 'Talking to the animals' written by Cheryl Hentz, please [email protected] . :-

Pet Buzz May-June 2007

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