Excerpt from chapter four:
Yet another realm they visited was the animal realm. Many people are
reborn in the animal realm, some on earth, and some on other worlds. The
animal realm covers all rebirths from the smallest amoeba up to chimpanzees,
gorillas, whales and dolphins. One thing they discovered in their visits
to the animal realms was that many of the higher animals are quite conscious
of their actions, and are able to make decisions which can positively
affect their karmic balance. While the lower insects and smaller animals
have little choice about their actions, they still sometimes make decisions
which have an impact. One example was a spider which, when an extra insect
got caught in its web, intentionally freed the insect rather than eating
more than it needed. They were amazed, actually, at the level of sophistication
that many animals exhibited, animals and insects commonly thought to be
more or less completely devoid of conscious thought or intention. Many
animals experienced emotional responses just as intense and important
to them as they were to humans. Animals felt fear, longing, pain of separation,
even love and compassion.
The higher animals were sometimes deliberate and sophisticated in their
actions, some positive, some negative. There were "good" dolphins
and "bad" dolphins, measured in terms of their actions. Some
would willingly go to the aid of other creatures, even man, even knowing
that most men they encountered were dangerous to them. Some would sacrifice
their own lives to save others.
The humans reborn as animals had no conscious recollection of their previous
lives as humans, but did tend to possess a higher intelligence than other
animal peers, and thus usually had the tools to make decisions which might
lead to a better animal rebirth, or possibly a human rebirth. This was
due to the impressions of mind which carried over through the time period
in the Bardo between death and rebirth, in that limbo before their next
incarnation. While all conscious memory was usually obliterated by the
transmutation of energy at conception and birth, the impressions of mind
could linger at a vibrational level, like homeopathic medicine. While
very little or none of their previous matter was present, on a subtle
vibrational level, these karmic and mental impressions carried forth.
