A Free Spirit. Betty Shine

have spent many hours looking at the sparrow hawks that hover over the South Downs. Circular in flight, they climb into the sky then plunge to earth to claim their prey. For a long time I tried to imagine what it would be like to come face to face with this bird.

      Walking into my conservatory one day, I saw a sparrow hawk sitting on a windowsill as if transfixed, and it looked at me with its huge yellow eyes. I stood quite still – in shock I think – because it was the last thing I’d expected to find inside my house. It was difficult to see how it had got in, as the gap in the door leading to the garden was so small. I believe now that it must have followed one of the many finches that sometimes found themselves in the same position whilst helping themselves to the bird seed that I stored inside the conservatory.

      The bird was as beautiful as I had imagined, and I was loath to let it go, but because I had no idea how long it had been there – and thought that hunger must have caused it to get into this predicament – I knew I had to release it as soon as possible. Walking slowly to the door, I gently pushed it open and walked into the garden. Standing at a distance, I watched as the bird turned its head towards the doorway, then freed itself in a flash and disappeared behind a hedgerow, no doubt looking for its next victim.

      Deciduous woodland has layers of vegetation which provide many different kinds of habitat needed to house the numerous species that dwell there. Scuttling in the undergrowth are shrews and wood mice, whilst badgers tunnel into the earth to create their sett, usually amidst elder trees which provide them with warmth, security and a safe haven within their intertwined roots.

      A more common sight are the squirrels which perform their acrobatics in tree canopies. Their favourite venues are oak, sweet chestnut and sycamore in which to make their dreys, an untidy mass of twigs and dead leaves which are easy to spot in the winter. At night, the treetops are frequented by bats, which can be seen quite clearly at dusk.

      On the edge of the woodland you will find hedgehogs, rabbits, hares, stoats, weasels and polecats. Hares love the open fields but are now increasingly taking to the woods in an attempt to preserve their own numbers.

      If you live near woodland that slopes down to a river, you are likely to hear the nightingale singing day and night during the summer months. They migrate to Africa during the winter.

      When your psyche opens up, enabling your mind to become a free spirit, you will be entering a magical world that will change your life. Becoming adept at visualisation will certainly make it easier for you to make contact with the wilder aspects of nature.

      Whilst walking my dogs one day, I suddenly realised that it would be dark before I returned home. As there were no lights in the area, I made my way home carefully in the dusk, but as night drew in I stumbled across a rough field and fell over. As I got to my feet I threw my arms in the air and laughingly shouted, ‘Let there be light!’ Within minutes, I came across the longest line of glow-worms I had ever seen. I watched them for several minutes before resuming my journey. The light may have been minimal, but I thanked God anyway – at least He tried!

      I walked this hill in the dark for many years but never saw the glow-worms again. When I was young, they could be seen everywhere, but now they are a rare sight, yet one more beautiful thing we have destroyed with insecticides.

      The real challenge comes when you use your powers to try to out-fox a fox. This animal is naturally cunning and uses its coat – which has many variations of colour – as a camouflage. I have often caught a glimpse of one slinking through the undergrowth, and in the autumn they blend in perfectly with the changing leaves.

      To mentally connect with foxes, you have to think like them, and occasionally I have been able to do this. One fox in particular used to frequent my garden and snatch the bird-cakes from a post near the house, even though I’d left food for it outside the gate. I tried to make contact telepathically, but to no avail. Eventually, I conjured up a picture in my head of an enormous hound dog with a fox in its mouth and sent the picture to the animal. Though it still collected food from outside the gate, it never entered the garden again.

      With success comes the release of self-doubt, a negative attitude that prevents us from achieving the seemingly impossible. Many people have told me that although they would like to commune with nature, they simply don’t have the time to sit and stare. But they are content to sit in front of their televisions and computers, and most of the time they are not achieving anything – certainly nothing that is going to last a lifetime.

      Every individual must take on the mantle of responsibility for the health of our planet and for all the life it supports, otherwise the damage will spiral out of control. Time and time again I have been told that there is nothing that ordinary people can do to stop the decay. My reply is that there are billions of ordinary people who could turn the tide in any country if they were so inclined. The reason it doesn’t happen is because there are too few people of courage prepared to save us from the disasters that threaten our environment, whilst the rest do very little or nothing at all.

      Ecologists know what is going to happen. Others bury their heads in the sand, too lazy or too greedy to stop the rot that is threatening the whole world. People in previous generations who could have done something have ignored the issues until they felt their contribution would be ‘too little, too late’. If we all do a little now, it need not be too late to save ourselves and our children from environmental destruction.

       CHAPTER 5 The Energy of the Natural World

       Man has been endowed with reason, with the power tocreate, so that he can add to what he’s been given. Butup to now he hasn’t been a creator, only a destroyer.Forests keep disappearing, rivers dry up, wild life’sbecome extinct, the climate’s ruined and the landgrows poorer and uglier every day.

       Uncle Vanya

      Anton Chekhov 1860–1904

      The fact that we do not give enough time and effort to understand the natural world has always filled me with great sadness. We know it cannot survive if we continue to ignore the issues that are leading to the destruction of the world’s ecosystems. It is becoming more and more difficult to reverse past mistakes, such as the continuing use of poisonous substances on the land.

      Every particle of soil contains elements that are capable of transmitting messages from the physical to the spiritual realms. All living things interact with these subtle changes in the ether, and they are also sensitive to the electromagnetic fields around the Earth, and use them as a means of communication. It is these fields that are being distorted by the man-made wavelengths such as those used by mobile phones which enable humans to send and receive messages around the world in seconds.

      Through my telepathic contact with wild animals, I can sense a bewilderment among them that didn’t exist thirty years ago. Back then a simple thought and image enabled me to send a clear message and receive a telepathic response. Now those images have to be clearer and more positive in order to counteract the years of ecological abuse.

      It is possible for some species – including our own – to adapt, but it takes time. While we develop more and more advanced methods of communication, the distortion of natural energies in the environment increases.

      Every living organism has evolved its own unique energy field, and it requires time and patience for us to even begin to understand this complexity. Unfortunately, time and patience are things that humans have in short supply.

      The arrogance with which we treat this planet is there for all to see. The Earth is not a solid object but a palpable moving mass. When oil, gas and other fossil fuels are extracted and burned, the order of that mass changes, and this imbalance can cause terrible disasters around the world. Fortunately, animals react to the vibrations that precede natural disasters. For example, sometimes they leave the area two or three days before an earthquake. People living on fault lines watch their animals closely, and when the animals leave, they do too. Many lives have been saved in this way.

      A friend