Najakcharmer
Posts: 2121
Joined: 5/3/2004
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I actually *am* a "horse whisperer", only the animals I work with aren't horses. If the concept does translate to humans, it should be an entirely positive thing. I don't think you can be a "whisperer" and not have the deepest possible empathy, understanding, love and respect for the creatures you are able to understand and communicate with on this level.
Being an animal whisperer is about understanding every single subtle nuance of the animal's body language and vocalization, and making constant adjustments to your own body language and vocalization to effectively communicate your intent and convince the animal that you are not a threat so that you can work closely with it. If you know what the animal is going to do before it does, you can step out of the way of an attack if it's coming, or meet it head on if that's what is required. A good "whisperer" will actually respond to an attack before it happens by adjusting their posture and changing the intent they are telegraphing, and quite often that level of two way communication can completely replace the actual attack. The animal postures and threatens, the handler acknowledges their understanding and responds appropriately either by backing off the behavior that was upsetting the animal or by standing firm and calling the bluff. The untrained observer may see only small and subtle movements culminating in an amazingly "tame" appearing wild animal that tolerates handling and close contact in a very short period of time. What is actually happening is a two way communication of intent that can replace the need for physical confrontation.
I don't think it's possible to do any of this without almost literally becoming the animal inside your own head. I don't claim that this is a supernatural ability by any means. Going all New Agey and unrealistic about animal work is a great way to get killed, and I don't recommend it. It's about reading subtle cues of muscle tension and body positioning, but "empathy" is a pretty good word for what it feels like from the inside. Animals can't talk, so a huge part of being a "whisperer" is learning to read them with dead-on accuracy. And when you're working with large animals or dangerous animals, if you're not dead-on, you're just dead.
If I met someone skilled enough to read my body language and understand empathically what I am thinking and feeling as well as I do it with the animals I work with, that would actually be pretty nifty. Good communication is always a plus in any kind of relationship. I think the original question may have implied that someone with this kind of ability could use their ability to manipulate or control for selfish purposes. I'm not sure how well that would actually work. From my perspective as a real life "whisperer", I would not be able to do anything that was not in the best interests of an animal whose head I was basically moving into, even if I wanted to. If you can almost literally feel another living thing's pain and fear, you are pretty strongly motivated to soothe it and to make the animal feel easy and comfortable in your presence. That is fundamentally what being an animal whisperer is about. The feeling of extreme empathy drives a strong desire to communicate clearly and come to a close understanding. I can't see how that would be bad if it went human to human instead of human to animal.
There are people who do have good skills at reading others and manipulating them, but I'm not sure it would be operating on the same principles. I don't really know how that would work. I do know that anyone who was actually being an "animal whisperer" with humans in the same sense that I work with animals would not be inclined to do anything hurtful to the people they were empathizing with and understanding so deeply.
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