Library of Congress CCN 67-10417

CHAPTER 07
Consideration of the Spiritual Side

When we explore some of the communication areas which are possible between man and dolphin we see some of the barriers m the past to huntan-delphinic progress.


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~ One such area is a common human communication path This is the path of thc man and woman in love, making love Their hest form of exchange and communication is in their scxuttl activities. Can sexual activities be used for communication across thc interspecies barriet-? On the delphinic side, the answer would probahly be yes. On the human side this 15 called a crime (sodomy). Such are some of the difficulties in our future with the dolphins. There are bound to he tnterspccics confficts even as there are intercultural conflicts between men.


A charming person of the opposite sex who knows a language one does not know is prohably our best teacher of that language. Will this empirical finding apply to interspecies communication? It will. This motivation is assured hctween us and the dolphins and that the male dolphins will prefer a female human teacher as the female dolphins will prefer a human male teacher. Our main dlfficulty- with these teachers will be shedding our human shams in the face of the candor of the delphinic life. To begin to move beyond our dry-featherless- biped on-the-dry-ground philosophy requires imagination, determination, and a certain kind of wet courage. Whether one likes it or not one must go into the water to meet thc dolphin. One must be willing to live in the water to a certain extent. This point cannot be compromised. To talk and make sense with dolphins we must meet them at least halfway in their own element. In sea water, we will communicate. We must learn to live wetly. The new undersea houses of the French, of the Americans, and of the British are a beginning in one direction. Let us look at another direction of exploration in the water, less environmental and more mental kind of exploration. We are interested in the inside view.


Imagine a special pool in a special room in a special bttildittg heside the sea. The building is in the tropics. The location is private and remote and, ahove all else, silent. There is no rumble of traffic there are no horns of auto


" - mobile, no subways, no air raid sirens, no explosions, no jets. Crowds, visitors, parties. lectures are all missing. The


primeval sea is close hy. The antediluvian rock of an ancient uplift above the sea's surface is the foundation on which thc building is placed. The greatest of the hurricanes. the tsunamis, and the earthquakes are the only rcal dangers to this installation.

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