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Orange cat
What’s the most advanced, intelligent species on the planet? Don’t look in the mirror. While I am, by vocation, a student of human nature, I’ve always found that the other animals have more to teach us about life than we do one another. Over the years, I’ve spent a lot of time observing and interacting with cats, and, for whatever reason, these creatures and I have always possessed a certain rapport and mutual respect. I’m sure many of you experience something similar, whether with cats, dogs, horses, birds or any number of other brethren creatures.
Now, to folks who regard most other animals as lower life forms that lack true intelligence and sophistication, this probably sounds like gibberish. However, there is compelling scientific evidence that many other species are far more evolved than humans, and that they display the kinds of smarts that often elude us. Sound crazy? Well, Homo sapiens (the term means “wise man” . . . go figure) can hardly claim to be the most advanced creatures on the planet. Any species that devises the means to destroy itself and, at the same time, fouls the natural environment on which its survival utterly depends hardly deserves to be labeled “wise” let alone “highly evolved.”
The many species we look down on, disregard and abuse have been around a lot longer than people. While uncertainties regarding the evolutionary timeline remain, genomic evidence suggests modern humans emerged about 350,000 years ago. In geologic and evolutionary time, that makes our tenure a very brief blip. In contrast, the cat family emerged over 25 million years ago, with modern felines appearing five million years past. For you dog lovers, canines appeared almost 40 million years ago. Then there are “modern” trees, whose lineage is 370 million years old. You get the idea. Humans are the new kid on the block, and our neophyte stupidity is on full display in how we treat the planet, other animals and each other.
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In the Moment, In Balance
Now, getting back to cats, while they are superbly evolved at a physical level and possess sensory capacities far greater than our own, I suspect they are spiritually advanced, as well. Many, perhaps most, are Zen-like entities that live in the moment, exist in balance with their environment, and refrain from wasting emotional energy on small issues. When they display anger or fear, they don’t haul it around with them after the happenstance has passed. By remaining within the flow of the present, they transit existence without regret or worry. And when their time comes to leave this world, they suffer just as we do but, in the words of philosopher Alan Watts, “they don’t make such a fuss of it.”
Like us, cats and other domesticated animals have their moods and moments, and they are not immune from the various neuroses we impose on them. Still, overall, they spend far more time in mindful contemplation than all but the most cloistered monks and mystics among us. I suspect that cats, as well as certain other species, possess the inexplicable capacity to perceive and react to the mindsets and spirituality of the humans around them. They can sense in ways inaccessible to us and, possibly, have developed intuitive powers that we cannot grasp.
The more scientists investigate the intelligence of other species, the more impressed they become. Increasingly, we are confronted with the probability that what we call “intelligence” comes in many more forms than we imagine, and that our version is not superior to all others. Entities as varied as trees, ants, birds, whales, cephalopods, fungi and even bacteria have demonstrated remarkable capacities in such arenas as communication, problem solving, navigation, highly coordinated cooperation, and other attributes so necessary for survival. A number of these abilities appear largely absent among many humans in case you haven’t noticed.
So, if you believe Homo sapiens is the crown of creation, consider hanging out with cats for a time, or any animal or plant that is equally advanced. They have a great deal to teach us, and if we would like to survive, it is well past time we pay attention.
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