Souls of Animals

A reader asked Ben if animals have souls  02/04/2013

BEN: Any one who knows animals knows they are conscious. And they have emotions and  intelligence. Their intelligence isn't the same as ours but it is real  
nonetheless and it serves them and it often serves us. Some people say that 
animals don't have souls because they do not have God-consciousness. All 
that  means is that they are not aware of God as something separate from 
themselves.   That is not a mistake.

Recently the US Army  re-classified dogs that are used in military service from 
"equipment" to  "personnel." If the US army can make that distinction I suspect 
it must be  more than obvious to the consciousnesses serving in four legged  
bodies.

Q. As a consciousness, can we have an 
animal experience in future (or past) 
lives?

BEN:  Yes.  Some people say you can;   some say you can't.  Dolores Cannon says 
everything has consciousness and  she has treated people who remember previous lives as animals, plants,   rocks, air--everything.  The problem is we are 
speaking in categories that  don't really exist.  People remember past lives and 
lives between lives as  well as their physical brains and bodies will allow. But 
it's still like  translating from a foreign language or trying to tell a dream that doesn't  make sense now but it did when you were dreaming it.

Souls are  not discrete individual units.  One soul can incarnate in more than one  body and more than one soul can occupy a single body either simultaneously  or in succession during a single human lifetime.  You could choose to  incarnate as an animal. Especially if that animal can change someone's life  or save someone's life.   It might give you an opportunity to spend some  time with someone you had to leave before you were ready. 

I think many of  the dogs that are selected for police or military work intentionally choose  to come back as dogs so they can be with their fellow soldiers without  having to commit to another entire human life time in that time and place.   

Usually people who choose to be animals during a particular life time will 
not  choose to be just an animal.  You might choose to be a blind person on 
one side  of the world and a guide dog somewhere else. Or you might need a 
vacation life  so you will choose to  be a pampered poodle for a few years.  
Or you might take  off and be a wild animal like a lion or a gazelle. 
  
Being a wild beast allows  you to experience life at the level of feelings 
and instincts without needing to bother about words and the kind of 
thinking words relate to.  Being physically  incarnated is about having 
experiences.  Sometimes being an animal can help to  balance a life that is  too unrelentingly intellectual or too far removed from  nature.