Introduction

Together with other eminent scientists, Lilly contributed to a highly original book, Mind in the Waters,⁴ which laid the foundations for a revolutionary concept- that there was another mind on our planet: ‘a mind anatomically like ours, but profoundly different’. It could be argued that it is the interaction of that mind with ours which is the keystone of dolphin healing as we know it today.

In their book Dolphins and Their Power to Heal,5 Amanda Cochrane and Karena Callen plot the progress of dolphin healing from the mythological evidence in earliest times until the present. Their account takes in the work of Dr Betsy Smith, who noted in the early I 970s that neurologically impaired children responded in a positive way to close contact with dolphins. In 1978 and 1981 Smith set up research projects at Dolphins Plus in Key Largo, Florida, specifically to investigate the therapeutic benefits of swimming with dolphins for autistic children and their carers. Her studies included comparison of autists who swam with live dolphins to others who were given inflatable dolphins to play with. However, although Betsy Smith and the parents of those participating were convinced that encounters with live dolphins were definitely beneficial, the objective scientific data was not conclusive

Dolphin Assisted Therapy                               

In the late 1980s Dr David Nathanson started working with brain damaged and mentally handicapped children using contact with dolphins as a reward. Nathanson discovered that the learning abilities of children increased by as much as 500%. In 1988 he set up a project at The Dolphin Research Centre, Grassy Key, Florida involving children with handicaps ranging from Cerebral Palsy to Down’s Syndrome. The success of his methods achieved widespread publicity, especially in Britain where specific cases were reported in the popular press. This has led to the use of dolphins for therapy in dolphin amusement parks around the world.

Cetacean Freedom Network                             

Not unnaturally the use of captive dolphins for therapy gave cause for grave concern to those opposed to the confinement of cetaceans. The captivity issue is one that is being addressed by all those involved with dolphin healing. Those in favour argue that only under the controlled conditions of a dolphinarium is it possible to offer dolphin healing on an organised basis, especially to patients with very limited mobility. Those against say that such establishments pose serious ethical problems. If we accept that we are dealing with minds like ours, then what right have we to imprison dolphins for our benefit?

earlier, proposed that in the light of our present knowledge, dolphins should be accorded the same rights as humans, even so far as being represented at the United Nations.

Research in the Open Sea                                  Dolphins have always evoked in me most of the values we humans are striving for, especially freedom and love. I could never justify their confinement. Since I started in 1974, I have conducted all of my research with wild dolphins in the open sea. It was their choice to participate. They were always free to swim away at any time - and often did. It was a challenge, but I succeeded in showing that it is possible to work with totally free wild dolphins who chose to associate with humans.

Operation Sunflower

In 1986 Bill Bowell, dressed in yellow oilskin, stood on the jetty at Solva in South Wales. Twelve years earlier, after a heart attack, he had been jailed for a crime which he had not committed. Although he was later completely exonerated, the sound of the doors of his prison cell would not go away. None of the many medical treatments he received could relieve the darkness of the emotionless world in which he now locked himself. He rarely communicated with his wife and their five children; he could not work, and he was diagnosed as a chronic depressive.

Bill accepted. A few moments later he plopped into the sea.

After a brief inspection by the dolphin the two were lying almost motionless on the surface face to face. Those of us on the boat watched, mesmerised with fascination. A bond was forming between the man and the dolphin, the like of which I had never witnessed before.

When we eventually hauled Bill back into the inflatable he smiled for the first time in twelve years. With tears in her eyes, his wife remarked ‘I have just seen a trace of the Bill I lost 12 years ago’. The seed for ‘Operation Sunflower’ was sown. I decided to set up a research project to investigate the healing power of dolphins

Ever since I had made the TV film Ride a Wild Dolphin* about Donald off the coast of Cornwall in 1976, I was aware that dolphins could bring joy into human lives. But could their effect on the human psyche really be strong enough to help clinical depressives? There was one way to find out: to organise a trial.

I decided to conduct the first study in Ireland where another solitary, friendly dolphin called Dorad, or Funghie, was frolicking with those who cared to join him in the sea off the fishing port of Dinglc in County Kerry. Bill Bowell was one of my subjects. The others I chose were Jemima Biggs, whose depression presented as anorexia nervosa, and Neal Jackson who suffered from paranoia.

The film I made about Operation Sunflower was called The Dolphin’s Touch*. It showed how the dolphin responded to the three depressives when they swam with him. More importantly, it showed how they responded to their encounters with the dolphin. Bill, Jemima and Neil were not magically cured, but they all felt that they were well on the road to recovery.

right lines and that dolphins could indeed help those suffering from depression.

The success of my experiment, however, posed a major problem. In Britain, an estimated one person in ten was expected to need some form of psychiatric help during his or her lifetime. Clearly taking even a tiny fraction of these people out into the sea to swim with dolphins was utterly impossible. I needed a dolphin pill. But as no direct pharmacological interactions were taking place, what possible form could my non-chemical pill take?

THE AUSTRALIAN ABORIGINES HAD THE ANSWER

* Available from the Dolphin Shop

Next

Back

International Dolphin Watch 10 Melton Road, North Ferriby, E.Yorks HU14 3ET. England.
Tel: +44 (0)1482 632650 Fax: +44 (0)1482 634914 E-mail: idw@talk21.com