Dolphin Teachers
Moments in the Flow: Swimming With Wild Dolphins
Hello again,
Well before the Autumnal Equinox at 0 Libra, as we approach August we begin to perceive a shift in the sky and the quality of light. But at this time, people are still outer-focused, taking vacations and days spent in nature and play.
Recently, Substack Pundits have been posting about the yearly ‘Summer Slump’ on this platform. I’m grateful that I haven’t noticed this that much and happily continue sharing my inspirations, come what may.
The inspiration that came today was from a post on one of my favorite Substack pages. Stephanie Raffelock shared her long-ago experience of swimming with dolphins. She’d had an unusual and powerful experience you can read here. And when she mentioned the name of the place she visited, I was happy to see it was the one I also visited on a sunny day long ago, when I lived in southeast Florida.
After reading her story, I found myself revisiting my own unforgettable memory of that day. When I shared it in comments, many ‘likes’ followed. So, I thought I would share it with you.
Living in Florida gives lots of opportunities to see dolphins in the wild. In the 1990s people started going to places where they could swim with them. Some of my friends wanted to have the experience, but after reading up on this and the sad issues for dolphins in captivity, living in chlorine pools, we had some parameters that were important to us.
We looked for a place where they didn’t have to perform, were in seawater, and able to leave if they wanted to be living their own normal life. We found the perfect place.
DolphinsPlus. In Key Largo, it is just 60 miles from Miami and the first Key on the road over water connecting the Keys below the Florida Peninsula. You can see on this map that the waters off Key Largo are part of a National Marine Sanctuary.
A barrier reef allows free dolphins to visit when they open a gate to a fenced-in area that surrounds a natural ‘swimming’ pool of their own sea water. They must have fun doing this and get some nice snacks, too, because they visit every day.
The sea water makes for buoyant snorkeling, easy to paddle with arms held behind your body. You’ll have your face down and ears under the waterline for the whole swim.
And before you do, you must attend what was about an hour of education about dolphins and how to have a good experience with them. One thing I remember was learning that dolphins love to swim with people, but we must remember a dolphin’s eyes are unprotected. Any flailing about will drive them away. They will feel able to approach if your arms are kept behind you.
If they ‘like’ you they will come to you and give you a bump. To touch them, keep the arm closest to them angled back and you can bring it to them that way, and touch with your palm. Some may even be able to put their arm across the dolphin’s body to give them a ‘hug.’
Another thing they said was that dolphins are most attracted to children, slim blonde women, and pregnant women, too. Since I did not fit any of those categories, I didn’t expect to have one come near me, but I’d be happy just to be able to see them swimming underwater.
What they didn’t describe were the sounds. The minute my head was in the water the whole environment was filled with continuous sonic beeps and chirps. It was very unusual, but pleasant and energizing.
It took a little while for one to float by and it came quite close to me. I was surprised to discover it was huge...like the size of a bus. Not a regular snorkel or scuba person, it frightened me a little and in my head I said, “I want to see you, but please don't bump me.” I wasn’t sure if I’d end up on the other side of the pool. 😅
Then, in the sea of sounds I FELT some sounds in the base of my brain. I looked over to my right and there they were. Three dolphins, one above the other, swam slowly by, at a safe distance (for me), their eye holding my gaze.
When they passed I realized they heard my thought, and this was how they answered my request. That was a ‘wow’ moment. And it happened one more time. The FELT sound, my turned head and the three dolphins swimming slowly by.
I was in an altered reality (pleasantly so) for the rest of the day and into the next morning.
After breakfast, I went out to the pool where I was alone on a lounge chair, peacefully reading. Something made me look up. I saw a small common anole lizard coming toward me and I knew it it intended to come up onto the lounge to me. They are not frightening at all, and these creatures usually run if they’re seen. But on it came. And suddenly my mind got engaged with the oddity of this behavior and as I did, the lizard stopped, turned and ran. Connection? Broken.
What did I learn from my Dolphin swim and this lizard?
That we are in telepathic communication with all the kingdoms of creation. We will see a response to our own projected thoughts and feelings.
Years later, I see how this experience changed my perceptions and understanding to a larger extent. Still, in our current tech-filled, issue-filled world, it’s easy to forget the power of my thoughts and feelings. But something always brings me back. Yesterday, it was Stephanie’s post.
See you next time!
*Some may have noticed the title reference to My Octopus Teacher, which was a fantastic film that can be viewed on Netflix. Another perceptual shift happens as it shows the superiority of this species. The man didn’t seem to realize the octopus was healing him when it attached to his chest and hand. I felt it. Maybe you will, too.
A beautiful description of a memorable experience, Shellie! It brought back lovely memories for me. In the 1990s I visited DRC with a woman I was writing about for the St. Petersburg Times. She was a cancer patient and had come to FL from her Colorado home to swim with the dolphins there. I became quite immersed in the whole dolphin world and also wrote about Ric O'Barry of The Dolphin Project. After I visited his sanctuary where he was "un-training" captive dolphins and preparing them for a return to the wild (he's been doing that for decades) I never again wanted to swim with dolphins. But ... I did. For a year or two, I was in relationship with a guy in Key West, who lived on his boat and took tourists out into the sea to swim with a pod of totally wild dolphins he had "befriended." These were totally different experiences; the dolphins were living a fully natural life in their natural environment, and were free to interact with people or not. My boyfriend's business was called Dolphins Plus. I spent lots of time down there with him, worked on his boat, and had some amazing in-the-sea encounters with truly wild dolphins. It sickens me that there are still places in the world where dolphins are held captive in concrete tanks. (And even if those tanks are dressed up as natural-looking "lagoons," it's still awful.) Such cruelty! The dolphins are bombarded with their own echolocation bouncing back at them 24/7. I read once that it would be akin to imprisoning a human in a room totally lined with mirrors on the walls and ceiling. No way out. It would drive us mad. For anyone interested, I highly recommend checking out Ric's work at https://www.dolphinproject.com/ and supporting his tireless efforts to close down places that torture dolphins for profit and entertainment.
I love this story ❤️ I hope to meet dolphins in the water soon too 🙏🏻