In my recent research on animals, I've come across interesting concepts and theories. The most notable, the concept of empathy among other animal species.
Scientists used to believe that only humans were capable of experiencing any emotions, most of all, empathy.
However, we now know that elephants, dolphins, whales, chimpanzees, and a handful of other animals also demonstrate emotional reactions that appear to be "empathy" and a type of self-awareness. They are able to recognize themselves in the mirror, mourn the death of their young, and experience a wide range of emotions.
Additionally, several species of animals have areas of their brains that are analogous to our emotional epicenters, the limbic and paralimbic systems.
In fact, it seems as though some nonhuman animals may experience a wider range of emotions, and/or have a larger neocortex and capacity for empathy, than even we do.
Comment: The Greatest Epidemic Sickness Known to Humanity
We, as a species, are in the midst of a massive psychic epidemic, a virulent collective psychosis that has been brewing in humanity's psyche from the beginning of time. Indigenous people have been tracking this 'psychic' virus calling it "wetiko," a Cree term which refers to a diabolically wicked person or spirit who terrorizes others.
Wetiko is a disease of industrial civilization - its unsustainable nature is based on, and increasingly requires violence to maintain itself. Modern civilization suffers from the overly one-sided dominance of the rational, intellectual mind that disconnects us from nature, from empathy, and from ourselves. Due to its disassociation from the whole, wetiko is a disturber of the peace of humanity and the natural world, a sickness which spawns aggression and is capable of inciting violence amongst living beings. Those afflicted with wetiko, like a cannibal, consume the life-force of others -- human and nonhuman -- for private purpose or profit, and do so without giving back something from their own lives.