The Raccoon (in Yosemite Valley)

 The Following was written by me on December 7th 2001 in Yosemite Valley

The Raccoon

I was unloading the car into a room at Yosemite Lodge in Yosemite Valley. I had to make many trips because of the snow on the ground and the amount of stuff my wife always seems to bring lately. However, I noticed a raccoon walking by me. I pointed it out to Amy who is 5 and is impressed with such things. Though we have them where we live too we don't see them too often up close like this one. This one seems to be not too old maybe like a 15 to 20 year old raccoon in human terms. This one is macho yet considerate of the 'live and let live' world of humans in general. I saw this raccoon several times and two of the times I walked within about 3 feet of the animal and was impressed when it did not growl or hiss. It seemed fairly tame. So I began to telepath with it since it was so tame. I said to it mind to mind, "If you don't harm me I won't harm you." It said something like "Okay, but why are you talking to me? Most humans don't talk like this." Which implied to me that I was talking in what it considered animal language. Again it said, "Why are you talking to me?" I said again back to it with my mind, " If you don't hurt me I won't hurt you." The raccoon replied back, "That is acceptable to me." But again for a third time it said, "Why are you talking to me?" This time I said, "Because you and I are here." It replied something like "Oh".

On one of the close walk-bys some boys said, "Wow. Did you see the raccoon?" To which I replied, "Yeah, They're cool." The boys were quite obviously taken with both the raccoon and being in Yosemite and staying at Yosemite Lodge.

My own childhood memories of the Lodge go all the way back to 1963 when I first came to camp in Yosemite Valley with my best friend and his family. I was 15 and had one of the best times during that week in my life. I felt nature and God everywhere and so my friend and I just hiked and swam and hiked and watched the fire falls at night and had a really great time. That week changed my life and deepened me spiritually by just being in this truly amazing place.

Back to the present. As I started to go to sleep I saw a vision of snow covering a city drain culvert and a clawed arm that looked like a raccoon reaching out. At first I wondered what was happenning but then soon realized that it was the raccoon I had mind talked with earlier reaching out to me because it was cold and asking to be invited into my room for the night. It is possible other guests have done this but I didn't think it a good idea because my daughter and wife would freak out and raccoons though cute are wild and unpredictable at times and don't usually have good indoor manners. The vision dream woke me up because it was very wild and primal like wild animal communications tend to be. They are not civilized and disciplined almost to extinction like humans. They are still in touch with their emotions and would probably try to run away from or kill anyone trying to give them prosac and trying to force them to fit into a worldwide sick civilization and society. Unfortunately, some humans have lost their connection to true primal wildness. What is the difference, I wonder, between someone so mood altered by legally prescribed drugs that they can no longer make love or have any useful feelings that help them to survive? What is their difference from a biological robot? My answer is that there is no difference. Without ones instinct and intuition intact I don't consider anyone to be human in my personal definition. Logic and reason only takes a human so far. Without instinct and intuition and nature and for some, God, or Buddha or whatever I don't consider that person to be human in my definition.

For me, a person has to be kind to be considered human. A person has to defend himself but also has to help and protect others from harm whenever possible. So I watch people and watch what they do and how they live. People I consider to be human I reach out to and make them my friends if possible. People I don't consider to be human I either avoid or try to teach to be human if they will let me.

Though the raccoon reached out to me there wasn't too much I felt I could do for it. However, just be being itself the raccoon helped me to renew my wildness. In this situation, the raccoon was much more precious than I. I didn't have very much I could share or help the raccoon with except it realized that some humans can talk the way animals do, mind to mind. I have been blessed to study with many Tibetan Lamas as well as several native American Medicine men who have imparted to me some of their skills learned and passed down from teacher to student for thousands and thousands of years. But tonight I renewed my wildness once again by mind talking and dream talking with a friendly raccoon in Yosemite National Park.

Saturday December 8th 2001

Tonight, my friend the raccoon from last night showed up and came between me and the veranda door back into my hotel room at Yosemite Lodge. I had been sitting peacefully in the outdoor chair next to the outdoor table and cooling down after skiing in the night under the stars. However, when he startled me I realized he thought since I was at an outdoor table he thought there must be food. Otherwise why would I be there? Yes, I can think like a raccoon and many other species. Ha Ha. However, an earth born human is my most natural process.

When I got up to go into my room the raccoon realized that I was a little too close and jumped down off the railing and into my neighbor's adjacent hotel veranda. A few moments later I was going to give a potato chip to him as an offering to the local nature spirits as I was taught by a Tibetan Geshe from the Kham province of Tibet. My friend the Geshe, came and lived on the California Coast when we brought him back from Dharmsala, India when we travelled there in 85-6. We had many amazing experiences with our Geshe friend from the time we first met him in 1983 until around 2000 when he passed away in the US.

Anyway, my wife told me that a potato chip wouldn't be good for the raccoon and recommended a piece of apple instead. So I cut off a piece of apple and placed it on the table outside on the veranda. A few minutes later I heard the rattle of the veranda table and chair. My wife and daughter looked out through the drapes and saw him. He had taken the apple and was now eating it under the table. This meant a lot to my wife as I had read the previous piece on the raccoon the previous night and she had been moved by it. I hope you enjoyed this experience too.