Dolphins and Their Power to Heal

At first, I was disappointed in this book because the title of the book gives the impression that it is mainly about how dolphins help in healing. However, only the first chapters of the book (25 pages out of 167) are related to the use of dolphins in healing. Then the authors describe the Aquatic Ape theory and consider that the close relationship between humans and dolphins is due to the possibility that humans had a phase during their evolutionary development when they lived in the sea. This is a theory while it is interesting is not very likely and also is not widely accepted. The authors bring the Australian Aborigines into their discussion of human and dolphin relationships. On page 51, they make this statement, "The Australian Aborigines are particularly fascinating, for they represent possibly the oldest existing human lineage. Anthropologists generally regard them as direct descendants of the Neanderthals who lived in Europe some 200.000 years ago, a pure race that is quite separate from others." This reminds one of the multiregionalist model of human evolution that suggests that every race of humans originated from a separate group of hominids with the underlying idea that some groups of present day humans are superior to others, in other words it supports racism. Recent genetical studies have shown that all people living in the world today originate from a small group of people living in Africa about 200,000 years ago and that includes Australian Aborigines. A study comparing Neanderthal DNA to present day human DNA has shown that it is unlike any human DNA found on the earth today which means that there was probably no interbreeding between the two species. The last common ancestor of the two species lived at least 500,000 years ago. In my opinion, the book would be greatly improved if the false information about Neanderthals was taken out of any future printings. It actually has nothing to do with dolphins anyway. Despite this and a tendency in the first part of the book to lean toward New Age ideas, the remainder of the book is quite interesting and well-worth reading. The authors give information about the history of human and dolphin relationships going back to the Greeks and the Romans. They describe present day studies of dolphin intelligence and of how they live in the wild. They also describe how the dolphins that have been captured have been mistreated and how attempts have even been made to use them in warfare as well as the fact that dolphins are often in great danger from the fishing industry.

My copy of this book is dog-eared, highlighted and covered with comments and thoughts from myself and all the people I have lent the book to. I don't know of anyone who has read it that hasn't been moved as well as educated by it.

I read this book before my swim with the wild dolphins in the Bahamas and it gave me an even greater appreciation for what I was doing and enjoying. The chapter on the myths and evolution was so enlightening. I was horrified to read of the awful things we still do to our world and the creatures in it. The book inspired me to connect more with my world. The references, research project info and bibliography were outstanding. I have passed this book on to others whose work is to research and direct swim trips with dolphins.