Whale Stories

P Well What happened for me was a deep experience. At first I was concentrating on doing the photographing and things just happening but by the time I got to the point of feeling confident with the camera then I started to really connect with the whales and just let the camera do its thing. I really started to connect and I started to call and make some sounds what I call those dolphin/whale sounds and I noticed a change in me as I was doing that and at that point to me the whales seemed to change their behaviour a bit, came close and became more interactive. As part of that experience there were the two three whales at the back of the boat and one of them started spyhopping and getting really close to the back of the boat. I felt at that point that I had a really strong connection to those whales and I was feeling quite deeply emotional and connected to that whale who was jumping up and down. And right next to me was a lady who was having a rush of emotional and I could feel her energy. She was actually crying right next to me and that deeply touched me and I touched into a deeper level. She went ooh yes or something …. So she actually… , her feelings that came up at that moment touched feelings in me. To me that was quite profound. And I felt joy. I started to get lots of joy with the whales. And the deep trust they have in us to come so close and be so trusting especially the mother allowed the baby, the 6 weeks old baby to come in so close and play around the boat. Then I observed other people. I felt a lot of joy from them, and surprise and excitement, feeling …part of my experience was also feeling what they were feeling. That’s all that happened for me!!

Camilla, near Mulumbimby, Crystal bowls player, School counsellor registered psychologist and teaching degree.

C I have had a wonderful day today. I was feeling very privileged, very honoured to be here amongst the whales as they played amongst the waves with us. Their breaches, their waving and their tails. I haven’t seen that sort of stuff before so it was wonderful.

C Very heart opening experience and it was wonderful to see them . I think when you have a privy into nature is when you have a heart opening experience. There is a heart connection with nature when you are out In the elements flopping around in a boat and we actually have to make an effort to come here and be a part of it and that …to see nature in its raw state its very auspicious.. it takes one to the actual present moment and the joy to be alive.

C yes lots of joy and celebration and just being here in the moment. That’s what the beauty of being out here is. We are here and we’re now and we’re enjoying the beauty of nature. They offer us their gentle innocence and their uncontrived joy of just being alive in the water.

In my day job I am a school counsellor which means I work with people who are in their pain usually which is a state of mind which is not in the present and when its when we are in the present and we see dolphins and whales we really appreciate the joy and beauty of life.

Brian from Sarina, retired former Airport Electrician – wife of the woman who had been trying to get to see the whales for a few times

Brian The dolphins and whales that you see around I don’t know what all the fuss is about. I think it is hype in the media and that to make trips like this profitable

Brian Er they weren’t supposed to be there. Everyone said they don’t go up that far but they were there

Brian Oh they didn’t worry us, just swam past and we said that’s it they’re gone and we were back into diving again

Brian No none of that… Nah that’s just the way it is. I didn’t get too excited about them.

Doug 12, Ballarat on a extended holiday with his family

Doug I really enjoyed it and I reckon it is the bets thing I have done on our trip.

Doug Ohhm I thought it would be kinda fun being a whale – the way they jump out of the water and

Doug The whales cos I have never seen any before… I just wanted to see them. Something to tick off the list. I’ve wanted to see them for a long time.

Joy Vickers, Coolum Beach, retired lady of leisure, ex Nurse and masseur and cook, 63 years old

Joy great peace and happiness, great happiness. My face was cracking cos I couldn’t take the smile off it. Heheheh. Yer it was wonderful.

Joy I didn’t notice that . laugh Someone else I could name was though. Perhaps the interviewee…could become the interviewer ha haha

RM This could be arranged. Hahaha Just tell me how it was for you thanks Madam 0 hahaha

Joy hahaha Well I don’t know how you contain it. I was so awe inspired I put the camera away because I felt it was interfering with the interaction with the whales and I just forgot about everything else but interacting with the whales and that was great. Tomorrow I am not taking the camera out.

RM So if you were to tell your best friend or your daughter about your experience what would you say?

Joy Just come and do it because you can’t tell them the feelings. You can tell them the size and what they look like but you can’t tell them the feelings .

Joy More or less what I said. That’s about it today - the thought of being out there with them and the excitement of seeing them. Just what wonderful creatures they are. Its hard to describe them in a few words.

Joy yer heheheh, Ahhh real show off, he was lovely, he gave us such a lot of pleasure. Just lovely!

Joy It actually stopped all thought, you were just so centred on them, you didn’t know where to look, surrounded by these magnificent creatures. You just didn’t know where to look. They were with us while they were surrounding us and doing their stuff and those three at the back of the boat

RM It feels like the whales are actually deliberately coming to us, actually seeking us out.

Joy yes yes . That’s what I felt because as soon as we started sounding they came.

RM Yes and they kept coming back. They would disappear for a few moments then they were back again. Its like they did not want to say goodbye either.

Joy interviewing Raylee, unemployed, age 55, has seen the whales before when children were young.

RM I’d love to Joy. As soon as I saw the whales I felt this incredible joy just surge up through my body and burst out through my heart. It was just amazing. And I felt like a kid leaping up and down Yer a really excited little kid and I just kept going and going and yer it was like it was totally timeless. We talked about how quickly the time went. it could have been five minutes or five hours to me. It was just …I was totally present to it. I wasn’t aware of time at all and I just felt joy and exhilaration. I felt like I was connected to the whales too. It was like when I tuned in to them and imagined them in my meditation where they would be. I was meditating one moment and I opened my eyes and there was a whale breaching right in front of me. It was just amazing and awe inspiring.

RM yes I’ve been thinking about them for days in anticipation of this event not really knowing what to expect and how many we’d see. But when we woke up this morning and went out ot the balcony and saw a pod of dolphins out in the bay really close to shore I felt yer this is really going to be a humdinger of a day. But I wasn’t really expecting to be totally surrounded like we were at one point. There were whales everywhere. You didn’t know where to look. There were whales leaping out of the water everywhere.

RM And they were so playful too. I really enjoyed the calf flapping his tail all the time. It was such a happy joyful experience.

Joy Do you feel that with your obvious connection that it was actually possible that you called them in to be here with us today?

RM I like to think that they came because yes, a number of us have been calling to them in our minds and in our hearts. Yes I like to think that.

RM I would describe to them just how much I felt In my heart. My heart was just bursting with joy and love for them. And the excitement. I meant to say too that I felt unwell earlier to day. Whether its because of the whales or because of the joy I felt my headache is gone and I feel a lot better. I feel really excited and really happy actually.

RM Yes I did and just to give some background. I am from Maleny and I am not retired. I will have to work one of these days. I have been having a couple of years off from work. My background is that I have a BA Dip Ed. I have been a teacher and a healer, real estate agent and various things. But at the moment I am not doing anything much.

Adam, Mulumbimby, semi-retired, a muscle worker, age 56

RM Hello Adam, you said something about feeling sad.. Can you please tell me about that.

Adam Sad because of the way the whales have been treated in the ppast. Seeing photos of these poor beasts being chopped up to pieces by these whalers and its only recently that they stopped culling them because they were in danger of being eliminated and then the thought that these animals, these aliens are going to start doing it again. It’s very sad for them. But to see them frolicking, so happy, and so trusting and not really knowing what is in store for them was also a little bit sad for me. But it was a great spectacle. It was very very enlightening to see such huge animals moving with such ease and grace through the waters.

Adam Ah no it was a mixed feeling I guess. It will probably be happy tomorrow. But this is the first time of seeing them so close up and it was a sad experience.

Adam It was like a wanting to weep and a cry for them, a sadness pertaining to their vulnerability and their defencelessness and picturing in my mind the harpoon going into their bodies and that type of sadness.

Adam Seeing the baby calf frolicking carefreely in the water reminiscent of human behaviour and animal behaviour was a joyful experience to see and the parents kind of protecting the baby wahela and their free spirited movements were joyful.

Linda My initial reaction was joyful. This laughter just bubbled up out of me. I was just incredibly joyful. And ah then I looked at Adam face and saw his sadness and just went ahhh. Then I saw something else like how trusting they are, how gentle. They are gentle beings and I tuned into Adam’s sadness but I got over it because the joy was just too much, so beautiful. It was just so moving to see them and I was surprised too because I didn’t expect them to be so open, so social, so open to be near us and why? Why bother?

I really thought hey were very giving I felt a lot of heart being around them. And an especially amazing movement for me was when the mother rolled over belly up right next to the boat, sand slowly went past. You want to look at me – here I am in the most vulnerable open position you can have and there she was right in front of my eyes so close. I thought we’d be seeing them at 20 metres, 50 metres but not os close - it was a bit overwhelming.

Linda Yer for sure I’m not sure what else to say about that. I feel it was quite overwhelming. I’d like to sleep on it. I am a bit speechless.

Discussion over coffee after first day

Joy In this environment t here is nothing to harm them and they are going to trust us . They get out into the oceans and they are going to trust whatever boat is out there.

Linda That thought occurred to me too. What are we doing. We are teaching them to trust people and to go up to a whaling boat and get harpooned.

Joy I have been thinking about what I was experiencing too – there was lots of joy like I could leap over great buildings. But there were moments of sadness too. Seeing how vulnerable they were and how gentle they were. The mum just sitting there letting the baby do its thing but the Mum always there.

Patricia One of the things for me over the years is knowing there is a deeper level to this, why they are here and why there are more and more people going out . And I feel that even though there is this other aspect of killing the whales and that is very important, there is this other aspect. It seems to me that there has been a change and there is more awareness about what we are doing to the whales, more awareness. It seems to me that as we appreciate them more and more there is a realisation that we don’t want to do this anymore. And this is what I feel is perfect on some level – of them coming. Its only been in the last 8-10 years that whale watching has really taken off. Its all happening now for a reason and it will change. It is changing.

Adam But I though they they were safe already then suddenly the news comes across that the Japanese are saying they are going to take twice as many.

Patricia Its my understanding that that has been going on for a long time and now it is being revealed. Now it is coming up into people’s awareness and people are going having feelings about that.

Joy I admired that man who stood there in the face of all of us having an opposite view and said it did noting for him

Joy I know a lot of the people who have done the whale trip and they all come back starry eyed. I am talking about relatives.

Patricia When I have shared my experience with the whales that has inspired a lot of other people to come out . It does spread the energy whatever experiences they have I feel it does spread the energy. You come back and you share and there’s the website and it all helps.

Day 2 Thursday 25 August 2005

Jodie Today I just felt a great sense of peace. Yesterday I didn’t have the whole heart warming thing but today I definitely got it. My heart just opened and warmed and felt graciously thankful for the whales who came and played around the boat. I definitely felt they were communicating with us today and that gave me more a sense of it especially as I wanted to be in that peaceful mode myself so I could connect with them. I’m just really happy today. I feel a lot more centred and aligned within my being as well. More so than yesterday.

Jodie yes I feel it is especially when we saw the first pod of the three. They weren’t interactive with us or anything but they seemed to be in line and their fins were aligned with each other and I got a clear message that I must stay aligned with my true purpose so and to get back to that. So I feel that is coming within me. A beautiful day with lots of lovely people to share it with and I’m looking forward to tomorrow.

RM if you were describing this experience to your best friend how would you describe your feelings?

Jodie Oh just so much love that it brought me to tears, just so much love. I just felt overjoyed. I felt a lot of honour towards the whales as well. I am going to show them all the video so they can see because it is so hard to explain how you feel. Sometimes I feel that more people need to get out and experience this because it is heart opening and lots of fun.

RM So what do you experience when you say you had a heart opening. What does that mean to you?

Jodie I just felt stuff lift from my heart. I have actually had a rib injury so I have had tension on the left hand side of my body and sometimes I feel like I have an elephant paw on my heart and I do a lot of work on that area to clear stuff from there and I felt it just literally heat up and I was just the heat came out of not just the front of my chest but also the back and why I noticed it because it was freezing cold outside and I felt hot and I couldn’t feel the pressure that I feel over my heart that I normally feel. I can’t really feel it right now actually. And I wanted to get into that and work with that. I did a meditation on this relating to my rib injury and it wasn’t just related to this life but a past life and I have actually seen that I was a dolphin or a whale and I was actually speared and my partner Vanya without me telling him that said that he thought I had been a marine creature that had been injured in some way. So I don’t know whether… back then when I was going through my rib injury it was really true for me. And I could feel that I had visions of it. So whether that was clearing out…today as well because being with the whales and experiencing the love with them and them interacting with us. That’s it but I feel good that’s the main thing.

RM Yea, fantastic. That’s really interesting. So did you experience any other emotions that you can recall?

Jodie I guess, I’m not sure if its an emotion, but I just felt like I didn’t have a care in the world, no worries. I guess I just felt a lot more gratitude today because sometimes in everyday life you don’t get to give honour to all these things in our world. Like animals, plants, water, and all these things, you sort of get stuck in your mainstream life and you tend to forget. So today I felt a lot of gratitude for the remembrance of our earth and how beautiful it is and the creatures and the life that is on our earth. Yea that’s one thing I really felt today.

Adam -

Again today I felt a bit sad about the way my peers and my fellow human beings treated the whales. I only said sorry a few times today and once I got that out of my system I started really noticing the figures that were gliding underneath the boat and underneath the waves and it was just a beautiful incredible experience. And I just enjoyed the whole morning after that.

Linda I have already told you about today but I totally endorse what Adam said. I am just trying to think of what else to say.

Camilla

Just how those two whales at the end. The way we interacted with them. That was just soooo amazing to be there and to look at us and be curious about us and then go. So we were there interacting with other beings of a totally different form and just accepting them for who they are and coming on their turf. And just being in that place of innocence, just being there and wanting to communicate with them. That was very special. It was a little different because they were wanting to make that contact with us as well. And how we are fellow creatures on this earth. They are in their spot and we are in ours. They wouldn’t have a clue on how our life was really. The more we communicate with each other the more we understand each other of course. So just coming from that heart space basically.

Joy

There was something for me today that was extra magical and it started when the boat left the wharf and all of a sudden I started to notice the sky. The sky was just amazing today. And we were blessed thrice today going out. There was this incredible sky with the sunbeams just beaming down through the cloud it was like it was blessing the water and it was blessing us and it was like an omen that it was going to be just fine. Then you looked behind you and there was this incredible rainbow that was there so you had the blessing in front of you and the blessing behind. And it was standing on the boat - there was this lovely kindred spirit there humming and I knew I had to join her. We started humming together and all of a sudden words were coming that I can’t even speak and Raylee was the very person/people that I was singing. And that was magical. We were singing to the whales in maori and Raylee was seeing herself as a Maori and we didn’t know what the other was doing so the blessings before we even got out there were just so uplifting and cleansing and opening. I felt today that I was really an open channel, cleansed. So when we saw the three I had to laugh because I had to laugh because these three were just lolling around there and didn’t give a damn whether we saw or not. They were just doing their thing and I thought ‘isn’t that wonderful. Why worry so much about what other people think but just get on with our lives and do our own thing. This was the lesson I got with that and yet they were just so benign. I mean it wasn’t as if we weren’t with them but they were just doing their thing and they didn’t feel like performing particularly so they didn’t1! But we were there and it was marvellous! Then when we saw those other two that really blew me because I really felt those two whales were just waiting for us and I really felt that they were our whales today and there were no other boats around us today. And as soon as we pulled up this one just lifted himself up asnd it was as if he was giving us a tremendous greeting and blessing and saying hi you’re here and I’m here so just lets get on with this and there was this instant love and connection and what came out of that whole thing which was begun with the journey out and completed with those two magical creatures just performing for us looking at us. We really did get the eyeball today and that was just something. I said to Raylee there is so much in there about today that it is not possible to condense it into words. It is beyond words today. The sylphs were there and the undines. It was just such an elemental and just magical day. And I didn’t get any particular messages about what I should be doing apart from those three. It was just a magical and cleansing opening and uplifting and just a completely healing day for me today. It was such a privilege and deep humility and great joy and just magical.

Raylee.

Like Joy I was very much aware of the rainbows and the sky which just had so much light beaming down from it and onto the water and every time I looked through my camera there was this column of light coming down from the sun just like a message from God . Yer, it was just wonderful right from the beginning and I just felt to stand up by the mast and just sing to the whales, call them in, continue what I had been doing for the last couple of days with that and I just found myself going into this quite deep meditative state and accessing memories of this past life of being a Maori in NZ calling in the whales and that was a pretty powerful experience in itself. And then when we came up to the first whale and it just reared up out of the water in front of me I just …. it took be back somewhere when I had worshipped the whales and I just fell to my knees. It was like I was worshipping that whale and I just felt incredible humility and the awesome power of the whale. And I felt each time I have seen the whales I have felt so joyful, exhilarated. My heart just bursting out of my chest . Such a feeling of love and reverence and connection for the whales and then when we came up to the two whales, I felt they were our whales and they were waiting for us. They were just so full of trust and so gentle, so huge and so gentle and almost saying scratch me like a puppy dog, lying down with the underbelly so exposed. You know here I am, I’m yours. And I think ,you know, for me the big lesson is about joy and freedom and compassion and trust. And we have moved in our society so far away from those really important things. To me they just speak to us of those values, coming back, as Jody says, to our core essence and recognising their core essence and the Oneness, the incredible beauty of that connection. So to me it was a very special day and I feel so blessed and honoured to have been able to take part in this and to have been able to share it with you all too. So thank you.

Patricia

Yes the feelings that I am having right now are around the group sharing. Today it was a very big experience and even though I have done this a few times each time is totally different. Totally different power and experience. But what I am feeling tonight is the power and depth of the sharing, touching my heart and I am really feeling that, so thank you ,and I also feel that each time I have had these experiences they seem to be going deeper. I feel that deepness and the depth is what I am sensing in myself but the other level of that is what I am sensing in you. It is about all of us. We are all going into a deep level of our own experience and consciousness. And I am feeling the depth of this and the extension of this is about who we are. And its about why we are here. This connection we have with the whales is about that. Them touching us, though we touch them in the same moment. As we do that we are opening up to whole levels of our beings. These are just words that are coming to me. There is a whole energy around it. I don’t know if you can feel this. It is to do … its hard to put words on it. We are all part of the one and the sharing is us sharing our oneness because as each of you have shared I have tuned into that oneness because each of you, the experiences you have had, I have also experienced. I think on some level we all have those experiences and to be able to come together and express that. I feel that is what is happening. Those people on the boat today and yesterday, those people were having the same experience too. And they may not get the chance to share as we are but I am sure if they were here they would go yes, that is the same experience I had. So the feeling for me is touching the deepness of the sharing and knowing we are saying the same thing in a different way. So that’s how I feel. I’m thinking how do I find the words for this. Its like we get to a point in our lives with whatever we are doing and that point is an accumulation of all of those experiences. That’s what has really blown me away about the sharing tonight. Its so deep and it is so touching, touching who we are. Thank you for that. So for me it leaves me with no doubt about what I am doing, what we are all doing. That confirmation about… just keep doing it! Its a good thing.

Marielane

I didn’t have to be there because this is such a revealing and almost like being there from all of you and I could just have the visions and feelings of being there through you. And yet I was here doing what I needed to do for myself. Nevertheless I was out there as well and if there is one word that I can maybe sum up for what came up today was the whales were passing their energy to us and that energy was forgiveness. They just do that naturally. They don’t bash themselves up about anything. They don’t bash us up about anything even though you may pick up on their sadness they are fine with it because they know. It is our feelings that we are projecting our sadness onto them. Unless we forgive ourselves and all that’s happening we can’t ever be, just be as they are or give in love unconditionally because that is what we need to do for ourselves. And that’s a really big one because it is ancient stuff we carry with us. Its about clearing and purifying and clearing again and connecting to the light until we know that we are, just are. That’s what they are. They just are. And there’s nothing there, there’s no blame. And this is what they were doing today . I was just getting goosebumps because that what it means for us, to be just like they are.

WHALE STORIES AND INTERVIEWS

see Whale Journeys for coming trips

close whale encounter

Interviews conducted on 3 Day whale trip to Hervey Bay, August 2005 by Patricia Athena and Raylee Myers

Hello, this is Patricia, from Byron Bay, Whale and Dolphin researcher, healer, teacher