Face to Face With Elephants

This special Living One series celebrates Elephants as individuals with diverse, insightful speakers who describe a particular Elephant they have known and the psychological depths they witnessed and journeyed together.

Until individuals such as Len Howard, author of Birds as Individuals and Jane Goodall who was embarking on her revolutionary work with Chimpanzees in Gombe, Plants and Animals were largely regarded generically. Both women catalyzed a new paradigm by insisting that Animals were not anonymous members of a species, but individuals, each with his or her own wishes, fears, dreams, and needs. They knew Animals as psychological beings, not manipulable behavioral objects.

Gay Bradshaw further articulated this paradigm shift with a scientific, psychological, and philosophical framework in her Pulitzer nominated book, Elephants on the Edge. There, and in later work with Chimpanzees, Orcas, Wolves, and other Animals, she demonstrated that not only were Animals distinct thinking, feeling, and conscious individuals but vulnerable to Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).

In these unique Living One discussions, we plunge into human and Elephant psyches and the transformative journey they experienced when living and connecting beyond species bounds. Join us for this special and exciting gathering.