The Voice of the Infinite in the Small: Re-Visioning the Insect-Human Connection

The Voice of the Infinite in the Small: Re-Visioning the Insect-Human Connection
by Joanne Elizabeth Lauck
2002
Weight:1.4 lbs
Method of Disposal: Leaving in a Lending Library

I thought I was ready for this book, but I do not think it would be possible to be ready for it.  It is not because the author asks you to reconsider your relationship with insects.  I can absolutely get on board with not doing harm to other living creatures and with admiring the unique traits and behaviors of bugs.  The leaps in this book were too much for me though, and the New Age/Spitituality aspect left me feeling a little ridiculous.  There was some interesting information but mostly interesting opinions.  I did not find a lot of concrete or specific insight into the insect-human bond.  Why don't you check it out for yourself? 

Here is an excerpt for you on lice (pg. 33):

 "Few of us wonder if there is another way to think about lice, not knowing that native people accepted their presence with aplomb.  In a charming Navajo creation myth, Louse pleads for his life, telling Monsterslayer that if he is killed, people will have to live without lice and suffer loneliness.

Native peoples on every continent also had a strategy for keeping lice populations down--they simply ate them.  Most believed that eating lice was healthy (it probably is), and people picked off and ate lice from family members and friends as an act of courtesy, favor, and friendship."

And on ants (PG. 109):

" A Swiss business woman, Kathia Haug, also had success in communicating with ants that visited her home each summer.  Although in previous summers she had tried to solve her 'ant problem' by killing them, she had never been completely successful.  One year, she embraced a new spiritual discipline that brought a change of heart and prompted her to try talking to the ants mentally.  She told them that she wished them a happy life but that she wanted them to stay out of her house.  In one day, the ants were gone from her house, although they still passed across the doorstep from her kitchen into the garden.

Those who practice this kind of communication agree that it requires a combination of compassion, positive expectation, and the ability to hold a visual picture in your mind, since animals communicate with images not words."