Scientists Conclude Nonhuman Animals Are Conscious Beings

At Global Healing Center, we believe in having relationships founded on respect with the world around us. This initiative includes maintaining harmony in our work environment, providing help and support to our customers via our award winning customer service team, and only carrying products that are organic, natural, and have been ethically produced.

What does, “ethical production” mean? It means a lot of things, and one of the most important inclusions in its definition is that the skin care products Global Healing Center produces and offers are NOT tested on animals.

Touchy Subject

It’s no secret that the subject of animal testing is quite controversial with heated words coming from both directions. For us, however, the choice is quite simple. Inhumane medical testing, torturous cosmetic testing (exposing harmful, caustic chemicals into the eyes and other delicate tissues), and painful, abusive restraining devices are deplorable, disgusting, and wrong. The folks who do this stuff should be unbelievably ashamed of themselves and, quite frankly, deserve a trip to the woodshed. Global Healing Center will not support companies who are involved in these practices.

Mostly Unnecessary

Contention against animal testing isn’t just an emotional issue. Even the Food and Drug Administration admits that 92 out of every 100 drugs that pass animal tests fail in humans. This happens for different reasons, but a primary cause are the biological system differences between animals and humans. For example, aspirin is a seemingly innocuous and “every day” item many people take without issue. However, because cats are unable to break it down within their bodies, aspirin can be toxic, even fatal. It would be extremely naive to believe this “small” difference between mammals is the only one.

New Findings Suggets Consciousness in Animals

However, at the recent Francis Crick Memorial Conference in Cambridge England, a very significant similarity between humans and animals was concluded by the presenting scientists, and that is that humans AND non-human animals are all conscious beings.

Consciousness is a very complex term, and difficult to fully and adequately define. However, the full declaration included statements such as:

“…Evidence of near human-like levels of consciousness has been most dramatically observed in African gray parrots… Moreover, certain species of birds have been found to exhibit neural sleep patterns similar to those of mammals, including REM sleep… Magpies in particular have been shown to exhibit striking similarities to humans, great apes, dolphins, and elephants in studies of mirror self-recognition.”

and…

“…evidence indicates that non-human animals have the neuroanatomical, neurochemical, and neurophysiological substrates of conscious states along with the capacity to exhibit intentional behaviors. Consequently, the weight of evidence indicates that humans are not unique in possessing the neurological substrates that generate consciousness. Nonhuman animals, including all mammals and birds, and many other creatures, including octopuses, also possess these neurological substrates.”

This should be incredibly thought provoking and inspire all, research scientists and the cosmetic and medical industries included, to develop a more humane relationship with animals.

-Dr. Edward F. Group III, DC, ND, DACBN, DABFM