by Sherie Winslow Swimming with dolphins. That phrase conjures up images of snorkeling in warm water beneath a sun-filled sky, gentle creatures of the sea as near as your outstretched hand, their unique sounds filling your ears, being at one with nature ... and making a meaningful connection across species. The last part of this image might not be as far out as it sounds.
The use of dolphins to assist with physical and emotional conditions is increasingly being explored by the alternative medical community. And the results, now quantifiable, are being looked at in new light.
The first known instance of dolphin therapy occurred by accident in 1971 when the mentally retarded brother of an educational anthropologist waded into the water with two dolphins. It became clear that some type of therapeutic interaction had taken place, but just what had happened, or how, wasn´t understood.
It wasn't until 1980 that formal investigations of the applications of dolphin-assisted therapy began. As formal as the experimenters tried to be, the study was still fraught with potential for error because of one human element in the equation -- hope.
The parents of retarded, autistic, and developmentally disabled children reported positive changes as the result of initial swims with dolphins. The fact that the information was subjective and couldn't be seen under a microscope fueled the argument against its being a viable treatment. That the information came from parents -- not the most objective of people -- made it even more suspect in the eyes of the detractors.
They pointed to children's natural affinity with animals as being the reason for the behavior modifications reported by the parents, even as more studies were done and more information became available:
- Children who were previously uncommunicative (as with autistic children) showed higher levels of communication and bonding with their parents. (And further research bore this out -- during pet-facilitated therapy, autistic children's social interactions improved significantly.)
- When it came to mentally retarded children, research showed that attention span increased as a result of a desire to interact with the dolphins.
- An experiment with children who had Down syndrome showed their ability to process and retain verbal information was increased when dolphins were used as therapy. The children were allowed to feed the dolphins in exchange for giving the right answer to questions. It was determined that learning occurred four times faster in the presence of dolphins than it did in a classroom setting.
Between 1988 and 1996, 10,000 sessions were conducted on 700 children of all ages from around the world. Thirty-five different diagnoses were represented, with varying levels of progress and improvement being reported. But even those numbers weren't convincing to some.
Ilanit Tof wrote in Psychophysiological Mechanisms of Therapeutic Dolphin -- Human Interactions, "The great age range included in the trials, reflecting different stages of development, is particularly problematic in cognitively challenged samples, as is use of etiologically heterogeneous samples. These factors, though challenging to avoid in specialized research, combine to obscure the emergence of unequivocal trends. Since animal presence in general facilitates pro-social behaviour -- but anecdotally -- parents of DAT (Dolphin Assisted Therapy) participants report dramatically greater improvements in language and motor skills following dolphin encounters than interaction with pets or other animals."
Tof further wrote, "Recognizing that emotional bonds are essential to psychological growth, and that the psychological strain of caring for disabled children may prevent the play conducive to bond formation, this situation was designed to optimize meaningful activity for these families."
In other words, the human factor -- the hope of parents and their desire to see improvement in their children -- was still casting a shadow of doubt over the effects that were seen in the field.
But the benefits from dolphin interaction were not restricted to children.
Other experiments were conducted, this time on adults who could better verbalize any improvement in their condition.
And right around the corner was -- finally -- a way to show, on a scientifically acceptable level, the physiological changes brought by dolphin-human interaction.
Reports filtered in of surprising changes to adults after interaction with dolphins. Not only could the improvements be seen, but the adults were better able to verbalize than children had been.
- Depression can be recorded and seen on electro-encephalography (EEG). Doctors no longer need to rely only on the patient's description of how he feels -- they can now see proof on the EEG: Depressed patients have abnormal readings with more left-hemisphere front-alpha power, and/or more right-hemisphere parietal or temporal alpha power. Patients reported a lessening of depression following interaction with dolphins.
- Pain relief in spinal patients occurred, lasting anywhere from three hours to four days. Pain relief could be seen in the reduced requests for pain medication. It was theorized that dolphin interaction produced a release of endorphins. An endorphin release would explain the pain alleviation.
In a field with little empirical data, with many anecdotal results and much conjecture, scientists began to look for ways to quantify the experiences that were being seen -- and to find an explanation.
David Cole, chairman of the AquaThought Foundation, devised a way to measure neurophysiological response. His goal was to "prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that there is a physiological change that occurs when people interact with dolphins" -- to produce quantifiable results that could be accepted and understood on a scientific level.
"If those data can be shown to co-vary with a deflection from normal in EEG in a consistent and predictable way, proof of concept will have been established."
Cole developed a swim cap called MindSet, a neuromapping device, to analyze what happens in the brains of humans who swim with dolphins. Data from 16 points on the scalp is fed into a computer for later analysis.
Experiments were set up in Australia to look at how neurological data recorded by MindSet might correlate to reported therapeutic benefits. In one set of three experiments, the following four conditions were expected:
- Visual and Auditory Interaction
Dolphins swim through the group of swimmers and carry out echo-locating investigations (producing sounds).
- Visual Interaction
Dolphins express no interest in the humans and keep a distance, but allow for human visual sighting.
- Auditory Interaction
Dolphin sounds can be heard, but the dolphins themselves are not seen.
- No Interaction
Dolphins avoid contact and make no sounds.
Three types of experiments were run. Their results exceeded all expectations of proof of EEG changes caused by dolphin interaction.
In the first experiment, subjects' EEG activity was tested. They then entered the water for five minutes in the presence of dolphins who exhibited echo-location activities.
The result of the first experiment was that 87.5 percent of the subjects' EEG patterns showed a decrease in frequency and an increase in amplitude. These results matched earlier experiments done by other research groups.
EEG studies of human subjects also revealed that after swimming with dolphins, there was an increase in left-right hemispheric synchronization and an increase in slow wave (alpha and theta brain waves) activity.
In the second experiment, subjects' EEG was again tested. They then entered the water for five minutes and were exposed to man-made sounds duplicating dolphin echo-location.
The result of the experiment showed no shift in frequency and amplitude as had been seen in dolphin interaction.
In the third experiment a DVRT (virtual reality) system was used. EEG tests were run. Subjects then donned virtual reality glasses and watched 20 minutes of video footage of dolphins.
The result was that all subjects reported being more relaxed after watching the footage, but brain wave modification did not occur as it had with dolphin interaction.
Only when dolphin sounds were heard was there any change.
When describing dolphin sounds, Cole commented, "It's enough energy to cause a phenomenon known as cavitation. It can actually rip holes in the molecular structure of fluids and soft tissues. So one hypothesis that's beginning to emerge is that the dolphin's echo-location can change cellular metabolism in the human body, which would happen at such a core level that it would explain all of the phenomena that we're observing."
Cole further believes that cavitation could possibly be causing the release of hormones or endorphins or stimulating the production of T-cells. While it's not being touted as a cure, hopes for this experimental therapy are high.
The Future of Dolphin Therapy
The induced alpha brain state that occurs with dolphin interaction may be responsible for strengthening the human immune system. This serves as the current operating hypothesis for alternative cancer treatment successes, among other things.
Cole already suspects this: The very first test he ran was with cancer patients -- several of whom went into spontaneous remission after dolphin therapy, something medical science was unable to explain.
Copyright 1999 Sherie Winslow
First seen on AOL AltMed - Reproduced by permission. References
Psychophysiological Mechanisms of Therapeutic Dolphin - Human Interactions
Electroencephalographic Results of Human - Dolphin Interaction: A Sonophoresis Model
Dolphin Therapy Effects: A Hypothesis
Dolphin Therapy Project For West Clare
Interspecies
Steven Birch Thesis
David M. Cole, Chairman
AquaThought Foundation
14610 Lake Olive Drive
Fort Myers, FL 33919
E-mail: aquatht@ix.netcom.com
