I had been given the chance to have that experience with dolphins. Yunno, people say they are far more intelligent and social than us human beings, that meeting them could be a life changing event, that it's so cool and everything. So please, let you share what was really lived with them during that incredible 10 days i passed in their company with my wife and daughter.

In first place i want to say that the organisers were people known from us. We knew they are good people with an increased sensitivity for life and living beings. The instructor, Frederic Chotard, is half a dolphin. Physically super healthy, enthusiastic about almost everything and obviously very skilled in freediving.... but what is incredible is his ability to sense the presence of dolphins and to rise their interest for us. Really impressive, he could feel them... he could introduce us to them.

The group we were had been given clear instructions about how to approach the dolphins and also how to keep distant, never try to touch them or create hassling contact. Be ready to swim a lot and let them invite you to play, dive when you can and try to awaken their interest without pushing it. So mainly, one passes the first days only swimming and swimming and swimming next to them, trying to follow their pretty fast rythm and that's about it. For sure that's a lot if swimming...

Eventually thank of my stamina and freediving skills, i would sometimes find myself alone with them. They were very curious and observing and also on my side i could notice that i was able to recognise some of them after a time. Mostly one i have to admit, who was regularly swimming next to me... or me next to him who knows.

He would come and look at me, as if he was smiling and then with his mouth he would wave at me, like a signal for "now dive!" and so i would. One can imagine that we easily get out of breath swimming this much, but i could still manage to hold it some instants to realise thant when i would dive, he, this specific dolphins and his mates would dive with me. The idea was to have fun, to go deep, to turn, twist and roll over each others and that was just awesome. Of course when my lungs would be about to burn and that i had to go back to surface they would stay down, playing and dancing together. I was also just a human, unable to stay this long and this fit underwater. I started to feel a bit frustrated and had to consider letting go of my will to make a deeper contact.

Intense moments are to come... but first I want to count some anecdotes...

Family meeting

One day our daughter, who was very young yet super adventurous, came with us in the water. With my wife we were very careful and on the watch. They may be cool guys, they are still wild and strong animals. We were then staying very close from our daughter and indeed, they were very curious. They would actually come closer to our daughter than the rest of the people, to close at our parent taste and we had to make them understand with our fins and arms that this little pure marvel was our daughter and that we were the watching parents. That was a little scary and i remember clearly my daughter and my wife calling me for back up. Anyways, this experience full of intensity was a complete amazement as you can imagine. The most incredible is to come...

The next day, we went again the three of us together and a mother dolphin with her young baby came to us. Specifically to us. She was clearly keeping her distance but she wanted to show us her child. We could feel my wife and I that this was an answer to what happend the day before. They wanted us to see that they also have children, that they are very bounded to them and that they watch after them because indeed children are fragile. We could feel the message and the will to share and make in sort of to recognise and understand eachother. That was a complete blessing, an incredible sign of trust and confidence, an attempt to share common understanding from one life to another one. You can imagine our daughter was super happy to have a little visit of one dolphin of her age. We were grateful and feeling so understood, that was awesome and again, totally blissfull. We actually never experienced such an peaceful encounter with wild life before...

I must say when you are in their company there are all these messages in between souls occuring all the time that it is eventually easy, also with tiredness i guess, to get emotional with everything.

I have another anecdote... a little shorter this time.

The echosonar

When you swim with them, you are always on the side or behind, they won't let you in nor have you in front. Well ok but stil, i wanted to meet them from front and not have this feeling i'm running after them constantly like a heavy human. So at one point, were i had left the group and swam further by my own, i hear one of my mates shout at me that they are coming my way. I dove staight away to be able to see them underwater. Arrived at some 8m deep, i stayed staring, waiting for them and suddenly, without having seen anything yet, i felt my chest intensively vibrating like if it was bombarded by i don't know what. That was strong hits, not just a little vibrating snuggle and really had my lungs shaking.

Then when i saw the very serious foreheads of the three dolphins leading the group i understood i just witnessed their echosonar. Wow, how powerful is that, they just checked me out tadadadadadadada (that's hiw it feels). I would not have ear nor felt anything underwater but the air in my thorax clearly got moved by it and not just a bit. The guiding dolphins were really at their task, identifying a underwater mammal at 20m upfront and not looking this much like funny guys at all on the first visual contact. But when our eyes crossed, we all felt to was no matter to get worried here. Awesomeness!!! Then, as i was completely tripping, they passed just next to me... the full group.

The emotional support

One time i don't know, i was not feeling like being part the group, i needed time alone, away from humans maybe. Yunno, that feeling one can have when needing support but going away from people because you don't want them to check you out, that paradoxal emotional state where it seems that only the ego rules. I want, i want, i want.... just for me. This shit...

So yeah, i was stuck in that heavy state of mind, feeling i had no friends, i was not meaning anything to anyone and that in anyways no one was really understanding me. I was crying in my mask, bouhouing in my snorkel and my mind was clearly resonating like a big creepy and powerless gnagnagna. I wanted to be recognised for having an ego, receive love whenever i had an ego, a shitloady heavy one most of it, i wanted the dolphins to come to me, for me and to acknowledge my state of mind without judgment... full ego trip.

Actually pretty fast, a smaller crew of dolphins arrived to me, seeming like checking me out humbly... as if (well, maybe i just really eared them) "yo dude, we all have an ego yunno" - "it's totally ok if you feel like shit and want to give into your ego trip." - "Have fun into the processing moment and see you later". They stayed a little moment, waiting for me to conquer my sobbing and left. No more, no less, i had the proof. Indeed dolphins have an emotional intelligence which is more developed than ours as humans, not only they sense but are able to feel one another and don't consider that as a superpower like we would. It's normal condition fir them to care about others and to be open for it. It's impressive, it's fullfilling and heartwarming... they have a Way and agree to share it with those who sincerely wish for it.

Awesoness and complete blessing... again, again and again...

Explosion of joy

This is the last anecdote before i let you scroll away or such...

One of the last days, the dolphins were particularily playfull. That dolphin that was always next to me was clearly in the mood of making me dive. So as you know, he would wave at me with a challenging and lighty eye.... i could not resist and for sure i dove thinking "yihaa let's have a big dose of fun! You're looking for me? Here i come". I had maximum air and went the deepest i could, checking if he was following me or not. Yes! He was on the track, looking like a superexcited young dude just like me. I started rolling over on my back, whirling and whirling and i could see him doing the same just next to me. We were whirling together and that was just awesome, and one more roll and one more, so coooool. Obviously i had to breathe, but i pushed it anyway, wanting to get the maximum fun out of that, burning and contracting like a mad. Up until the point i rushed to surface lifting my arms to the sky, breathing finally and screeming my joy out loud to just witness at that exact moment my dolphin friend jumping out of water on top of me. Vlam, i had again a bliss. Just thinking about it tears the blissful joy out of me again.

That was all awesome, indeed life changing and perfect.

We all are sentient beings. We all have taste for life and happiness. We all wish to live in peace and harmony and are able to recognise eachother. We all care and have needs. We are able to do what the most natural cosmic flow expects. We all love. We are life, we are beyond, we are One.

I sincerely wish i could bring you on this adventure, respecting life, caring about one another, specie to specie and discovering their Way. If you ever want to help me with organising that, please contact me fast and we do it.

With love

Kosho