Beyond Words

Many make the case that people are more likely to refrain from eating animals when presented with the health benefits or the impact of industrial animal agriculture on climate change.

My observation is that people who experiment with vegetarianism because of some hoped-for health benefits just as readily go back to eating animals when someone tells them they "need to eat meat" for their health. And, those who take up the "ism" based upon some ideal, like helping the environment, don't always stick with it; they may decide the issues are too large or they may decide to focus their attention on other forms of advocacy and abandon their vegetarianism for something more momentarily interesting.

My own decision to go veg in the early '90s resulted from a deep and clear sense of identity of myself as an animal and of all other animals as my direct relations. 

Since that moment, I have not eaten my friends, of any species, and I will never again.

That experience was well beyond words. The agent of change was awareness itself, awareness of my relationship with all beings on Earth, and the loving and compassionate feelings I have for them, and - as I continue to discover - share with them.

Beyond Words is a book that may effect others similarly poised to give up eating animals. Here are some reviews that echo my own experience and writings about animals and their feelings and intelligence.

"Beyond Words will have a deep impact on many readers, for it elevates our relationships with animals to a higher plane....Along with Darwin's Origin and Richard Dawkins's Selfish Gene, BEYOND WORDS marks a major milestone in our evolving understanding of our place in nature. Indeed it has the potential to change our relationship with the natural world." -- Tim Flannery, The New York Review of Books

“Captivating...A profound, scientifically based appeal for recognition of the kinship of all living things.” ―Kirkus, starred review

“Carl Safina shows there is indeed intelligent life in the universe, and it's all around us. At once moving and surprising, Beyond Words asks us to reexamine our relationship to other species-and to ourselves.” ―Elizabeth Kolbert, author of The Sixth Extinction

Read more and buy....

May all beings be well and happy, free of suffering and the causes of suffering.