"For many years, I have been a student of spirituality and states of consciousness. For many more years than that, I've been a student of dogs," says bestselling author Jean Houston, whose study of this subject is the basis of Mystical Dogs. Houston has spent a lifetime bridging the worlds of animals and humans, exploring a realm that pet owners have glimpsed and indigenous peoples have known for millennia. The author identifies dogs, with their deceptively uncomplicated, joyous, loving nature, as custodes animi, guardians of our souls. She shows how animals, particularly dogs, are often the best spiritual teachers. For example, in Houston's hands, a seemingly simple story, such as a man saying goodbye to his beloved dog, becomes a striking metaphor about personal and planetary transformation. "Jean Houston's Mystical Dogs makes us realize how profoundly our beloved pets can keep us in touch with the oneness that is Nature and Divinity. All this and lots of chuckles." — Marion Woodman "The author's fans, as well as dog lovers, will relate to and enjoy her descriptions of meditative and spiritual practices that are enhanced by a connection to animals." — Publishers Weekly "In this delightful, but seriously illuminating book, she takes us beyond dogs as simply affectionate property of humans to spiritual guides, capable of genuine spiritual friendship, and carriers of native experience and ecstatic joy." — Wayne Teasdale, author of The Mystic Heart and A Monk in the World