Do Animals Really Feel? A Deep Dive Into Sentience, Science & Spirituality Welcome back to The Keto Vegan! I'm Rach, your host—part science nerd 🧠, part spiritual explorer ✨, and 100% obsessed with what’s really going on behind our food choices 🥦🍽️. This week, I’m pulling apart the complex threads of animal sentience 🐷🧬. Why? Because it’s personal. From my early days believing animals didn’t feel, to now being immersed in the research and the lived reality that they absolutely do—it’s been a journey of consciousness 🌱💫. If this episode gets your wheels turning (or your tofu sizzling) 🚴‍♀️🔥, please subscribe and share 📲💚—it helps this little vegan corner of the podcast world grow big leafy wings 🕊️🌿. You’ll find all my contact info and links in the show notes below—I'd love to hear from you 💌👂. Key Takeaways From Religion to Realisation: Rach unpacks her personal journey from Christian teachings that humans are superior, to the humbling truth that animals are sentient and emotionally complex. Science Confirms What Pet Parents Know: A 2025 British Psychological Society article shows nearly all surveyed researchers agree animals feel—98% for primates, 89% for mammals, and even 52% for fish. Empathy & Emotion Beyond Humans: From jealous dogs to grieving octopuses, Rach explores how empathy, sorrow, and even jealousy aren’t just human emotions—they’re animal ones too. Anthropomorphism vs. Anthropo-denial: The real danger isn’t imagining animals are too like us—it’s denying they feel anything at all. 89% of researchers now say denial is the bigger issue. How AI Is Changing the Game: New tools are measuring animal vocalisations and emotional responses far more precisely, proving once again—we’ve underestimated animals all along. Spiritual Vibes & Conscious Living: Rach links the vegan lifestyle to a higher vibration of peace, love, and awareness—urging listeners to raise their consciousness and walk their values. Best Moments “I used to believe animals didn’t feel… I now firmly believe and have seen with my own eyes, animals experiencing feelings.” “I became very, very slowly aware that animals are sentient. I think I remember that awareness coming in that animals have sentience, and it took me a while to get my head around that. Now in today's age, we're in 2025, I think most people know that animals are sentient beings.” “If you have a pet, dog or cat or whatever horse, guinea pig, whatever rabbit, you are probably very aware that your pet has emotions, which means it has feelings, which means it is sentient.” “But the less religious I've got, the more spiritual I've become, and the more connected I've become to this beautiful planet and to all the species on the planet. I think this is raising the levels of consciousness that people experience, because basically the absolute law, and there's only one law, and I very much believe that this is the law of love. If we don't experience that, then what is there to life?”   #VeganPodcast #AnimalSentience #VeganKeto #PlantBasedKeto #VeganAwakening #AnimalRights #KetoVeganLifestyle #PsychologyOfAnimals #VeganEthics #ConsciousLiving Valuable Resources https://www.bps.org.uk/research-digest/do-non-human-animals-feel-emotion https://as.cornell.edu/news/researchers-assess-whether-animals-feel-emotion? https://www.azorobotics.com/News.aspx?newsID=15744& https://www.researchgate.net/publication/356459802_Review_of_the_Evidence_of_Sentience_in_Cephalopod_Molluscs_and_Decapod_Crustaceans For an extensive list of foods with their carb, fat and protein count, go here: https://www.rachelgtherapy.co.uk/1-what-why-and-howFor a keto-vegan start-up menu and shopping list go here: https://www.rachelgtherapy.co.uk/1-what-why-and-how   Host BioRachel, a once morbidly obese individual, experienced a remarkable body transformation through the keto diet. Later, she embraced veganism and now shares her extensive knowledge and obsession with carbs in vegan proteins on The Keto Veg