Sea Angel Dolphin Resort is a 1000 Room Eco Hotel on the Pacific Ocean in Uvita, Costa Rica. The hotel services a Dolphin Assistance Therapy (DAT) program which incorporates Patrick Flanagan’s neurophone synthetic telepathy technology for inter-species meditation workshops between dolphins and humans. This program is geared for the recovery of autism and veterans with PTSD (Post-traumatic Stress Disorder).The beachfront hotel will be built in concentric rings based on the principles of Atlantian Sacred Geometry guided by architect Fernando Vossa. Each hotel wing will be surrounded by water which can be viewed below “deck”. Each room will be equipped with scalar technology like the EE System to sync the mind back into relaxation and theraphi technology for anti aging. At night beach hologram shows of dolphins are played over the ocean along with recorded sounds from live dolphins.
Seminars, meditation, and yoga workshops will be conducted in the main hall built on the bottom of the sea in a transparent aluminum (alon optical ceramic) dome structure connected with a transparent tunnel to the mainland hotel. Inside the dome will contain neurophone projectors and receivers along with neologicaltech meditation enhancement technology.The dome will extend above sea level where patrons can sit outside on a dolphin viewing platform. Here boats can take patrons into the sea where they can swim with wild dolphins.
To enhance the experience a few wild dolphins will be selected and implanted with a neurophone mic and wireless transmitters. Signals will be relayed back to into the dome where people can meditate and telepathically interact with the wild dolphins in the sea. Future applications could potentially include a A.I. computer algorithm to decode the transmissions into English or Spanish. If we can successfully decode communication then we could send a boat into a super pod of dolphins and request the dolphins to swim on board to be transported to the hotel pools where patrons can interact with the dolphins. At the end of the day the pod will be placed back on the boat and returned out to sea which is then repeated everyday.In every step of the process the dolphins will be given a freewill to choice to participate in this project ensuring no animals are held in captivity.
Dolphin assisted therapy is aimed at treating individuals identified as having mental and physical disabilities. This animal-assisted therapy has shown some efficacy in the treatment of those who are physically and mentally ill and disabled as well as adults and children with various psychopathologies. Therapy generally involves the patient swimming and playing with dolphins over several sessions while working on tasks such as hand-eye coordination or various verbal response targets. It is a highly attractive form of therapy due to the dolphins being well-liked, exotic animals. The exact healing mechanism behind DAT is unknown. The three most prominent theories for DAT are echolocation, dolphins being attracted to people with disabilities, and overall joy and relaxation. Other theories include simply being in the water and increasing attention in individuals with autism.
Proponents of DAT have claimed that the ultrasound emitted by dolphins through echolocation clicks has a mechanical effect on human endocrine and neural systems. These effects enhance healing by changing the individual’s body tissue and cell structure. This is one of the most popular theories behind DAT; however, the evidence backing these claims appears to be purely anecdotal.
A typical two-week Dolphin Human Therapy program significantly increases language, speech, gross motor, and fine motor functioning among children and adults with various disabilities when compared to the more conventional speech or physical therapy programs that last a minimum of six months. Other purported benefits of DAT include increased stimulation, better memory, increased motor skills, accelerated healing, and an increase in a person’s well-being as well as reduced stress, pain, and depression, increasing relaxation, enhancing the production of infection fighting t cells, endorphin’s, and hormones, and enhancing the recovery process. In summary, DAT increases attention span, motivation, and language skills more rapidly and cost effectively than other more conventional therapies and showed beneficial long-term effects for approximately 95% of those treated.
The main goal of Sea Angel hotel is to drive the cost of DAT therapy down to make it affordable to the average person. Today the average cost of DAT varies depending on the length and location of therapy as well as the therapy package chosen. There are currently DAT programs all over the world including Europe, the Middle East, Asia, USA, the Caribbean, Mexico, Israel, Russia, Japan, China, Bahamas, and South America. The typical price for five 40-minute sessions is about $2,600. Typical travel, food, and lodging costs can raise the price to $5,200 over two weeks. One notable example quoted in 2006, Nathanson’s Dolphin Human Therapy, costs $7,800 for two weeks or $11,800 for three weeks not including travel, food, and lodging. It is worth noting that these sums of money are being exchanged for activities that are often nearly indistinguishable from swim-with-dolphin programs typically frequented by tourists.
Due to the size of sea angel hotel we are able to bring down the cost of DAT down 90%. Pricing will be based on duration of stay, duration of time with the dolphins, and treatment approach. Here are some research studies which suggest dolphins can enhance the wellness experience.
Dolphins help bring peace to VeteransDolphin therapy helps Veterans find peace while transitioning from combat into civilian life.
“There’s no magic pill with PTSD.”
But there are dolphins.
“It’s very peaceful when you get in the water. It’s stress-free and it brings out playfulness, happiness,” said Iraq and Afghanistan Veteran William Mulvey.
Mulvey, a 32 year old U.S. Navy Veteran from Homestead, Florida, is receiving care for PTSD and TBI from his combat experiences at the Bruce W. Carter VA Medical Center in Miami, Florida.
Two years ago the recreation therapy service at the Miami VA was offered the opportunity for combat Veterans and their families or caregivers to swim with dolphins by Island Dolphin Care, Inc., a not for profit organization in Key Largo, Florida.
“For the past few years we’ve been working with Veterans coming back from Iraq and Afghanistan and that’s an honor and a privilege for us,” said Pete Hoagland, IDC Manager and co-founder. “We’ve even seen some vets from the Vietnam conflict and last week we had some vets from Korea and World War II which was just amazing.”
“To put a smile on all those people’s faces and give them an idea that hope lives, that joy is something that you need in your lives is just a wonderful thing,” he added.
Kim Severance oversees the marine science education and Veterans programs. She says the Veterans have provided consistently positive feedback. “The number one response has been ‘I can’t believe how good I’ve felt after… or for two weeks afterwards.”
Some research has been published regarding the effects of swimming with dolphins according to Tabitha Aragon, Recreation Therapist for the Post Deployment Clinic at the Miami VA Healthcare System. Aragon says the basic data they’ve collected so far shows overall improvement in anxiety and depression levels after just the one-day program.
“It’s the excitement and motivation of being in this environment with these incredible animals that is such a powerful tool. We use it to create opportunities for children and young adults with special needs and challenges, disabilities, life-threatening conditions, kids from “Make-A-Wish” and similar organizations, and our Veterans,” Hoagland explained.
“But it’s expensive… just maintenance and electrical bills, water bills, all that stuff… it’s about a million dollar a year budget,” Hoagland said. He added that IDC receives strong local community as well as national philanthropic support but is always in need of additional funding.
Much of that support goes toward paying for individual and group scholarships that allow those who otherwise could not afford the sessions the opportunity to experience the dolphins.
“Island Dolphin Care fund raises and gets grants for the entire (VA) program. No money comes from the Veteran or the VA,” said Aragon.
Island Dolphin Care was created twenty years ago out of a parent’s need to improve her son’s life. Deena and Pete Hoagland’s son Joe was born with a heart defect that required multiple surgeries to correct. After his third open-heart procedure, Joe suffered a stroke that paralyzed his left side.
Deena, a licensed clinical social worker and therapist, thought Joe would respond better to water therapy. She asked Dolphins Plus, one of the oldest commercial ‘swim with dolphin’ programs in the U.S., if she could try with her son. Joe met a 600 lb. Atlantic bottle nose dolphin called Fonzie and the effects were almost immediate. Deena recognized what worked for Joe could help others as well. Gradually Island Dolphin Care evolved into the nationally recognized dolphin therapy program now benefiting Veterans. “We’re all about taking broken lives and helping them move in a positive direction. It’s truly an honor and a privilege to work with these men and women that have given so much for us. I can’t think of a better job than to work here and help make those programs successful,” Hoagland said.
To learn more about the dolphin swim therapy program, call Miami VA Recreation Therapy at (305) 575-3295 or e-mail Richard.Vroman@va.gov.
– See more at: http://www.miami.va.gov/MIAMI/features/dolphin.asp#sthash.MnJpqDDK.dpuf
http://www.miami.va.gov/MIAMI/features/dolphin.asp
Proven Benefits of Dolphin Assistance Therapy
1 The Black Sea bottlenose dolphin is the natural factor that exerts a healing effect on patients suffering from neurological disorders, mainly with a strong psychogenic component of the pathogenesis.
2. The employment of the dolphin for therapeutic purposes is based on its positive attitude towards humans; desire to establish contact, ease of training and control, exotic appearance, large size and the ability to conduct treatment in an aquatic environment.
3. The healing effect of the dolphin is realized most completely in a multilink system, doctor-coach-dolphin-patient. The process of therapy consists of several stages, such as psychological preparation of the patient, contacts between the patient and the dolphin, relaxing procedures after the contact and supportive psychotherapy after the course of direct dolphin-patient interactions has ended. The optimal period for the patient’s direct involvement with the patient is 15-20 minutes once a day for a period of 7-10 days.
4. The established mechanisms of dolphin therapy are: emotional stress with an elevation of psychological and physical activity of the patient and his or her responsiveness to external influences, including those of psychotherapeutic nature, retardation of pathological neuropsychological dominances and a formation of a positive attitude, improvement of psychological status and psychosomatic self-control, decrease in the strength of vegetative regulatory mechanisms.
5. A system of prognosis of treatment outcomes has been developed, based on the behavior of the patient towards the dolphin during a test contact and an evaluation of the readiness of the dolphin to participate in a therapy session, based on its feeding activity and breathing rhythm.
6. Dolphin therapy for patients suffering from chronic fatigue syndrome enables to reach significant improvement in 65.9±2.4% of cases in men and in 81.5±3.8% of cases in women. With thalasso therapy without a dolphin, improvement levels are at 30.1±2.9% for males and 60.5±2.7% for females, which is significantly (P<0.05) lower than with dolphin therapy.
7 Children 5-10 years of age with neurological disorders associated with negative environmental influences showed a decrease of minimal brain dysfunction in 62.9 to 87.2% of cases, depending on the patient’s age. In children between 7 and 10 years of age, the therapeutic effect was also manifested in decrease of headaches. The use of thalasso therapy resulted in significantly lower (P<0.01) improvement rates of 42.7 to 57.6%.
8. Dolphin therapy of children between 5 and 12 years of age suffering from enuresis leads to a significant decrease of involuntary urination episodes. It is especially effective in the 5-6 year age group where improvement levels reach 90.5±1.3%, in comparison with 30.1±2.3% using thalasso therapy alone (P<0.001).
9. The dolphin therapy course in children between 5 and ten years of age suffering from logo neurosis, supplemented by special “dolphin breathing” exercises resulted in speech improvement in 75.9±4.6% of cases (P<0.001) directly after the conclusion of the therapy and in 90.1±3.1% (P<0.001) when long-term effects are taken into account. Thalasso therapy without the dolphin resulted in no significant improvement.
10. In children suffering from phobias, 88.2±4.5% (P<0.001) of patients showed significant improvement, with persistent remission observed in 67.2±1.5% (P<0.001). The use of thalassotherapy alone did not result in significant levels of improvement.
11. The fraction of children between 5 and 15 years of age with considerable decrease of clinical signs of depression after dolphin therapy varies from 52.3±1.5% and 61.7±2.3%, depending on the age group. Thalasso therapy alone resulted in improvement levels of 10±1.4% to 23.1±2.3% of cases, which is significantly lower (P<0.05).
12. Dolphin therapy of children suffering from neurasthenia, leads to marked improvement in their condition in 78.4±2.4% of cases (P<0.001). Thalasso therapy alone does not have a statistically significant effect.
13. Dolphin therapy exerts a considerable healing effect on children between 5 and 10 years of age afflicted with infantile autism syndrome. Clinical improvement with respect to day symptoms (autism, auto stimulation, conservative behavior) was observed in different age subgroups in 64.8-82.6% of cases. With respect to night symptoms (sleep disorders, enuresis, ritual behavior, aggressiveness) the improvement was observed in 74.3-88.2% of cases. Thalasso therapy without involvement of dolphins gave no significant improvement.
14. Dolphin therapy had effected on the main clinic manifestations of the children suffering from cerebral palsy but significantly improved patients’ psychological status and social adaptation.