spiritual apes?

I loved this clip from Jane Goodall I came across today about the spirituality she senses present in apes...


"Sometimes as a chimpanzee—most often an adult male—approaches a spectacular waterfall deep in the forest, his hair bristles, a sign of heightened arousal. As he gets closer, and the roar of falling water gets louder, his pace quickens, and upon reaching the stream he performs a magnificent display that can last more than ten minutes. Standing upright he sways rhythmically from foot to foot, stamping in the shallow water, picking up and hurling rocks, climbing the vines that hang down from high above and swinging out into the spray of falling water. Chimps also dance at the onset of a very heavy rain....

After a waterfall display the performer may sit on a rock, his eyes following the falling water. What is this water, always coming, always going- yet always there? What causes the great claps of thunder, the torrential downpour, the savage gusts of wind? Is it not possible that these (chimp dance and meditation) performances are stimulated by feelings akin to wonder and awe?" asks Goodall. "And if the chimpanzees could discuss these feelings among themselves, might not this lead to an animistic worship of the elements?

... Day after day in the wilderness, I became ever more attuned to the great Spiritual Power that I felt around me—the Power that is worshiped as God, Allah, Tao, Brahma, the Great Spirit, the Creator and so on."

I came to believe that all living things possess a spark of that Spiritual Power. We humans call that spark, in ourselves, a 'soul.' And if this is so it is surely true for other animals..."