MY HOUSEPLANT’S PREFER MASTERCARD
I’ve long been interested in plant perception, having had the privilege of knowing NASA scientist Cleve Backster, who pioneered the idea of plant “primary perception.” While always considered a fringe area (My love of fringes as is evident by the title and content of my newest book, THE EDGE OF MADNESS).
The Edge of Madness
Actually the movement stared in the Western world long before Cleve, with — ta-da! – Charles Darwin’s famous book THE POWER OF MOVEMENT IN PLANTS. His obtuse theory of plant behavior is being pioneered these days by scientists like Monica Gagliano at the University of Western Australia’s Centre for Evolutionary Biology. Botanists there have been doing experiments that suggest that plants actually have cognitive abilities such as perception, learning, and consciousness though they react (“behave”) slower than we do. Researchers there have demonstrated that plants are able to learn from past experiences and can be classically conditioned. Cleve Backster’s work went well beyond this, however. He suggested that primary perception in plants is linked closely to their symbiotic root bacteria and any animals that come into their “zone of perception.” He thought that it’s the bacteria that link plant consciousness with something greater than we humans largely unconsciously share amongst ourselves and with all other living things. Like the Buddhists are wont to say, all life appears interconnected whether we are aware of it or not.
But enough of that. My orchid is shivering either with joy or concern that I’m sharing this intimate information with other humans. Which brings up some other interesting issues about plants: Check out https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oy9eM....
Cleve Backster believed plants not only can feel and even anticipate pain, but could synchronize feelings with humans. His infamous shuttle experiment showed that, if it is true, then a “love bond” with a human could exist over vast distances and the bonded plant could feel what its caretaker was feeling instantaneously over vast distances. This suggested to him that there is a second underlying “fabric” to the universe based on a network of primary perception woven of humans, animals, plants and bacterial feelings.
Can one hear a plant scream? Check this out: “‘The more a plant is subjected to stress, the louder the signal,’ said Dr Frank Kühnemann. Plants do not actually scream in pain. But different sounds are heard when the gas they emit, ethylene, is bombarded with lasers….” and “Although not audible to the human ear, the secret voices of plants have revealed that cucumbers scream when they are sick, and flowers whine when their leaves are cut [source: Deutsche Welle]. There’s also evidence that plants can hear themselves being eaten” for starters.
All this is making me hungry for food and some entertainment. Maybe a nice choir salad…
The Edge of Madness
Actually the movement stared in the Western world long before Cleve, with — ta-da! – Charles Darwin’s famous book THE POWER OF MOVEMENT IN PLANTS. His obtuse theory of plant behavior is being pioneered these days by scientists like Monica Gagliano at the University of Western Australia’s Centre for Evolutionary Biology. Botanists there have been doing experiments that suggest that plants actually have cognitive abilities such as perception, learning, and consciousness though they react (“behave”) slower than we do. Researchers there have demonstrated that plants are able to learn from past experiences and can be classically conditioned. Cleve Backster’s work went well beyond this, however. He suggested that primary perception in plants is linked closely to their symbiotic root bacteria and any animals that come into their “zone of perception.” He thought that it’s the bacteria that link plant consciousness with something greater than we humans largely unconsciously share amongst ourselves and with all other living things. Like the Buddhists are wont to say, all life appears interconnected whether we are aware of it or not.
But enough of that. My orchid is shivering either with joy or concern that I’m sharing this intimate information with other humans. Which brings up some other interesting issues about plants: Check out https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oy9eM....
Cleve Backster believed plants not only can feel and even anticipate pain, but could synchronize feelings with humans. His infamous shuttle experiment showed that, if it is true, then a “love bond” with a human could exist over vast distances and the bonded plant could feel what its caretaker was feeling instantaneously over vast distances. This suggested to him that there is a second underlying “fabric” to the universe based on a network of primary perception woven of humans, animals, plants and bacterial feelings.
Can one hear a plant scream? Check this out: “‘The more a plant is subjected to stress, the louder the signal,’ said Dr Frank Kühnemann. Plants do not actually scream in pain. But different sounds are heard when the gas they emit, ethylene, is bombarded with lasers….” and “Although not audible to the human ear, the secret voices of plants have revealed that cucumbers scream when they are sick, and flowers whine when their leaves are cut [source: Deutsche Welle]. There’s also evidence that plants can hear themselves being eaten” for starters.
All this is making me hungry for food and some entertainment. Maybe a nice choir salad…
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