'TIS AN ILL WIND THAT BLOWS NO MINDS
'’Tis an ill wind that blows no minds’’ - Malaclypse the Younger, Principia Discordia (from '’The Cosmic Trigger,’’ by Robert Anton Wilson)
I always look for books that blow my mind, and ‘’The Light Eaters,’’ by Zoe Schlanger, is the latest. Speaking about plants, ethnobotanist Timony Plowman exclaimed, ‘’They can eat light, isn’t that enough!?’’ Think about it!
‘’The Light Eaters,’’ a cutting edge look at the latest discoveries about plants and trees, not only blew my mind, it reorganized my understanding of life on earth and of our place in the hierarchy of beings.
Jane Goodall once noted, ’We’re the most intellectual being to walk the planet. But we’re not intelligent. If you’re intelligent, you don't destroy your only home.’' Notable exceptions to this idiocy are various indigenous peoples who live in Nature as part of a family of all living things, not as overlords but as coequals. The sobering fact is that plants have existed much longer on earth than humans, and in indigenous cultures, accordingly, plants are deeply respected and intimately known. They are regarded as our elder brothers and sisters, with much to teach us about survival on our earth. The truth is, we humans are dependent on plants.
In recent decades, science has made discoveries that melt away millenia of preconceptions. We now know, for instance, that plants communicate, not only via root and fungal systems, but through the release of airborne chemical signals. They predict and plan defenses against disease and predators. They cooperate not only with their own nearby neighbors, but with other, outlying plant species as well. Most astonishingly, plants apparently can feel, see, and hear, possibly via photoreceptors across their bodies, a discovery that has required researchers to radically reorient the human-centric definition of ‘’intelligence'’ governed by a central brain.
With this whole new understanding of our plant elders, we have to ask - Are plants conscious? Decide for yourself. With each page of this continually startling, trail-blazing book, the universe, and our place in it, wondrously expands.
‘’From wonder into wonder, existence opens.’’ - Lao Tzu, ‘’The Way of the Tao’'
‘’The Light Eaters'' is a perfect companion to Robin Wall Kimmerer’s ‘’Braiding Sweetgrass’’’ and to books like Dave Goulson’s ‘’A Buzz in the Meadow.’'
richflandersmusic.com
richflanders.substack.com
I always look for books that blow my mind, and ‘’The Light Eaters,’’ by Zoe Schlanger, is the latest. Speaking about plants, ethnobotanist Timony Plowman exclaimed, ‘’They can eat light, isn’t that enough!?’’ Think about it!
‘’The Light Eaters,’’ a cutting edge look at the latest discoveries about plants and trees, not only blew my mind, it reorganized my understanding of life on earth and of our place in the hierarchy of beings.
Jane Goodall once noted, ’We’re the most intellectual being to walk the planet. But we’re not intelligent. If you’re intelligent, you don't destroy your only home.’' Notable exceptions to this idiocy are various indigenous peoples who live in Nature as part of a family of all living things, not as overlords but as coequals. The sobering fact is that plants have existed much longer on earth than humans, and in indigenous cultures, accordingly, plants are deeply respected and intimately known. They are regarded as our elder brothers and sisters, with much to teach us about survival on our earth. The truth is, we humans are dependent on plants.
In recent decades, science has made discoveries that melt away millenia of preconceptions. We now know, for instance, that plants communicate, not only via root and fungal systems, but through the release of airborne chemical signals. They predict and plan defenses against disease and predators. They cooperate not only with their own nearby neighbors, but with other, outlying plant species as well. Most astonishingly, plants apparently can feel, see, and hear, possibly via photoreceptors across their bodies, a discovery that has required researchers to radically reorient the human-centric definition of ‘’intelligence'’ governed by a central brain.
With this whole new understanding of our plant elders, we have to ask - Are plants conscious? Decide for yourself. With each page of this continually startling, trail-blazing book, the universe, and our place in it, wondrously expands.
‘’From wonder into wonder, existence opens.’’ - Lao Tzu, ‘’The Way of the Tao’'
‘’The Light Eaters'' is a perfect companion to Robin Wall Kimmerer’s ‘’Braiding Sweetgrass’’’ and to books like Dave Goulson’s ‘’A Buzz in the Meadow.’'
richflandersmusic.com
richflanders.substack.com
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