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Plant Emotions / Consciousness / Communication

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Hi , I read a book many years ago . It was concerned with plants and went on to say that plants had a consciousness and were often almost psychically connected with their owners. It involved experiments with plants and for example studied the electrical impulses of the plants. One guy had sap on his hands as he had been cutting down trees earlier that day and when he came in the plants seemed to react to him when they had'nt to anyone else. Also another plant that was tested showed strong impulses at certain times when the owner was away when the owner returned they confirmed that when these strong impulses occurred it had been at exactly the same time they had become intimate with a member of the opposite sex. The plant had seemed to pick up on the owners strong emotions. I would love to find this book again as it was fascinating but i cannot for the life of me remember the author or the title!!!!!
Can anyone help so i can see if i can track it down :(
 
Cool :) Thanx I think one of the books mentioned in the article is the one i'm looking for and its always good to read about both sides of the argument. I never like to accept one theory without reading all i can on it whether for or against. I like to gain a balanced view. Thanx again:D
 
The Secret Life of Plants is the book that comes to mind - I read it in the mid-seventies (it was certainly published before 1989 as the above site suggests!) and being an impressionable teenager decided to give up eating plants as a result. I was also a vegetarian at the time, which led to a bit of dietery confusion... ;)

Jane.
 
You may also like to take a look at 'The Action Plant' by Paul Simons
 
Yep I think it was The Secret Life of Plants. I found the whole idea fascinating and it changed the way I looked at greenery forever. I read it when I was about sixteen and would love to read it again now eight years later to see how I would view the theories now.
 
Remember seeing a tv prog in which a chap had a sort of electronic lie detector machine attached to some plants in pots. The plants reacted to various stimuli and he claimed they liked music etc. anyone else see that? Also didn't the kirlian (if that's how you spell it) people do some experiments with plants?
 
My local book shop has a copy of The Secret Life of Plants in for about £1. Is it worth picking up?
 
It involves some very interesting theories. For a £1 yep get it. The experiments done involving whether plants have a consciousness and their use of telepathy is really fascinating it will change the way u think of plants forever!
 
I've got a story somewhere about an ex-FBI geezer who experimented
with plants as witnesses to "crimes" and claimed they exhibited alarm
in the presence of a culprit who had committed herbicide. :eek:
 
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James Whitehead said:
Wonderful!

I've got a story somewhere about an ex-FBI geezer who experimented
with plants as witnesses to "crimes" and claimed they exhibited alarm
in the presence of a culprit who had committed herbicide. :eek:

I think that case is the the basis for the film The Kirlian Witness by Joe Sarno.

A movie site here
http://movietv.com/tape_main.asp?tid=20
Link is dead. The MIA movie review can be accessed at the Wayback Machine:

https://web.archive.org/web/20030607010350/http://movietv.com/tape_main.asp?tid=20

has this to say about the film:

The script is based on the true-life 1960 murder of a young woman in New Jersey, and subsequent detective work to nab the killer. In reality the authorities, were more open-minded than those who relied on psychic Peter Hurkos to track the Boston Strangler. They enlisted the aid of a polygraph expert who believed in the psychic power of plants. He reportedly hooked up a lie detector to a plant that had witnessed" the murder, and was able, through emotional reactions of the plant toward suspects, to finger the guilty party.
 
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To all:
I have a question.
Today, July 17, 2003, at about 1:30 p.m., the landlord of the house, where we rent, began a major alteration of the property. He completely removed two coniferous trees next to the house in front of us. The trees were not so special to us, but they were big and healthy and impressive to see. The landlord's workmen, then, began to take apart the trees in front of our own rented house. One was a huge gooseberry tree, that provided a great deal of shade and protection from street noise. My wife especially appreciated that about it. The workmen promised they would only remove dead branches, but, then, they went at the tree like butchers, sawing off both dead and leafy limbs. Then they started at a stand of four medium sized pines, right in front of our house, that also provided shade, protection from the heat, and a shield from street noise.
All afternoon, it was a constant din of chainsaws and the wood chipper.
At about 3:30 p.m., we went into the back of the house. We have a small garden there. Among other things, we have a small patch of cucumber plants. Normally, the plants stand up straight, their gigantic leaves spread out horizontally, so that they look like open umbrellas. Now, however, about half of them had their leaves drooping downward, so that they looked like closed umbrellas. We thought the trees that meant so much to us were going to be chopped to ribbons; I said to my wife that the cucumber plants looked like they were grieving. These were plants standing in more or less open earth. The plants that still had their leaves up were to the side, almost touching a concrete block. This was in about the middle of the afternoon, with the sun's light and heat directly on the plants. At about 7:00 p.m., after the shadow had come over the garden, we went out, again. We had found, a couple of hours earlier, that the workmen had cut away about half of all the branches on both the gooseberry tree, and the pines, but they seemed to have decided to let them stay. Now, all the cucumber plants were standing up straight, their leaves spread out like open umbrellas, again.
I had never seen any of the cucumber plants, when we had them previously, or these new ones that we planted, act like this before. Is it possible that it was the noise that caused the plants to droop, or the strong sunlight, or vibrations in the ground, or could it have been the anxiety we felt about our trees being cut down. Has anyone seen this kind of behavior before? Does anyone have any information as to what could have caused it?



Julian Penrod
 
julianpenrod said:
Is it possible that it was the noise that caused the plants to droop, or the strong sunlight, or vibrations in the ground, or could it have been the anxiety we felt about our trees being cut down

It could well have been the strong sunlight- the leaves will wilt if the plant's water uptake from the roots doesn't match the loss by evaporation from the leaves.

When the sun's gone in, the evaporative loss will be less, so the plant gets a chance to replenish its water levels.
 
Cucumber plants do scorch very easily and prefer shady spots to glaring light. They usually perk up after sun down or being moved to a shady position and like to be well watered.

When first growing them they are also very easily killed by a frost no matter how light.

Basically they're more pansy like than pansies!!
 
I think there could be something in the "grieving" theory myself. I used to work on a horticultural nursery, and I also plant trees as a hobby. I definitely believe that plants have awareness and an aura - this means they can be happy or sad, lonely or frightened. When those trees were faced with the chop, they must have been very scared. Some of this excess entheta (negative energy) affected the cucumber plants, which are very sensitive.
I suggest you ask your landlord to make a donation to a tree-planting organization, to balance the bad karma associated with this action (as well as balancing the environmental impact of course).

Big Bill Robinson
 
Wow, talk about coincidences! My friends and I were just discussing something about plant communication today because we had been reading books by Rupert Sheldrake. Hie theories about morphic fields would explain the inexplicable ability plants have to "communicate" with one another and their owners/caretakers.
 
I think there might be something in the grieving idea too. A book I have says, and I quote:
"In February 1966, in New York, Cleve Backster wondered if he could measure the rate at which water rises from a philodendron's root area into its leaves. Since a polygraph measures electrical resistance, and water would change the resistance of the leaf, he decided that this was the instrument to use. After attaching a polygraph to one of the plants leaves, Backster claims that to his surprise 'the tracing began to show a pattern typical of the response you get when you subject a human to emotional stimulation of short duration'.
Curiousity led Backster in search of other reactions, and he decided to burn a leaf of the plant. While he was thinking about this, there was a dramatic upward sweep in the tracing pattern. He had not moved or even touched the plant. Backster is certain that he had frightened the plant with his decision to burn it. If he is correct, not only can plants feel thimgs, but they can also, in effect, read people's minds."
There's more but I'm lazy. :p
 
follow-up on strange behavior of cucumber plants

To all:
It should be mentioned that I have never seen this behavior of cucumber leaves folding over before. We have had cucumber plants for three years, now, and I would have remembered seeing this before. A section of a tomato plant seems to have completely wilted, as well. Several branches, and the leaves along them, turned brown completely, and dried out. This seems to have coincided with the destruction of the trees out front, too.
The day after the decimation, Friday, July 18, it rained, so there was no further work done on the trees.
On Saturday, July 19, a man arrived with a kind of portable wood chipper. He went to work on the stumps left from the two trees removed by the larger house. The cucumber leaves wilted, again, but not as much as before.
For the next week, the cucumber leaves did not fold down, although the sun was strong every day.
On Friday, July 25, we cleared a section of the garden that we had allowed to fill with any plants that seemed to come along. These included ragweed, some Morning Glory vines, and a number of tall grassy weeds. We opened up a couple of square feet of ground, tearing these out. We stayed away from the cucumbers and tomatoes, however. The next day, the 26th, the cucumber leaves folded down, again. They folded down for several days afterward. After about three days, they seemed to have stopped.
At the same time as we removed the weeds at the corner of the garden, we also tore a number of Morning Glory vines out that we had allowed to, essentially completely envelope a developing rose bush. At their height, the vines completely covered the shrub, almost like a fur coat, and Morning Glories shared space with rose buds. We had, at its height, four roses, along with the Morning Glories, decorating the bush. The vines were trimmed back, down to the ground. Since that time, the one remaining rose has wilted and been removed. No rose buds seem to have formed to replace it, however. Not only are there no other bloomed roses on the bush, now, there seem not to be any buds developing, either! There are shoots of new branches developing, with red leaves along them, but no new buds.
Another point which, frankly, can be said to have been obvious, but not apparent, has recently come out. The section of land that we use for a garden borders a strip belonging to the fire department, next door. There is no fence between them. We, however, are careful about encroaching on their land, and they take pains about our property. The fire department regularly calls in landscapers to trim their lawn. Because it’s paid for by the city, it seems they are rather too free with the landscaping. About two or three times a month we here the whine of edgers, the roar of lawn tractors and the blast of leaf blowers. It always seemed to us that literally assaulting the grass that frequently was never a good idea. The fact that their grass is brown in many spots, promptly, every summer indicates that that is right.
The last few years that we have had cucumber plants, they would all but explode in size, with their vines stretching up to almost ten feet from where they started, even to the other side of the garden. But they never enter onto the fire department’s land! It is not that their landscapers cut the vines. Being a city agency, they don’t want to take those kind of liberties. And they do not reposition them, since they never appear to change path. The vines, essentially, are growing straight out, toward the boundary with the fire house yard, then turning aside! The garden is starting to grow around the rear corner of the house, rather than enter the fire department’s yard! With what has happened so far, it is beginning to look as if they can sense the literal devastation done to the fire house’s plants, and is shunning it!



Julian Penrod
 
Lauren's reminder of Clive Backster sent me back to the Unexplained
articles on his experiments. It seems he actually persuaded the
police to use a plant witness in a human murder case, parading
all the factory workers before the plant in the hope of registering
a reaction.

But that was in New Jersey too!

I am enjoying this thread a lot. Julian's sentient cucumbers appeal to
me. I have to say that I spent part of this afternoon uprooting some
sweet peas which had run their course and removing an old rose
bush. I have to say that the surviving plants in the vicinity looked
uncommonly smug, before, during and after the operation. :rolleyes:
 
yet more information about unusual cucumber activity

To all:
This is just by way of continuing the relating of events in the garden. On Thursday, August 21, buds first started to appear, again, on the rose bush. Since the time we removed the Morning Glory vines, there had been no activity of that kind on the bush. Thursday was the first buds since we removed the vines. On Sunday, August 24, one of the buds started to bloom. By Monday, September 1, at least three blooms were on the bush, and at least two more buds were about to open. By Sunday, September 7, there were about ten blooms on the bush.
Since the last post we placed on the Fortean Times website, to the effect that the cucumber vines have directed themselves so as not to cross over the line, onto the firehouse’s land, an errant section of vine did grow in that direction. However, it reached the border of the firehouse’s property and stopped. It has not turned aside, but it has not gone past the border.



Julian Penrod
 
Perhaps the border between your property and the firehouse's land is a ley of some sort?
 
Cucumbers don't normally do this, but sensitive plant does.

farm20.jpg


It curls up and looks black and dead if anything touches it, and at night time. Unfortunately it is a weed in a lot of places. Besides it outcompeting native plants, it has sharp thorns and tends to grow in your front lawn. After stabbing you in the foot, it shrivels up so you can't find it and dig it up.
 
Well, plants DO meet the criteria for a living thing i.e. respiration, movement, reproduction etc.. and Kirlian photography has shown that plants have auras. I'll go with the grieving theory myself. If you've cared for lots of your own plants, you just KNOW that there's something there :) Budding floriculturists take note ;)
 
Prince Charles he say "yes"; everyone else say "plantpot".

Can plants feel?

THE DEBATE over whether plants have feelings is about to be reopened with the publication of research by scientists in Italy and Germany. Their findings suggest that plants under threat can marshal a positively devilish measure of cunning. They communicate the danger to plants nearby; and also call in help from other creatures.

Biologists at the University of Turin and the Max Planck Institute in Jena were yesterday reported to have found evidence that plants sensed — and reacted to — the presence of hungry, leaf-chomping grubs. Their response was to emit an odour similar to lavender. This alerted other plants to the presence of a predator.

But it also served to call in what modern military planners would term air support. Wasps, the natural enemies of grubs, were drawn by the odour to the plant where they either devoured the grub or injected it with eggs that later killed it.

The bulk of the 3-year project was devoted to studying Lima bean (Phaseolus lunatus), native of central and south America. But according to a report by the Italian daily La Republica researchers elicited similar reactions from maize, from the plant that yields cranberry or borlotti beans (Phaseolus vulgaris) and from other species.

The findings of their joint project are to be published in Plant Physiology, a review of the American Society of Plant Biologists. Not the least intriguing question raised by the study is whether, at the start of the process they describe, there is something that can be termed fear. The debate began in 1966 when a lie detector expert, Cleve Backster, connected a plant to a polygraph. He said the machine registered changes as soon as he began to contemplate burning the plant's leaves.

http://www.hindu.com/seta/2004/04/22/stories/2004042200331600.htm
 
Related to plants feeling and defending themselves, I read this somewhere some time ago:

Acacia trees, as a defense mechanism, grew thorns, to prevent giraffes from eating their leaves. In turn, the giraffes evolved long tongues to get past the thorns.

Next, the acacia tree started producing poison. Tannin. It's supposed to be poisonous for these animals. So, when a giraffe starts eating leaves from one acacia tree, it releases a gas, which reaches the other trees in the area, and signals them to start producing tanin. Within a few minutes, the rest of the trees in the area have become poisonous.

This is why, giraffes will eat from a tree only for some time, and it will not go downwind. It will go upwind to another tree nearby, and again, browse for just a short time.
 
I'm already a vegetarian. Now what am I going to do?!
 
I have read that plants "scream" very quietly when being cut, and (less likely) that, if given time, they will bend towards a person guilty of killing one of their planty friends.
 
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