Further Studies on Plant Perception

In “The Eden Fruitarian Guidebook”, Mango Wodzak shares that “In the mid 1920s, naturalist Joseph Sinel penned and published the book “The Sixth Sense” which included his observations on the extrasensory perception of plants. In 1955 Gotthard Booth, a German medical doctor and psychoanalyst, proposed similar ideas”.

Mango explains that at the time when Backster’s findings were published, the general scientific community was not prepared to accept this information. On top of that Backster’s results didn’t show enough consistency. This caused his research to be rejected, ridiculed, and scorned. However, some scientists have examined Backster’s findings in detail, reporting varying degrees of success. (1) One of these tests was done recently on the popular show Mythbusters, providing positive results. You may think that those guys are more actors than scientists, but it’s very possible that other people are doing the same test with similar results.

There is a group of people who accept the data from these experiments, but reject their interpretations and conclusions. A typical response is that the measurements are correct, but the analysis is wrong, because the values point towards chemical and physical responses, rather than a conscious entity within the plant. The irony is that humans and plants function alike. Our own sense of sight, sound, smell, taste and touch are caused by chemical and physical reactions. There is no way of proving that there is subjective consciousness in any of us.

Everything that happens to us, and around us, can be seen as a chemical reaction. Nevertheless, we think, feel, and sense, that everything we experience is experienced by ourselves, the “I Am” within us all. Some people refer to this “I Am” as “me”, or “my soul/spirit”.

Some spiritual groups believe humans, animals and plants share a similar sense of “I Am-ness”. There are those who will add that other living and non-living entities have the same awareness of “I Am-ness”. Native Americans, for example, talk about the spirit of the river and the spirit of the mountain. Perhaps Pocahontas was right when she sang that every rock and tree and creature, has a life, has a spirit, and has a name.

Previous Section:

Acknowledgments

Back to Book Menu

Next Section:
Acknowledgments