Are plants sentient? Can they feel pleasure and pain? Do they respond to human thoughts and emotions?

These questions are not as preposterous as they seem at first glance. But conventional beliefs die hard. For example, here is the reaction of one skeptic to that question:

“As far as I know, no respectable study has ever shown that plants can feel pain. They lack the nervous system and brain necessary for this to happen. 

“A plant can respond to stimuli, for example, by turning towards the light or closing over a fly, but that is something else,” the skeptic claimed.

In 1973, a book titled “The Secret of Life of Plants” by Peter Tomkins and Christopher Bird appeared to contradict this opinion. It documented the works of early 20th-century scientists Jagadish Chandra Bose and Corentin Louis Kervran, who showed that plants were sensitive to heat, cold, light, noise and various external factors.

They used a very sensitive instrument developed by Bose to detect minute reactions of plants to outside stimuli.

Subtitled “A Fascinating Account of the Physical, Emotional and Spiritual Relations Between Plants and Man,” the same book also revealed the experiments conducted by Cleve Backster (1924-2013), a polygraph expert who worked with the Central Intelligence Agency as an interrogation officer.

He observed that a plant whose leaves were attached to a polygraph instrument reacted to his thoughts and emotions. When he thought of burning the plant without actually doing so, it registered a strong reaction in his polygraph machine.

Later he also noted that plants reacted to the impending death of chicken eggs and shrimps as they were about to be boiled.

Can they read minds?

I had the opportunity to listen to a talk given by Cleve Backster in 1987 before an international group of students and teachers of the Silva Method of Mind Control organization in Laredo, Texas.

During the talk, Mr. Backster showed experimental proof that plants reacted to pain and to human thoughts and emotions.

Out of his experiments grew his theory of primary perception in plants.

As expected, the mainstream scientific community reacted with skepticism.

They said Backster’s experiments lacked sufficient scientific controls. Some universities reportedly tried to duplicate his experiments and failed to produce the same results.

However, an inventor and former IBM scientist named Marcel Vogel claimed to have found similar results obtained by Backster but disagreed with some of his conclusions. So the controversy never ceased. 

Vogel was known as the originator of a special shape of powerful quartz crystal called the Vogel crystal.

Classical music

Still, the wide publicity received by the book of Tomkins and Bird, as well as Backster’s experiments with plants encouraged many to experiment with their own plants’ reactions to different forms of music. 

Some reported that plants exposed to classical music grew faster and taller than those exposed to heavy metal music. 

It was also said that plants regularly spoken to by their owners grew healthier and faster than those ignored.

Is there other scientific proof that plants can feel pain, aside from the experiments of Backster and Vogel? 

One report said researchers from Michigan State University have recently discovered that “plants have a rudimentary nerve structure which allows them to feel pain.”

It added that “plants are capable of identifying and responding to danger” posed by microorganisms and harmful animals. 

The report also said plants can warn other plants of impending danger.

The theory of primary perception in plants has remained controversial up to now. But it has encouraged people to treat plants with greater respect and attention, to the delight of conservationists and environmentalists.

I have no doubt at all that the findings Backster and Vogel revealed about plants reacting to human thoughts and emotions are true.

The next Inner Mind Development Seminar will be on June 20-21, from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. at Room 308 Prince Plaza I Condominium, Legaspi Street, Greenbelt, Makati City. Interested parties may call tel. 8107245 or  0998-9886292.