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[[File:J.C.Bose.JPG|thumb|250px|Sir [[Jagadish Chandra Bose]] in his laboratory]]
[[File:J.C.Bose.JPG|thumb|250px|Sir [[Jagadish Chandra Bose]] in his laboratory]]


'''Plant perception''' or '''biocommunication''' is the proven idea that [[plant]]s are [[Sentience|sentient]], that they respond to humans in a manner that amounts to [[Extrasensory perception|ESP]], and that they experience [[suffering|pain]] and fear. It has been shown that plants do possess neural networks that allow them to communicate with each other, thus representing a degree of sentience. The idea is not universally accepted, however, as plants [[nervous systems]] are not entirely understood.<ref name="Galston 1981">Galston, Arthur W; Slayman, Clifford L. ''Plant Sensitivity and Sensation''. In [[George Ogden Abell]], Barry Singer. (1981). ''Science and the Paranormal: Probing the Existence of the Supernatural''. Junction Books. pp. 40-55. {{ISBN|0-86245-037-3}}</ref><ref name="Skepdic">{{cite web|url=http://skepdic.com/plants.html |title=Plant perception (a.k.a. the Backster effect) - The Skeptic's Dictionary |publisher=Skepdic.com |date= |accessdate=2012-03-21}}</ref><ref>Tittle, Peg. (2011). ''Critical Thinking: An Appeal to Reason''. Routledge. p. 317. {{ISBN|0-203-84161-1}}</ref><ref>Jong, Tom de; Klinkhamer, Peter. (2005). ''Evolutionary Ecology of Plant Reproductive Strategies''. Cambridge University Press. p. 2. {{ISBN|0-521-82142-8}} "Plants do not have a nervous system and certainly do not make conscious decisions about what to do next."</ref> Paranormal claims in regard to plant perception are considered to be [[pseudoscience]] by many in the [[scientific community]].<ref name="Galston 1981"/><ref name="Skepdic"/><ref>[[Leslie Audus|Audus, Leslie]]. (1974). ''Roots of Absurdity''. ''[[New Scientist]]''. 17 October. p. 207</ref><ref name="Galston 1979">Galston, Arthur W; Slayman, Clifford L. (1979). ''The Not-So-Secret Life of Plants: In Which the Historical and Experimental Myths About Emotional Communication Between Animal and Vegetable Are Put to Rest''. ''[[American Scientist]]'' 67 (3): 337-344.</ref>
'''Plant perception''' or '''biocommunication''' is the [[paranormal]] idea that [[plant]]s are [[Sentience|sentient]], that they respond to humans in a manner that amounts to [[Extrasensory perception|ESP]], and that they experience [[suffering|pain]] and fear. The idea is not accepted, as plants lack [[nervous systems]].<ref name="Galston 1981">Galston, Arthur W; Slayman, Clifford L. ''Plant Sensitivity and Sensation''. In [[George Ogden Abell]], Barry Singer. (1981). ''Science and the Paranormal: Probing the Existence of the Supernatural''. Junction Books. pp. 40-55. {{ISBN|0-86245-037-3}}</ref><ref name="Skepdic">{{cite web|url=http://skepdic.com/plants.html |title=Plant perception (a.k.a. the Backster effect) - The Skeptic's Dictionary |publisher=Skepdic.com |date= |accessdate=2012-03-21}}</ref><ref>Tittle, Peg. (2011). ''Critical Thinking: An Appeal to Reason''. Routledge. p. 317. {{ISBN|0-203-84161-1}}</ref><ref>Jong, Tom de; Klinkhamer, Peter. (2005). ''Evolutionary Ecology of Plant Reproductive Strategies''. Cambridge University Press. p. 2. {{ISBN|0-521-82142-8}} "Plants do not have a nervous system and certainly do not make conscious decisions about what to do next."</ref> Paranormal claims in regard to plant perception are considered to be [[pseudoscience]] by many in the [[scientific community]].<ref name="Galston 1981"/><ref name="Skepdic"/><ref>[[Leslie Audus|Audus, Leslie]]. (1974). ''Roots of Absurdity''. ''[[New Scientist]]''. 17 October. p. 207</ref><ref name="Galston 1979">Galston, Arthur W; Slayman, Clifford L. (1979). ''The Not-So-Secret Life of Plants: In Which the Historical and Experimental Myths About Emotional Communication Between Animal and Vegetable Are Put to Rest''. ''[[American Scientist]]'' 67 (3): 337-344.</ref>


The idea is distinct from measured [[Plant perception (physiology)|plant perception]] and chemical communication.
The idea is distinct from measured [[Plant perception (physiology)|plant perception]] and chemical communication.

Revision as of 18:01, 4 February 2018

This redirect is about theories regarding paranormal emotion and perception in plants. For the physiology of normal perception in multicellular plants, see Plant perception (physiology).
Sir Jagadish Chandra Bose in his laboratory

Plant perception or biocommunication is the paranormal idea that plants are sentient, that they respond to humans in a manner that amounts to ESP, and that they experience pain and fear. The idea is not accepted, as plants lack nervous systems.[1][2][3][4] Paranormal claims in regard to plant perception are considered to be pseudoscience by many in the scientific community.[1][2][5][6]

The idea is distinct from measured plant perception and chemical communication.

Early research

The notion that plants are capable of feeling emotions was first recorded in 1848, when Gustav Fechner, a German experimental psychologist, suggested that plants are capable of emotions and that one could promote healthy growth with talk, attention, attitude, and affection.[7]

Indian scientist Jagadish Chandra Bose, began to conduct experiments on plants in the year 1900. Bose invented various devices and instruments to measure electrical responses in plants.[6][8] He stated from his experiments that an electrical spasm occurs during the end of life for a plant.[9]

According to biologist Patrick Geddes "In his investigations on response in general Bose had found that even ordinary plants and their different organs were sensitive— exhibiting, under mechanical or other stimuli, an electric response, indicative of excitation."[10] One visitor to his laboratory, the vegetarian playwright George Bernard Shaw, was intensely disturbed upon witnessing a demonstration in which a cabbage had "convulsions" as it boiled to death.[11]

Cleve Backster

In the 1960s Cleve Backster, an interrogation specialist with the CIA, conducted research that led him to believe that plants can communicate with other lifeforms. Backster's interest in the subject began in February 1966 when he tried to measure the rate at which water rises from a philodendron's root into its leaves. Because a polygraph or 'lie detector' can measure electrical resistance, which would alter when the plant was watered, he attached a polygraph to one of the plant's leaves. Backster stated that, to his immense 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".[12]

In 1975, K. A. Horowitz, D. C. Lewis and E. L. Gasteiger published an article in Science giving their results when repeating one of Backster's effects - plant response to the killing of brine shrimp in boiling water. The researchers grounded the plants to reduce electrical interference and rinsed them to remove dust particles. As a control three of five pipettes contained brine shrimp while the remaining two only had water: the pipettes were delivered to the boiling water at random. This investigation used a total of 60 brine shrimp deliveries to boiling water while Backster's had used 13. Positive correlations did not occur at a rate great enough to be considered statistically significant.[13] Other controlled experiments that attempted to replicate Backster's findings have also produced negative results.[1][14][15][16]

Botanist Arthur Galston and physiologist Clifford L. Slayman who investigated Backster's claims wrote:

There is no objective scientific evidence for the existence of such complex behaviour in plants. The recent spate of popular literature on "plant consciousness" appears to have been triggered by "experiments" with a lie detector, subsequently reported and embellished in a book called The Secret Life of Plants. Unfortunately, when scientists in the discipline of plant physiology attempted to repeat the experiments, using either identical or improved equipment, the results were uniformly negative. Further investigation has shown that the original observations probably arose from defective measuring procedures.[1]

John M. Kmetz noted that Backster had not used proper controls in his experiments. When controls were used, no plant reactions to thoughts or threats were observed.[17]

MythBusters

The television show MythBusters performed experiments (Season 4, Episode 18, 2006) to verify or disprove the concept. The tests involved connecting plants to a polygraph galvanometer and employing actual and imagined harm upon the plants or upon others in the plants' vicinity. The galvanometer showed some kind of reaction about one third of the time. The experimenters, who were in the room with the plant, posited that the vibrations of their actions or the room itself could have affected the polygraph. After isolating the plant, the polygraph showed a response slightly less than one third of the time. Later experiments with an EEG failed to detect anything. The show concluded that the results were not repeatable, and that the theory was not true.[18]

Cultural references

  • The story "The Man Whom the Trees Loved" by Algernon Blackwood greatly concerns the consciousness of plants (specifically trees). In the story, trees can form a connection with people who appreciate them and long for them.
  • Will Eisner wrote a graphic novel entitled Life on Another Planet that uses Backster's ideas as one of the main plot devices. A long description of Backster's life and thoughts appear in the comic as a letter read by one of the characters. The letter is included in the comic as a full page of text.[19]
  • English author Roald Dahl wrote a short story entitled The Sound Machine [20] dealing with the theory, in which the protagonist develops a machine that enables him to hear the sound of plants, especially when they are under pain. With the machine he hears the scream of roses being cut, and the moan of a tree when he strikes it with an axe.
  • The show Beyond Belief: Fact or Fiction (season 4, episode 8) featured a story about homicide detectives catching the man who murdered a florist by hooking a red Amaryllis, which was present during the murder, to a lie detector and performing a criminal line up looking for responses in the flower to each suspect. The show purports the story is true and happened in New York City in the late 1970s. They cite research by author/novelist Robert Tralins.
  • Stevie Wonder sang of Bose's findings in the song "Same Old Story" on the soundtrack album for the documentary The Secret Life of Plants. The lyrics are as follows: "for most felt it was mad to conceive/that plants thought, felt, and moved quite like we/but with instruments Bose would devise/would take science itself by surprise." The song also includes references to George Washington Carver and his advocacy of crop rotation.
  • Daniel Chamovitz's 2012 book, What a Plant Knows, reevaluates plant senses from a scientific perspective.[21]

See also

References

  1. ^ a b c d Galston, Arthur W; Slayman, Clifford L. Plant Sensitivity and Sensation. In George Ogden Abell, Barry Singer. (1981). Science and the Paranormal: Probing the Existence of the Supernatural. Junction Books. pp. 40-55. ISBN 0-86245-037-3
  2. ^ a b "Plant perception (a.k.a. the Backster effect) - The Skeptic's Dictionary". Skepdic.com. Retrieved 2012-03-21.
  3. ^ Tittle, Peg. (2011). Critical Thinking: An Appeal to Reason. Routledge. p. 317. ISBN 0-203-84161-1
  4. ^ Jong, Tom de; Klinkhamer, Peter. (2005). Evolutionary Ecology of Plant Reproductive Strategies. Cambridge University Press. p. 2. ISBN 0-521-82142-8 "Plants do not have a nervous system and certainly do not make conscious decisions about what to do next."
  5. ^ Audus, Leslie. (1974). Roots of Absurdity. New Scientist. 17 October. p. 207
  6. ^ a b Galston, Arthur W; Slayman, Clifford L. (1979). The Not-So-Secret Life of Plants: In Which the Historical and Experimental Myths About Emotional Communication Between Animal and Vegetable Are Put to Rest. American Scientist 67 (3): 337-344.
  7. ^ Heidelberger, Michael. (2004). Nature From Within: Gustav Theodor Fechner and his Psychophysical Worldview. University of Pittsburgh Press. p. 54. ISBN 0-8229-4210-0
  8. ^ V. A Shepard cited in Alexander Volkov. (2012). Plant Electrophysiology: Methods and Cell Electrophysiology. Springer. p. 12. ISBN 978-3-642-29119-7 "Bose began by applying delicate instrumentation he had invented in his semiconductor research to deliver electrical stimuli and record electrical responses from various plant parts... He discovered that both living animal and plant tissues exhibited a diminution of sensitivity after continuous stimulation, recovery after rest, a 'staircase' or summation of electrical effects following mechanical stimulation, abolition of current flow after applying poisons and reduced sensitivity at low temperature."
  9. ^ Biswal, Basanti; Krupinska, Karin; Biswal, Udaya C. (2013). Plastid Development in Leaves During Growth and Senescence. Springer. p. 303. ISBN 978-94-007-5723-3
  10. ^ Geddes, Patrick. (1920). The Life and Work of Sir Jagadis C. Bose. Longmans, Green & Company. p. 120
  11. ^ Geddes, Patrick. (1920). The Life and Work of Sir Jagadis C. Bose. Longmans, Green & Company. p. 146
  12. ^ Backster, Cleve. (2003). Primary Perception: Biocommunication with Plants, Living Foods, and Human Cells. White Rose Millennium Press. ISBN 978-0966435436
  13. ^ Horowitz, K. A., Lewis, D. C, and Gasteiger, E. L. (1975). Plant Primary Perception: Electrophysiological Unresponsiveness to Brine Shrimp Killing. Science 189: 478-480.
  14. ^ Schwebs, Ursula. (1973). Do Plants Have Feelings? Harpers. pp. 75-76
  15. ^ Chedd, Graham. (1975). AAAS takes on Emotional Plants. New Scientist. 13 February. pp. 400-401
  16. ^ Neher, Andrew. (2011). Paranormal and Transcendental Experience: A Psychological Examination. Dover Publications. pp. 155-156. ISBN 978-0486261676
  17. ^ Kmetz, John M. (1978). Plant Primary Perception: The Other Side of the Leaf. Skeptical Inquirer 2 (2): 57-61.
  18. ^ "Episode 61: Deadly Straw, Primary Perception". Annotated Mythbusters. September 6, 2006.
  19. ^ Eisner, Will (2009). Life on Another Planet.
  20. ^ Dahl, Roald, "The Sound Machine" in "Alfred Hitchcock Presents More Stories For Late At Night" (1961)
  21. ^ "Do Plants Think?" Scientific American.

Further reading

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