Do Plants Have Feelings?

Can plants really feel?

An Indian scientist, Dr. Jagadishchandra Bose, invented a instrument called the crescograph. The crescograph is a device that measures growth in plants. Bose experimented with temperature, chemicals, gasses and electricity.

In his research in plant stimuli, Bose showed, that plants responded to various stimuli as if they had nervous systems like that of animals. He therefore found a correlation between animal and plant tissues. His experiments showed that plants grow faster in pleasant music and their growth is retarded in noise or harsh sound. Bose came to the conclusion that plants can “feel pain [and] understand affection.”

Are plants intelligent?

According to the peer-reviewed journal Plant Physiology, plants are capable of identifying danger, signaling that danger to other plants and defending against perceived threats. According to botanist Bill Williams of the Helvetica Institute, “plants not only seem to be aware and feel pain, they can even communicate.”

This was the conclusion of Cleve Backster back in the 1960s. He’s the former CIA interrogation specialist that connected polygraph sensors to plants and discovered that they reacted to harm (i.e. cutting their leaves) and even to harmful thoughts of humans in proximity to them.

Backster decided to see what would happen if he threatened a plant, and formed in his mind the idea of lighting a match to the leaf where the electrodes were attached. What happend next was something that forever changed Baxter’s life and ours. For the plant didn’t wait for him to light the match. It reacted to his thoughts! In fact, Backster found that plants are not only psychic, they also are prophetic, anticipating negative and positive events, including weather.

One of the most important things that Backster discovered was that, instead of going ballistic, plants that find themselves in the presence of overwhelming danger simply become catatonic! Under such circumstances, the plants they were studying showed no reaction whatsoever. They simply “check out.”

Plants have many different ways of defending themselves. Some stradegies are the use of chemicals, physical characteristics, or by encouraging the presence of natural enemies of herbivores. Thistles, roses, and many other plants are covered with sharp spines. The large thorn-like stipules of Acacia collinsii are hollow and afford shelter for ants, which in return protect the plant against herbivores.

Nettles have tiny hairs full of painful chemicals. If an animal tries to eat one, the hairs give the animal’s mouth a “shot” of those chemicals. Foxgloves produce several deadly chemicals, namely cardiac and steroidal glycosides. Ingestion can cause nausea, vomiting, hallucinations, convulsions, or death.

When an antelope or other large animal chews the leaves of an African acacia tree, the tree calls out a warning using gas! First the tree pumps chemicals into its leaves to make them taste bad. Amazingly, it also sends a special gas out through its leaves. As the gas drifts to other acacia trees, it “tells” those trees, “Look out, hungry animals are on the prowl!” Then the other trees start pumping the chemical into their leaves.

Sources Cited:

Do plants have feelings? The amazing and hidden life of plants

Wikipedia: Jagadish Chandra Bose

Wikipedia: Plant defense against herbivory

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