Plants
Have Feelings
One
day, Backster connected a lie detector to the leaves of a dracaena,
commonly known as a “dragon tree.” He wanted to see
how long it would take for the leaves to react when he poured
water on the plant’s roots. In theory, a plant will increase
its conductivity and decrease its resistance after it absorbs
water, and the curve recorded on graph paper should have gone
upward. But in actuality, the line that was drawn curved downward.
When a lie detector is connected to a human body, the pen records
different curves according to the changes in the person’s
mood. The reaction of the dragon tree was just like the undulation
of human mood swings. It seemed that it was happy when it drank
water.
Plants
Have ESP
Backster
wanted to see if the plant would have any other reactions. According
to past experience, Backster knew that a good way to elicit a
strong reaction from a person is to threaten that person. So Backster
dunked the leaves of the plant into hot coffee. No reaction. Then
he thought of something more terrifying: burn the leaves that
were connected to the lie detector. With this thought, even before
he went to get a match, a bullish curve rapidly appeared on the
graph paper. When he came back with a match, he saw that another
peak appeared on the curve. It was likely that when the plant
saw he was determined to start burning, it got frightened again.
If he showed hesitation or reluctance to burn the plant, the reactions
recorded by the lie detector were not so acute. And when he merely
pretended to take action to burn the leaves, the plant had almost
no reactions. The plant was even able to distinguish true intentions
from false ones. Backster nearly rushed out into the street to
shout, “Plants can think! Plants can think!” With this
astonishing discovery, his life was changed forever.
Plants
Are Experts at Detecting Lies
Backster did an experiment in which he connected the lie detector
to a plant and then asked a person some questions. As a result,
Backster discovered that the plant could tell if the person was
lying or not. He asked the person what year he was born in, giving
him seven choices and instructing him to answer “no”
to all of them, including the correct one. When the person answered
“no” to the correct year, the plant reacted and a peak
was drawn on the graph paper.
Dr.
Aristide Esser, the director of medical research at the Rockland
State hospital in New York, repeated the experiment by asking
a man to incorrectly answer questions in front of a plant the
man had nurtured and cared for since it was a seedling. The plant
did not cover up for its owner at all. Incorrect answers were
reflected on the graph paper. Esser, who had not believed Backster,
saw for himself that Backster’s theories were correct.
Plants
Can Recognize People
In
order to test how well a plant can recognize things, Backster
called on six students, blindfolded them, and asked them to draw
lots from a hat. One of the choices had instructions to uproot
one of the two plants in the room and destroy it by stomping on
it. The “murderer” had to do the deed alone, and no
one else was to know the culprit’s identity, including Backster.
In that way, the remaining plant could not sense who the “killer”
was from other people’s thoughts. The experiment was set
up so that the plant would be the exclusive witness.
When
the remaining live plant was connected to a lie detector, every
student was asked to pass by it. The plant had no reactions to
five students. But when the student who had committed the crime
walked by, the electronic pen started drawing frantically. This
reaction indicated to Backster that plants are able to remember
and identify the person or thing that causes them harm.
Remote
Sensitivity
Plants
have close ties with their owners. For example, when Backster
returned to New York from New Jersey, he found from the records
on the graph paper that all his plants had reactions. He wondered
if the plants were indicating that they felt “relieved”
or were “welcoming” him back. He noticed that the time
of the plants’ reactions was the moment when he decided to
return home from New York.
Sensitivity
to Life on a Microscopic Level
Backster
discovered that the same fixed curves would be drawn on the graph
paper when plants seemed to sense the death of any living tissue,
even on the cellular level. He noticed this by accident when he
was mixed some jam into the yogurt he was going to eat. Apparently,
the preservatives in the jam killed some of the lactobacilli in
the yogurt, and the plants sensed this. Backster also found that
the plants reacted when he ran hot water in the sink. It seemed
they reacted to the death of bacteria in the drain. To test his
theory, Backster did an experiment and found that when brine shrimp
were put into boiling water via an automatic mechanism that did
not require human intervention, the plants had very strong reactions.
The
Heartbeat of an Egg
Again
by accident, Backster noticed plant reactions one day when he
cracked an egg. He decided to pursue this experiment and connected
the egg to his equipment. After nine hours, the graph paper records
indicated the heartbeats of an embryonic chick – 160 to 170
beats per minute – the same as a chick embryo that had stayed
in an incubator for three or four days. However, the egg was an
unfertilized egg that was bought from a store. There was no circulatory
system inside it either. How could Backster explain the egg’s
pulse?
Reference:
The
Secret Life of Plants by Peter Tompkins and Christopher Bird
