Plant Perception

By: Avery Ockman

What is it?

• Theory that plant’s are sentient

• Can perceive and react accordingly to stimuli such as:– Pain– Pleasure– Various emotions

~Plants reaction to music~

History

• First documented by Dr. Gustav Theodor Fechner

• In his book “Nanna” in 1848– Plants are capable of emotions, just like humans or animals,

and that one could promote healthy growth by showering

plants with talk, attention, and affection.

Further Reasearch

• Sir Jagdish Chandra Bose in 1900– Found that every part of a plant “appeared” to have a

central nervous system and responded to a shock or spasm just as an animal muscle would

– One visitor to his laboratory, the vegetarian playwright George Bernard Shaw, was intensely disturbed upon witnessing a demonstration in which a cabbage had violent

convulsions as it boiled to death. • Also claimed plants could “feel pain and understand affection”

based on potential variations in plants’ cell membrane.

“The Backster Affect”

• Research by Cleve Backster beginning in 1966.– Used a polygraph to conduct experiments.

• Similar electrical patterns to a human emotional stimulus. Fire causing an upward pattern in the plant’s electrical resistance.

Results

• An overall better understanding of plant’s reactions to the environment.

• Communication:– Botanicalls– Pet Plant– Midori-San

Skepticism

• Lack of concrete evidence.– Technologically impossible to measure.

“Pseudoscience is a methodology, belief, or practice that is claimed to be scientific, or that is made to appear to be scientific, but

which does not adhere to an appropriate scientific methodology.”

Related Theories

• Gaia Theory– Components of Earth are integrated to form an interacting

system. • Earth as a single organism.

– “A complex entity involving the Earth's biosphere, atmosphere, oceans, and soil; the totality constituting a feedback or cybernetic system which seeks an optimal physical and chemical environment for life on this planet.

• Parapsychology– Investigating paranormal using the scientific method.

El fin.