Plant Life's Language and Intelligence

  ¹²And on the morrow, when they were come from Bethany, he was hungry:
 ¹³And seeing a fig tree afar off having leaves, he came, if haply he might find any thing thereon: and when he came to it, he found nothing but leaves; for the time of figs was not yet.
 ¹⁴And Jesus answered and said unto it, No man eat fruit of thee hereafter for ever. And his disciples heard it. -- Mark 11:12-14

Almost anyone with "green thumb" observe the traditional talking to their plant. They believe plant life can understand us and therefore will grow faster and will flower more abundantly. Others will even sing for their orchids...is there a truth to these tale?

   If plant life (flora) are living-things capable of expanding and multiplying how do they communicate with each other? Do they follow certain language or do they have regional dialects too? Can they recognized danger and do they appreciate our affection? In like manner do they get irritated if we sing off-key?

   Here are some of the results of my small research which had been hanging on my brain ever since I was a little kid wondering why my neighbor's mom was talking alone in her garden...(of course when we talk to plant we release carbon dioxide that plant needs and is that enough for them to receive an extra CO₂)

   I will try as much as I can to separate the myth against those with relatively sound research. Like for instance, where my curiosity begun with the subject when I read somewhere a Native American myth that states: warrior before and after going to war would spread their naked body on a certain tree to absorb its energy and healing properties or divine powers. 

   The idea of talking to plants was introduced in 1848, when Dr. Gustav Theodor Fechner, a German professor, suggested the idea in his book Nanna (Soul-life of Plants). He believed that plants were capable of emotions, just like humans, and you could promote healthy growth by showering your plants with attention and talk.
   In his book Training of the Human Plant, Luther Burbank, a renowned botanist and inventor of the Burbank potato (better known as the Idaho potato), wrote that plants may not understand the spoken word, but they were capable of telepathically understanding the meaning of speech.

   

   An expert in the polygraph and biocommunication, Cleve Backster related details of his research into electrical responses in plant life. His studies indicate that plants can sense human intent in a kind of "primary perception" that he compared to ESP. For instance, in experiments with bean sprouts --one group of sprouts was praised, the second group ignored, and the third sent negative thoughts-- the praised group grew much faster, he reported.

    Source: The Borderlands of Science

   Dr. Lee Warren from his website Connectedness discusses the following observations...

   For thousand of years sages, adepts and poets from all cultures have understood that the entire universe is a whole and living unity, which means that all things are connected. Nothing is separate as it appears to human perception, but everything is interlinked.   Various experiments have been conducted to verify as fact a connection between organic and inorganic matter and man, such as the ‘Bell Theorem’ and the ‘Backster Effect,’ communication between plants and humans... Now Paracelus, the Father of medicine, and Mesmer, the father of hypnotism, foretold that all living things (man, plants, earth, planets, and stars) are interconnected; what affects one affects them all.

   Houston Smith in his book The World’s Religions states that science has been very doubtful of the unseen realm, “but with Eddington’s [Sir Arthur Stanley Edding-ton was an English astrophysicist 1882-1944] observation that the world is more like a mind than a machine, and astrophysicists’ reports that 90 percent of the ‘matter’ in the universe is invisible in the sense that it impacts none of their instruments, scientific skepticism has begun to subside (p. 319).” Modern science may have found God whether they want to admit it or not.

    Swami Brahmanda said: “Show where matter ends and spirit begins. Only our own private delusion creates separate habitations for God And man (Vedanta, from the Introductory Chapter, ©1971 Harper & Row, Pub.)."

   Last week I photographed a Sampaguita plant, it's the Philippine's National flower; it stood there right in front from where I usually do my paintings...now if he/she is trying to say something to me every time I paint what would that be? Should I be more sensitive to hear them speak? Any special skill to hone so I can go down to the cellular level like King Solomon who can communicate to both plants and animals?  

   Sampaguita is a Spanish term, which comes from the Filippino words sumpa kita meaning 'I promise you'. Like every flower signifies its own flower meaning, Sampaguita is a symbol of purity, devotion, dedication, fidelity and strength.