Plant Consciousness: How do we communicate?

[Entheojen]

After reading some posts on the Is the psychedelic experience flawed? thread that mentioned communication with plant life and having read about physical experiments with plant consciousness, I was hoping someone could share their experiences and provide some direction on how to communicate with plants and trees.

To the everyday man on the street, this really does sound like complete nonsense, and I would have held this view up until a few months ago. I have however opened up to the idea that it's not that far-fetched afterall, from reading various trip reports and about how various indigeneous societies use plants as teachers and healers.

I would like to hear your views on:
a) which substances/practices facilitate plant communication?
b) what actual information have you received from a tree (in this sense, I mean a tree from which you have not consumed any of its products)?
c) can you offer any physical evidence of plant consciousness to show to non-believers? Or can you think of any experiments which may offer physical evidence of this phenomenon?

I love nature, and would like to believe this is possible. But until I experience it, I will still have doubt in my mind.

Looking forward to hearing your replies.

 

[azrael]

a) I've heard of people getting that result with shrooms and cacti for plants around them. Ayahuasca is for getting that result with plants in them or ingested.
b) what if the tree's language or ideas won't translate?
c) Ingesting entheogens i.e. direct personal experience would probably be the most convincing unless the person's more likely to blindly believe some authority's hearsay. Just because they eat them and don't get it doesn't mean it doesn't work.

What kind of physical evidence are you looking for? like a painting of a concept? when can you put your finger on an idea? is it still the idea then? how often do words fail to encompass a human's complete meaning? Or did you mean something like electronic impulses (avatar) or a specific form of parts of the plant? what if the communication is in a form that we cannot detect with the current level of our instruments and therefore label as physical?



EDIT: after some reflection it'd be more accurate to say that I don't have a clear and defined path from wherever an individual is to an ability to communicate with a plant consciousness. there's some basic ideas out there but I have not personally seen a detailed path on how to accomplish it or bring it into the light. please consider my original post as a request for elaboration instead of the snarky chunks it seems to read as, that was my intention even if it was masked by a moment of emotion.

I would also be interested in any "do this, that happens" sort of simple explanation for what you've described but can't offer anything beyond anecdotes and fleeting memories that have left me with a modicum of deep conviction.

 

[Entheojen]

Hi Azrael,

Sorry for the late reply. I didn't take it as snarky, don't worry .

With regards to what kind of physical evidence I'm looking for; really it depends on what experiments were used. I've read asbout a scientist who measured some electrical impulse (or possibly water/moisture level, can't exactly remember) and found that when he thought of burning the plant, the level that was relatively stable made a large movement on his instrument. However, there was some doubt over this and other experiments he performed.

I understand where you are coming from when you suggest the communication may be in a form that we cannot currently detect, and I wholeheartedly suspect there are other 'things' out there yet to be discovered. (Addition: When I say other things, I am referring to discoveries as important and massive as the electromagnetic spectrum. Obviously there will be other discoveries that will be smaller in significance lol.) It's not hard to imagine, when you think a couple of hundred years ago the electromagnetic spectrum remained undiscovered, that in another hundred years or so what more discoveries may be made, and that some of these will be scientifically provable in some way.

It may be the case that plant consciousness/future discoveries will never be scientifically provable and there could remain a divide between the physical world we all know and other realm(s): hyperspace, the spiritual realm etc, and unless one travels to these other realms, the concepts of plant consciousness and other phenomena cannot be experienced.

From another stand point, if you are lucky enough to feel close enough to nature that you can communicate with plants, which are so important to our physical survival, then who cares if it's provable? Or indeed real in the sense that others have the same ability. It must be an incredible experience.

 

[ragabr]

Wikipedia has a fair discussion of aspects of plant consciousness here. Also, recent research has found that plants which are directly related grow better together than when paired with others of the same species, though the researchers thought this due to automatic reactions to plant hormones.

A fun thing to do to get a sense for yourself is go to a plant conservatory and try spending some time in each area, experiencing the different qualities.

 

[tobecomeone00]

I have learned that the plants actually use the wind to communicate and move around. I suggest investing some time in a particular plant around your house at some time, begin watering it, talking to it about your life, your hopes, your dreams, etc while holding one of its leaves or branches...plants are actually psychic, they can pick up on your thoughts, some very interesting tests were done once with a lie-detector type set up, hooked up to plants, proving plants react emotionally to stimuli...VERY interesting stuff....in a nut shell, just get into it. You'll be able to hear them in no time! =)

 

[Enoon]

A friend recently told me about a documentary which showed how plants defend themselves against potential enemies by *calling* out to other insects that then molest or eat or somehow get rid of the attacker. A lot of our domesticated plants seem to have lost this ability to communicate with the surrounding insects and worms, like the most prevalent version of the corn-plant, but originally they had this method of defense which apparently worked quite well against enemies that now a days mean certain death to the plants.

This may seem like quite complex forms of interaction, but compared to what we can do it's still rather primitive. So I am wondering what communication with a plant would be like, if we were in truth only communicating with the consciousness derived from the system plant. Other than acknowledging each other's presence I'm not sure there would be much to gain.

However I have a feeling there is something else beyond the simple material generation of sentience, which is captured by the plant. It incorporates millions of years of evolution and natural wisdom and as much as it exists in the plant, it also exists within us, recognizes itself, resonates with itself and allows for some kind of elucidation, and contact.

I once spent an entire mushroom trip in the loving arms of what I felt was my mother, but was a tree. It felt like Gaia, mother earth, cradling me like a child, telling me of ancient times that if not lived through herself, her roots could feel in the earth at least. Was this a communication with the tree itself? Or was it that I tapped into something else that I could access because of the trees presence? I can't tell you. Whatever it is that we communicate in these moments, whether it is just a part of ourselves (whatever that means) or something outside of us (whatever THAT means)... it is extremely interesting and I am always and ever searching for means to perfect this communication and the establishment of contact.

 

[tigerstrike92]

At our basic building block, both plants and humans are made of DNA. IMO, that has to count for something.

You should give The Secret Life of Plants a read, it covers a very literal position that plants can not only communicate, but they also have emotions etc.

In my own experiences, I have felt any time a "natural" psychedelic substance is used, I do indeed feel closer to Gaia in a way i can't explain. By natural I mean directly coming from the earth such as cannabis, aya, HBWR(not extracted), Ololihqui, and Salvia(plain foliage). In comparison, I haven't felt the same warmth or communication when I have worked with extracts or pure chemicals (DMT, JWH).

I'm not trying to discredit the importance of the experiences that these chemicals can offer, but when I have taken something straight from the earth there is definitely something more to it, maybe a plant communication. Which may be why we give them names such as Mother Aya and The Sally Goddess.

 

[Swarupa]

Maybe you should try hugging a tree... and i mean that literally

Also 'feeling' the spirit of the tree/plant & letting the rest happen...
I know that's pretty vague but we are basically talking in one form of communication about how to understand a different form of communication.

 

[caliwa]

every matter that holds life is related. life is basically the same expresion for a tree, a mushroom, and a mamal. when life is understood then comunication among living things happen. its been said ( crowley) that one can even comunicate with unliving matter since it holds life too.

 

[elru]

last summer i had a really intense afternoon when i was hiking and realised that all the plants around me were truly LIVING and might even have a conciousness and that it was simply that i dont understand this because humanity doesnt know so much about the world really. i decided i would spend the afternoon as if every thing was also conscious in the same way that i am. regardless of it is true or not, it was a very powerful afternoon and i very much suggest it. i sat down on an old log and talked to it. id been out hunting mushrooms that day but not found many. i ended up finding a HUGE painters conk mushroom though on that log!

ive had some other experiences with plants when i have taken psychedelics. (the afternoon in the first paragraph i was sober). i cant really put any of it into words, it was more feelings and seeing a light flowing through the plants and into the air, ground, ect. that light had information and communication but it wasnt like english sentences or anything at all like that.

 

[Aegle]

Entheojen

Fascinating thread, I think the very fact that people need some sort of proof is probably exactly where the problem lies within our society at the moment. As it seems that humanity is suffering from a severe disenchantment with nature and all the mystery that is apart of our existence. I think that it is vitally important to understand that nature and the way in which the universe and consciousness works is apart of us but it is inherently far bigger than us and far more immense than we could ever imagine or conjure up a measurement for. I used to have plants and animals communicate with me far more when I was a little girl as I guess when you are a child you are for more open with the world and with what you experience.

But if I sit really still or stand motionless while hugging a tree I can feel an instant coolness which permeates through my entire body, my heart begins to slow down and my mind starts to clear. I feel connected with everything which is alive...

Entheogens definitely open up the connection of communication between humans and plants, I have felt the breath of every living being while journeying with entheogens, I have seen iridescent blue veins of light connecting me with the ground and the trees which were surrounding me as every step that I took pulsed the blue light through the soil like a pebble being thrown in a pond, rippling energy through me and everything around me, so maybe all the evidence one should need is ones own experience.

I don't think it really matters if your journey is physically real or not as what we experience during our lives we experience for a reason and our perception that we have of the world is built upon through our experiences. Read Max Webers theory of disenchantment as it is incredibly interesting...

Here he states it with perfect eloquence

The fate of our times is characterised by rationalisation and intellectualisation and, above all, by the "disenchantment of the world." Max Weber


Much Peace and Compassion

 

[tigerstrike92]

I have seen iridescent blue veins of light connecting me with the ground and the trees which were surrounding me as every step that I took pulsed the blue light through the soil like a pebble being thrown in a pond, rippling energy through me and everything around me, so maybe all the evidence one should need is ones own experience.

That is awesome that you say that, because I have had a similar experience. I also saw veins of light coming from the earth and up through me, my companions, the trees, plants, my dogs, etc. We were all connected, and light of living energy proved it.

 

[Felnik]

I do all journeying out in nature so this is close to
My heart , the vibrations from plants can be subtle
To overwhelming . You have to be tuned in to it ,
The energy flow seems to be before a full breakthrough
Somewhere in the caapi coma zone . That half dream state
After a good dose of caapi tea or the like.

Finding a super remote primordial patch of woods or swamp
Is the best place to start . As old and un tampered with as possible .
There are forgotten places strewn in the cracks of all urban areas .
You just have to explore .
It could be as simple as a huge ancient tree. I have a giant
Pine that I visit from time to time . I curl up around the roots and
Meditate then slowly hit the spice. It's a low electrical pulse .
Ask it questions , it will answer in cryptic simple words that rise from
The deepest recesses of your mind . Be patient .

 

[Dorge]

Read my recent trip report...

 

[Dorge]

Changa will literally talk to you if you use passive listening, as will aya. The harmala plants are considered communicator species allowing human to speak with all sentient beings in their ecoregion. This allows for a higher level of Psychointigration with ones environment. Allowing for higher synergy in human Relationship with ones ecoregion thus lending a greater adaptive edge. Swim has a post on the changa site about speaking with strawberry. Swim just spoke with comfrey. Passive listening, and kinesthetic awareness as well as empathic sensing appears to be the best way to "listen." the surprising thing is they can use our words, our own thoughts and feelings to communicate with us... Often times with a message that this dan happen because we are one...

 

[Aegle]

I have seen iridescent blue veins of light connecting me with the ground and the trees which were surrounding me as every step that I took pulsed the blue light through the soil like a pebble being thrown in a pond, rippling energy through me and everything around me, so maybe all the evidence one should need is ones own experience.

That is awesome that you say that, because I have had a similar experience. I also saw veins of light coming from the earth and up through me, my companions, the trees, plants, my dogs, etc. We were all connected, and light of living energy proved it.

Tigerstrike92

Its a really beautiful and profound feeling to experience, indeed we are all connected, truly brothers and sisters within the precious journey of existence. ♥


Much Peace and Understanding

 

[Aegle]

I do all journeying out in nature so this is close to
My heart , the vibrations from plants can be subtle
To overwhelming . You have to be tuned in to it ,
The energy flow seems to be before a full breakthrough
Somewhere in the caapi coma zone . That half dream state
After a good dose of caapi tea or the like.

Finding a super remote primordial patch of woods or swamp
Is the best place to start . As old and un tampered with as possible .
There are forgotten places strewn in the cracks of all urban areas .
You just have to explore .
It could be as simple as a huge ancient tree. I have a giant
Pine that I visit from time to time . I curl up around the roots and
Meditate then slowly hit the spice. It's a low electrical pulse .
Ask it questions , it will answer in cryptic simple words that rise from
The deepest recesses of your mind . Be patient .

Felnik

Your post is truly lovely, while reading your words I was reminded of this video: Tibetan Buddhism: Secrets of the Yogis of Tibet


Much Peace and Sunshine