Community Magazine May 2013

said to them, ‘This date tree sees the fronds of another date palm in Jericho and longs in her heart for them.’ The people brought some of the fronds to the date tree and grafted them on, and it produced fruit right away. (Midrash Rabbah, Bamidbar 3:1) There is a phenomenon well-known to horticulturists: A climbing vine that is working its way towards the closest post will change its direction if someone moves the post. How is this possible? If we accept the premise that plants can see or sense their surroundings, this phenomenon can now be understood. (It is important to note the official explanation for this phenomenon from the world of botanical researchers: “Climbing plants send out tendrils that turn in ever widening circles (or that sway from side to side), until they encounter some object around which they then wrap themselves. If the object is moved or removed before the tendrils are able to wrap themselves well, they return to their previous movements, until they wrap themselves around a nearby object.”) Science, however, knows only how to describe events, but not why they happen. It has no tools to explain the ultimate goal of a plant’s movement – whether it is blindly seeking whatever it may find, or willfully moving itself towards something it desires. According to the sages (as well as recent scientific discoveries), the second explanation may indeed make more sense. If, however, you still doubt that plants have feelings that motivate them, take careful notice of the section below. Are Plants Affected by Love and Attention? It is hard to believe that bestowing love and attention upon plants can cause them to grow, but this is the conclusion reached by scientists after extensive research. According to various studies, plants have an inexplicable ability to sense what is happening around them and respond in a sophisticated manner. Here is an example from The Secret Life of Plants, describing the research of Marcel Vogel, a chemist from California: He asked one of his friends, a clinical psychologist, who had come to see for himself if there was any truth to the plant research, to project a strong emotion to a philodendron 15 feet away. The plant surged into an instantaneous and intense reaction and then, suddenly, “went dead.” When Vogel asked the psychologist what had gone through his mind, the man answered that he had mentally compared Vogel’s plant with his own philodendron at home, and thought how inferior Vogel’s was to his. The “feelings” of Vogel’s plant were evidently so badly hurt that it refused to respond for the rest of the day; in fact, it sulked for almost two weeks. In the next stage, after dozens of experiments that proved a connection between plants and their surroundings, Vogel reached the point where any strong emotions he felt would be immediately mirrored by the plants, even when they were at a distance. The following experiment, reflecting this accomplishment, was performed by one of Vogel’s colleagues: Back in her garden, Vivian Wiley picked two leaves from a saxifrage, one of which she placed on her bedside table, the other in the living room. “Each day when I get up,” she told Vogel, ‘I will look at the leaf by my bed and will that it continue to live; but I will pay no attention to the other. We will see what happens.” A month later, she asked Vogel to come to her house and bring a camera to photograph the leaves. Vogel could hardly believe what he saw. The leaf to which his friend had paid no attention was flaccid, turning brown and beginning to decay. The leaf on which she had focused daily attention was radiantly vital and green, just as if it had been freshly plucked from the garden. The sages also reveal that plants experience feelings of shame. The Jerusalem Talmud (Orlah 1:3) discusses an agricultural technique called havrachah, which entails the bending and planting of a branch into the ground until it takes root, at which time it is severed from the mother tree and allowed to grow on its own. The rabbis term the original tree an “old lady” and the new tree, a “child”: How does the tree owner know [that the “child” has taken root, such that he may now sever its connection with the “old lady”]? If the leaves of the “child” are turned toward itself, it is clear that it lives on account of the “old lady.” If the leaves are turned toward the “old lady,” it is clear that the “child” lives on its own accord, for a person who lives off of his friend is embarrassed to look him in the face. Can Plants Hear? We have already seen that plants are aware of what is happening around them. But can they hear, as well? Dr. T. S. Singh, Head of the Department of Botany at Annamalai University in India, asked this very question in 1950 after hearing rumors that plants that were played music to grew faster and better. Seeking proof to substantiate this claim, Singh set up a scientific lab that contained a variety of normal, healthy plants of about the same age, and had a device play tones from three different instruments at a fixed distance from the plants. The results were startling: These plants grew and produced seeds at an above average rate. After a series of experiments confirmed these findings, a number of farmers tried applying this technique to their crops. They recorded pleasant music and played it on loudspeakers for an hour each day in fields bearing six different strains of rice. The resulting harvests were 25-60 percent greater than the normal yield. Cleve Backster (born 1924) - Cleve Backster is a best known for his experiments with biocommunication in plant and animal cells using a polygraph machine in the 1960s which led to his theory of “primary perception.” He reported observing that a polygraph instrument attached to a plant leaf registered a change in electrical resistance when the plant was harmed or even threatened with harm. He argued that plants perceived human intentions, and as Backster began to investigate further, he also reported a finding that other human thoughts and emotions caused reactions in plants that could be recorded by a polygraph instrument. He termed the plants’ sensitivity to thoughts “primary perception,” and published his findings from the experiments in the International Journal of Parapsychology. Marcel Joseph Vogel (1917 - 1991) - Dr. Vogel was a research scientist for IBM’s San Jose facility for 27 years. In the 1970’s Vogel did pioneering work in man-plant communication experiments. His experiments helped prove that plants have an inexplicable ability to sense what is happening around them. One of his experiments involved his philodendron plant. After dozens of experiments Vogel reached the level in which any strong emotions he felt would be immediately mirrored by his philodendron plant. iyaR - SiVan 5773 may 2013 49