Community Magazine August 2021

50 COMMUNITY MAGAZINE T h e S e c r e t L i f e o f P l a n t s Do Plants Have Feelings? A major comprehensive summary of these findings appeared in the book The Secret Life of Plants by Peter Tompkins and Christopher Bird, which was first published in 1973 and subsequently released in numerous editions, garnering a major audience and generating tremendous interest. This book, and others that followed, have revealed spectacular insights into the hidden world of flora. Renowned scientists now confirm without a doubt that plants have emotions and feelings, and that they are able to understand and be understood by the world around them. We begin with a scene from The Secret Life of Plants : In a lab, located in the City of Westminster, there is an unfortunate carrot strapped to the table of an unlicensed vivisector. Wires pass through two glass tubes full of a white substance; they are like two legs, whose feet are buried in the flesh of the carrot. When the vegetable is pinched with a pair of forceps, it winces. It is so strapped that its electric shudder of pain pulls the long arm of a very delicate lever which actuates a tiny mirror. This casts a beam of light on the frieze at the other end of the room, and thus enormously exaggerates the tremor of the carrot. A pinch near the right-hand tube sends the beam seven or eight feet to the right and a stab near the other wire sends it far to the left. This amazing description was cited from the British magazine Nation , reporting on discoveries revealing that plants inhabit a rich world full of senses and feelings. The specific experiment cited by Nation was the work of Sir Jagdish Chandra Bose, researcher of international renown and one of the pioneers of research in the field of plant life. Bose had been studying plant responses to various RABBI ZAMIR COHEN stimuli in their environment by the end of the 19th century, and one day, a bold idea entered his head. He placed a crescograph – a device he had invented for measuring growth in plants – upon the leaves of a plant in his research area. The results were incredible! Not believing what he had found, Bose tried his experiment again and again to ensure that his discoveries were accurate. It became clear to Bose that plants responded to various kinds of contact and experience in the same manner as other living creatures. From that moment forward, Bose dedicated himself to investigating his findings, revealing that many plants and vegetables express sensations in ways that are measurable by science. When he first reported his research results to the British scientific community, his colleagues found it difficult to comprehend – this despite the fact that Bose’s research had been performed with impeccable scientific precision. But after Bose personally presented his findings to the chief British scientific institutions, the scientific establishment had no choice but to accept his discoveries, evoking tremendous excitement. Bose was invited to demonstrate his findings before the members of the Linnean – the society of scientists in London. The most respectable professors of the Linnean could not believe what they saw: a special magnifying system showed a cabbage leaf cringe in agony as it was being boiled to death. They saw a radish grow “exhausted” just like a muscle and then become “angry” as if it had a nervous system. They witnessed how a tremble passed through a vegetable at the moment of “death,” in the same way that a dying creature shudders in the seconds before its life ends. In the wake of his demonstration, Bose received funding to launch a research institution of his own, and received an honorary degree for his work. The international scientific community has produced a series of remarkable studies relating to plants. According to their research, the world of plants – which outwardly appears devoid of senses and feelings – is not what we imagine it to be. Plants actually have a rich emotional life and highly developed senses, and are even capable of expressing a wide range of emotions, including, but not limited to, pain, fear, and joy.