The backster effect and the intelligence of plants

As you know, we tend to classify the living world into three categories: plants, which are fixed, are born and live naturally in an environment that is favorable to them, but are subject to the action of animals and humans; animals, which move and can avoid, as far as possible, the hazards of their environment or the dangers that threaten them; and finally, humans, who, in addition to the advantages that animals have, have the ability to modify their environment and create constraints.

In this well-ordered world, it has always been considered that plants, although living, have no feelings, sensibility, emotions, that they do not communicate and have no memory. Even if Aristotle or some Vedic texts granted them a soul or venerated their existence, the Cartesian minds of the 20th century are far from subscribing to this "romantic" vision.

And yet... An experiment, conducted in 1966 in New York, tends to prove the contrary...

You will see...

Plants sense our intentions

Cleve Backster, 1969 ©public property

This experience is the work of Cleve Backster, a lie detector consultant.

Grover Cleveland "Cleve" Backster Jr. (1924-2013) was an interrogation specialist working for the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). He is best known for his experiments on plant perception in the 1960s. Indeed, it was by using a polygraph instrument on plants that he came to the conclusion that they felt pain and were receptive to a form of extrasensory perception (ESP). His theories were widely reported in the media but rejected by a majority of the scientific community at the time.

It was he who decided one evening, out of curiosity, to place the electrodes of the detector on the leaf of a Dracaena tree, then to water the plant. He expected the galvanometer to show a lower resistance to the electric current when moisture reached the electrodes. But the opposite happened.

Wondering what would happen if he decided to burn the sheet between the electrodes, he did the experiment and was amazed to find that even before he picked up and lit the lighter, the recording needle jumped and indicated increased surface conductivity.

Yet he had said nothing, done nothing, touched nothing. No one was in the room. He had just thought and visualized his intention. Would the plant have picked it up?

He repeated the experiment and it worked every time.

Plants have memory

From this came a series of experiments, one of which, in particular, demonstrated that plants do have a memory.

Six blindfolded people were placed in a room with two plants, one of which was equipped with electrodes. The individuals had to draw a paper and on one of them was written the order to destroy one of the two plants present in the room.

No one, not even Backster, the instigator of the experiment, knew the culprit. There was no communication between the participants. However, when they passed the plant with the electrodes, each time the needle of the galvanometer went crazy as the culprit passed by.

Extra-sensory perception faculties

Among the many experiments carried out, one in particular suggests that plants, and especially living cells, are endowed with a faculty of extra-sensory perception, an interesting new discovery.

To rule out any human or subjective factors, Backster devised another experiment in which, in a closed room, live shrimp were placed on a tray that tipped over when they moved and threw them into boiling water.

At the same time and in an adjacent closed room, a plant connected to a galvanometer emitted a suddenly turbulent pattern whenever shrimp were thrown into the water and died.

Living cells communicate at a distance

This type of experiment was then extended to other applications and in particular to different living cells.

For example, the Institute of Clinical and Experimental Medicine in Novosibirsk, Siberia, placed two cultures of human cells in completely sealed and separate quartz boxes, showing that both cultures showed identical symptoms after one was inoculated with a virus.

However, according to the studies, it is not a communication based on radiation or electromagnetic waves.

Where are the sensory organs of plants?

The touch

Studies have shown that when we touch a plant, it is necessarily irritated and reacts. However, the reaction is not the same depending on the plant: some are sensitive and react instantly (about a hundred species), others have a slower and invisible reaction. In any case, the first level of response consists of an electrical wave along the cell membrane, an incoming and outgoing flow of ions like human neurons.

The view

Plants are equipped with receptor pigments that allow them to push towards the light and it is the cryptochromes that help them determine the orientation and intensity of the light.

The smell

Plants can communicate with each other through a scent language whose main component is ethylene. This has been observed in willows which, when attacked by certain defoliating caterpillars, emit a gas that informs neighboring willows of the attack so that they immediately induce chemical changes in their leaves in order to protect themselves. A similar phenomenon has been observed on acacias in South Africa, when giraffes attack the foliage. Almost immediately, the tannin content of the leaves of the neighboring acacias increases and they are no longer eaten by the giraffes.

The hearing

The sensitivity of plants to music is now known and accepted. Studies have shown the favorable impact of classical music, rather than rock, on their growth. But other sounds, slightly higher than the human voice, accelerate the growth of dwarf peas and the germination of radish seeds or the multiplication of yeast cells.

The taste

Some plants, such as oil palm, are able to modify their flavor if they are attacked. They can necrotize their own cells directly in contact with the aggressor, or emit volatile substances in the form of SOS signals when they are attacked by caterpillars for example (this is the case of cabbage).

The intelligence of flowers

“Plants, wrote Maurice Maeterlinck, have recourse to tricks, to combinations, to machinery, to traps which, in the field of mechanics, ballistics, aviation, and the observation of insects, for example, often preceded the inventions and knowledge of man.”

For Dr. Amus, from the University of Toledo (Ohio, USA), plants are capable of learning as much as animals. They develop survival reflexes and make choices that are conducive to their evolution.

This is the case of a root observed by Brandis which, when confronted with the sole of a boot that had been placed on it, automatically subdivided into as many rootlets as there were holes in the sole and then, after having passed through them, reassembled itself into a single root.

This is also the case of the sage which, in an experiment which consisted in hybridizing a backward sage with an advanced one, systematically adopted the improvements of the advanced species, rather than the reverse.

In short, many things about the plant kingdom remain to be discovered, to be understood, to be accepted by society. Is this, for example, the end of the vegetarian or vegan diet, chosen by those who do not wish to make animals suffer? Plants are a living world, a complex, intelligent and sensitive ecosystem that many researchers and certain documentaries are trying to bring to the attention of the greatest number of people.

We are surprised that at a time when the planet, ecology, animal mistreatment and sustainable development are at the heart of the debates, the voice of plants, real and audible, is not heard more.

Sources :

Maurice Maeterlinck, L’Intelligence des Fleurs, Fasquelle, 1950 (réédité en 2001, éd. Transatlantiques)

A.-B. Ergo, L’effet backster

Article “L’effet Backster”, tiré du Nexus n° 35, traduit par André Dufour

Robert Charroux, Le livre de ses livres, chapitre “L’intelligence des plantes”, Ro bert Laffont, 1985