Cleve Backster was no crackpot, but his story was fantastic --
he claimed to have solid evidence that plants think, feel and read
people's minds. Having worked for the American CIA and become
recognised as an international authority on polygraph machines, or
lie detectors, on 2 February 1966 he sparked a controversy that has
never been resolved. On a whim he wired a house plant to a
polygraph machine and was astonished to find that the plant
recorded emotional responses similar to those of humans. The
polygraph showed a positive reaction when the plant was watered,
then registered alarm when Backster considered putting a match to
the plant. Incredibily, it was the mere thought of burning the plant that
caused a violent response. Further experiments showed that plants
registered stress when they or other life forms (such as shrimp
boiled to death nearby) were under threat. One test appeared to
indicate that plants could recognise someone who had recently
destroyed a plant in the same room.
Yet Backster was not the first to consider the possibility of
plants responsiveness. In the mid-19th century Germain physicist
Gustav Fechner argued that plants as well as animals have souls,
while Charles Darwin felt that plants must be sentient beings. The
early-20th-century Indian scientist Sir Jagadis Chandra Bose
believed that plants have a form of nervous system capable of
simulation and reaction. American horticulturist Luther Burbank
(1849-1926) was convinced that plants could be encouraged to thrive
throught genuine love and willpower. Exposing plants to prayer or
to music have been said to influence growth.
In 1968 Cleve Backster's work was reported in the International Journal of
Parapsychology and later featured in Peter Tompskins's and
Christopher Bird's 1973 best-seller, The Secret Life of Plants. Intrigued
American botanists conducted their own experiments -- but none
could duplicate Backster's results. Since no one questioned his
honesty, they concluded that his logic and methodology were
misleading. But some skeptics believe that polygraph readings in
general are unreliable. Others suggest that plants simply reacts to
levels of carbon dioxide exhaled by humans. Yet research into the
"Backster effect" has continued. In the former Soviet Union during
the 1970s parapsychologists A.P. Dubrov and V.N. Pushkin both said
they achieved similar results to Backster's, using encephalographs
instead of polygraphs. The concept of plants with personality, it
seems, is here to stay
***end***
