Dave's ESL Cafe's Student Discussion Forums

[walkingirl]

My dear forum friends, do you ever think of that the plants around us have feelings?
The paragraphs in which letters are capital is what I excerpt .
BECAUSE PLANTS CAN'T MOVE OR TALK, MOST PEOPLE BELIEVE THAT THEY HAVE NO FEELINGS AND THAT THEY CAN'T RECEIVE SIGNALS FROM OUTSIDE. HOWEVER, THIS MAY NOT BE COMPLETELY TRUE.
PEOPLE WHO STUDIED PLANTS HAVE FOUND OUT THAT PLANTS CARRY A SMALL ELECTRICAL CHARGE. IT IS POSSIBLE TO MEASURE THIS CHARGE WITH A SMALL PIECE OF EQUIPMENT CALLED " GALVANOMETER" THE GALVANOMETER IS PLACED ON A LEAF OF THE PLANT, AND IT RECORDS ANY CHANGES IN THE ELECTRICAL FIELD OF THE LEAF. HUMANS HAVE A SIMILAR FIELD WHICH CAN CHANGE WHEN WE ARE SHOCKED OR FRIGHTENED.
A MAN CALLED BACKSTER USED A GALVANOMETER FOR HIS STUDIES OF PLANTS AND WAS VERY SURPRISED AT HIS RESULTS. HE FOUND THAT IF HE HAD TWO OR MORE PLANTS IN A ROOM AND HE BEGAN TO DESTROY ONE OF THEM -- PERHAPS BY PULLING OFF ITS LEAVES OR BY PULLING IT OUT OF ITS POT-------- THEN THE GALVANOMETER ON THE LEAVES OF THE OTHER PLANTS SHOWED A CHANGE IN THE ELECTRICAL FIELD.IT SEEMED AS IF THE PLANTS WERE SIGNALING A FEELING OF SHOCK. THIS HAPPENED NOT ONLY WHEN BACKSTER STARTED TO DESTROY PLANTS, BUT ALSO HE DESTROYED OTHER LIVING THINGS SUCH AS INSECTS.
BASTER SAID THAT THE PLANTS ALSO KNEW IF SOMEONE HAD DESTROYED A LIVING THING SOME DISTANCE AWAY, BECAUSE THEY SIGNALED WHEN A MAN WHO HAD JUST CUT DOWN A TREE ENTERED THE ROOM.
ANOTHER SCIENTIST , NAMED SAUVIN, ACHIEVED SIMILAR RESULTS TO BACKSTER'S . HE KEPT GALVANOMETERS FIXED TO HIS PLANTS ALL THE TIME AND CHECKED REGULARLY TO SEE WHAT THE PLANTS WERE DOING. IF HE WAS OUT OF THE OFFICE, HE TELEPHONED TO FIND OUT ABOUT THE SIGNALS THE PLANTS WERE SENDING. IN THIS WAY, HE FOUND THAT THE PLANTS WERE SENDING OUT SIGNALS AT THE EXACT TIME WHEN HE FELT STRONG PLEASURE OR PAIN . IN FACT, SAUVIN COULD CAUSE A CHANGE IN THE ELECTRICAL FIELD OF HIS PLANTS OVER A DISTANCE OF A FEW MILES SIMPLY BY THINKING ABOUT THEM.
I don't know about you, I believe that plants have feelings, just like the dogs and cats we raise as pets, I mean , I treat plants as my pets.But they are different from pets, because plants should not be kept at home.They grow much better,to be exactly ,much happily in the wild.And you know, there is a little tree outside my house, sometimes I think I can tell that when she is happy and when she isn't .Well ,my feeling about plants has nothing to do with science,and some of my friends have the same feeling to plants.It must be our love to nature that results in it.
Yours warmly Nature

[elbharat]

HI!


I am from India. I too believ that plants have feelings. If you want to know more about it then mail me. I will not say you what science is talking about but what india's ancient science believes.

MAIL : [email protected]

bye...

[foxieladie]

I argee. but i have to say that there is a flaw to vegertainism........ if they refuse to eat things that are alive then they are screwd as everything as somepoint is alive espically plants and vegatables so if that was true they wudnt be able to eat anything unless is was grown in a lab.
love hannah
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HColsen

[urbn_hmstdr]

it has been proven that modern farming methods that use very noisy equipment shock plants - above ground harvests like lettuce sense the vibration/noise of the equipment and send their water and nutrition to the roots anticipating attack, so they can regrow their leaves later.
The excellent books "the education of little tree" talks about plant sentience and the book "the celestine prophecy". These are both excellent everybody should read them!!
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MKJ

[urbn_hmstdr]

No, plants do not feel pain or think (at least not the same way we do). it is a reflex like you said. They DO react to their environment, protect themselves, react to things that happen to them, and show stress. We do all these things too but in different ways, and our pain is also a reflex. I would not attempt to say they are the same as people. What i would say is that they are more sentient than we thought.
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MKJ

[Azaquiel]

Like Mr. Admiral said, I do think plants have feelings also. But these feelings, unlike the ones experienced by humans, are merely adaptations to their survival.
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A man is but the product of his thoughts what he thinks, he becomes.
Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi
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[urbn_hmstdr]

that's exactly what human feeling are too, adaptations for survival.
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MKJ

[Azaquiel]

[urbn_hmstdr]

they do, because they tell you something is bad and things need to change to be better for you.
anything that promotes our health, survival and procreation feels good to us and anything that does not or goes against those things causes us pain, discomfort, negative feeling etc. We have evolved to avoid the things that are not beneficial to us and our pleasure response has evolved to favor things that are good for the survival of the species.
of course, Modern times have caught up with us too quickly because now sometimes our pleasure instincts do not help us, we like to eat too much etc. when in the past that would have helped us put on fat and survive the winter, etc.
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MKJ

[Azaquiel]