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THE SECRET LIFE OF P LANTS — BY PETER TOMPKINS AND CHRISTOPHER BIRD. HARPER AND Row, 1973.

THIS IS A GOOD BOOK FOR STUDY CLUB. IT JOSTLES ONE'S CREDIBILITY, SHAKES UP A FEW IDEAS AND REQUIRES US TO RECOGNIZE THAT WE MUST CO—EXIST WITH THE WORLD AROUND US. THE BOOK HAS A BIBLIOGRAPHY AND INDEX WHICH GIVES IT SOME WEIGHT t AND SHAKEN THO AM BY SOME OF ITS FAR—OCUTERIES:, i CHOOSE TO BELIEVE IT BECAUSE I FEEL SURE THMT SOMETHING HAS TO CHANGE. WE MUST DISCARD OUR STRIP MINING TECHNIQUES FOR MUTUAL COMPATIBILITY. WE MUST STOP EXPLOITING THE WORLD AROUND US, TUNE UP OUR SENSIBILITIES AND LEARN HOW TO LIVE TOGETHER HAPPILY EVER AFTER. MYSTICISM APPEALS TO ME. • NATURE, LIVING TREES., PLANTS., FIELDS ARE STRENGTHENING' A SERENE SEA VISTA S AN OPEN EEPANSE OF

COUNTRYSIDE PEACE — GIVING. 1 CAN BELIEVE, THEN, THAT BISMARCK WOULD THROW HIS ARMS AROUND A MIGHTY O K FOR THE STRENGTH IT CONVEYED. SURELY THERE ARE PULSATIONS AND EMANATIONS FROM THE WORLD AROUND US A AND BELIEVE ME N I AM GOING TO LOVE MY PANDANUS AND HANG CHRISTMAS TREE ORNAMENTS ON THE TOMATO PLANTS. APPARENTLY THE READERS' DIGEST CARRIED AN ACCOUNT OF CLEVE BACKSTER AND HIS DRACAENA. PLANT S AND EVEN IF WE NEVER READ IT t WE COULD NOT HAVE MISSED THE MANY ALLUSIONS TO IT. BACKSTER ATTACHED A GALVANOMETER OR LIE DETECTOR TO A DRACAENA PLANT AND DISSOVERBD THE DR fCAENA REACTED NOT ONLY TO STIMULATION BUT TO HIS THOUGHTS AND EVEN TO A RARMFUL THREAT CARRIED IN BACKSTER'S MIND. THESE TESTS NATURALLY FORTERED OTHERS ] AND DIFFERENT PEOPLE CONFIRMED BACKSTER'S DISCOVERIES. MARCEL VOGEL SAID, "PLANTS MAY BE BLIND S DEAF AND DUMB IN THE HUMAN SENSE BUT THEY ARE EXTREMELY SENSITIVE INSTRUMENTS FOR MEASURING MAN S EMOTIONS." IN RUSSIA, V. N. PUSHKIN WROTE THAT THE VEGETAL CELLS IN FLOWERS. REACT TO PROCESSES. TAKING PLACE IN THE NERVOUS SYSTEM OF HUMAN SUBJECTS OR TO THEIR EMOTIONAL STATE. BACK IN 1902 IT WAS DIS- COVERED THAT W®BN CHLOROFORM WAS USED TO TRANQUILIZE A HUGE PINE TREE, THE TREE WAS THEN ABLE TO BE UPROOTED AND TRANSPLANTED WITHOUT THE USUAL TOXAL SHOCK OF SUCH AN OPERATION, IT WAS FURTHER DEMONSTRATED THAT PLANTS REACT TO STIMULATION AND SHOWED ALL THE CHARACTERISTIC RESPONSES OF ANIMAL TISSUE" IT SEEMS THAT SOME PEOPLE ARE MORE TUNED THAN OTHERS AND GET RESPONSES WHERE OTHERS FAIL. THIS COMES AS NO SURPRISE. WE ALL KNOW ABOUT THE 11 GREEN THUMB." SUCH w~ER GEORGE WASHINGTON CARVER, A NEGRO WHO REVOLUTIONAZED THE ECONOMY OF THE SOUTH WITH

THE MANY USES HE FOUND FOR THEICOMMON PEANUT. HE SAID, " I LEARN WHAT I KNOW BY WATCHING AND LOVING EVERYTHING." OR LUTHER BURBANK WHO HAD PHENOMENAL SUCCESS WITH DEVELOPING NEW PLANTS, TELLING AT A GLANCE WHICH SEEDLINGS WOULD BE SUCCESS.FUL 9 AND REVEALING THAT WEi HE WANTED HIS PLANTS TO DEVELOP IN SOME PARTICULAR WAY NOT COMMON TO THEM HE WOULD GET DOWN ON HIS KNEES AND TALK TO THEM. HE WAS NOT SURE THAT THE SHRUBS AND FLOWERS UNDERSTOOD HIS WORDS BUT HE WAS CONVINCED THAT BY SOME TELEPATHY THEY COULD COMPREHEND HIS MEANING. GROWERS HAVE EXPERIMENTED WITH MUSIC AND REALIZED BIGGER YIELDS, AND ONE PARTICULAR EX- PERIMENT PERFORMED BY DOROTHY RETALLACK WITH CLASSICAL AND ROCK MUSIC SHOWED THAT PLANTS EXPOSED TO CLASSICAL MUSIC GREW TOWARDS THE TRANSISTOR, EVEN EMBRACING IT S WHILE THE OTHERS SUFFERING THE CACOPHONY OF ROCK GREW AWAY FROM THE BROADCASTS AND EVEN Con n y E-m TRIED TO CLIMB THE WALLS IF PLANTS HAVE THESE SENSITIVITIES IT IS NOT SURPRISING TO LEARN THAT ALL LIVING T=INGS GIVE OFF A LUMINESCENCE IN DEGREES-

VARYING WITH THEIR STATE OF HEALTH AND THAT A RUSSIAN TEAM DEVEL- OPED A METHOD FOR PHOTOGRAPHING THESE EMANATIONS. HUMAN FINGERTIPS SEEMED TO SHOOT FORTH FLAMING ENERGY IN BURSTS LIKE MINIATURE VOLCANOES, AND THEY. FOUND THAT BIOPLASMA IS CONCENTRATED AT HUNDREDS OF POINTS IN THE HUMAN BODY WHICH SEEM TO CORRESPOND TO THE ANCIENT SYSTEM OF CHINESE ACUPUNCTURE POINTS. AN AMAZING DISCOVERY WAS MADE BY AN ELECTROPHYSIOLOGIST WHO FOUND THIS BO.OPLASMA REACTING INSTANTLY TO CHANGES ON THE SURFACE OF THE SUN EVEN THOUGH COSMIC PARTICLES EJECTED BY THE SUN TAKE ABOUT TWO DAYS TO REACH THE EARTH. FROM THIS IS BUT A SHORT STEP TO

THE OBSERVATION OF DR. JOHN PIERRAKOS, " BY OBSERVING THE ENERGETIC FOLD EMANATING FROM THE BODY I GET AN IDEA OF WHAT IS HAPPENING IN THE BODY." WHERE DOES ALL THIS LEAD? MAYBE THE MOST ESCITING POSSIBILITIES- LIE IN MEDICINE WITH THE INCREDIBLE POTENTIAL OF LOCATING DISEASE 3•

AND THEN TREATING IT WITH SOUND OR VIBRATIONS AS WAS DONE BY

GEORGES LAKHOVSKY, ANk ENGINEER WHO TREATED CANCER INDUCED IN it f PLANTS THROUGH A RAD 10-CELLULO-OSC 1 LLATOR '0 HE DIED 1 N 1943, AND HIS FINDINGS WH18H LAID THE GROUND FOR RADIO BIOLOGY WERE LEFT UNPURSUED BY THE MEDICAL PROFESSION WITH THE RESULT THAT TODAY THE MULTIWAVE OSCILLATOR IS BANNED BY U. S. HEALTH AUTHORITIES FOR MEDICAL TREATMENT. WHERE DOES IT LEAD? FOR ENERGY? IF A DEVICE MADE FOR RUNNING AN ELECTRIC TRAIN CAN BE ENERGIZED BY PLANTS AS HAS BEEN DONE, WHAT IS THE POTENTIAL ENERGY TO BE REVEALED IN PLANTS? FOR NUTRITION, FOOD, CERTAINLY.7 TUNING IN TO PLANTS WOULD PRODUCE A VERITABLE GARDEN OF EDEN ON THE FACE OF THE WARTH. WE WOULD LEARN HOW TO ACHIEVE OPTIMUM GROWTH. WASTE WOULD BE ELIMINATED. WE WOULD STOP USING REAGENTS POISONOUS TO OURSELVES AND HARMFUL. TO LIFE AROUND US AS WE HAVE DONE WITH SPRAYS AND FERTILIZERS. WE WOULD LEARN TO INCREASE THE FRUIT- FULNESS OF THE LAND, FINDING WHAT REILATIONSHIP OF PDANT TO PLANT CAUSE THE BEST HARVEST, HOW TO ERADICATE PESTS AND DISEASE IN A MORE SATISFACTORY MANNER I AND HOW TO ENRICH THE SOIL NATURALLY. AMERICA HAS BEEN CALLED THE MOST FED AND WORST NOURISHED NATION ON EARTH. A SYMPATHETIC AND SYMBIOTIC APPROACH TO AGRICULTURE LEADS STRAIGHT TO ORGANIC GARDENING AND EHE BENEFITSD INHERENT IN IT. BETTER SOIL MEANS BETTER PLANTS. BETTER PLANTS MEAN BETTER NUTRITION. THE CONDIT®BNS PROVIDING ALL THREE ARE IS Q,ltin FOUND IN ORGANIC GARDENING. THE CIRCLEtBOAD~K# BUT BECOMES EFFECTIVE ONLY AS THE PUBLIC REQUIRES THESE NAT88AL FOODS ON THE SHELVES OF ITS SUPERMARKETS. RIGHT NOW THE STAR MARKETS IN CAMBRIDGE, MASS., HAVE A TRAILER LOAD A WEEK OF MIXED VEGETABLES ORGANICALLY GROWN, AND THESE ARE MARKETED IN SEPARATE BINS. IN- CREASINGLY IT IS SHOWN THAT ORGANIC GARDENING IS NOT ONLY FEASIBLE BUT SENSIBLE IN KEEPING THE ROIL FERTILE AND THE CROPS MORE PEST-FREE. TO WITNESS A DRACAENA PLANT IDENTIFY ITS MURDERER CATCHES US UP SHORT. IF PLANTS KNOW WHAT WE FEEL, WE HAVE TO BE MORE CAREFUL HOW WE INFLUENCE THEM. TAKEN TO AN EXTREME AS THE AUTHORS 00 IN CITING A MYSTIC COMMUNITY IN FINDHORN, SCOTLAND, ONE IS IN CONSTANT, ACTIVE COMMUNICATION WITH LIFE AROUND.90. 4.

ALTHOUGH THE GROUP AT FINDHORN TURNED A BARREN WASTELAND INTO A GARDEN PARADISE, THIS PERFORMING SENSIBILITY MAKES ME UNEASY IN ITS DEMANDS. IF I AM COMMUNICATING WITH THE CARROT AS i PEEL IT, HOW CAN I THEN DROP THE POOR THING INTO THE PAN OF BOILING WATER? THE LARGE FISH WHO EATS THE SMALLER ONE MUST

HAVE A DULLING OF SENSIBILITY AT SOME POINT. - THERE HAS BEEN EXPERIMENTATION WITH THE EMANATIONS GIVEN OFF BY LIVING THINGS 9 SHOWING THAT EVERYTHING HAS ITS OWN FREQUENCY, WITH DISEASED CELLS REACTING DIFFERENTLY FROM HEALTHY ONES. AT THE BEGINNING OF THE CENTURY DOCTOR ALBERT ABRAMS BELIEVED HE COULD LOCATE AND DIFFERENTIATE DISEASE IN AN INDIVIDUAL PATIENT. HE THEN DEVELOPED AN OSCILLOCLAST OR WAVE BREAKER WHICH COULD EMIT SPECIFIC WAVES CAPABLE OF CURING HUMAN AFFLICTIONS BY APPARENTLY ALTERING OR CANCELING OUT RADIATIONS EMITTED BY VARIOUS DISEASES. IN 1922 ABRAMS REPORTED HE COULD DIAGNOSE A PATIENT BY LISTENING OVER A TELEPHONE TO THE VIBRATIONS EMITTED BY A DROP OF THE PATIENTS BLOOD. ABRAMS' PRONOUNCEMENT BROUGHT ON ATTACK BY THE AMERICAL MEDICAL ASSOCIATION. HE DIED IN 1924 9 AND FINALLY IN 1951 A COUPLE OF MEN 9 PRINCETON GRADUATES, CURTIS P. UPTON, A CIVIL ENGINEER, AND WILLIAM J. KNUTH v AN~ELECTRONICS ENGINEER ? PICKED UP ABRAMS' DEVICE AND STARTED USING IT FOR THE CONTROL OF PESTS IN AGRICULT- URE. O NLY INSTEAD OF USING THE DEVICE DIRECTLY 1 THEY CONTROLLED THE FIELD THEY WERE TREATING WITH AN AERIAL PHOTOGRAPH. THE PICTURE WAS PLACED ON A "COLLECT88 PLATE" ATTACHED TO THE BASS OF THE INSTRUMENT TOGETHER WITH A REAGENT KNOWN TO BE POISONOUS TO THE PESTS THEY WANTED TO TREAT. THE THEORY BEHIND THE SYSTEM WAS THAT THE MOLECULAR AND ATOMIC MAKEUP OF THE EMULSION ON THE PHOTOGRAPH WOULD BE RESONATING AT IDENTICAL FREQUENCIES WITH THE OBJECTS THEY REPRESENTED PICTORIALLY. AND ... IT WORKED. THE CONTRACTS WERE WRITTEN ON THE BASIS OF NO CONTROL--NO PAY rr ~ APPARENTLY AS THIS COMBINE BEAN TO THREATEN THE INSECTICIDE COMPANIES, THE DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE SXRRTED MOVING, AND IT WAS DISCREDITED: "WE ARE ANXIOUS THAT UNSOUND METHODS NOT BE PERMITTED TO DIVERT THE FARMERS ATTENTION, AT THIS CRITICAL TIME, FROM RECOGNIZED SOUND INSECT CONTROL PRACTICES." 5•

"WHAT ALSO ALARMED THE GOVERNMENT ' " AS THE AUTHORS STATE AND AS WE MAY QUICKLY SURMISE, "WAS THE IDEA THAT IF A HOST OF INSECTS COULD BE AFFECTED, EVEN KILLED, SIMPLY BY RADIATING A POISON AT THEM BYfr A PICTURE OF THE PLANTS WHICH THEY WERE ATTACKING, THEN THE SAME TECHNIQUE COULD BE MILITARILY APPLIED TO CONCENTRATIONS OF TROOPS OR EVEN THE POPULATIONS OF WHOLE CITIES IN WARTIME." (WE HAVE HERE A PHOTOGRAPH OF THE SOUTH OF FRANCE...) OTHERS TOO HAD BEEN WORKING IN RADIONICS, INCLUDING RUTH DROWN, A LOS ANGELES CHIRORRACTOR t WHO DEVELOPED A CAMERA WHICH COULD BE USED TO TAKE PICTURES OF ORGANS AND TISSUES OF PATIENTS USING NOTHING BUT A DROP OF THEIR BLOOD, EVEN WHEN THE PATIENTS WERE MILES AWAY, SHE COULD ALSO TAKE PICTURES IN CROSS—SECTION WHICH CAN NOT BE DONE WITH X—RAYS. THIS WOMAN WAS DISCREDITED AS; A CHARLATAN AND HER EQUIPMENT SEIZED. T. GALEN HIERONYMUS REFINED ABRAMS' OSCILLATOR EVENFURTHER

AND SEEMED CLOSER TO UNDERSTANDING WHY IT WORKED ASIIT DID. HOWEVER t WHEN HE TOOK THREE EARS OF CORN INFESTED WITH CORN BORERS t APPLIED

HIS RADIONIC BROADCAST AND REDUCED THE CORN BORERS TO "WET PLACES If ON THE CORN EARS, HE WAS GIVEN PAUSE BY THE LETHAL POTENTIAL OF THE TUNED RADIATION AND RESOLVED NOT TO REVEAL EVERYTHING ABOUT THE DEVICES TILL HE COULD FIND SERIOUS RESEARCHERS OF IMPECCABLE CHARACTER. (IN 1968 HE CHECKED IN TO THE MOON LANDING, ORDERING PHOTOGRAPHS OF THE THREE ASTRONAUTS AND AFTER INSERTING THEM IN THE INSTRUMENT PROFESSING TO TRACK AND MONITOR ALL PHYSIOLOGICAL FUNCTIONS OF THE ASTRONAUTS FROM THE EARTH TO THE MOON AND BACK, DETERMINING THAT THE TRANSMITTING ENERGY COULD NEITHER BE SHIELDED BY THE METAL SHELL OF THE CAPSULE OR AFFECTED BY THE GREAT DISTANCE. THE MOST STARTLING CLAIM WAS THE DISCOVERY OF A LETHAL RADIATION BELT AROUND THE MOON WHICH DURING THE LANDING OF APOLLO 11 APPARENTLY EXTENDED FROM AN ALTITUDE OF ROUGHLY 65 MILES DOWN TO APPROKIMATELY 15 FEET ABOVE THE MOONS SURFACE. HIERONYMOUS NOTED A DROP IN VITALITY AT THESE POINTS.) THESE ARE DEFINITELY NEW DIMENSIONS. IT IS STARTLING, YET BELIEVABLE 9 TO THINK OF PLANTS DIRECTLY RESPONDING TO US. THE POSSIBILITIES ARE INFINITE. YET SOMEHOW of SENSE IN THIS VAST UNIVERSE SO MUCH THAT REMAINS TO BE FOUND. WE KNOW WE MUST OPEN OUR MINDS, TO PROGRESS, TO LIVE.