SPECIAL ISSUE Sentient Plants: a Product of Nature Or

Total Page:16

File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb

SPECIAL ISSUE Sentient Plants: a Product of Nature Or EdgeScienceNumber 44 December 2020 Current Research and Insights SPECIAL ISSUE Sentient Plants: A Product of Nature or A publication of the Human Imagination? By Krissy Eliot EdgeScience #44 December 2020 EdgeScience is a quarterly magazine. SPECIAL ISSUE Print copies are available from edgescience.magcloud.com. For further information, see edgescience.org. Email: edgescience@scientificexploration.org Why EdgeScience? Because, contrary to public perception, scientific knowledge is still full of unknowns. What remains to be discovered — what we don’t know — very likely dwarfs what we do know. And what we think we know may not be entirely correct or fully understood. Anomalies, which researchers tend to sweep under the rug, should be actively pursued as clues to potential breakthroughs and new directions in science. PUBLISHER: The Society for Scientific Exploration EDITOR: Patrick Huyghe ASSOCIATE EDITOR: P.D. Moncrief Jr. CONTRIBUTORS: Krissy Eliot DESIGN: Smythtype Design The Society for Scientific Exploration (SSE) is a professional organization of scientists and scholars who study unusual and unexplained phenomena. The primary goal of the Society is to provide a professional forum for presentations, criticism, and debate concerning topics which are for various reasons ignored or studied inadequately within mainstream wildpixel/iStock science. A secondary goal is to promote improved understanding of those factors that unnecessarily limit Sentient Plants: the scope of scientific inquiry, such as sociological constraints, restrictive world views, hidden theoretical A Product of Nature or Human Imagination? assumptions, and the temptation to convert By Krissy Eliot prevailing theory into prevailing dogma. Topics under investigation cover a wide spectrum. At one end are apparent anomalies in well established disciplines. At the other, we find paradoxical phenomena that belong to no established discipline and therefore may offer the greatest potential for scientific advancement and the expansion of human knowledge. The SSE was founded in 1982 and has approximately 800 members in 45 countries worldwide. The Society also publishes the peer-reviewed Journal of Scientific Exploration, and holds annual meetings in the U.S. and biennial meetings in Europe. Associate and student memberships are available to the public. To join the Society, or for more information, visit the website at scientificexploration.org. PRESIDENT: William Bengston, St. Joseph’s College Cover: Trees at Plaza San Martín in Buenos VICE PRESIDENT: Garret Moddel, University of Colorado, Aires, Argentina. Boulder Credit: Dag Peak / Flickr/ CC by 2.0 SECRETARY: Mark Urban-Lurain, Michigan State University TREASURER: York Dobyns A phenomenon called crown shyness describes the gaps that trees—usu- EDUCATION OFFICER: Chantal Toporow ally of the same species—maintain between their top-most branches. This EUROPEAN COORDINATOR: Anders Rydberg is one strategy trees have adopted to protect themselves and the collective forest from pests, diseases, and severe winds and storms. (“Trees Have Their Copyright © 2020 Society for Scientific Exploration Own Way of Social Distancing,” by Zoe Baillargeon, Atlas Obscura, Sept. The authors, artists, and photographers retain copyright to their work. ISSN 2330-4545 (Print) 8, 2020) ISSN 2330-4553 (Online) EDGESCIENCE #44 • DECEMBER 2020 / 3 Krissy Eliot SENTIENT PLANTS: A Product of Nature or Human Imagination? onica Gagliano is lying in a hammock in the Amazon heard,” and that her role going forward would be to allow them Mjungle. She has been consuming nothing but rice, veg- to speak through her.1 etables, and mashed tree bark for weeks, and is having power- After this, Gagliano became a self-proclaimed “custodian ful dreams. She is on what the Shipibo people of the Amazon of the vegetal world,” with a purpose of communicating the lowlands of Peru call a dieta, a practice of communing with a complex, subjective experience of plants through her writ- plant by ingesting it in isolation without the distraction of sex, ing and scientific research. Her book is about plants and by friends, or tasty food. The bark is from the tropical Socoba plants. “It is a phytobiography—a collection of stories, each tree, more commonly known as Bellaco-caspi (Himatanthus written together with and on behalf of a plant person,” writes sucuuba), and through the dieta, the Socoba has been reveal- Gagliano. “As such, these stories emerge out of a human-plant ing powerful secrets to Gagliano—like how the plant is actu- collaborative endeavor and a mixed writing style, which I think ally a “she,” and how she can be used as a “blood cleanser.” we can fittingly call plant-writing. Through plant-writing, this In one of her dreams in the hammock, Socoba shows book transcends the view of plants as the objects of scientific Gagliano a dark red image with thick black lines, and Gagliano materialism and empowers a new and yet timeless vision of the awakes to write upon her notepad: todas las cosas estan jun- world . ”2 tas (all things are connected). “I suddenly understood what While not every scientist is chewing the fat (or the bark, Socoba was saying—‘it is through the blood that everything is rather) with jungle trees, there is a scientific consensus that connected,’” Gagliano writes in her book Thus Spoke the Plant, plants can receive and process information from the environ- which chronicles her many plant dietas, as well as her scientific ment in complex ways. They have memory, are capable of deci- plant studies. “I knew without knowing that Socoba was a sion-making, and even possess their own versions of all five blood cleanser, the healer of conditions that affected the blood human senses. Considering these findings, some scientists say and the network of vessels that ensure the smooth flowing of that plants are not only intelligent—but even conscious—and blood inside the human body.” that this should change how we understand and interact with Upon Gagliano’s return to her life as a scientist in plants forever. Australia, she checked what she learned. The ideas Socoba had Stefano Mancuso, a professor at the University of Florence planted in her head are true according to the scientific litera- and founder of the controversially named International ture, with decades of pharmacological research showing the Laboratory of Plant Neurobiology (LINV), supports the idea benefits of Socoba for maintaining healthy blood pressure, that plants may be sentient. According to the LINV website, preventing anemia, and dealing with inflammation-related dis- plants are as sophisticated as animals. They are highly sensi- eases. Since Gagliano had no knowledge of this before meet- tive, intelligent, capable of cost-benefit analysis, and able to ing Socoba, this proved to her that “plants and nature can be recognize their separateness from other things—the difference Chaikuni Institute David Maurice Smith What does Bellaco-caspi (Himatanthus sucuuba) know about blood Evolutionary ecologist Monica Gagliano cleansers? 4 / EDGESCIENCE #44 • DECEMBER 2020 between self and non-self.3 similar to what is more commonly known as extrasensory per- “In the last several ception (ESP).5 As the founder of New York’s Backster School decades science has been of Lie Detection, where he taught FBI agents and NYPD detec- showing that plants are tives how to sniff out the real story with polygraphs,6 he was endowed with feeling, confident that his conclusions were correct. “I like to think of weave complex social rela- the polygraph,” Backster once said, not as a lie detector, but “as tions and can commu- a truth detector.”7 nicate with themselves Backster’s experiment and a series of other controversial and with animals,” writes findings were featured in The Secret Life of Plants, a book that Mancuso and science jour- was eventually turned into a movie that was scored by Stevie nalist Alessandra Viola in Wonder. The book was written by author Christopher Bird and the book Brilliant Green, journalist Peter Tompkins, a former World War II Office of which champions the con- Strategic Services (OSS) spy.8 Many of the experiments in The cept of intelligent, sensitive Secret Life of Plants were eventually discredited due to inad- plants. “How these bril- equate methods or an inability to reproduce results. The film Plant neurobiologist Stefano Mancuso liant creatures get infor- version, for instance, suggested that plants are capable of learn- mation and process it in ing human language, perceiving electronic signals better than a way that results in consistent behavior is the focus of plant machines, communicating with the stars, and even identifying neurobiology.”4 which humans have hurt them in the past.9 Scientists like Mancuso and Gagliano have a habit of using Backster’s experiment has been the subject of much scien- anthropomorphic terms to describe plant life, and also suggest tific criticism, with plant scientists taking it upon themselves that plants can do things like “eat,” “sleep,” and “choose.” to do some “truth detecting” of their own. “The polygraph Many botanists find these comparisons problematic and con- experiment is a stupid experiment because even with inhuman fusing for the public, with the use of the term “plant neurobi- physiology, there’s not a complete consensus on how valid poly- ology” being a particularly thorny issue. graphs are,” says plant geneticist Daniel Chamovitz, president But before we scurry down the rabbit hole of plant con- of Ben-Gurion University of the Negev. He explains that poly- sciousness—let
Recommended publications
  • The Thing Inside Each Organism That Is in Charge
    Anatomy Physiology & Biochemistry International Journal Review Article Anatomy Physiol Biochem Int J Volume 1 Issue 1 - July 2016 Copyright © All rights are reserved by Julius Adler A Search for the Boss: The Thing inside Each Organism That Is in Charge *Julius Adler Departments of Biochemistry and Genetics, University of Wisconsin, USA Submission: April 20, 2016; Published: July 26, 2016 *Corresponding author: Julius Adler, Departments of Biochemistry and Genetics, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, Wisconsin53706, USA, Email: Abstract It is proposed that every organism is controlled by The Boss. The Boss is in charge of each organism’s behavior, metabolism, development, immune response, and reproduction. All organisms have perhaps the same Boss. This is an unknown mechanism. An example is behavior: in people and other primates, The Boss acts at the prefrontal cortex of the brain to direct the behavior of the organism by means of executive function. It is proposed that simpler versions of a prefrontal cortex occur also in other animals and in plants and in microorganisms. Thus The Boss directs the behavior of all organisms. Keywords: Executive Function; Global Regulators; Biochemistry; Neurobiology; Genetics; Bacteriology Introduction This has been a century of great accomplishments in the Behavior, Metabolism, Development, Immunological biological sciences. We have learned a vast amount of what Response, Reproduction organisms do and how they do it, all the way from microorganisms Behavior and its Control to plants to animals including humans. But the search for what Behavior in Humans and in other Primates: Starting in ties it all together (if anything) has been avoided and the answer the 1870’s it became apparent to some psychologists that there is unknown.
    [Show full text]
  • Download What a Plant Knows a Field Guide to the Senses, Daniel Chamovitz
    NEW CUSTOMER? START HERE. A captivating journey into the inner lives of plants – from the colours they see to the schedules they keep How does a Venus flytrap know when to snap shut? Can a fern get jet lag? Do roses remember the romance of springtime? In What a Plant Knows, renowned biologist Daniel Chamovitz presents a beguiling exploration of how plants experience our shared Earth — in terms of sight, smell, touch, hearing, memory, and even awareness. Combining cutting-edge research with lively storytelling, he explains the intimate details of plant behaviour, from how a willow tree knows when its neighbours have been commandeered by an army of ravenous beetles to why an avocado ripens when you give it the company of a banana in a bag (it’s the pheromones). And he settles the debate over whether the beloved basil on your kitchen windowsill cares whether you play Led Zeppelin or Bach. Whether you are a green thumb, a science buff, a vegetarian, or simply a nature lover, this rare inside look at the life of plants will surprise and delight you. About the Author Daniel Chamovitz, PhD, is the director of the Manna Center for Plant Biosciences at Tel Aviv University. He grew up in Aliquippa, Pennsylvania, and studied at Columbia University before DOWNLOAD PDF HERE receiving his PhD in genetics from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He has been a visiting scientist at Yale University and at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle, and has lectured at universities worldwide. His research on plants and fruitflies has appeared in leading scientific journals.
    [Show full text]
  • Seminar 2020 Adams Seminar 2020 סמינר אדמס תש״ף
    סמינר תש״ף | Seminar 2020 Adams Seminar 2020 סמינר אדמס תש״ף Guest Lecturer Prof. Daniel A. Chamovitz Professor of Plant Pathology President, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev Editor Deborah Greniman Photographers Michal Fattal, Udi Katzman, Sasson Tiram Graphic Design Navi Katzman-Kaduri The Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities P.O.Box 4040 Jerusalem 9104001 Tel 972-2-5676207 E-mail [email protected] www.adams.academy.ac.il The Adams Fellowships is a joint program of the late Mr. Marcel Adams of Canada and the Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities. Chartered by law in 1961, the Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities acts as a national focal point for Israeli scholarship in both the natural sciences and the humanities and social sciences. The Academy consists of approximately 135 of Israel’s most distinguished scientists and scholars, who, with the help of the Academy’s staff and committees, monitor and promote Israeli intellectual excellence, advise the government on scientific planning, fund and publish research of lasting merit, and maintain active contact with the broader international scientific and scholarly community. For more information, please send an e-mail to [email protected] or call 972-2-5676207. Visit our website: adams.academy.ac.il Adams Seminar 2020 | 3 The Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities expresses its enduring appreciation for the legacy of Mr. Marcel Adams who passed away shortly after his 100th birthday. His generosity in promoting higher education in Israel lives on. Adams Fellowships Marcel Adams Hebrew-speaking philanthropist Marcel Adams, who escaped from a forced-labor camp in Romania in 1944, fought in Israel’s War of Independence and made his fortune in Montreal, has endowed the Adams Fellowship Program to support Israel’s brightest doctoral students in the natural and exact sciences each year.
    [Show full text]
  • THE INTELLIGENT PLANT Scientists Debate a New Way of Understanding Flora
    Michael Pollan: How Smart Are Plants? : The New Yorker Page 1 of 21 A REPORTER AT LARGE THE INTELLIGENT PLANT Scientists debate a new way of understanding flora. by Michael Pollan DECEMBER 23, 2013 •Print •More Share Close ◦ ◦ Reddit ◦ Linked In ◦ Email ◦ ◦ StumbleUpon n 1973, a book claiming that plants were sentient Ibeings that feel emotions, prefer classical music to rock and roll, and can respond to the unspoken thoughts of humans hundreds of miles away landed on the New York Times best-seller list for nonfiction. “The Secret Life of Plants,” by Peter Tompkins and Christopher Bird, presented a beguiling mashup of legitimate plant science, quack experiments, and mystical nature worship that captured the public imagination at a time when New Age thinking was seeping into the mainstream. The most memorable passages described the experiments of a former C.I.A. polygraph expert named Cleve Backster, who, in Plants have electrical and chemical 1966, on a whim, hooked up a galvanometer to the signalling systems, may possess memory, and exhibit brainy behavior in the absence of leaf of a dracaena, a houseplant that he kept in his brains. Construction by Stephen Doyle. office. To his astonishment, Backster found that simply by imagining the dracaena being set on fire he could make it rouse the needle of the http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2013/12/23/131223fa_fact_pollan?printable=true&... 09/01/2014 Michael Pollan: How Smart Are Plants? : The New Yorker Page 2 of 21 polygraph machine, registering a surge of electrical activity suggesting that the plant felt stress. “Could the plant have been reading his mind?” the authors ask.
    [Show full text]
  • Cloning a Gene Coding for Norflurazon Resistance in Cyanobacteria
    Cloning a Gene Coding for Norflurazon Resistance in Cyanobacteria Daniel Chamovitz, Iris Pecker, Gerhard Sandmann*, Peter Böger*, and Joseph Hirschberg Department of Genetics, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem 91904, Israel and * Lehrstuhl für Physiologie und Biochemie der Pflanzen. Universität Konstanz, D-7750 Konstanz, Bundesrepublik Deutschland Z. Naturforsch. 45c, 4 8 2 -4 8 6 (1990); received November 15, 1989 Norflurazon, Phytoene Dehydrogenase (= Phytoene Desaturase), Herbicide Resistance, Cyanobacteria, Gene Cloning The herbicide norflurazon inhibits carotene biosynthesis in photosynthetic organisms by blocking the enzyme phytoene dehydrogenase (= phytoene desaturase). We have isolated nor- flurazon-resistant mutants of the cyanobacterium Synechococcus PCC 7942. The herbicide- resistance gene from the mutant NFZ4 has been cloned by genetic complementation of the resistance trait in wild type cells. The experiment described here illustrates the usefulness of employing cyanobacteria to clone herbicide-resistance genes in a quick and simple way. Introduction Molecular description of carotenogenesis in Studies of herbicide-resistant plants have pro­ general, and of phytoene dehydrogenase in partic­ vided an insight on the mode of action of herbi­ ular has been lacking. Several of the genes in­ cides and on the biochemical and physiological volved in carotenogenesis have been cloned from properties of their target proteins. The develop­ Rhodobacter [6-8], among them the gene crtl ment of new techniques for DNA-mediated trans­ which encodes phytoene dehydrogenase. How­ formation of plants have paved the way to the pos­ ever, due to a large phylogenetic gap, this gene did sibility for genetic engineering of herbicide resist­ not hybridize with DNA from higher plants (J. ance in crop plants.
    [Show full text]
  • Bangor University DOCTOR of PHILOSOPHY a Revised Epistemology for an Understanding of Spirit Release Therapy Developed in Accord
    Bangor University DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY A revised epistemology for an understanding of spirit release therapy developed in accordance with the conceptual framework of F. W. H. Myers Palmer, Terence Award date: 2012 Awarding institution: Bangor University Link to publication General rights Copyright and moral rights for the publications made accessible in the public portal are retained by the authors and/or other copyright owners and it is a condition of accessing publications that users recognise and abide by the legal requirements associated with these rights. • Users may download and print one copy of any publication from the public portal for the purpose of private study or research. • You may not further distribute the material or use it for any profit-making activity or commercial gain • You may freely distribute the URL identifying the publication in the public portal ? Take down policy If you believe that this document breaches copyright please contact us providing details, and we will remove access to the work immediately and investigate your claim. Download date: 30. Sep. 2021 A REVISED EPISTEMOLOGY FOR AN UNDERSTANDING OF SPIRIT RELEASE THERAPY DEVELOPED IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK OF F.W.H. MYERS By Terence James Palmer A thesis submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy School of Theology and Religious Studies College of Arts and Humanities University of Wales, Bangor. 2012 i Abstract In this thesis I argue the case for a revised epistemology that will enable medical practice to understand more fully the relevance and validity of Spirit Release Therapy (SRT), as a clinical approach to releasing alleged discarnate spirits from the living, in its application for the treatment of a wide range of psychological and physiological disorders.
    [Show full text]
  • 08) Man's Obsessive Quest to Catalog Life, from Nanobacteria to New Monkeys by Rob R
    AP Biology Summer Assignment 2018-19 Welcome to AP Biology! The AP Biology course is designed to be the equivalent of a two-semester college introductory biology course with lab, usually taken by biology majors during their first year. Topics covered in the course include Molecules and Cells, Heredity and Evolution, and Organisms and Populations. The course is designed to prepare students for the A.P. Biology Exam in May, and it is expected that students enrolled in A.P. Biology will take the exam in May. The Summer Assignment is designed to prepare students for the AP Biology course and to introduce students to some of the topics that will be covered in class. In addition to the Summer Assignments, Students should review what they learned in their previous Biology and Chemistry Courses. Required Assignment 1. Choose a book from the List of Book Choices 2. Read the book of choice. 3. Choose a project idea from the list of Project Choices (pick one project idea .... not one from each category) 4. Complete the Project. 5. Project Assignments are Due: September 6th/7th, 2017 This assignment will count as a 100 point Homework/Classwork grade for the first marking period. Required Materials for the Course The following is a list of items students will need to acquire for the course in the fall. Three ring binder with loose leaf notebook paper. Black or Blue Pens & Pencils. Laboratory Notebook: 70 or 100 page carbonless copy quad laboratory notebook (Notebooks may purchase in class for $20 (check payable to FHS) during the first week of school) Recommended Materials: Calculator, Colored Pencils, and a Test Prep Study Guide List of Book Choices: 1.
    [Show full text]
  • Seminar 2021 | א“פשת רנימס
    סמינר תשפ“א | Seminar 2021 Adams Seminar 2021 סמינר אדמס תשפ“א Guest Lecturer Prof. Daniel A. Chamovitz Professor of Plant Pathology President, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev Editors Deborah Greniman, Bob Lapidot Photographer Michal Fattal Graphic Design Navi Katzman-Kaduri The Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities P.O.Box 4040 Jerusalem 9104001 Tel 972-2-5676207 E-mail [email protected] www.adams.academy.ac.il The Adams Fellowships is a joint program of the late Mr. Marcel Adams of Canada and the Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities. Chartered by law in 1961, the Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities acts as a national focal point for Israeli scholarship in both the natural sciences and the humanities and social sciences. The Academy consists of approximately 135 of Israel’s most distinguished scientists and scholars, who, with the help of the Academy’s staff and committees, monitor and promote Israeli intellectual excellence, advise the government on scientific planning, fund and publish research of lasting merit, and maintain active contact with the broader international scientific and scholarly community. For more information, please send an e-mail to [email protected] or call 972-2-5676207. Visit our website: adams.academy.ac.il Adams Seminar 2021 | 3 Adams Fellowships Marcel Adams Hebrew-speaking philanthropist Marcel Adams, who escaped from a forced-labor camp in Romania in 1944, fought in Israel’s War of Independence and made his fortune in Montreal, has endowed the Adams Fellowship Program to support Israel’s brightest doctoral students in the natural and exact sciences each year.
    [Show full text]
  • FRANCI PROWSE WIT a Kind of Paradigm Shift in My Own Awareness.At the Time I Had Been Involved for 18 Years in the Tuse of Polygraph Testing on Humans
    he wake-up call: “On February 2, 1966, an event occurred that expanded the entire focus of my research through FRANCI PROWSE WIT a kind of paradigm shift in my own awareness.At the time I had been involved for 18 years in the Tuse of polygraph testing on humans. I was taking an early morning coffee break and decided to water the dracaena cane plant that my secretary had brought into the laboratory. After pouring water into the pot of soil Exploring a S at its base, I wondered if I could measure the rate of moisture as it ascended. I attached the end of a large leaf to the galvanic-skin-response section of the polygraph instrument.The plant leaf was successfully balanced into the polygraph’s Wheatstone bridge circuitry, which I planned to use as a means of reflecting the rate of moisture ascent.The relative increase in the leaf’s electrical conductivity—due to the expected change in its moisture content—would be indicated by an upward trending of the ink tracing on the chart recording.To my surprise, the plant leaf tracing initially exhibited a downward trending, which would ordinarily indicate increasing resistance. Then, about one minute into the chart recording, the tracing exhibited a contour similar to the reaction pattern of a human subject attached to a polygraph who might have been briefly experiencing the fear of detection. I thought: Well, if this plant wants to show me some people-like reactions, I’ve got to use some people-like rules on it and see if I can get this to happen again.
    [Show full text]
  • Biology Transition to a Level
    Transition to Advanced Level Biology Contents: I. Reading List II. Tasks III. Base Line Test 1 Reading List The books below are all popular science books and great for extending your understanding of Biology. Richard Dawkins: The Selfish Gene The Blind Watchmaker. Unweaving the Rainbow Climbing Mount Improbable The Ancestor’s Tale Steve Jones: Y: The Descent of Men In the Blood: God, Genes and Destiny Almost Like a Whale: The 'Origin of Species' Updated The Language of the genes Matt Ridley: Genome: The Autobiography of a Species in 23 Chapters The Red Queen: Sex and the Evolution of Human Nature The Language of Genes Francis Crick: Discoverer of the Genetic Code Nature Via Nurture: Genes, Experience and What Makes Us Human James Watson: DNA: The Secret of Life The Double Helix: Personal Account of the Discovery of the Structure of DNA Lewis Thomas: The Lives of a Cell: Notes of a Biology Watcher. The Medusa and the Snail: More Notes of a Biology Watcher Barry Gibb: The Rough Guide to the Brain (Rough Guides Reference Titles) Charles Darwin: The origin of species Armand Marie Leroi: Mutants: On the Form, Varieties and Errors of the Human Body David S. Goodsell: The Machinery of Life Ernst Mayr: This Is Biology: The Science of the Living World George C. Williams: Plan and Purpose in Nature Steve Pinker: The Language Instinct Edward O Wilson: The Diversity of Life Richard Leaky: The Origin of Humankind Bill Bryson: A Short History of Nearly Everything Oliver Sachs: The Man Who Mistook His Wife For A Hat Daniel Chamovitz: What A Plant Knows 2 Websites 1.
    [Show full text]
  • Entanglements of Plant Life and Human Subjectivity in Modern Japan
    Becoming Botanical: Entanglements of Plant Life and Human Subjectivity in Modern Japan By Jon L Pitt A dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Japanese Language in the Graduate Division of the University of California, Berkeley Committee in charge: Professor Alan Tansman, Chair Professor Daniel O’Neill Professor Kristen Whissel Fall 2019 Abstract Becoming Botanical: Entanglements of Plant Life and Human Subjectivity in Modern Japan by Jon L. Pitt Doctor of Philosophy in Japanese Language University of California, Berkeley Professor Alan Tansman, Chair This dissertation argues that plant life offered a number of modern Japanese writers and filmmakers a model through which to rethink human subjectivity in response to turbulent historical events. Informed by the adaptability and resilience of vegetal life (so-called phenotypic plasticity, in which plants change in response to changes in their environments), the authors and directors I discuss posit a form of destructive plasticity available to humans in the face of crises brought on by war, colonial violence, natural disaster, and economic depression. Across genres and media—in poetry, novels, scientific writing, and films—subjectivity is reconfigured beyond the confines of the human body, beyond conventional sense perception, and beyond human temporality. Drawing from Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari in A Thousand Plateaus, I call the reconfiguration of subjectivity in cultural texts inspired by plant life “becoming botanical.” My first chapter examines two writers: poet and novelist Osaki Midori and biologist Imanishi Kinji. For both, evolutionary thinking informed by new research in botanical science provided a framework to think through and reconfigure human subjectivity amidst the violence of the early Shōwa period, as well as providing a means to envision a notion of family through shared resemblance that included plants.
    [Show full text]
  • Are Plants Conscious?
    Journal of Conscíousness Studies, 4, No. 3, 1997, pp. 215-30 --3rral imagery" ARE PLANTS CONSCIOUS? Roediger, H.L. Alexandra H.M. Nagel* :,tn : Evidence 3-ack* ell). Abstract: Views of 'plant consciousness' in the literature are classified on a scale ranging : CUP). from descriptions of plant phenomena using consciousness as a metaphor, to explicit state- -;:" Sciences of ments that plants are conscious beings. The idea ofpiant consciousness is far from new, but it has received a new impetus from recent claims by psychics to communicate with plants. :-::ile science', The literature surveyed is widely scattered and very diverse, but it can teach us much about .: r. {. (1996) the views that various segments ofsociety hold on plant consciousness. .:-ieil and Sean .-::':ology and :,:r;J: Stanford Introduction L lbr the hard Are the greenthings of nature, plants, bushes, ferns, trees, mosses, etc., conscious? Can we even approach this question without knowing what human consciousness is? ..:Er of Time Although we don't know what human consciousness is, or how it relates to the brain, --.erology and a common assumption is that brains are necessary for consciousness. Since plants do :,-r:l: Stanford not have brain tissue, from this viewpoint it is useless to even consider the possibility ::,:i Cognitive of plants being conscious. The article by Cleve Backster (1968) on the 'primary perception ability' of plants, : . iournal of and the best selling book The Secret Life of Plants, by Peter Tomkins & Christopher Bird (1974) have stimulated popular reconsideration of plant consciousness. Earlier works had already provoked discussion among scientists, including Nannq, or The Soul Life of Plants, by the famous German physician and psycho-physicist Gustav Fechner (1848, reprinted l92l), and work ofthe Indian Jagadis Chander Bose on plants' sensitivity to injuries (Geddes, 1920; Tompkins & Bird,l974, pp.95-117).
    [Show full text]