Plants do have feelings
Who says plants don’t have feelings? Plants may not possess minds but researchers are not entirely misdirected when they study just how deep the abilities of plants run. In plants, there exists a faint copy of what we know as consciousness in ourselves. Plants fondly remember and extend their energy to those who grow and tend to them and provide people with a simple way to improve their emotional health. Writes Sangma Khuranachandigarh Updated: Aug 27, 2014 16:25 IST
Who says plants don’t have feelings? Plants may not possess minds but researchers are not entirely misdirected when they study just how deep the abilities of plants run. In plants, there exists a faint copy of what we know as consciousness in ourselves. Plants fondly remember and extend their energy to those who grow and tend to them and provide people with a simple way to improve their emotional health.
The presence of plants triggers happy emotions, heightens feelings of satisfaction and positively affects social behavior. Plants not only seem to be aware and feel pain but also possess the potential to communicate. My experience has made me conscious of the same. I started gardening five years ago when I moved into my new house. I really loved my plants and felt they responded to my feelings.
Three years ago, my husband met with an accident and was admitted to hospital in a critical condition. Doctors said they would try saving his life but would have to amputate his right leg to check the spread of infection. They decided to perform the surgery the next morning.
At 5.30am on the day of the operation, I was standing at the window of my room from where I could see my plants standing still in the absence of wind. I said a little prayer, telling my plants that if I had ever loved them, my husband would somehow be saved. To my surprise, their tiny leaves started waving to me as if consoling me and telling me not to worry. I felt they were infusing confidence in me with some positive vibes that gave me strength.
A doctor called after sometime and informed me that the operation had been called off as my husband had started responding to treatment. Hence, they would try saving his limb. Within two years, my husband underwent eight surgeries and is now fit.
Though you won’t believe it, for those two years, none of my flower-bearing plants bloomed, even during the flowering season as if indicating they were also sad and worried about my husband’s health like me. I have found that plants can react to events taking place thousands of miles away.
They have the ability to sense and respond to humans and other plants, the ability to recognise kin and are sentient. It is the feeling of love, pain and joy we share with plants that provides the basis of our ability to communicate with them. The more time I have spent with plants, the more I have realised that Nature is always eager to inch closer to man. I admire the tenacity, vibrancy and beauty that plants possess without distinguishing between the good and the bad, the weed and the flower.
Their experience of living and surviving in the world is very different from the experience we face because they cannot move about. They exist in a state of profound acceptance and peace within themselves.