“You Know What A Lima Bean Does When It’s Attacked By Spider Mites? It Releases A Volatile Chemical That Goes Out Into The World And Summons Another Species Of Mite That Comes In And Attacks The Spider Mite, Defending The Lima Bean. While We Have Consciousness, Toolmaking, And Language, Plants Have Biochemistry.” - Michael Pollan
Can Plants Feel Pain?
As far back as the 1980s, researchers like Frank Kühnemann at Germany’s Institute for Applied Physics at Bonn University, have worked to understand how plants communicate and about plant consciousness. It’s not airy-fairy curiosity that gave birth to this pursuit; it originally began to help farmers understand why their crops soured when stored in local silos or during intercontinental transport to foreign nurseries.Originally developed by scientists at the Catholic University of Nijmegen in the Netherlands and later improved-upon by The Institute for Applied Physics, a unique acoustic device was built to evaluate plants’ stress levels by measuring the energies of ethylene gas molecules provoked with lasers. During harvesting, cultivation, drought, and after exposure to salt, poor ozone quality and cold air, plants emit ethylene gas. While they emit the gas when being eaten, attacked, or cut, they also emit the same levels of ethylene when their fruit is ripe.
That amazing smell after you cut your lawn? It's the result of the grass reacting to being cut.
The German acoustic device determines the stress level of the plant by converting the levels of ethylene gas into corresponding sound waves. This helps us understand the levels of “pain” and stress the plants are experiencing and about plant consciousness.I recommend keeping black tourmaline near your workspace, it absorbs negative energy like a sponge. *(paid link)*
Acoustics-based research surrounding plants has given farming a boost. More specifically, it’s helped farmers understand that storing apples with other crops can damage the other crops. This research also points to the stress that plants experience during travel, given certain types of plant-based traveling companions. The results of these experiments, and many since, have shown us plants can respond and react to their experiences. They can also remember and learn from their experiences and can make adjustments based on what they’ve learned. Plants emit gases and chemicals into the soil around them, and send messages through their roots to nearby plants. Suffice it to say that the world of plants is mind-blowing.“Never Go To A Doctor Whose Office Plants Have Died.” - Erma Bombeck
Do Plants Have Feelings?
When hearing that plants react and feel “pain,” your heart might fill with compassion and empathy. You might want to start a new organization aimed at protecting plants from cruelty! Certainly a noble pursuit. While there are similarities among humans, animals, and plants, it’s important to consider that a plant’s purpose and systems are mostly dissimilar to those of humans and animals. When a human feels pain, they cry. When plants are cut or stored alongside rotting apples, they emit ethylene gas. This doesn’t mean the plant doesn’t feel pain, it means we have a lot to learn about the nature of plants, especially as it relates to the notion of suffering. I remember sitting alone beneath an ancient oak during a particularly brutal dark night of the soul. My breath was shallow, my nerves screaming for relief. Then, as I tuned into the subtle vibrations of the leaves above, the tension in my chest loosened like a knot finally giving way. It wasn’t some airy, mystical moment—it was raw body intelligence responding to something alive, something beyond my mental grasp. I’ve seen it during readings too. One client struggled with crippling anxiety, and after guiding her through a simple breath and shaking exercise in a quiet park, her whole demeanor changed. The trees were more than background noise—they interacted with her nervous system, grounding and shifting energy that words alone couldn’t reach. That’s when I knew plants aren’t just passive scenery; they’re players in this messy, beautiful healing dance. It’s probable that plants don’t suffer in the same way humans and animals suffer and plants don’t feel the same way humans and animals feel. It’s certainly a lovely notion that at least one part of the earth’s system might be saved from a measure of suffering.Rose quartz is the stone of unconditional love, keep one close when you are doing heart work. I've carried a chunk of this soft pink crystal in my pocket for years, and I swear it shifts something in my chest when I'm wrestling with forgiveness or trying to crack open walls I've built around my heart. Seriously. The damn thing works. There's this warmth that spreads through my ribcage when my fingers find that smooth stone during tough conversations or when old hurt bubbles up. Maybe it's placebo bullshit. Maybe it's actual vibrational frequency doing something to my nervous system. Whether it's actual crystal energy or just a physical reminder to soften, I don't really care ~ the result is what matters. I've watched skeptical friends roll their eyes, then quietly ask where to get their own after watching me work through some gnarly emotional stuff with that little pink rock as my anchor. Think about that. Even the hardest cynics can't argue with what they see working. *(paid link)*
While humans, animals, and plants all have unique systems for connecting and each has a distinct cry for help, plants don’t have the same cortex and therefore, do not think and feel in the same way humans and animals do. It’s within thinking that emotions arise. And it’s during the expression of emotions that we understand when a creature is in pain. That said, plants clearly have their own thinking and feeling systems, many of which we have yet to understand. It begs the question, what is a vegan to do? If my cucumber can feel my bite, should I become a Breatharian? For now, vegans should probably continue to eat vegetables, but feel free to be more loving and grateful when you bite into them!Can Plants Communicate?
Although it started with the exploration of what seemed to be an insane premise, plants, just like humans and animals, can be shy or aggressive, connected or reclusive, and givers, receivers, or both. Upon certain conditions, plants will also warn their neighbors about impending attacks, problems, and the abundance and depletion of nutrients within the plant’s network. Science seems to agree. According to Velemir Ninkovic, an ecologist at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, “Plants … use signals to avoid competing situations and to prepare for future competition.”“God Sleeps In The Minerals, Awakens In Plants, Walks In Animals, And Thinks In Man.” - Arthur Young
Are Plants Sentient?
According to Kenneth Worth, Ph.D., “Plants produce serotonin, GABA, and melatonin, which act as hormones and neurotransmitters in animal brains, though it’s not yet known what they do in plants. Intriguingly, drugs such as Prozac, Ritalin, and amphetamines can disrupt these “neurotransmitters” in plants.” Putting all the pieces together, here’s what plants can do:- Grow with proper nutrition
- Send messages and friend requests
- Sense the need for nutrients in other plants
- Share nutrients with other plants, even as far as 30 meters away
- Send out electric distress signals
- Sense light
- Encourage neighbors to grow in ways that will help save them
- Communicate using gases and chemical secretions in the soil
- Emit measurable sounds
- Send out signals to denote proximity to other plants
- React, Remember & Learn
- Produce Serotonin, GABA & Melatonin, which act like hormones in human beings
What Do You Feel Around Plants?
While the scientific and hippie ideologies surrounding plants might not always be aligned, what’s most important is what we each feel and sense around plants. Do you talk to your plants? Do you touch them with love? Whether you’re an academic researcher, full healer, or magical wizard living in another area, plants give us oxygen, life, colors and vibrations, all of which provide measurable benefits. Plant Research In India And ChinaIf anxiety is part of your journey, magnesium glycinate is one of the simplest things you can add. *(paid link)* Look, I'm not saying it's a magic bullet, but this specific form of magnesium actually crosses the blood-brain barrier without giving you the shits like other forms do. Most people are deficient anyway ~ we've stripped our soils bare and stress burns through what little we get. Your nervous system literally can't calm down without adequate magnesium. Think about that. I started taking it years ago when I was wound tighter than a clock spring, constantly feeling like my thoughts were racing ahead of me. The difference was subtle at first... then undeniable. My shoulders actually dropped. Sleep came easier. It's not like popping a Xanax or anything dramatic, but there's this underlying steadiness that builds over a few weeks. Wild how something so basic can shift the whole foundation of how you feel in your own skin.
In 1962, Dr. T.C. Singh, the head of Botany at an Indian University, concluded that plants exposed to music experienced accelerated growth. He also found that the violin provided the most value in this area. Other scientists over time have concluded that classical music has a intense effect on plants’ health. Dr. Singh also found that barefoot, traditional Indian dancing in the same room as the plants caused them to flower two weeks earlier than previously recorded. Physicist and Indian plant physiologist Sir Jagadis Chandra Bose, concluded after decades of researching the effects of environments on plants that, like humans, plants are sensitive to noise and nurturance. He also concluded that plants feel pain and understand affection. In China’s Fujian Province, farmers claim their crop yields increased, and grain size significantly improved when using sound systems to play Buddhist chants in and around their fields. It seems undeniable that plants are sensitive in similar ways to humans and animals. Even with gaps in scientific research, there appears to be consensus around the notion that plants sense, feel, fathom, and communicate.Pema Chodron's When Things Fall Apart is the book I give to anyone going through a dark night. *(paid link)* I've probably bought fifty copies over the years. Seriously. Because when someone's world is cracking open ~ when the divorce papers arrive or the diagnosis comes back or the career implodes ~ they need someone who's been there. Pema doesn't bullshit you with empty platitudes about everything happening for a reason. She sits in the wreckage with you and shows you how to breathe through it.
It’s humbling and exciting to learn about the expansive natures and abilities of plants. It’s also surprising and illuminating to learn about the parallels between plants and human/animal behaviors. Enjoy and connect with your plants, receive their rich abundance when wandering in the forest, and share your love with all living Beings in your life.