I believe with all my heart it is imperative to the survival of humanity that we learn to live in harmony with nature. I grew up on a big, beautiful farm in Virginia at the foothills of the Blue Ridge mountains. My childhood days were filled with the wonder of the natural world as I explored the myriad of tadpoles and life in streams and ponds, examined the patterns on turtle shells and gazed in awe at all the variety of plant and flower life that appeared each spring in the fields and forests. Nature left a blessed imprint deep within my soul. I am at my best, and filled with wonder and peace, when I am immersed in the beauty of nature.

My heart has been saddened over the years watching the greedy exploitation of our planet’s natural resources, the deforestation of rain forests and mother trees, the toxic bombardment of chemicals into our precious soils and waters and the urban sprawl that wipes out everything in its path in the name of progress. This is not progress. It is a system of devastation which now threatens the very survival of humanity and our only, beautiful blue star Earth.

While the tendency is to point the blame at our politicians, whom we chose, and who are entwined in a deceptive affair with bankers and corporations, we the people have allowed this destructive reality. It is beyond time for a new dream for as John Perkins states in his video below, “Everything starts with the dream“. Humanity is unquestionably in the midst of a revolution in consciousness, and at last, coming out of the corporate trance while awakening to this failed and corrupt system we have allowed to dominate and control us.

In 2001, I journeyed to Peru with a small group to travel with a shaman. The use of plant medicine was part of the experience. While I had my fears, it was precisely these fears which the plants allowed me to confront and initiate me into their world of awareness. I did the trek along the Inca Trail, and around the Island of the Sun in Bolivia, under the influence of plant medicine. As Perkins explains, if done properly, these sacred plants do not remove one from reality, but rather carry one far deeper into the truth of reality and the mystery of this world. I experienced the wonder of nature once again as I had as a child. The messages I received from the wisdom of the natural world were profound. These sacred plants altered the very core of my being, and brought me back into alignment and connection with the wisdom of all life. I could see and feel the energy in the stones, the animals, the water, the clouds, the plants which deepened my understanding of the purpose in every living thing.

In essence, the evolutionary lessons from the plant kingdom have provided me with some of the greatest truths of my life. If humanity is to evolve on this planet, we must embrace the wisdom which nature holds for us, and seek to live in balance with the natural world. Our survival depends on it. We must change the dream from dominance to humility, and allow the plants to teach us about food, healing, beauty and especially our spiritual origin.

secret life of plants

Below are excerpts from an article regarding plant consciousness followed by John Perkins latest video regarding his forthcoming conference in London this October. The spirit of plants is teeming with evolutionary wisdom for our growth, and waiting for us to listen that we may restore our Earth to the fullness of its true magic…a magic that has been hidden from us and beyond anything we can imagine.

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Concerning a plant’s pain
In the research of Jagadish Chandra Bose, in plant stimuli, he showed with the help of his newly invented crescograph that plants responded to various stimuli as if they had nervous systems like that of animals. He therefore found a parallelism between animal and plant tissues. His experiments showed that plants grow faster in pleasant music and its growth retards in noise or harsh sound. His major contribution in the field of biophysics was the demonstration of the electrical nature of the conduction of various stimuli (wounds, chemical agents) in plants, which were earlier thought to be of chemical in nature.He claimed that plants can “feel pain, understand affection etc.,” from the analysis of the nature of variation of the cell membrane potential of plants, under different circumstances. According to him a plant treated with care and affection gives out a different vibration compared to a plant subjected to torture.”

Plants Know Who Their Siblings Are
Some more amazing research has shown that plants actually know their own siblings and kin, with the help of chemicals released from the roots. This way, if siblings of the plants are growing alongside them, the plants will grow their roots more downward and be taller, whereas if alien plants are living beside them, they will grow their roots outward and the alien plants will be shorter and grow less.

Plants Can Think and Remember
Recent research has uncovered that plants transmit information about light intensity and quality from leaf to leaf in a very similar way to the nervous system of human beings. In the experiment that found this, scientists showed that light shone on to one leaf caused the whole plant to respond and the response, which took the form of light-induced chemical reactions in the leaves, continued in the dark. This showed that the plant remembered the information encoded in light. Plants seem to be able to perform a sort of biological light computation, using information contained in the light to immunize themselves against diseases.
These “electro-chemical signals” are carried by cells that act as “nerves” of the plants.

Implications
There is an energy that flows throughout everything on this planet and throughout the entire universe. There is one invisible energy that ties us all together. Man, woman, cat, dog, tree, rocks, and any other manifestations of energy are all interconnected. The principle of Oneness is found in all ancient religions. The new evidence implies that these ancient beliefs, which were answers that mystics found by going within and accessing higher knowledge, were true in the sense that all is one and all is connected. The whole universe is, in this case, a sentient organism.
Never treat a plant like it is an inanimate object. It is just as alive as you are, just in a different way. Its consciousness is basic but it does exhibit feelings of fear, Empathy, happiness, etc. Is it not best to respect everything and everyone the same way you respect yourself? Why must it only involve human beings? Why not broaden the criteria to everything with a consciousness? It is the right thing to do that you can see in the deep of your soul. If we treat all manifested Reality as if it was us, but in a different manifestation, then imagine how different life would be.

Insights
The purity and unselfishness of plant existence can be pondered upon. Plant life can be seen as a model for ideal human conduct; unlike animals and humans, most plants do not kill and do not live at the expense of other organisms. They are in direct contact with all four elements (earth, wind, water, and fire i.e. sun) and their ability to transform cosmic energy is absolutely indispensable for life on this planet. Plants are uncontaminated by questions about purpose, awareness of goals, or concerns about the future; rather they seem to represent pure being in the here and now, the ideal of many mystical and spiritual schools of thought. Not exploiting and hurting other organisms, most plants serve themselves as a source of food and bring beauty and joy into the life of others.