The Backster effect
📜 On record
Ex-CIA polygraph expert Cleve Backster (Int. J. Parapsychology 1968) · USA, New York · 1966
He attached a polygraph to a dracaena and the trace swung wildly as he merely ‘thought’ of burning a leaf, inspiring ‘The Secret Life of Plants’; 1974 university replications failed, as did ‘MythBusters’ in 2006.
VerdictCouldn’t be replicated.
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Pavlovian conditioning in pea plants
🎓 Academic research
Univ of Western Australia, Monica Gagliano (Scientific Reports 2016) · Australia · 2016
Pairing a fan’s airflow with a light source, pea seedlings later grew toward the airflow direction alone.
VerdictPlants have associative learning.
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The forest ‘wood-wide web’
🎓 Academic research
Univ of British Columbia, Suzanne Simard (Nature 1997) · Canada · 1997
Carbon isotopes proved birch and Douglas fir shuttle carbon to each other through underground mycorrhizal networks.
VerdictReal ‘communication and mutual aid’ between plants exists.
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The Findhorn garden
📜 On record
Findhorn Foundation · UK, Scotland · 1962–
Founders claimed to commune with ‘plant devas’ and grew 18-kg cabbages in barren sand.
VerdictNo controls; soil improvement explains it.
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