Five Senses

Jul 04, 2014

By IBA Team



"And forget not that the earth delights to feel your bare feet and the winds long to play with your hair" Khalil Gibran, The Prophet
 
Being in nature is one of the ways in which humans can have extremely powerful sensual experiences. But have you ever wondered what a rose smells, or what the grass under your feet feels, or what the hundred-year-old tree sees? Although plants lack eyes, ears, a mouth, a nose, and skin, they still seem to perceive and respond to the world around them. 

What do they Feel? 
Plants live in a very tactile world. The Venus flytrap is an excellent example of just how tactile plants are. When a fly, beetle or other insect crawls across the leaves of the Venus flytrap, its leaves snap together with surprising force. How does it know when to do this? It feels its prey touching large hairs on the two lobes of the trap. What is interesting about this is that it does not snap shut with any stimulation - it requires that two hair touches must occur within about 20 seconds of each other. This mechanism is strikingly similar to the way we humans feel a fly crawling on our arm. Most plants feel a mechanical stimulus in this way. 

At the level of the individual cells, plants and animals use similar proteins to feel things. When they are stimulated by mechanical pressure or distortions, the cells allow charged ions to cross the membrane; this will generate a current and allow for a response. This sensitivity to touch allows them to respond to their changing environments.(1)

The plants that seem to have the most developed sense of touch are climbing plants. Their tendrils are highly adapted organs used to support them as they grow. What is interesting is that when viewed on normal speed the tendrils appear to move slowly round an oval pathway. However, on a speeded-up time-lapse the effect looks startlingly like a blind creature feeling its way. There is a sense of orientation to these searching movements. The pea plant for example, uses an elliptical searching motion and can even tell when it has come into contact with a solid support.(2) 

What do they Taste? 
Current research(3) indicates that much of a plant's sense of taste is in its roots. When a row of plants was subjected to drought conditions, it took just one hour for the message to travel to plants that were five rows away, causing them to prepare for the lack of water. The signal must have been passed from root to root in the form of a soluble molecule. Other plants that were just as close but did not connect by way of their roots failed to react to the signal. 

Another example is a volatile chemical called methyl jasmonate. Although this is a gas, it is not very active in plants. Instead it gets converted into the water-soluble jasmonic acid. This attaches to specific receptors in the cells and triggers the defense response of the leaf. This is similar to the different taste receptors of our tongue.(4)

What do they Smell? 
The Dodder plant (a parasitic vine) contains almost no chlorophyll (the pigment that most plants use to make food) so to eat it must suck the sap from other plants. To detect suitable target plants it uses olfaction. Although this particular plant is exceptionally sensitive to odors, all plants have a sense of smell in the form of receptors that respond to volatile chemicals. 

It is well known that treating unripe fruit with ethylene gas induces the fruit to ripen. This was established in the 1920s and is a widely used technique by agriculturists. Since then, it has become apparent that all ripening fruits emit ethylene, which when smelt by neighboring fruit, initiates ripening.(5) 

What do they Hear? 
Although much of the research in this area is brand new, botanists are starting to present rationale as to why the perception of sound and vibration is likely to have evolved in plants. In a recent study, results showed that corn roots grow towards specific frequencies of vibrations AND that roots themselves may also be emitting sound waves. 

As mentioned earlier, according to a researcher named Gagliano, it seems there is even the possibility that plants communicate with each other using sound. (See Plant Communication Section.) 

What do they See? 
The ability to detect light (see) exists even in seeds; many plant seeds require sunlight to germinate.

Plants have light sensitive chemicals that do not take part in photosynthesis. One of these includes a chemical called phytochrome, which is a light-activated switch. It has the ability to detect between red light and far-red light. This allows it to be able to "turn off " at the end of the day (because far-red light predominates at the end of the day) and "wake-up" the next day (when the sun is high enough for the red light to switch on). It also allows them to sense when they are in the shade because when this occurs they get much more far-red light than red light meaning that phytochromes are switched on causing the plant to grow more rapidly in attempt to get better exposure to the sun.(6) 

So it seems that the plants various "senses" are vital to their growth and survival and are hence a common priority when doing BodyTalk for Plants. 

The Five Senses Technique 
There are a couple of ways in which this technique can be used. For those that have not taken Principles of Consciousness (Mod 3), the Five Senses for plants will simply become an item that will link out to other parts of the protocol chart. This will help balance the ability of the plant to respond to its environment in an effective way. 

For those of you that have taken Principles of Consciousness, there may be situations in which plants are tied into a human, family matrix and/or influenced by human behaviors. In this case you may use the Principles of Consciousness balancing procedure for the Five Senses to help release accumulated beliefs that are distorting the ability of the plant's senses to operate naturally. It seems they have definite memories of specific people or events. For example, if someone abuses a plant, it will show significant stress whenever that person comes near even if the person has been away for months. This concept is covered in more detail in the Active Memory section.



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1 Chamovitz D. Plants Exhibit The Same Senses As Humans. The Mind Unleashed. http://themindunleashed.org/2013/11/plants-exhibit-same¬senses-as-humans.html. November 2013. June 2014.

2 Ford BJ. How Animal and Plants feel and Communicate. Brian J. Ford. http://www.brianjford.com/soulsa.htm. 1999. June 2014. 

3 Chamovitz D. Plants Exhibit The Same Senses As Humans. The Mind Unleashed. http://themindunleashed.org/2013/11/plants-exhibit-same¬senses-as-humans.html. November 2013. June 2014. 

4 Chamovitz D. Plants Exhibit The Same Senses As Humans. The Mind Unleashed. http://themindunleashed.org/2013/11/plants-exhibit-same¬senses-as-humans.html. November 2013. June 2014.

5 Chamovitz D. Plants Exhibit The Same Senses As Humans. The Mind Unleashed. http://themindunleashed.org/2013/11/plants-exhibit-same¬senses-
as-humans.html. November 2013. June 2014.

6 Chamovitz D. Plants Exhibit The Same Senses As Humans. The Mind Unleashed. http://themindunleashed.org/2013/11/plants-exhibit-same¬senses-as-humans.html. November 2013.
June 2014.

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