About the soul of plants

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Introduced this topic in search engines and what kind of opinions, sometimes directly opposite, contradictory, what wonders I have not found there, and what peremptoryness in the statements! Here are some of them, the most neutral: “There is a soul in all material bodies possessing signs of life. Life testifies to the presence of the soul. While the plant lives, grows, blooms - it has a soul in it. As soon as the soul leaves the plant, it immediately perishes. " Or one more thing: “Of course, there is a soul in plants. I even set up experiments. Planted seedlings in 2 different trays. I constantly talked with some sprouts, praised, asked to grow well. And I, far from being a superstitious person, a rationalist, saw that the seedlings with which I communicated were stronger and grew faster than those with which I did not communicate. Since then I have been talking with all the plants in the garden or at home, stroking them with my hands and apologizing for transplanting or pruning. And they have been pleasing me for many years. ”

Some fans of flowers cite the lyrical lines of famous poets as evidence of the presence of soul flowers, for example, such:

Do you think, man?
But is one thought peculiar to you?
She hides in everything ...
The flowers have a soul ready to open.

Others cite the experience of their grandparents:

“Plants experience pain, joy, and fear. Grandma always said that when you pluck a plant, ask him for forgiveness. It has long been noticed how plants react to music, perceive hatred and love. The ancients also spoke of this. Paracelsus in his Occult Botany claimed that plants possess a soul. I am leaving the garden saying goodbye to my "greenfinchs", I come - I say hello. Stroking the trunks, talking. I think they understand everything. ”
I think it has. In my life there was such a case. I looked after an old grandfather, and he grew a decorative tree on a balcony. Talked with him when watered or just sat next to him. And now, when he died, a month later the tree completely withered, although it was watered and looked after no worse than his grandfather. That’s how it happens: it would seem that the tree, and there was no grandfather and no tree.

There is such a version (there are several, different) about the discovery by the forensic scientist of the American intelligence services, Clive Baxter, who made the existing interaction between people and plants public in 1966. Baxter once conducted an experiment with a dragon tree in his office. It was easy to attach electrodes to the large leaves of this plant to measure changes in resistance to weak electric current. Polygraph specialist Baxter wanted to know how long it would take for water to rise from the roots of a tree along its trunk to the very ends of the leaves. He took the matches to dry the sheet, while at the same time the polygraph suddenly showed a strong reaction. But he had not yet managed to burn the plant, he only thought about it! It is believed that this amazing discovery marked the beginning of a new career for Baxter, because he continued to conduct experiments with plants. The work of Baxter is described in the book by Peter Tompkins and Christopher Bird, The Secret Life of Plants.

In order for the author to express his opinion on the question of the soul of plants, he, of course, should begin by defining the very concept of “soul”. There are many such definitions. We will try to formulate only two. The first of them is the image of the soul (human, of course) according to Plato (427 - 347 years BC). In his works, Plato compares the soul with a winged chariot. If in the chariot of the gods there are horses and charioteers of noble birth, then one of the horses is beautiful for mortals, he is white, kind and obedient, ready to bring the charioteer to heaven, and the other is endowed with opposite qualities: he is black, heavy, wayward, naughty and pulls chariot to the ground. As they travel through the vault of heaven, the souls of gods and the souls of men contemplate the world of ideas and truth, which is ambrosia, the subsistence of the soul. But initially everything that is in the world of ideas is inherent in the soul, although in an unmanifest form - just as in the seed is knowledge of what it can and should become. The abilities that we already possess are the knowledge that was acquired earlier by our ancestors. It seems that we are talking not only about the ability to do good, but also to commit evil deeds embedded in people at the genetic level.

The second definition of the soul is more modern: it is, as it were, likened to a computer program embedded in a person (animal, plant). There is a genetic program, and all the experience, knowledge and preferences of past generations. How not to recall the famous expression: "Not a single sigh, not a single smile passes without a trace in the world." The program, embedded in the soul of a person at birth, is continuously updated in the process of his life, in accordance with the requirements of society, its collective culture, the development of various teachings and false doctrines.

They say that the desire for love and good is inherent in the soul of every person, which is also proclaimed in the moral commandments of various religions. Ideal would be the case when the soul of each person was programmed in accordance with the commandments of good and love of each of the existing religions, the main of which is "Do not do to the other that you would not want to be done to you," although there are many other commandments very fair, humane and beautiful.

Wise people argue that their life should be built only in accordance with the moral divine commandments, no matter what religion. So Leo Tolstoy confirms these thoughts: “One, only one, we have an infallible leader, a world-wide spirit that penetrates us all together and each, as a unit, impelling every desire for what should be; the same spirit that tells him to grow towards the sun in a tree, tells him to drop a seed in the flower by autumn and tells us to strive for God (it’s clear that we are talking about moral divine commandments, according to which people should only build their lives - author's note) and in this desire to more and more connect with each other. ” But no, the emotional program isn’t forming like that. Apparently, the reason for this is the insatiable bodily desires of a person. Without dwelling on them in detail, we note that they, in fact, are the exact opposite of the moral commandments of any of the existing religions. And since we are talking about the analogy of human souls to computer programs, it is worth mentioning about hackers who crack these programs (souls), as well as all kinds of viruses that infect them. In order not to unnecessarily bore the reader, we will give him the opportunity at his leisure to think about the dangers for the human soul in this regard.

But what about the souls of plants? It is clear that since every tiny seed has a program on how to be a plant, this already indicates that it has at least a particle of soul. And I must say that plants, unlike human ones, have excellent programs. As if created entirely by moral divine commandments, plants are very patient. They do not complain when people care poorly for them, they can endure some climatic inconveniences. And most importantly, taking care of the continuation of a kind, they bring joy and benefit to other living beings. In fact, what a beautiful soul a plant must have in order to dissolve its wonderful flowers in the spring (here, they say, admire!). And not just for the sake of beauty, but for the good: in the spring, the bees will have time to collect honey from the flowers, at the same time pollinating the plants, and in the fall many of them will give animals and people lots of berries, vegetables and fruits.

Such a program would not hurt to have in their souls and people. But people, as soon as it comes to the soul of plants, are immediately alarmed: is it possible to use this very soul for the (supposedly) good of people? - You can see such questions on the Internet. Praise the gods that there is as yet no widespread interference in the “spiritual” programming of plants (we mean technologies for changing the genetic code of plants).