Do plants have souls too?

[Erki]

Many people here have asked about animals having souls or not, but I haven't seen anyone ask about plants(only those who are against plant cruelty by veg*ans).

Do plants have souls?
Do plants (re)incarnate?
Are there any plants on the "other side"?

This would also beg the question: does a plant die? How does it die? When you uproot a flower from one place and put it into earth at another place, it continues growing/living. When you break a branch off a tree and put it into earth at another place, it might start growing into a tree as well. You can uproot a flower and put it into a vase, and it still lives(although for less time than in dirt).

Does a carrot die when you uproot him or when you eat her? Is it painful for him when you bite him? Does she want to be eaten?

[Rose of Cairo]

Very good questions Erki! I ask myself the same too.

When I take a few leaves from my basil to put into the salad, I always apologize and thank him. My plants have names too. I must admit, I feel better when I eat tomatoes or cucumber than something like carrots or porree... I don't know if my concern is exaggerated...

I've read that plants react on sounds and electromagnetic waves, that they communicate with chemical signals and that they are even able to recognize humans (by their vibes I suppose). But this doesn't necessarily mean they have a consciousness and soul. I don't know!

[Erin Pavlina]

All matter is energy. I'm not sure all energy is conscious though. So I know plants have energy and that energy can be altered, but I'm not aware of them having consciousness.

[Anagogy]

In my opinion, yes, plants have awareness. All things do, but in varying quantities. When a plant is destroyed, I can tell you that it is aware of the event in its own "plant way". It perceives an event that is entropic to the direction of its life force, thus making it a negative event in terms of consciousness. The same goes for say a one celled microorganism being consumed by say, a paramecium. It experiences something negative as it's integrity as a physical lifeform comes to an end. That's not to say it is thinking about any of this as it happens. We live in a reality where life feeds on life, and that continues until you learn all the lessons associated with that kind of environment.

[hollowman]

I always make a point to tell people how wonderful plants are, being able to make their own food with such basic stuff like sunlight, carbon dioxide and water; how plants are better off without humans but humans cant survive without them, yet human are destroying them all the time.

i wish plants have that kind of consciousness that we can see, so that we may appreciate them better. perhaps plants should be endowed with the gift of communication or contact (or we should be given the gift to communicate with plants the way the communicate with themselves )so that they may voice out how we humans have encroached into their territories. perhaps there can be some treaties between human and plant as in how we should respect each others' right.

do u guys know of any scientific research into consciousness of plants or something of that sort??

Erki, thanks for ur provocative thought about 'carrot', 'plant soul' and 'plants on the other side'. Really make plants more mystical to me.

[peacelily64]

I have often thought about plants haveing a conscious.... have read many books I have went to the Perelandra gardens which uses the same concepts of the Findhorn Gardens.... I have many plants and trees in my home.... plants like other things on the food chain agree to be used as such ..... still I always wonder as Iam eating a banana Iam sorry ...but thankful for ur giving me this lovely fruit.... Jane

[Paul C]

A fruit or vegetable is the potential seed of a plant anyway, so consuming that part of a plant would only be doing the plant, as a whole, a service.

What is a soul exactly? Hopefully not perceived as something with a set size and shape. If consciousness is reality itself, couldn't it be said that the soul is just a free-form concentration of energy which is more aware of itself than something far more dense? In saying that, a branch cut from the main plant would be akin to pouring some water out of a large container into a smaller, differently shaped container. The water adapts to the shape (form) of it's new container.

Yet unlike water, something that we label as the 'soul' would have the potential to grow in volume independently as it's host form grows. Of course this can also be considered false because there's no true separation, just degrees of form density.

It's both interesting and perplexing discuss these things.:P

[Dan.Linehan]

If trees could scream would we be so cavalier about chopping them down?

We might, if they were screaming all the time for no good reason.

- Jack Handey

[Lallymac]

Originally Posted by Erin Pavlina

All matter is energy. I'm not sure all energy is conscious though. So I know plants have energy and that energy can be altered, but I'm not aware of them having consciousness.

I believe that consciousness interacts with all forms life. Even if a tree or flower doesn't have individual consciousness, the energy field it exists within is part of a larger field of consciousness which is able to communicate interactively.

Originally Posted by Dan.Linehan

- Jack Handey

The communicative sounds that nature makes are inaudible to the physical human ear but once we are able to experience ourselves as part of the whole conscious energy field, the sounds of nature in communication supersede our finest orchestras.Walt Disney attempted to recreate it in his movie 'Fantasia'.

Lallymac

[Akashic_Librarian]

i don't know about them having awareness, I think thats a bit far-fetched for me, but I like to think that everything is connected, so insofar as I have consciousness, then too does my Rosemary bush haha.

[blackisgray]

There's actually a lot of research being put out now that says that plants are conscious. But I don't feel this should give us reason to feel guilty about eating plants, but maybe...rather to appreciate plants more.

[RTF671]

To me, plants are not aware. However, each one is a bit of love and energy that make up the creator. Each and everyone is special, just not conscious. I also believe that that energy may eventually (just the energy, not the whole plant) become self-aware, in which case the energy ascends to a new level of existence where it becomes a "blank higher self" and may choose to incarnate as a human. Of course that happens over the course of thousands of years but it may happen. And I believe the same applies to animals.

Think about it, next time you see someone who has a small pool of previous experiences may act like an "animal" in being wild and id-based or someone who is like a "tree" in being tame and quiet.

[veranadine]

Plants most certainly have awareness.

They exist on a much lower energy level than humans or other animals, but act and react with consciousness and feeling. Though they are not as complex in their consciousness and emotions as we more complicated beings are.

Authors Tompkins and Bird, in The Secret Life of Plants, carried out a very interesting scientific study of how plants think, feel and react with consciousness.

I do not know if you would call their consciousness a "soul" perhaps, but as all life and all creation comes from the one Source, an aware and consciousness ALL being, than all life is, in essence, infused with lifeforce. We have consciousness, plants have consciousness. Can you decide for them that they are soulless if we have souls?

Plants are however, much more altruistic in their intent than we tend to be. They care more for the suffering of other plants than they do for themself. In regards to being eaten by animals, humans included, they do enjoy knowing that they are being incorporated (ingested,) and therefore helping to strengthen, another living creature.

Many energy healers and herbalists have understood about this altruism consciousness of plants for hundreds of years, yet practitioners of "alternative" healing methods are just beginning to understand how the lifeforce and consciousness of plants works.

Whether one believes in the healing energy of plants or of their consciousness, the truth is as always, that if you respect all life equally you are living in better balance.

Blessings,

[Mato Kinze]

Plants, just like everything else have Spirit - or are a part of Spirit depending on how you want to view it. Some people call that a "soul", but that word is illdefined for me and so I don't use it.

Awareness? Absolutely. When you practice spiritual communication, you can communicate with the spiritual essence of anything.

In preparation for High Ceremony, the Medicine Men and chief initiates will gather things necessary for the event. They will go out and "ask" if there are Stone People who are willing to help them in their ceremony and they will wait for an answer. They will go out and "ask" for volunteers from the Standing Ones who are willing to sacrifice a part of themselves that the ceremony may be made in a good way; and they will wait for an answer.

I have done this many times and have never failed to recieve an answer. And it has not always been a positive one. When I seek along a hillside for Stone People to come home with us for a Purification Lodge, I open myself to the spirit of the area and ask with my heart for volunteers. When I close my eyes, those that are willing to come with us will glow with a brilliant white light. I can actually see the hillside with my eyes closed because of all the little glowing spirits on - and slightly under - the ground.

Same goes for the Standing Ones. When we need wood or pine needles or boughs for the sacred fire, we don't take without asking permission.

I have a white pine in front of my house that actually "giggled" at me when I asked her if I could use her needles for our lodge fires.

Certain plants have very strong medicine that they share through their spirit. Tobacco, Red Willow, Mugwort, Mescalito, Chamomile, Cedar, Sweet Grass, and Sage are just a very few of the very many that when treated with respect and care will offer great aid to us Two-Leggeds.

In the world of the Shaman, ALL things have and are of Spirit - the same spirit that we ourselves have and are of.

In the Lakota tradition, the phrase "Mitaque Oyasin" translates literally as "all my relations" but it MEANS so much more. Mitaque Oyasin is an acknowledgement that we are an integral part of this world and this world is an integral part of the Spirit World and therefore we "are all related".

[Sam988]

Plants may have some sort of awareness and may feel some kind of pain when hurt. But if they have souls, what else should we suspect to have a soul too? Why are there people that have this urge to put a soul in everything? I think that believing that us humans have a soul is already more than enough.

[Erki]

I think that we humans don't have souls. We ARE souls. Our physical bodies aren't just containers where the soul or spirit lives and animates us.

Originally Posted by Sam988

But if they have souls, what else should we suspect to have a soul too?

Everything.

[RTF671]

We are all equal parts of one giant creation.