Customer Reviews

Secret Life of Plants

5 star:		(25)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

THE SECRET LIFE OF PLANTS by Peter Tompkins and Christopher Bird is a wonderful book of wisdom about the plant world and life in general. Like many people my age, I cut my teeth on Disney's "Living Desert" back in the 1950s. That film killed the notion for me that nothing lives in Death Valley and if Death Valley can be alive what else is possible?

SECRET LIFE is like the old Disney films because the book describes science that challenges stereotypical mainstream thinking. Anyone who believes plants are sentient beings will love this book. If you've done much reading on this subject you've probably seen Tompkins and Bird quoted elsewhere.

In the first part of their book, the authors explore the attributes of plants and pretty much conclude they have everything in common with animals-except plants probably came first on the evolutionary ladder and prepared the way for animals. In fact, if earth was invaded by alien species, the authors suggest the aliens were probably plants. But, you say, plants have roots and stay put (for the most part) and plants produce chlorophyll. Shell fish (oysters, mussels) and sea anemones can be rooted to one spot and small protozoa-like creatures produce chlorophyll.

Probably the thing I like the best about this book is that finally, someone links the Chakras to real body parts-the seven endocrine centers--and explains the reasons why these "hot spots" are so important. Also, Tompkins and Bird explain the scientific reasoning behind Bach flower remedies and many other "new age" products you can find at Fresh Fields and other holistic stores.

Skeptics will always have doubts, but after 30 years of organic gardening and non-academic exposure to plants, I know Tompkins and Bird are onto something. So do many modern scientists who have discovered belatedly that much of what the authors described 30 years ago may be true afterall.

Cutting edge scientists are frequently ignored. Once upon a time some people thought George Washington Carver was a fruitcake because he thought plants had feelings (they do). Carver discovered many unusual things as did a number of other later Nobel winners, although sometimes folks like Gregor Mendel were not recognized until it was too late.

If you want to be a better person, a wiser consumer, a great gardener, and healthier, you owe it to yourself to read THE SECRET LIFE OF PLANTS. It isn't all about them.

This book is mind boggling and filled with lots of scientific studies that tell us how plants can tell whether or not a person has intent to kill them; how plants can help out a fellow plant that is deprived of water; how our positive energy can keep a leaf alive for 2 months and much much more. This is a must read for all botanists and plant lovers. I actually recommend this book to everyone on the planet.

This is a must read for anyone with an interest in the Plant Kingdom. The book touches areas of science, spirituality, and nutrition conspiracies.
The begining part of the book, tells us about humans andhow their thought patterns, can make plants thrive or die. Examples of a lie detector being hooked up to a plant, which detects nervous energy when threatened by fire. Also the use of positive and negative thinking to influence the growth of plants. Showing through intensive research that plants do have feelings and possibly what we believe as a soul.
The book moves along, explaining the many experiments done with humans and plants. We see how specific music can benefit or stagnate growth, this is probally true for both humans and plants. We get a taste of nutritional information, with the knowledge that refined foods do not give our bodies complete nutrients, ( i.e. sugar, flour, basically anything processed ). Food designed to make us ill? Thoughts arise with information found in this book.
The end of the book brings us a look at organic farming, the benefits for humans, and the soil.
This book touches on many exciting facts and for my second time through it, I was still thrilled about discoveries that were made over 30 years ago. I hope that many people will enjoy this book as much as I have.

You have probably heard about George Washington Carver, famous for transforming the peanut into many marketable products, and Luther Burbank, the plant genius who developed marvelous new varieties in his plant breeding programs. If you want to learn about their achievements, you can look them up in an Encyclopedia. But if you really want to know what they did to produce their amazing achievements, you need to read The Secret Life of Plants.

This book contains details about their childhoods, for example, that George Washington Carver was a frail child and that he maintained a secret greenhouse in the woods where he cured sick plants. Also, that as a child, he used plants to cure sick animals.

You can also learn about the way these geniuses worked with plants, for example, that Luther Burbank had an amazing intuitive ability to know which of the plants in his plant breeding experiments contained the traits he desired. He evidently could go through millions of seedlings and pick out the ones that showed the most promise.

Furthermore, The Secret Life of Plants also describes the exploits of plant geniuses you may not have heard of, for example, a great Bengali scientist, knighted by King George V for his achievements, Sir Jagadis Chandra Bose, who discovered the interrelationship of plants and electromagnetism. There is also the Russian husband-wife team, the Kirlians, who discovered a way of photographing the aura around living things. In addition, you can read about Canadian researchers at the University of Ottawa, who used sound vibrations to speed up the growth of plants.

There are many more fascinating topics covered in this book, among them, the North Scotland community of Findhorn that works with nature spirits to produce amazing gardens, that dowsing is considered a respected science in France, and that the alchemists’ goal of transmuting elements is effortlessly accomplished everyday by plants.

Co-author, Peter Tompkins, who also penned such fascinating tomes as Secrets of the Great Pyramid and Mysteries of the Mexican Pyramids, unearths fascinating information by detailing the work of scientists shunned by conformist academia.

Being an avid organic gardener, I especially enjoyed learning why and how chemical fertilizers deplete the soil of nutrients, and also the amazing research that shows that plants have produced the nutrients they needed without supplemental chemicals or additives.

Probably The Secret Life of Plants is the most valuable to me because it shows how scientists using plants were able to prove the reality of telepathy, something researchers holding up index cards to human subjects have not been able to do adequately.

As a chartered herbalist, I found a wealth of information in this book. I know what effect different plants constituents produce in the human body and was looking for something to teach me what affects the plants that heal us. How could I help my plants to develop to their maximum potential so they would produce herbal products of the finest quality and potency. To gain an understanding of how we can work with plants for our own health and healing as I believe it is a joint venture. Although I don't take any information as gospel I believe the information in this book gives me the tools to test the theories myself and draw my own conclusions. Fascinating to learn what I have always suspected - care for the soil, the plants and they will care for you

Okay, okay, I will admit reading this book, but only because I foolishly thought this book was about plant biology and scientific progress into plant habitat and their reaction to their environment and to other plant species. But what I got instead was a book that talks about ESP, mind-over-matter, Yoga, hynopsis, extra-terrestial plant seeds, and some very questionable scientific methodology of experiments. There is even a section of how to become "one with your houseplant"! Consequently, I felt as if the book's two authors are still stuck in the hippie, drug-culture of the 60s when they wrote this book. If you even believe an iota of this book, I recommend Carl Sagan's book The Demon-Haunted World. For your sanity, people, avoid this book like the bubonic plague.

LOVE THIS BOOK !
Always knew there was a connection between plants and humans, just like with animals, it's nice to see some scientific proof, especially for all the unsensitive beings to read, since they cannot feel it for themselves.
It only makes logical sense that since all life comes from the same energy source, it would only be natural we would feel the connections.
I am bothered that I wasn't taught this in school, as it is much more important than half of the useless crap they do teach in school, that goes to prove that they just want to keep us belittled and out of the "KNOW ".

You have probably heard about George Washington Carver, famous for transforming the peanut into many marketable products, and Luther Burbank, the plant genius who developed marvelous new varieties in his plant breeding programs. If you want to learn about their achievements, you can look them up in an Encyclopedia. But if you really want to know what they did to produce their amazing achievements, you need to read The Secret Life of Plants.

This book contains details about their childhoods, for example, that George Washington Carver was a frail child and that he maintained a secret greenhouse in the woods where he cured sick plants. Also, that as a child, he used plants to cure sick animals.

You can also learn about the way these geniuses worked with plants, for example, that Luther Burbank had an amazing intuitive ability to know which of the plants in his plant breeding experiments contained the traits he desired. He evidently could go through millions of seedlings and pick out the ones that showed the most promise.

Furthermore, The Secret Life of Plants also describes the exploits of plant geniuses you may not have heard of, for example, a great Bengali scientist, knighted by King George V for his achievements, Sir Jagadis Chandra Bose, who discovered the interrelationship of plants and electromagnetism. There is also the Russian husband-wife team, the Kirlians, who discovered a way of photographing the aura around living things. In addition, you can read about Canadian researchers at the University of Ottawa, who used sound vibrations to speed up the growth of plants.

There are many more fascinating topics covered in this book, among them, the North Scotland community of Findhorn that works with nature spirits to produce amazing gardens, that dowsing is considered a respected science in France, and that the alchemists’ goal of transmuting elements is effortlessly accomplished everyday by plants.

The author, Peter Tompkins, who also penned such fascinating tomes as Secrets of the Great Pyramid and Mysteries of the Mexican Pyramids, unearths fascinating information by detailing the work of scientists shunned by conformist academia.

Being an avid organic gardener, I especially enjoyed learning why and how chemical fertilizers deplete the soil of nutrients, and also the amazing research that shows that plants have produced the nutrients they needed without supplemental chemicals or additives.

Probably The Secret Life of Plants is the most valuable to me because it shows how scientists using plants were able to prove the reality of telepathy, something researchers holding up index cards to human subjects have not been able to do adequately.

You have probably heard about George Washington Carver, famous for transforming the peanut into many marketable products, and Luther Burbank, the plant genius who developed marvelous new varieties in his plant breeding programs. If you want to learn about their achievements, you can look them up in an Encyclopedia. But if you really want to know what they did to produce their amazing achievements, you need to read The Secret Life of Plants.

This book contains details about their childhoods, for example, that George Washington Carver was a frail child and that he maintained a secret greenhouse in the woods where he cured sick plants. Also, that as a child, he used plants to cure sick animals.

You can also learn about the way these geniuses worked with plants, for example, that Luther Burbank had an amazing intuitive ability to know which of the plants in his plant breeding experiments contained the traits he desired. He evidently could go through millions of seedlings and pick out the ones that showed the most promise.

Furthermore, The Secret Life of Plants also describes the exploits of plant geniuses you may not have heard of, for example, a great Bengali scientist, knighted by King George V for his achievements, Sir Jagadis Chandra Bose, who discovered the interrelationship of plants and electromagnetism. There is also the Russian husband-wife team, the Kirlians, who discovered a way of photographing the aura around living things. In addition, you can read about Canadian researchers at the University of Ottawa, who used sound vibrations to speed up the growth of plants.

There are many more fascinating topics covered in this book, among them, the North Scotland community of Findhorn that works with nature spirits to produce amazing gardens, that dowsing is considered a respected science in France, and that the alchemists’ goal of transmuting elements is effortlessly accomplished everyday by plants.

The author, Peter Tompkins, who also penned such fascinating tomes as Secrets of the Great Pyramid and Mysteries of the Mexican Pyramids, unearths fascinating information by detailing the work of scientists shunned by conformist academia.

Being an avid organic gardener, I especially enjoyed learning why and how chemical fertilizers deplete the soil of nutrients, and also the amazing research that shows that plants have produced the nutrients they needed without supplemental chemicals or additives.

Probably The Secret Life of Plants is the most valuable to me because it shows how scientists using plants were able to prove the reality of telepathy, something researchers holding up index cards to human subjects have not been able to do adequately.

The science of plant life and human interaction come to life in this fine book and if read with an open mind and heart, one will no doubt be left with a new awe and feeling for our plant world. One might also feel the rage about the assault of the thoughtless/needless chemical assaults perpetrated against plant life- overflowing into all other life forms- what goes around, comes around! (Kharma, as in bad?)

Rachel Carson's beautiful and enlightning work: "Silent Spring", is mentioned along with a host of other not so well known scientist and farmer's such as England's Friend Sykes who in 1951 wrote about the alarming side effects of the chemical pesticides and fertilizers and the ludicrous, unneccessary, vicious cycle of ever expanding need for more chemicals while nature is so expertly altering it's composition to resist this assault. Of course, the chemical manufacturers (aka: merchants of poison and death) are laughing all the way to the bank with this dangerous and insidious snake-oil scam.

As other reviewers have stated, "this book should be read by every human on the planet"