Having a chat...

I see that the Royal Horticultural Society has concluded its research on the benefits of talking to plants. The 'Voice of Wisley' talking to plants' experiment, found that plants, in this case tomatoes, really do respond to the sound of the human voice. The experiment consisted of having two control groups of tomatoes; one group had eight hours of recorded stories told to them through headphones attached to their pots, while the second group were left in silence. Out of the tomatoes exposed to voice, the tallest plant measured was one that had a passage from On the Origin of Species read to it by Sarah Darwin, the great, great granddaughter of Charles Darwin, suggesting that female voices had the edge over male voices in helping plants to grow. Garden Superintendent, Colin Crosbie said that, 'We know that sounds between 125Hz and 250Hz can affect gene expression in plants and help them grow, but this has only been tested using music'. In 2007 the south Korean scientist Mi-Jeong claimed that playing Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata to rice plants encouraged them to grow faster and blossom earlier. From my own experience, I can tell you that playing Black Sabbath's 'War Pig' at full volume, made my now ex-wife's rubber plant go into total collapse. So, if you can make 'em fall to the ground, then you can make 'em grow. It's not so stupid then to go and talk to the trees, as mentioned in my 'An audience of trees' blog; I mean after all, they are just big plants at the end of the day and if you talked the them long enough, you might see them grow too; maybe not in height so much but perhaps in stature and well-being. Oh yes, if you do find yourself in a mood for a chat, then you might also consider talking to animals, as they too, along with the trees, are part of the same natural world that we occupy and which we mostly move through without as much as a nod to the other occupants that live alongside us everyday.

'If you talk to the animals

they will talk with you

and you will know each other.

If you do not talk to them,

you will not know them,

And what you do not know

you will fear.

What one fears, one destroys'.

- Chief Dan George

In his book, Animal Speak - The Spiritual Powers of Creatures Great & Small, Ted Andrews says, 'I am always amazed by the wonder of nature, its multiplicity, and especially at what it is saying to me about my own life at the time of such encounters. I look for what it is trying to teach me. I know that nature speaks to us if we listen. Every animal has a story to tell. Every flower blossoms with reminders to be creative, and every tree whispers with its rustling leaves the secrets of life'. I have found within most scriptures and mythologies of the world a vein of lore surrounding the spirit of animals and the belief that the divine forces speak to humans through the natural world. Humans were as much part of the natural world as the natural world was part of them. Animals and Nature are not the domain of any one society or segment of society. All peoples are touched by them'. Next time you are out there running then, just remember that you are not alone and that you are connected to all that exists in the natural world; the trees, the flowers, the birds, the bees, the badger, the deer and to everything that lives and breathes the same air that we do.

Of a certainty

the man who can see

all creatures in himself.

himself in all creatures,

knows no sorrow.

Eesha Upanishad