It has been said, based on the past 2+ years of illness-related quarantine and isolation, that the health and longevity of those human beings who live in separation from other human beings can be negatively affected. It is through our connections, through our network with others, that we are part of a wholeness, a community, and one could infer that, as a group, human beings are one large living organism, similar to fungi and groves of aspen trees, among others.
The negative impact of isolation is not unique to human beings; additional research has shown that a tree living in isolation from other trees, such as in the middle of a large yard, or along a road, does not have the same life expectancy as that of trees that live in the company of other trees.
Additional research recently has shown that it is thanks to a fungal microcosmic network connecting the roots of trees with one another within a grove that trees are able to share information with one another about how best to resist an encroaching pest infection or virus. Peter Wohlleben, in the Hidden Life of Trees, called this network the “woodwide web.”
It has recently also been reported that not only do trees have an awareness of one another through their root system as well as through other means, but PLANTS also have a level of awareness of one another – as individuals or an aggregate is not yet clear — that as we, as humans, neither realize nor acknowledge.
60 years ago, a book was published about the secret life of plants, in which there were kyrillian photographs of the memory a plant retained of its whole leaf even after part of that leaf had been cut away. In the same book, plants were attached to microsensors that were able to record their response to different stimuli. This research showed that when one plant is threatened, or harmed, others nearby respond as if they are aware of it and are experiencing a response.
It could be inferred that in some way, plants can feel fear and can transmit it to one another. Just as trees can communicate with each other about challenges to face and how best to deal with them, plants seem to have a similar community awareness…
I recently read an article that spoke of research done with both tomato and tobacco plants, where researchers were able to record actual clicking sounds that the plants emitted when they were harmed or in danger, and determined that those sounds caused a similar response in plants in a different section of the field.
There are those who have experienced communication with trees and feel a strong life force connection with them and their spirit energy. Trees do talk — not only with each other, but also with those of us with ears and hearts to hear. Is it such a stretch of imagination then to realize that plants equally well can and do talk, again if we have the ears and the hearts to hear them?
We live in a very human-centric epoch. Probably that is unavoidable given that we are all enmeshed in our own very human physical experience. However, we have accepted a delusion, an illusion, that we are separate somehow from the rest of creation. Just because we are spatially separate, we assume that we and the rest of the world are not connected
This is, as we are learning, a grave mistake. (I do not necessarily mean that pun, but it could be a very grave mistake in the end.) It is in our perception of separateness — from one another in the human community, and from the rest of the universe: the trees, the animals, the plants, the insects and the rest of the beings in this world that the majority of humans do not realize have spirit within — that I truly believe the root of our global illness, our own dis-ease, lies. Because if we cannot thrive without connection with our own network of humans, how can we hope to thrive when we disconnect from the natural world around us?
Electricity is a form of energy; and energy is part of the web of life what keeps the world and universe going. Technology is powered by electricity — yet those of us who spend our lives focused on technological marvels, or enmeshed in our cell phones, computers, and other e-devices find, at the end of the day, that our energy is not built-up or renewed by focusing on such media; rather, we feel diminished.
It is strange, isn’t it that, so many of us connect now through media like texts, emails and the occasional telephone call, and yet still there is the issue of not being connected with our community, of being isolated, with a resultant negative impact on our well-being. We are connecting through a form of energy, through electricity and technology, but those forms of connection are not nourishing us in the same manner that our actual physical connection in real life, on this earth, as part of nature, truly nurtures us.
I think that we can make an analogy between electricity and the fungal micro-connections between tree roots, where humans appear to be utilizing electricity to link and connect with one another, but it is artificial — very unlike the natural, extremely organic (how else?) connection formed by the fungi and by the roots of trees or plants.
Just over 50 years ago a song came out with the lyrics “United we stand, divided we fall…” by the Brotherhood of Man. Not an unusual concept, given that Abraham Lincoln is credited with saying something similar approximately 150 years ago! It is my perception that humanity’s ability to survive – and thrive — rests on our recognition of the need for connection, and that isolation (and the varied “artificial” forms of e-connection) threatens our very fundamental needs.
We must nurture our roots, in a way analogous to the emphasis made a number of years ago in regard to genealogy, but the roots that we nurture now must of necessity be connected with those in REAL LIFE, in the physical world, the world in which rain falls and
waters the Earth, nourishing plants and trees and people, feeding our rivers and streams, enabling the fish to thrive; the world in which the Sun shines upon all, nourishing all of creation. It is worth remembering that those humans who do not have enough exposure to the sun develop a vitamin deficiency that leads to negative emotional and physical experiences, much like a tree or a plant that is not given enough water or sunshine will wither and fail in the end.
Therefore, I suggest that we acknowledge and celebrate the beauty and wonder of the world in which we live – LIVE — with the life-giving nurturance of the Sun, the rain, the Earth, our neighbors the trees, the plants, the animals, the insects, the fungi, and everything else. We are not here just to survive, we are here to thrive, and we are here to help creation around us to continue to THRIVE, not just survive!
I pray that the Light and the Love within us continue to prevail and remind us always of the importance of our living natural network and our connections with the Web of Creation.
Peace and many blessings to you all! Remember to continue to be a Light Bear!
Recommended reading:
HJ Corning, Then the Trees Said Hello, 2022
P Wollheben, The Hidden Life of Trees, 2016
P Tompkins and C Bird, The Secret Life of Plants, 1973
“In groundbreaking research, Tel Aviv U team records plants ‘talking’ for first time,” The Times of Israel, 3/30/23, by Sue Surkes
“Plants Really Do ‘Scream’ Out Loud. We Just Never Heard It Until Now”, Nature 3/31/2023, by Michelle Starr
“New research finds plants make noise when stressed,” National Public Radio, 4/9/23, by Ayesha Rascoe: interview with Lilach Hadany
“The secret life of plants: how they memorise, communicate, problem solve and socialize,” The Guardian, 4/5/2020, by Amy Fleming: interview with Stefano Mancuso
The Best Books for People who Really Do Hug Trees (list compiled and published by HJ Corning) :
LightBears 
Leave a comment