Who was Cleve Backster?

History tells us of many a (wo)man whose brave and bold vision was way ahead the rest of the scientific community. People who made astute observations that was perceived as a threat to the traditional establishment, deemed preposterous or heretical, deluded and deranged, whose research papers were condemned to the graveyard of disputed scientific opinion. One such a man was Cleve Backster.

Backster was a former CIA lie-detector specialist who helped to develop the polygraph techniques that are still in general use today by the U.S. military and government agencies who recorded his observations after finding a unattended polygraph recording from the office plant he used to attach the allegator clips in between the recordings he performed while testing the validity of the polygraph.

Whereas his findings were ridiculed as the wishful thinking of a wannabe scientist and ludicrous inventor he approached the curious recording the unattended polygraph had measured with the diligence and attention to detail he had followed throughout his well seasoned and highly successful career as a crime investigator. He self published his findings in a widely unpopular book ‘The Secret Life of Plants’ (Available online).

One of his earliest experiments featured two Dracaena plants in seperate rooms. With one of the two connected to a polygraph he had someone stomp the plant in the adjacent room. Imagine his astonishment as realized the recording of the polygraph showed that the plant was aware of what happened next door, and had responded to the threat with fear.

Backster then took it further and the plant that had registered the fear was presented with a lineup of likely offenders. He had multiple people walking into his office where he kept the plant attached the polygraph and found to his astonishment that the uninjured plant could identify the guilty offender from the lineup. Imagine his disbelief at finding that not only were the plants aware of the environment, but communicated percieved threats between them and retained a collective memory of the treat. (To reaffirm the observation allow me rephrase the finding: Dracaena 1 was stomped by someone out of sight of Dracaena 2, who then identified the perpetrator from a line of multiple possible offenders.)

And that is just the beginning of a thoroughly thought provoking and fascinating read. He constructed a range of experiments that showed evidence that plants experience happiness when they were watered, alarm when they percieved a threat, and the ability to read our mind.

As outrageous as the claim would seem the conclusion is clear and evident given the premise that occured to Backster after he was thinking of burning the plant’s leaves to see if it would elicit a response from the polygraph. Just as he thought of harming the plant, the polygraph showed the response that he would later attribute to feeling fear.

Although his observations were denounced as the delusions of a mad scientist with no training in the science or knowledge of plants, Backster’s findings has since been reproduced by others, including the Russian scientist Alexander Dubrov, and Marcel Vogel who was a intern at IBM at the time of his studies. Though most of the observations we once believed to be too incredible to be true has since been confirmed as plausable given our current understanding the truth about the nature of plants and their ability has never been redeemed. Until then all that remain of the legacy of Cleve Backster is the polygraph we use to recognize deceit that he used to satisfy his curiosity.

This original article was published by Epoch Times who conducted an in-depth interview with Backster before his death. See the two-part series: Primary Perception: Look Into ‘The Secret Life of Plants’

Who was Cleve Backster?

Throughout history, there have been individuals whose pioneering visions have been ahead of the rest of the scientific community. They have made astute observations that were perceived as a threat to the traditional establishment, deemed preposterous or heretical, deluded and deranged, and their research papers were condemned to the graveyard of disputed scientific opinion. Cleve Backster was one such individual.

Backster was a former CIA lie-detector specialist who helped to develop the polygraph techniques that are still in general use today by the US military and government agencies. While testing the validity of the polygraph, he made a curious discovery when he found an unattended polygraph recording from the office plant he used to attach the allegator clips between the recordings.

Although his findings were initially ridiculed as the wishful thinking of a wannabe scientist and ludicrous inventor, he approached the curious recording the unattended polygraph had measured with the diligence and attention to detail he had followed throughout his seasoned and highly successful career as a crime investigator. He self-published his findings in a widely unpopular book, 'The Secret Life of Plants.'

One of his earliest experiments featured two Dracaena plants in separate rooms. With one of the two connected to a polygraph, he had someone stomp the plant in the adjacent room. Backster was astonished to discover that the recording of the polygraph showed that the plant was aware of what happened next door and had responded to the threat with fear.

Backster then took it further and presented the plant that had registered fear with a lineup of likely offenders. He had multiple people walk into his office where he kept the plant attached to the polygraph and found, to his astonishment, that the uninjured plant could identify the guilty offender from the lineup. Backster discovered that not only were the plants aware of their environment, but they also communicated perceived threats between them and retained a collective memory of the threat.

Backster constructed a range of experiments that showed evidence that plants experience happiness when they were watered, alarm when they perceived a threat, and the ability to read our minds.

As outrageous as the claim would seem, Backster's findings have since been reproduced by others, including the Russian scientist Alexander Dubrov and Marcel Vogel, who was an intern at IBM at the time of his studies. Although most of the observations that were once believed to be too incredible to be true have since been confirmed as plausible given our current understanding, the truth about the nature of plants and their abilities has never been fully understood. Until then, all that remains of the legacy of Cleve Backster is the polygraph we use to recognize deceit, which he used to satisfy his curiosity.

This article was originally published by Epoch Times, who conducted an in-depth interview with Backster before his death. See the two-part series: Primary Perception: Look Into 'The Secret Life of Plants.'

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