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| created | updated | title | tags | description | category | summary | |||
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| 2025-07-23 | 2025-07-23 | Backster Effect |
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The Backster Effect is a controversial theory proposing that plants exhibit a form of consciousness and can respond to human thoughts and emotions. | Esoteric & Historical Concept | The Backster Effect is a controversial theory proposed by Cleve Backster, a former Central Intelligence Agency polygraph expert. |
The Backster Effect is a controversial theory proposed by Cleve Backster, a former Central Intelligence Agency polygraph expert. It suggests that plants exhibit a form of consciousness and can respond to human thoughts and emotions, as well as to events occurring in their environment, even at a distance.1
Backster's experiments involved attaching polygraph electrodes to plants and observing their responses to various stimuli, such as the intention to harm them. He claimed that the plants showed measurable reactions, which he interpreted as evidence of a "primary perception" in plant life. While widely criticized by mainstream scientists for lacking scientific rigor and repeatability, the concept gained popular attention through the bestselling book The Secret Life of Plants.1
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Jacobsen, Annie. Phenomena: The Secret History of the U.S. Government's Investigations into Extrasensory Perception and Psychokinesis. Little, Brown and Company, 2017. ↩︎