To: K-list
Recieved: 1999/11/27 07:31
Subject: [K-list] Re: Consciousness--not just for humans
From: Jeanne Garner
On 1999/11/27 07:31, Jeanne Garner posted thus to the K-list:
At 04:15 AM 11/27/99 -0700, El wrote:
>I've had consciousness-raising experiences with trees throughout my life, at
>different levels of (my) awareness. About 10 years before the samadhi-tree
>experience (which happened after my K awakened), I discovered first hand
that
>trees communicate with one another and have powerful emotions.
I've read...somewhere, don't recall where now...that research has pretty
much proved that trees in particular (don't think they included other plant
life in the study) can and do talk to each other, that they "spread the
word" when diseases and predators are in the neighborhood. It's nice of
science to "prove" what we already know, though. :)
What I find amazing is how--what's a good word? Is arrogant too harsh?
But humans tend to think that only humans can think and reason and feel,
like consciousness is somehow limited only to that one species. Even
within the species, history tells us that a lot of humans thought only
their particular group was conscious: when the Anglo-Saxons came over to
this country, they thought the Native Americans to be less than sentient;
when Africans were imported for slave labor, they were not thought to be
sentient. For some years, even babies and children were not thought
capable of feeling pain--in today's atmosphere, this seems hard to believe,
but I have very graphic memories of the dentist's office, where, as a child
in the 40's, dental work was done without benefit of pain killer--and the
dentist would tell my mother that children just didn't feel pain the way
adults did. An old "baby book," not by the venerable Spock thankfully,
stated in black and white that babies did not feel pain.
So now we finally know that all the races, at any age, are sentient (or
most of us do), and we're getting onto the fact that many animals do, too.
But still, we stumble over the notion that perhaps everything and
everyone--plants, minerals, fish, birds, animals, "objects,"
everything--has consciousness. Even some of the wiser k-souls here on this
list have difficulty with this concept. Perhaps it's because it's a
consciousness they haven't contacted yet, or if they have, it could be that
they didn't understand it. That doesn't mean it doesn't exist, though.
But just for the record, although we have many trees here on our 160 acres,
we don't often hug them. To do so is to invite ticks and chiggers to feast
upon our tender bodies. I don't mind feeding them so much, if only they
wouldn't inject the itchy stuff--not to mention the Lyme spirochetes, which
I had quite enough of this year, thank you.
Re: your pests (snails) and ours (ticks, chiggers, carpenter ants et al),
I've decided to try to work with the nature devas on this matter, and am
looking into the Perelandra books. I really don't like to use the poisons
we've been using, either. There are ways of getting rid of them, but like
you, I'd rather find better, less hurtful, ways of doing it.
Weeds--well, I confess I don't do much to hinder them. So many of our
local weeds are prettier than nursery fare, and seem to grow easier too.
So I sort of cultivate some, like the beautiful coneflowers and Oklahoma
poppies, and of course the wild roses. Every spring, if you don't use
herbicide, you get entire hillsides of tiny purple blossoms, which I think
are called chickweed. I can't imagine why people fight such loveliness,
but they do--and me, I dig up a clump here and there and plant them in our
yard, encouraging them to live with us. They are just beautiful. Real
gardeners would probably have a stroke to read this.
Thanks for your very beautiful post.
Jeanne
===-* My Stars!
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