Guest guest Posted February 4, 2010 Report Share Posted February 4, 2010 Thea, Again, I am on your side and am sincerely interested in looking into how to substantiate the more ethereal aspects of herbalism, such ascribing psychological characteristics to plants, which most of us would not even know how to begin to talk about. Since, there isn't textual precedence in our field for these characteristics, I think that understanding how you receive this information becomes pertinent to the evolution of how we think about our medicine and the herbs that we use. The checks and balances in any conversation is healthy and I think we both have respect for all of our peers on this user group. My questions are sincere. Do plants have consciousness? I believe so. More specifically, do they have self-consciousness or collective consciousness? I think there is a collective species consciousness inherent in plants, as well as animals and other life forms, but they lack ego (the illusion of separation). Why do I believe this? I can only say that this is an intuition, that I can't prove, except to rationalize with some pseudo-science I learned from picking up what I've read or heard over the years. Do plants feel or think, aside from turning towards the light to fulfill their photo-synthesis/ respiration cycle destiny? Do they smile inside when they feel the warm sunshine beam down on their leaves? I would like to believe this. I believe that plants strive to pro-create and thrive and keep their DNA alive and use other life-forms as allies in this mission. But, do they have a limbic system to emote feelings or a cerebral cortex to create intellectual schemes... no. Do plants have 'spirits' or is that just us anthropomorphizing them in our own image? I believe that they are just as spiritual as us, but less complex, less " evolved " , less proud and less dangerous but just as responsible for the survival of the planet. Do they go to a plant hell and heaven if their egos become too big, no, but maybe they go with us. Does the planet on a global scale wish for bio-diversity? I believe so, because it creates a healthier dynamic between the parts and the whole. Are we part of this grand plan? I believe so. Do certain plants use humans as hosts and allies to assure their species survival? Of course. Which ones? the ones that are beautiful, medicinal, culinary, fibrous for clothing and shelter, too fast to exterminate, too large to cut down or too small to give a crap about. Does rehmannia nourish us with yin, blood and jing if it is processed with wine, steamed for 8 times (shu di) ...etc. I have faith in this. Does rehmannia clear heat from the yin and heat from the blood if it is dried, but not processed (sheng di) ? We all believe this. Does rehmannia generate fluids greatest when it is fresh, not dried and not processed (xian di)? That's what they say. But how do we know what rehmannia's spirit feels like outside of our bodies? and what if it's been out of the ground for 3 years and dried and sliced or powdered? Does the spirit of the plant go to another realm after 49 days.. into the bardo? Does it have a hun and a po, a karmic progression, ancestors waiting on the other side and how do we substantiate all of this? Are we really connecting with the meta-physical reality of plants or are we just projecting our hopes and dreams into them? Let's evolve the discussion. That's it... K "" www.tcmreview.com Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted February 4, 2010 Report Share Posted February 4, 2010 Thea, I looked back at the discussion from over a month ago about the Qi-gong circle and their subjective interpretation of Shu di and Chen pi. My misunderstanding was that something was spoken or influenced on your part aside from your wei-Qi field, but if that is not the case, then this is my dilemma: If the Qi-gong circle was looking at the herbs and smelling them (even slightly the aromatics of Chen pi in the air from a distance), this can influence their " feeling " of the herbs, even if they don't have any intellectual experience of the dried herbs. Psychologically, we have conditioning to ascribe 'dark' characteristics to dark herbs and 'light' characteristics to light herbs, especially when they smell pleasant. I know about this, because I studied film theory, where the artist's imagination influences subtle feelings in the audience through the images on the screen. As an artist, you know this too. This is all about the bad guy with the black hat and the lone ranger who wears the white hat. Our minds tend to create dualistic patterns, even when they don't exist. So, we might think about other ways to test the herbs with some 'blinds' and controls for experimentation. If you and your audience didn't know which herbs were being observed, that would have been double-blind. But, the students were looking at the herbs, right? so there weren't any blinds at all. Let me know if I'm misunderstanding the circumstances... If so, I apologize. So, if I may ask, how do we know about the " psycho-spiritual characteristics " of herbs without projecting our own psyche's pre-conditioned ideas onto them? Since you've been thinking about this much longer than I have, I'm asking you this question with all sincerity. Let's talk about this, so we can go into new territory with our eyes wide open. K > -- "" www.tcmreview.com Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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