Trees Are Conscious

JaneJudge

I cried because one of our trees looks like it has died in all this sodden weather over winter. So we’ve dig it up and put it in a pot 😭 to give it a chance please all 🙏 for it

Talk to it.

What kind of tree is it?

It is an acer

I do hope it survives JaneJudge. I bought a small acer some years ago - it was from one of those bargain outlets that sell everything.

I wanted to keep in in a pot so I could move it around on the patio. However, it was not at all happy in the pot so a space had to be found in the garden. It is now flourishing and it is such a joy to watch the bronze/red leaves moving on the breeze.

Goo luck with yours JJ

Where does that leave vegans and those who do not eat sentient beings.

Curiously enough I read an article about the beginning of life on earth only this week that made me realise that all eating, unless you live on mineral matter uncontaminated by bacteria excepted. is predation

I have two conifers in my front garden, they are taller than my house, in the back I have a weeping ash, acers, two which I am unsure of their names and sambucas negris, I talk to them all.

I have filled the borders with shrubs most of which remain green all year round, not sure I could live anywhere without trees and plants.

M0nica

Where does that leave vegans and those who do not eat sentient beings.

Curiously enough I read an article about the beginning of life on earth only this week that made me realise that all eating, unless you live on mineral matter uncontaminated by bacteria excepted. is predation

I will admit to feeling a little bit bad now and then, when I slice the little sprouts off a potato prior to peeling and cooking it. This is a living thing that could grow into a plant - and I’m killing it! 😱

M0nica

Where does that leave vegans and those who do not eat sentient beings.

Curiously enough I read an article about the beginning of life on earth only this week that made me realise that all eating, unless you live on mineral matter uncontaminated by bacteria excepted. is predation

Where does that leave vegans and those who do not eat sentient beings.

Starving?
I suppose if you eat legumes then you're eating the babies of sentient beings.

I'll never look at a pea in the same way again!

I've never worried about digging sprouts out of potatoes. 😁

We had to have a large tree cut down as it was becoming a danger but all of the summer afterwards, the roots kept sending up babies all over the lawn. It kept trying and trying to survive ☹

We did plant another tree.

Witzend wrote:

"I will admit to feeling a little bit bad now and then, when I slice the little sprouts off a potato prior to peeling and cooking it. This is a living thing that could grow into a plant - and I’m killing it! "

Each of us must decide the values we live by, as that is the responsibility of adult human beings. Do you think that values are relative so that , for instance, it's less bad to kill and eat a plant than to kill and eat a sheep?

Neither the sheep nor the plant deserves to be killed and eaten, but the plant is less sentient than the sheep.

Wonder just what the 'olden oaks' would make of mankind's progress during their lifetimes....

Nothing new under the sun.

The Druids were aware of this eons ago.

By the year 2024 we have managed to invent off shore floating prisons.

Caleo

All things that strive to live are conscious.

Artificial intelligence things don't strive to live so those are not conscious.

But it is AI that will launch the missiles that finish us off and if plant life if "conscious" what are the vegans and vegetarians going to eat now?

keepcalmandcavachon

Wonder just what the 'olden oaks' would make of mankind's progress during their lifetimes....

...and what had mankind made of the "olden oaks" - tables, chairs, church pews?

So what are Vegans going to do now. If plants have a consciousness then it's cruel to eat them too.

Orly and Maggs:

"So what are Vegans going to do now. If plants have a consciousness then it's cruel to eat them too."

It's the burden that humans have to bear, that we must create our own moral principles . If there is a God, then He will not expect us to be perfect only to try to make the best choices.

Caleo

Witzend wrote:

"I will admit to feeling a little bit bad now and then, when I slice the little sprouts off a potato prior to peeling and cooking it. This is a living thing that could grow into a plant - and I’m killing it! "

Each of us must decide the values we live by, as that is the responsibility of adult human beings. Do you think that values are relative so that , for instance, it's less bad to kill and eat a plant than to kill and eat a sheep?

Neither the sheep nor the plant deserves to be killed and eaten, but the plant is less sentient than the sheep.

I think you’ve taken my post a bit too seriously, Caleo!

How arrogant we are as humans
Defining consciousness as something WE possess, then the ‘higher’ mammals have some consciousness going ‘down’ the chain to the vegetable kingdom and so on to ‘inert’ matter
If you are spiritually aware you can tell everything has a consciousness
As you walk through woods you can feel that trees are highly evolved wise beings
But if you only take seriously what material science (which evolves all the time and would evolve more quickly without the inherent dogmatism) then you miss so much. We all need to observe with heart and intuition in my opinion
Enjoy and preserve these wonderful ‘standing people’

undines

How arrogant we are as humans
Defining consciousness as something WE possess, then the ‘higher’ mammals have some consciousness going ‘down’ the chain to the vegetable kingdom and so on to ‘inert’ matter
If you are spiritually aware you can tell everything has a consciousness
As you walk through woods you can feel that trees are highly evolved wise beings
But if you only take seriously what material science (which evolves all the time and would evolve more quickly without the inherent dogmatism) then you miss so much. We all need to observe with heart and intuition in my opinion
Enjoy and preserve these wonderful ‘standing people’

beautiful and well said..

RunaroundSue

I love greenery, my home is surrounded by flowering bushes of all types and they are all evergreen. I have borders full of perenial flowers and roses that have been in my garden since we married in 1967, my back and side garden borders have lots of Hydrangeas. People have remarked about the birds singing in my bushes all day long. I cannot understand why people do not have any type of greenery in their garden, everything has been paved off, not even a tub with flowers in it. None of my neighbours have flowers in their front garden, just a lawn that takes them all their time to mow it. A few planters with flowers in them would brighten everything up.

A garden with flower beds and shrubs takes quite a lot of work.

Those of us who find gardening boring and physically too tiring opt for lawns, trees and nothing more

We have a large acer, two eight foot hollies and a tulip tree in our front garden. At the back a large oak, taller than the house. Love them all and would never chop any down. Doesn’t an oak support an enormous amount of wildlife ?

To my mind, only something with a brain can have any consciousness.

Well said, Undines.

Trees have no consciousness.

I agree with Undines.

Big fleas have little fleas upon their backs to bite them, and little fleas have lesser fleas, and so ad infinitum

and so it is with life in all its forms. Predation has been how life developed from the earliest being with a single or small groups of cells, right up to now.

All we have to do is decide how far up the predator chain we want to go, from a group, whose name eludes me, who eat only fruit that has fallen from the tree/bush, so started the process of death and decomposition to, at the other end, cannibals, who eat human flesh.

My personal choice takes me up to vegetarian animals, who have been bred and nurtured as they would live in the wild, but with the benefit of medical care if needed. I avoid industrially bred animals and denatured food as far as is possible.

Others will make different choices.