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As related to my initial observation in 1966, not only is spon- culture is really all about. For scientists to give up predictability taneity important but so is intent. You can't pretend; it just won't means they must give up control, which means they must give up happen. If you say you are going to burn a leaf on the plant and = Western culture, which means it's not going to happen until civili- don't mean it, nothing will happen. So you can't pretend regard- sation collapses under the weight of its own ecological excesses. ing a threat to the plant's "well-being", nor can you plan when Okay. We are faced with several options. We can believe you working for repeatability. are lying, and so is everyone else who has ever experienced this. Young people know that spontaneity and repeatability don't go We can believe that what you are saying is true, and that the together. I hear constantly from people in different parts of the whole notion of repeatability—and in essence, then, the whole country, wanting to know what to do to cause plant reactions. I direction of the scientific method—needs to be reworked, as well tell them: "Don't do anything. Go about your work; keep notes as the whole notions of consciousness, communication, percep- so later you can tell what you were doing at specific times, and tion and so on. Or we can believe that you are mistaken. Is there then transfer that to your chart recording of tracing changes. But _a possibility that you've overlooked some strictly Cartesian, don't plan anything, or the experi- Baconian, mechanistic answer ment won't work.". The individu- for your observations? I read als who do this often discover their somewhere that one scientist's own equivalent to my initial obser- response to your work was that vation, and they often get first prize there must be a loose wire in in science fairs, etc. But then they your lie detector. get to Science 101, where they're CB: In 31 years, I've found told that what they have already all my loose wires. No, I can't experienced is not important. see any mechanistic solution. There have been a few attempts Some parapsychologists believe by scientists to replicate my work I've mastered the art of psy- with the brine shrimp, but these chokinesis and that I move the have all been methodologically pen with my mind—which inadequate. When they learned would be a pretty good trick that they had to automate the unto itself—but that overlooks experiment, they merely went to the fact that I've automated and the other side of a wall, then used randomised many of the experi- closed-circuit television to watch ments to where I'm not even what's going on. aware of what's going on until Clearly, they weren't removing later when I study the resulting their consciousness from the exper- charts and videotapes. iment. It is so very easy to fail at The conventional explana- that experiment—and, let's be hon- tions have worn pretty thin. est, some of the scientists who Static electricity is one explana- attempted to reproduce it were tion proposed. That one got relieved when they failed, because printed in Harper's. If you to have succeeded would have been scuffle across the room and to go against the body of scientific touch the plant, you get a knowledge. response. But, of course, I sel- Finally, I just gave up trying to dom touch the plant during peri- fight scientists on this because I ods of observation—and in any know that even if the experiment case, that response would be fails, the people attempting it will totally different. still see things that will change DJ: So what is the signal that their consciousness. That means is picked up by the plant? they will never be the same. CB: I don't know. I don't I get people coming up now that believe the signal, whatever it would not have said anything 20 is, dissipates over distance, years ago. They often say, "I think which is what we'd get if we I can safely tell you now how you really changed my life with were dealing with an electromagnetic phenomenon. I used to what you were doing back in the early '70s". These are scientists hook up a plant, then take a walk with a randomised timer in my who didn't feel they had the luxury back then to rock the boat for pocket. When the timer went off, I'd return home. The plant - The historic dracaena plant, still thriving in the lab in 2002. (Photo from Primary Perception, 2003) fear that their credibility, and thus grant requests, would have always responded the moment I turned around, no matter the dis- been affected. tance. And the signal from Phoenix was just as strong as if Brian O'Leary were in the next room. I feel comfortable in saying dis- BIOSIGNALLING AT THE QUANTUM LEVEL tance doesn't denigrate the signal. DJ: The emphasis on repeatability seems anti-life, since life Also, we've attempted to screen the signal using lead-lined con- itself is not repeatable. And that emphasis is incredibly important tainers and other materials, but we've found we can't screen it out. because, as Francis Bacon made clear, repeatability is inextricably This makes me think the signal doesn't actually go from here to tied to control. And control is fundamentally what Western sci- there, but instead is manifesting in different places, not having to ence is about. Or forget Western science; control is what Western travel to be there. BIOSIGNALLING AT THE QUANTUM LEVEL DJ: The emphasis on repeatability seems anti-life, since life itself is not repeatable. And that emphasis is incredibly important because, as Francis Bacon made clear, repeatability is inextricably tied to control. And control is fundamentally what Western sci- ence is about. Or forget Western science; control is what Western NEXUS = 45 AUGUST — SEPTEMBER 2004 www.nexusmagazine.com