My Library

"No," he replied, "you are." I protested that I had no idea how to influence plants. But he smiled and said that all I had to do was TO THINK of harming it. "Just think of lighting a match with the intent of burning one of its leaves." So, I thought as much while staring at the plant. And Behold! The polygraph needle went haywire -- so much so that the tracing went off the paper graph sheet. Backster, typically cool as a cucumber, now seemed to get a little excited. "Can you do that again?" So I tried again, and bingo by Ingo! He asked me to keep on doing it. But after a few more attempts the polygraph needle started not to react as much and finally didn't at all. "What does THAT mean," I asked. "You tell me." Then a very eerie thought occurred to me, so astonishing that it caused goosebumps. "Do you mean," I asked, "that it has LEARNED that I'm not serious about really burning its leaf? So that it now knows it need not be alarmed." Backster smiled. "YOU said it, I didn't. Try another kind of harmful thought." So I thought of putting acid in the plant's pot. Bingo! But the same "learning curve" soon repeated itself.