My Library

As a sort of silly metaphor here, I became a machine with off and on switches -- and it was the experimenter (Backster) which turned them off or on. A few weeks now passed, during which we experimented with zapping different kinds of metals, chemical and gasses trapped inside vials. At some point, I don’t remember when exactly, Backster mentioned something along the following lines: "Boy, are the guys down at the CIA going to be interested in you." This came out of left field. "Why should they be?" I asked in astonishment. "They’ve always been interested in this stuff, and they’re trying to replicate my plant work. I know because they’ve told me. I’ve taught a lot of them how to improve their polygraph techniques. "But they don’t understand the plant learning thing, or at least won’t accept it. And so they think the reactions they get are just random noises in their equipment." I just laughed about the CIA ever being interested in my humble self. I thought it ridiculous and all so unlikely as to be nil. And even so, I thought that Backster would get tired of the experiments, and that would be that for me. By the way, as I’ve been editing this chapter a very good article about Cleve Backster has appeared. See FATE Magazine, May 1996: "THE MAN WHO TALKED TO PLANTS," by David Fickett.