The Story of the Music of the Plants

“If every leaf on every tree, could tell a story that would be a miracle”

Queen

The following blog is about the amazing story of the Music of the Plants. I wrote the article for BAWB (Business as an Agent of World Benefit), where stories of positive innovation are collected. Interviewing the people that are involved in this incredible project and doing research on this subject, was for me a life changing experience. My view of the world of trees and life itself was deeply affected.

When I set about to start this project I didn’t know what it was going to be about, but I knew where I could find stories of astonishing innovations for the benefit of the planet. That place is Damanhur.

I chose to interview Oberto Airaudi, the founder and leader of Damanhur, because I knew that all the projects he has been working on were about innovation and bringing about positive changes for human beings and the planet.

Damanhur in itself is a great innovation as a social system.

Founded in 1975 the Federation of Damanhur is an eco-society: a federation of communities and eco-villages with their own social and political structure in continual evolution. It is a collective dream transformed into reality thanks to the creative power of positive thought.

Damanhur is a seed that has been growing over thirty years, little by little, constantly transforming and renewing itself so as to bring to life the reality its citizens together desire.

On September 25, 2005 the Federation of Damanhur received an award from the United Nations honoring it as a model for a new sustainable society.

To use the words of Jeff Merrifield in his book Damanhur. The Story of the Italian Artistic and Spiritual Community “Damanhur is a place where dreams are realized, where ideas beyond reason are given a chance, and where very often they become a reality”. Oberto Airaudi dreamed of this place since he was 14, when he decided he would create “a place where a group of people could live in a completely independent way, using all their time to study, to do research, to create a new society”.

Esperide said: “Damanhur is a dream come true. It is a place in which the differences between the people who live here have been exalted. Through this mixture of differences and qualities we have been able to create a society that is very close to all that we desire”.

I was very curious to meet Oberto Airaudi in person, the man that dreamed Damanhur and put the seed of this amazing reality.

During the interview Oberto pointed out several different innovations to me that alone could have served as material for a number of articles. He told me about the Music of the Plants, but also about the “electronic tail” - an instrument that can be attached to the human body, reacting to different emotions. He also mentioned several innovations that Damanhur as a system adopted, like the itinerant school for its children or the complimentary monetary system in use in Damanhur. He told me about how art is used as a way to help people discover their talent, about the Game of Life , whose main task is to help the people grow and stay alive through continuous and harmonious transformation. The use of the game is also employed in many different ways in Damanhur: One is for instance a gigantic game similar to Risk that goes on for years and allows people to learn through experience the dynamics of life on this planet from a wider perspective.

The talk was enriching and inspiring and I couldn’t expect less from the man that gave himself the goal of inventing at least one new thing everyday.

After the interview I chose to explore the idea of the Music of the Plants for many reasons. One was that it was the first one that Oberto mentioned, second because it was the result of three decades of experimentation and last because of the connection that I always felt, since childhood for the vegetal world.

Oberto suggested that I should talk with Camaleonte and Esperide to learn more.

Camaleonte is in Damanhur among the “arboricoli”, which means the people that built their house on the top of trees. His life is mostly devoted to the study and the research of plants, and he together with his group working on the development of the instrument, is going around the world to give concerts and also produced a music album with the Music of the Plants.

Camaleonte brought with him one of the machines that allows plants to play music.

The machine for the Music of the Plants consists of a system of revelation of the lymphatic movement leave-root, measured through a particular kind of revelator equipped with two sensors connected to the leaves and roots of the plant. This equipment records the electrical resistance of the plant’s tissue due to the variation of the cellular density of the lymph itself. The variations of the electrical resistance are then converted into digital signals, also known as musical notes of the standard MIDI and are then sent to a sequencer (database of musical timbres). The detection equipment has filters to limit the electromagnetic interferences and extract in a “clean” way the variations revealed on the plant.

The results are very evocative: trees “learn” to control their electrical responses as if they were aware of the music they are creating.

It has been determined that each tree has its own “voice” that changes according to the season, time, day, age and species: the lime tree, whose leaves offer a calming infusion, produces a calming music; the voice of the poplar instead is lively; the ones of a secular tree are characterized by low tones.

Camaleonte explained that the research started after some incredible findings on the life of plants where published in the 1970’s in the book “The Secret Life of Plants” by Peter Tompkins and Christopher Bird.

I later went to buy the book and here is what I found on this subject and about the story of Cleve Backster and ones that started experimenting after him.

Cleve Backster is America’s most famous lie-detector examiner that in the 1960s discovered that plants appear to be sentient. In a night of 1966 by chance he decided to attach the electrodes of one of his lie detector to the leaf of his dracaena. He found out that in the moment that he decided to burn a leaf there was a dramatic change in the tracing pattern of the graph in the form of a prolonged upward sweep of the recording pen. Backster had not moved, either toward the plant or toward the recording machine.

Backster soon discovered by playing with his galvanometer and attaching electrodes to the leaves of plants, he could witness a response in plants to his own thoughts. Galvanized and excited by his findings, Backster started an intensive program of research into the extraordinary perception of plants. He discovered that plants reacted not only to threats from humans, but also from other animals. Backster's investigations continued to establish if a plant had memory. He set up an experiment where six of his students, blindfolded, drew lots from a hat. On one piece of paper only were the instructions to actually damage the plant. Two plants were used; one was duly damaged by the student acting on the instructions on the piece of paper and the other plant acted as a witness to the event. Backster showed that the surviving plant gave no reaction to five of the six students, but whenever the actual culprit approached it, it reacted and caused the meter to go wild. Backster had effectively demonstrated that plants have memory.

Backster went on to extend his field of investigation into mould cultures, scrapings from the human mouth, blood cells, and even sperm. The results were just as interesting as those he discovered with plants, and sperm cells were quite uncanny in the way they seemed capable of identifying their own donor. After further experiments his findings were published in 1968 in the International Journal of Parapsychology. Backster's work was providing a foundation of belief that there was some form of cellular consciousness common to all living things.

Other scientists followed up on Backster's work with their own experiments and one, Sauvin found he could control his model train set or even start his car engine by transferring his thoughts to a plant while the plant was connected to the device in question. Sauvin went on to show that this phenomenon could be repeated by controlling the flight of model airplanes. By transmitting thoughts to a plant Sauvin could start, stop or alter the speed of a model plane in flight.

As more and more of these scientific experiments and their startling results were written up in journals all over the world, more scientists became involved in similar research programs. Vogel was one and reasoned that there was a 'psychic energy' at play and that this energy was storable. Vogel noticed that leaves with a large electrical resistance were especially difficult to work with, though fleshy leaves with high water content were best. He concluded that man can and does communicate with plant life and that plants are living objects, sensitive and rooted in space. They radiate energy, which one can feel as they feed this energy into our own force field which in turn feeds back energy to the plant. Vogel went on to use subjects who could project their consciousness into a plant.

In other parts of the world similar experiments were being undertaken which led to developing the use of radio frequencies to stimulate the growth of plants. In 1970, L. George Lawrence read that in the Ukraine, radio frequencies and ultrasonic vibrations had been used to stimulate cereal grain seeds to produce higher yields as far back as the 1930's.10 In 1970, Pravda published an article by professor Ivan Issidorovitch Gunar, head of the Academy's Department of Plant Physiology, which confirmed the presence of electrical impulses in plants, similar to nerve impulses in humans. This report concluded similar findings, which proved there was communication between plants and humans, and a plant's reaction to human intent - be it love or hate - through calmness or fear.

Sir Jagadis Chandra Bose showed that plants became intoxicated when given shots of whiskey or Gin and behaved similar to the way humans react, swaying and even passing out. Bose's ideas and findings that plants have nerves similar to humans were received with veiled hostility amongst botanists.

There have to date, been numerous experiments and tests which demonstrate clearly how plants and vegetables do react to pain, emotion and love. Experiments continued in many areas of the world on the effects of not only thought/emotion upon the consciousness of plants, but also on the effect of other vibrations and sounds such as music and ultrasonic.

Tompkins and Bird go on to describe an eight week experiment carried out on summer squashes by broadcasting music to them in their respective chambers from two Denver radio stations. One station specialized in heavy rock and the other in classical music. Those squashes exposed to Hayden et al, grew towards the transistor radio, one of them twisting itself lovingly around it. The other squashes, subjected to the rock music all grew away from the radio and even tried to climb the walls of their glass cage. Similar tests were carried out on other plants and vegetables with the same results. Rock music proved to be detrimental to the well being of living matter, whilst classical music proved to be beneficial.

Other tests, report Tompkins and Bird, show that for example, Mimosa pudica, which naturally fold their leaves as darkness falls, showed that even if kept in a darkened room the leaves would still 'close' as the sun was setting. Which, Jean-Jacques Dertous de Mairan concluded, meant plants must be able to sense the energy of the sun without being able to see it.

This knowledge of the interaction of energies between plants, vegetables, humans, sound and vibration led to further experiments whereby the yield of crops, vegetable or fruit, could be greatly enhanced when stimulated with energy frequencies of the right nature. Joseph Molitovisz invented an 'electrical flower pot' which could keep flowers much longer than is normally possible. Over time this knowledge led to the use of radio broadcasting for removing pests from agricultural land - a totally pesticide and chemically free form of eradication.

It was inspired by these findings that at Damanhur they started experimenting on plants in the late 1970’s. Those were the years when the community of Findhorn became famous in the north of Scotland for growing gigantic vegetables. At the newly built community of Damanhur, they thought it was a good idea to start experimenting in this field to get publicity.

The Music of the Plants was born out of a desire for a more profound communication with Nature, a living force to be conserved and respected.

The initial purpose and motivation for the innovation was to make the community of Damanhur known in the world, like Findhorn became famous for its gigantic vegetables.

A second goal was to allow people to connect with plants and music was found as the most useful conduit. The sense of mission allows men to rediscover that we live on a living planet and to respect every form of life.

Camaleonte told me that vegetarians are a little puzzled by the fact that plants as well as animals have feeling and emotions. In the end, as Backster concluded in his experiments, it is more important how we eat than what we eat. His experiments led him to the realization that plants could be intentionally put into a trance or mesmerized by humans. Something similar could be involved in the ritual of the slaughterer before an animal is killed in the kosher manner. Communicating with the victim, the killer may tranquilize it into a quiet death, also preventing its flesh from having a residue of “chemical fear”, disagreeable to the palate and perhaps noxious to the consumer. This brought up the possibility that plants and succulent fruits might wish to be eaten, but only in a sort of loving ritual, with a real communication between the eater and the eaten-somehow akin to the Christian rite of Communion-instead of the usual heartless carnage. “It may be,” says Backster, “ that a vegetable appreciates becoming part of another form of life rather than rotting on the ground, just as a human at death may experience relief to find himself in a higher realm of being”.

Camaleonte Oleandro told me some stories of this early phase of experimentation.

Following Sauvin’s example at Damanhur, they started connecting to the most different kind of devices. One example was the opening of doors, with plants connected to door openers; they would open the door only when their personal caretaker was approaching.

Another example was the cart maneuvered by the plant, which would move across the room to greet people or simply to find a position with a better light. These early experiments were filmed by Swiss television. Camaleonte recalls how at the beginning the plant would refuse to move whenever the cameraman was around, because of his attitude. In the end he decided to talk to the plant and it started moving also when he was around and the crew was able to complete the video.

Another experiment was the self-run greenhouse where the plants would be in charge of providing water for themselves. Esperide (Silvia Buffagni) recalled how the greenhouse would always end up being flooded. The result was that the plants of the greenhouse underwent an incredibly fast growth.

The experiments on plants were then suspended for a few years, restarted later with a focus on the Music of Plants. Of all the different possible applications, the one that regarded plants seemed to be the one that could bring about the biggest impact and touch the hearts of people by bringing them closer to the vegetal world.

The interview with Esperide was important to me, because she was the one involved in the actual production and marketing of the instrument. She actually announced me that she just came back from Miami, where the first prototype of the Music of the Plants instrument was ready after 8 years of preparation. Now they were looking only for the financing to start the production and put it into the market.

Esperide Ananas’ role is the one of ambassador of Damanhur in the world. She travels a lot throughout the world, from India to Costa Rica, from North America to Asia. For example she recently was interviewed by Deepak Chopra on his radio program.

She is also involved, together with the David Pearl Group, in helping companies finding creativity and innovation. As Oberto pointed out, Damanhur has not the capacity to follow through on all the ideas that are created and business companies come there to find the inspiring idea that they need.

Esperide’s dream is to organize someday “the first interspecies concert of the world, by connecting the trees of the rainforest and recording the sounds of dolphins and whales in the Ocean”. “I really believe”, Esperide says, “that we would be able to reawaken the consciousness of men”. She also said that in the future instead of the saying “Say it with a flower” there could be instead “Let the flower say it”.

The Music of the Plant was used throughout the years for several purposes. One was educational and I learned more on this subject during my interview with Orango.

The interview with Orango was scheduled before I talked with Oberto and before I decided that the focus of my article would be the Music of the Plants. At the same time I learned that Orango was involved with this topic and especially with the task of bringing it to the schools. His passion and joy for bringing the children in such intimate contact with the vegetal world was contagious.

Orango Riso told me of the time were they went in school to show the children the work. Actually the most astonishing effect on children was observed when they connected the plants to a device that allowed them to turn the light on. In the moment that they turned the shutters down, the plants would turn on the light, much to the children’s’ astonishment. They would actually learn how to interact with plants and understand how they could also be receptive of their thoughts and emotions.

Camaleonte told me about the many plant concerts that were done around the world. He told me a story of a concert in Nurnberg, when a salad buffet was served and the plants refused to play. The fact that plants were traumatized by the death of living cells was amply researched by both Pierre Paul Sauvin and the audience of that concert. To convince the plants to start playing, the audience was asked to talk to the plant, explain that they didn’t intend to cause them any harm and in the end the concert could start.

To become ready to give a concert, a plant undergoes a specific training, during these weeks the plant listens to classical music and start practicing.

Camaleonte explains that they discovered that a plant learns faster when a plant that already knows how to play is present in the room. In fact during concerts, the audience is welcome to bring plants that can be than thought to play.

Orango Riso told me about when he was working in the greenhouse and all the plants were connected to the instruments. In the moment in which Orango started cutting some branches, the instruments went crazy. He learned that he had to talk to the plants and explain what he was about to do before starting cutting anything.

Orango explains that the Music of the Plants was “a mechanism used in Damanhur and in the schools, in diverse forms that prepared to people to amplify their sensibility to other forms of life, more indefinable and impalpable, because entering in the sensible world and world of energy is a jump in the void. Instead after you have done this kind of experience, the contacts, the medianic sessions gain a different meaning”.

To use Oberto’s words: “The use is to show that there is something behind the plants and it educates to another approach with the vegetal world. Today plants are just objects, trees are only masses used to make furniture or to burn. Animals are just objects, considered for the meat they can bring rather that for the animal around it. These are all aspects that could change for the best the world, if there was more consideration”.

To that Orango adds that “it enlarges the concept of life, because we have a very limited and egocentric concept of life and we see everything alive in relationship to us… The Music of the Plants expands the idea of life giving back the personality to those who have it. The plant returning being a plant, gains a protagonist role, re-conquers an identity, is not anymore second compared to humans”

Camaleonte told me about how people change after interacting with the plants through the concerts. “If you are able to change something in the life of someone” says Camaleonte, “that’s already a big result”.

One of the projects Camaleonte is working on is a “Sound Wood”, where all the trees would be connected to musical instruments and lights. In the moment the person enters it the trees start playing and the lights are turned on and the person can reach a different state of consciousness.

This would lead to a relationship with plants that would be similar to a relationship with other human beings.

“A plant doesn’t have eyes or a mouth to communicate, but still it communicates. It’s a matter of finding a way to communicate with it. In this moment we are using the music, but there are other ways like meditation or colors”. “If we could amplify this way of communicating with the plants, it would bring about a beneficial effect at a planetary level. There are places in the planet with this relationship with the plants are already presents, other where the Music of the Plants could bring it back”.

Camaleonte points out how the feeling of union with the Whole that the Music of the Plants allows, helps people reconnect with their divine part and reawakens the connection with the Spirit.

During the concerts there are also men playing and the plants learn to tune in with the musicians and play along. This experience of communion with the plants is in itself one of the most enriching experiences.

To quote Camaleonte the idea beyond the Music of the Plants is to help men come closer to Nature, to make him perceive plants and trees not as objects, made for our use, but as living beings, that needs to be respected. His vision is about a “reawakening of the consciousness” of human beings.

During the interview Camaleonte actually gave me a demonstration on how the machine functioned. In the beginning, the plant was a little shy and Camaelonte had to encourage it gently blowing in the direction of the plant or caressing its leaves. I found fascinating the fact that he could enter in such a communion with the plant as to know what it liked or disliked. He explained how each plant has difference preferences in terms of what music to play and also that each person enters in a different relation with every other plant. One of Camaleonte’s helpers explained for instance that he could not make this plant play well, but he could obtain better results with another plant. Since Vogel’s experiments of plants being able to read the mind, the plant in question probably didn’t appreciate the comment.

As for my personal experience, I must say that is difficult to describe the communion and the heart connection that I felt to the plant, similar to what I felt for the trees in my garden when I was a child. Camaleonte explained how important the role of the audience is and how the plants react to the “wave of appreciation” coming from the people listening to a concert, so I did my best to admire and appreciate the plant as it was playing.

All these interviews were a source of inspiration to me; they reminded me that, to quote Esperide, “we live in Gaia, the living planet and not on a piece of rock”.

The Gaia Theory posits that the organic and inorganic components of Planet Earth have evolved together as a single living, self-regulating system. It suggests that this living system has automatically controlled global temperature, atmospheric content, ocean salinity, and other factors and that it maintains its own habitability. In a phrase, “life maintains conditions suitable for its own survival.” In this respect, the living system of Earth can be thought of analogous to the workings of any individual organism that regulates body temperature, blood salinity, etc. So, for instance, even though the luminosity of the sun – the Earth’s heat source – has increased by about 30 percent since life began almost four billion years ago, the living system has reacted as a whole to maintain temperatures at levels suitable for life.

As Camaleonte pointed out, “trees are connected to both the Earth and the Heavens. They are like antennas that can capture the waves of the divine world. Connecting with them helps men reach out for a higher dimension and a higher purpose”. I remembered how I tend to go for a walk in the woods to find that internal peace, that meditative state that allows me to find clarity, self confidence and new ideas.

The Music of the Plants facilitates a process of connections with the natural world that was once normal and still is for the many “native” populations of this planet.