In 1966, Cleve Backster was at work on a slow day. It was February, and Backster’s career with the US Military, particularly the CIA had made him a polygraph technician. He was in charge of questioning those of interest using lie detector technology and had become a master in reading and administering polygraph tests. Out of sheer interest, and maybe out of boredom on this slow day, he decided to hook the galvanometer electrodes of the polygraph in the room to a plant sitting in the corner. He hooked it up and then watered it. He noticed that when receiving the water, the plant registered emotional signals on the polygraph like that of a human. Stunned, Backster began to think on the repercussions of this discovery.
The Backster Effect as it came to be called, was honed through further experiments on plants. Backster introduced stimuli such as speaking to plants or threatening actions such as burning. To his surprise, the plants in question not only reacted with emotions but also responded emotionally to threats as if they were readying themselves to be harmed. The same emotional signatures, individual to human emotions, were recorded on the polygraph, when plants were put into identical, emotional situations as humans. Inspired, Backster devoted the rest of his life to studying the effect that eventually bore his name.
What The Backster Effect Teaches Us About Long Distance Healing
Of course, Backster’s ideas were met with healthy skepticism on the part of scientists. In recreating his experiments, the effect was recorded successfully and non-successfully. Backster argued that human consciousness, if not reined incorrectly could interfere with the experiment, rendering it unsuccessful. Continuing his experiments, Backster found that the effect was present in other substances as well:
“He began to formulate new ways to interact with the plant, thinking perhaps he should try to burn one of the leaves that had the electrode attached to it. Before he was able to move this plan into action, the polygraph needle spiked upwards, as if the plant could sense even the thought of threat.
His experiments, however, did not end there. He decided to test as many groups of living cells as possible. According to his research, eggs, yogurt, and freshly severed leaves, all showed an emotional response to stimuli. Even human cells taken from the mouth were shown to respond directly to the same condition that the person they were sampled from was experiencing; despite no longer being physically connected.“
Backster felt that his experiments proved the existence of what he called “the fundamental attunement between living things.” So, what does this tell us about long distance healing? How can the Backster Effect demonstrate the efficacy of distance healing?

Healing Across Miles

If Backster’s observations are correct, and for the record, they have been replicated in scientific experiments successfully, then what does this mean? Well, if one takes, for example, the idea that when a threat stimulus, such as fire being held up to a plant, was introduced to plants being monitored by the polygraph, then we see that direct contact with the plant was not necessary to stimulate a response in its energy and measurable reaction. So, if one takes this a step further, employing the scientific fact that our emotions, intentions, and ideas may be reduced to energy that emits from our bodies, then if someone focuses a healing stimulus upon another, even across miles, then that stimulus will be received and reacted upon.
Further, the scientific notion of quantum entanglement speaks to a similar broad stimulus as the Backster Effect and Long Distance Healing. Quantum entangled pairs of particles, no matter if separated by light years, will continue to affect each other. One particle’s actions will create a response in the other. So, taken together, this demonstrates that healing can take place across miles if the conditions are correct.
Energy is neither created nor destroyed. That much is a fact. So, it makes sense that we should use scientific study to open our minds to possibilities that some call false. Given that we know only a fraction of all knowledge, it stands to reason that there are things in the Universe which we grasp a bit, but not fully. Such is the case with the Backster Effect and Long Distance Healing. Think of the possibilities that open if we devoted as much energy into healthy skepticism paired with open-minded experimentation, as we do to knee-jerk scoffing when something that seems illogical is forwarded as a thought. Indeed, there are whole worlds of knowledge of which we know nothing. All we need do is open our minds and we will discover that the Universe is limited only by our self-imposed limitations. How much more could we do, how much better could we be, if we only made room for the idea that human knowledge, whilst magnificent, is only the beginning?
Informational Source:
https://subtle.energy/the-backster-effect-are-plants-conscious/
So…are we supposed to eat salads, or not???!
Hi Jane, your comment made me laugh! Good question. I wondered that myself! Do we spare the plants or the animals? We can’t win! Well, according to studies, they found that the plants we NOT stressed out about being eaten if you were thankful for it. Sounds strange yeah but that’s what I heard
When I was a teenager, I was involved with experiments on plants using a polygraph machine and saw, first hand, the effects of the Backster response utilizing my thoughts. An interesting side note is that I saw my thoughts were more powerful than my actions. My thinking of hurting a plant (without actually hurting it) produced a stronger response than my mindlessly going to the plant and accidentally harming it,
Later on, I read that plants were used to find a killer of a murder that took place in a backyard. Suspects were taken to the backyard where they had hooked up some plants to a polygraph machine. There was only one suspect that the plants reacted to. Even though this information couldn’t stand up in a court of law, the police knew who to focus on.
On long distance healing, I knew a doctor that had this machine that he would put in your hair sample to find out what was wrong with you and then tell you what you needed even though you may be half way around the world. He told me that the hair sample would be good (still connected to me) as long as I was alive.
Hey Tia, Not many people would have first-hand experience like you did of the plants and the polygraph machine. That’s amazing that you experienced that. I never knew that some police would use this on plants to help solve a murder! That’s not surprising, it would make sense that they would do that. I didn’t know they did that though.
WOW, fascinating stuff, ty for sharing!
Thank you Gigi! We thought so too
In my previous years as a biofeedback therapist in the 80s we did an experiment with plants utilizing the GSR or lie detector by hooking it up to plants. The scientist sat in another room with the door Shut and began to think about doing certain things to the plant I.E.,Watering it burning it etc. and found that the plant gave responses that were associated with the thought!Extraordinary experiments that peaked my interest in the quantum world.
Hi Valerie! That’s fascinating. Thanks for sharing.