Zoey, Healing Crisis's, Our True Nature and the Backster Effect

So here I am with Zoey in his new home, spending some time getting him adjusted. But, of course, I knew that he knew he was moving and that something big was going on before I told him and started gathering his things yesterday. ...maybe this was part of my sadness although I think that was something much bigger, like a healing crisis, probably emotional or spiritual - "Part of the healing process involves something called the "healing crisis". This is often an unpleasant condition wherein many of the symptoms of a past illness will re-manifest for a period of time. Sometimes these symptoms might be more unpleasant than the original illness because they are concentrated in a short period of time."

but still. Zoey's my buddy and my favorite cat ever, he's so beautiful and smart and adventurous and friendly, such a great personality, and he's so regal, self assured ruling over his kingdom with such grace and yet is a wild thing.. just the coolest cat ever! ..not to mention that he is kind of the last link to my previous family life, so many memories attached to him. ...and now he's moving in with my boyfriend, which is kind of strange, except that he loves cats! ..and has a nice house and Zoey will be so happy here, and comfortable and once he gets adjusted will probably be going outside again, and I get to see him here.. and I had a feeling that even though he was kind of nervous and anxious about the change he knew it was a good thing.

I am sure cats know things that are just being thought.. we do too.. or at least it's in our nature, if we were close to nature we would be able to pick up on lots of things. We have gotten ourselves so distanced from our true natures. I think we should almost be ale to speak telepathically, to know thoughts and feelings of others.. & I feel quite sure that animals do ..it's been tested and even plants do.

I remember reading this book years ago - The Secret Life of Plants (1973) by Peter Tompkins and Christopher Bird. In it they write how this man, Backster tests plants to see if they actually have feelings. He uses a galvanometer, a polygraph lie detector test and attaches wires to the leaf of a plant and decides to test it.

"The most effective way to trigger in a human being a reaction strong enough to make the galvanometer jump is to threaten his or her wellbeing. Backster decided to do just that to the plant: he dunked a leaf of the dracaena in the cup of hot coffee perennially in his hand. There was no reaction to speak of on the meter. Backster studied the problem several minutes, then conceived a worse threat: he would burn the actual leaf to which the electrodes were attached. The instant he got the picture of flame in his mind, and before be could move for a match, there was a dramatic change in the tracing pattern on 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. Could the plant have been reading his mind?

When Backster left the room and returned with some matches, he found another sudden surge had registered on the chart, evidently caused by his determination to carry out the threat. Reluctantly he set about burning the leaf. This time there was a lower peak of reaction on the graph. Later, as he went through the motions of pretending he would burn the leaf, there was no reaction whatsoever. The plant appeared to be able to differentiate between real and pretended intent.

When he and his collaborators, using other plants and other instruments in other locations all over the country, were able to make similar observations, the matter warranted further study. More than twenty-five different varieties of plants and fruits were tested, including lettuce, onions, oranges, and bananas. The observations, each similar to the others, required a new view of life, with some explosive connotations for science. ...

Backster’s antics with his plants, headlined in the world press, became the subject of skits, cartoons, and lampoons; but the Pandora’s box which he opened for science may never again be closed. Backster’s discovery that plants appear to be sentient caused strong and varied reaction round the globe, despite the fact that Backster never claimed a discovery, only an uncovering of what has been known and forgotten. Wisely he chose to avoid publicity, and concentrated on establishing the absolute scientific bona fides of what has come to be known as the ‘Backster Effect.’"