Nature as Individuals

[Naxx]

This is a tree I've been attracted to and formed a relationship with over the last 3 years. There was construction around the area and chemicals were mixed into the soil around the tree. It's been slowly dying from tree cancer over the last year. I comforted the tree and told him that death was coming and it would be fine. We all die but we never truly go away. It feels similar to watching a friend die, actually that is probably what it is.

Does anyone else view nature as individuals and/or formed bonds/communicate with things of nature?

 

[Roger]

It is good to have beautiful relationships with nature. Few people can create such relationships, you know.

Fantastic, and yes, no one can see its death, it becomes real hard to accept it. No?

 

[bamf]

I'm kinda a crackpot and when I was little I use to think I could talk and communicate with animals (like the squirrels chipmunk and deer in my backyard). I still kinda like to think that they understand my intentions.

 

[gloomy-optimist]

I don't get to go out into nature as much as I used to, but yes, I feel as if the things around me are living. I actually feel bad "hurting" trees and plant life.

 

[Gaze]

So, when I was younger, I could easily see a character in every tree. Each had it's own personality. I think it's Ni (come to think of it) which makes us able to see into things beyond the surface. Sounds a bit weird I think.

 

[laurie]

My friend has the bad habit of pulling out flowers and grass from the ground and leaves from bushes as she walks past them. I actually got pretty worked up telling her they could feel pain and described a whole study on it to reinforce the fact. She probably thinks I'm pretty weird XD
She still does it though (but I always tell her not to when she does)

 

[Top cat]

where did you read they feel pain? ^

 

[Shai Gar]

This is a tree I've been attracted to and formed a relationship with over the last 3 years. There was construction around the area and chemicals were mixed into the soil around the tree. It's been slowly dying from tree cancer over the last year. I comforted the tree and told him that death was coming and it would be fine. We all die but we never truly go away. It feels similar to watching a friend die, actually that is probably what it is.

Does anyone else view nature as individuals and/or formed bonds/communicate with things of nature?

HEE! I KNEW IT!

You're all fucking Elves!

as an amused aside...

 

[youhemmein]

Elrond=not sexy.

 

[Faye]

I don't normally talk to trees, but I can't say I'm above talking to them.

It is a nice looking tree though.

 

[transcendentalethos]

I always felt more of a kinship with trees than I have with people... I must've been one in a past life. Descartes was wrong when he declared that the material world we see and sense around us is devoid of soul and that it is nothing more than a dead machine to be conquered and mastered by rational intellect, which is still dominant in Western thought. Traditional peoples had it right to believe the world around them was intensely alive and intelligent. It's all about the rediscovery of animism which isn't just a phase children go through psychologically. James Hillman, psychologist, a close student of Jung, suggests that animism is not, as often believed, a projection of human feelings onto inanimate matter; but that the things of the world project upon us their own 'ideas and demands' that any phenomenon has the capacity to come alive and deeply inform us through our interaction with it, as long as we are free of an overly objectifying attitude.

 

[bamf]

I always felt more of a kinship with trees than I have with people... I must've been one in a past life. Descartes was wrong when he declared that the material world we see and sense around us is devoid of soul and that it is nothing more than a dead machine to be conquered and mastered by rational intellect, which is still dominant in Western thought. Traditional peoples had it right to believe the world around them was intensely alive and intelligent. It's all about the rediscovery of animism which isn't just a phase children go through psychologically. James Hillman, psychologist, a close student of Jung, suggests that animism is not, as often believed, a projection of human feelings onto inanimate matter; but that the things of the world project upon us their own 'ideas and demands' that any phenomenon has the capacity to come alive and deeply inform us through our interaction with it, as long as we are free of an overly objectifying attitude.

Descartes also wouldn't have opposed you thinking that because he knew that in the end we simply don't know.

 

[minkowski thermodynamics]

Ha ha....I'm REALLY glad that someone else started this thread. Now, I will look like less of a weirdo (albeit only slightly less so ... ahem). hwell:

As a little boy I used to make constant solitary walks and vigils through the forest. I used to get vivid "impressions" of the trees around me, and different parts of the forest definitely had their own distinct "vibes." Some were nice and welcoming, while others were ominous and felt evil.


At college, when I used to walk back home from the Engineering computer lab at 2:00 a.m., I used to pass under the branches of two ancient giant trees that stood on opposite ends of the road. It seems to me that the activity/frequency/vibration/energy that trees give out becomes stronger at night, and I could swear I used to hear their "thoughts" as I walked underneath them. The two trees used to whisper to each other, and not only that, on some nights, I used to get really vivid flashes of things that the trees had witnessed over the many many years they had stood as guardians across the path.

This is only the second time in my life that I am sharing these kinds of experiences with someone, and I am reassured that there are more of us out there. This must be related to Ni.

An Indian scientist by the name of Sir Jagadish Chandra Bose did some unorthodox research on plants and among other unique findings, he was convinced that plants felt pain, and were able to respond to human affection. It seems that our Ni acts as an antenna of sorts which makes us more sensitive to picking up these "signals" that plants can send out. This would explain why this is something that most people are simply unaware of; just like how dogs are able to hear frequencies outside the range of the human ear.

 

[laurie]

where did you read they feel pain? ^

I was told by my dad then given an article in a newspaper (it was several years ago) that described the 'waves' from the plants were monitored and when they were hurt, they effectively 'screamed', then when the person who hurt them returned after a que of people walked past, they 'screamed' again.
It disturbed me a little ;.;