Cleve Backster

Cleve Backster 1969

Cleve Backster (February 27, 1924 – June 24, 2013) was an American interrogation specialist who is best known for his experiments with plants using a polygraph machine in the 1960s. Backster's work in this area, which he termed "primary perception," suggested that plants may be sentient. Despite widespread interest in his findings, they have been met with skepticism within the scientific community and have not been replicated reliably.

Biography

Cleve Backster began his career as an interrogation specialist for the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). He later became a leading polygraph expert and founded the Backster School of Lie Detection in San Diego, California. His interest in the responsiveness of living beings to emotional stimuli led him to conduct his first experiment with plants in 1966.

Primary Perception

Backster's experiments began when he connected a Dracaena plant to a polygraph machine to measure its reaction to various threats. To his surprise, he found that merely thinking about harming the plant appeared to elicit a response on the polygraph. Backster termed this phenomenon "primary perception." He expanded his research to include cells obtained from human donors, claiming that these cells showed responses to the emotional states of their donors, even over great distances.

Criticism and Controversy

The scientific community has largely criticized Backster's methodology and findings. Critics argue that his experiments were not adequately controlled and that his anthropomorphic interpretations of the data were unfounded. Attempts to replicate Backster's results under controlled conditions have largely failed, casting doubt on the validity of primary perception.

Legacy

Despite the controversy, Backster's work has had a lasting impact on popular culture and has contributed to the development of the pseudoscientific theory of plant consciousness. His experiments are often cited by proponents of the idea that plants can perceive and react to human emotions.

See Also

• Plant perception (paranormal)
• Polygraph
• Sentience