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The Secret Life of Plants
Randall Fontes - From the
Secret Life of Plants
to
The Play of Light
The Play of Light Meditation Experience
In Quest of the
Spiritual Jewel
of India
Secret Life of
Plants
CIA-investigation at SRI
of Paranormal Abilities
"Star Gate"
The Play of Light
Meditation
Experience
The Book
The Secret Life of Plants
The Secret Life of Plants - The Book
Excerpt from: Chapter 2
Plants Can Read Your Mind
By Peter Tompkins and Christopher Bird
   Two young Californian students of humanistic psychology and Hindu philosophy, Randall Fontes and Robert Swanson, have now pursued Vogel's quarry into unbeaten ground.  Using sophisticated equipment  lent them by the IBM researcher, they have made a series of discoveries so surprising that despite their youth they have been granted funds and equipment by established universities to further probe the mysteries of plant communication.
    Fontes' and Swanson's first discovery came virtually by accident when one noticed that the other's yawning was being picked up by a plant in  the form of energy surges. Instead of ignoring the phenomenon as improbable, the two students followed up the clue remembering that in ancient Hindu texts an exaggerated yawn was considered a means by which a tired person could be recharged with vivifying shakhti, a postulated energy filling the universe.
    With the help of Dr. Norman Goldstein, a professor of biology at State University in Hayward, California, Fontes went on to discover an electrical potential traveling from cell to cell in the ivy philodendron which gives a strong indication of the presence of a hitherto unsuspected simple nervous system.

32   MODERN RESEARCH


 

  The Music
Journey Through The Secret Life of Plants - Two CD Set - Stevie Wonder
 

The Movie (Clip)
Randall Fontes in The Secret Life of Plants

With Researchers: Randall Fontes, M.A., Bob Swanson and Dr. Norman Goldstein 

Video Requires Adobe Flash Player (Download)

The thesis of this visually stunning documentary feature is that plants have feelings, too, and that they have a variety of ways of expressing them. Based on the best-selling book by Peter Topkins and Christopher Bird, the custom of talking to one's houseplants is strongly recommended by the filmmakers.  Though scientific in tone, the film does not air the opposing view advocated by, perhaps, a majority of scientists. One highlight of the film is its original musical score by Stevie Wonder. 
(released 1978)                                    ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide 
 
Director - Walon Green
Screenplay - Peter Tompkins
Music - Stevie Wonder Book as Source Material
Peter Tompkins
Executive Producer - Burt Kleiner
View Complete Movie View Complete Movie

The Research
The Plant and Human Consciousness Researchat SRI
Rare Documents
RARE DOCUMENT!
Organic Biofield Sensor
By: H. E.  Puthoff and R. Fontes
Very few of the original copies of this one of a kind document are known to still exist detailing the use of plants as a human biofield sensor.  You can download "Organic Biofield Sensor" in Adobe .pdf format:
Download - Organic Biofield Sensor
This Report supports the possibility that plants 
may respond to human consciousness 
as contended by Cleve Backster.

In Harper's Magazine (November 1972) a hypothesis was offered that may explain how this phenomenon could occur:

"Dr. Harold Puthoff, a laser physicist at the Stanford Research Institute, surmises that the subatomic particle known as a tachyon may hold the answer. Tachyons, from the Greek meaning "swift," are supposed to travel faster than light. Postulated in 1967 by Columbia University physicist Gerald Feinberg, they have so far not been experimentally detected."
R.Fontes@comcast.net
Report Summary and Conclusions
Report Summary and Conclusions
"Organic Biofield Sensor"
By: H. E.  Puthoff and R. Fontes
Electronics and Bioengineering Laboratory
S.R.I  Project 3194 (Task 3)
November 1975
Randall Fontes
Randall Fontes, M.A.
worked with the twice nominated physicist for the Nobel Prize
Dr. Harold E. Puthoff and
Russell Targ at Stanford Research Institute (SRI International):

CIA-Initiated U.S. Government
program to investigate paranormal abilities; code name "Star Gate"

Psychiatrist, Dr. Lee Sannella was a good friend and a mentor to Randall Fontes, MA. Lee introduced Randall and his work with plants and human consciousness to Dr. Harold Puthoff a Physicist at Stanford Research Institute (SRI). When Dr. Puthoff and Russell Targ began research at SRI Dr. Puthoff applied for and received a research grant to probe plant sensitivity.  He brought Randall Fontes to SRI to conduct the Plant and Human Consciousness Research, also known as Primary Perception or the Backster Effect.

Randall worked with Remote Viewers Ingo Swann, Hella Hammid and Pat Price.

One day Randall asked Ingo Swann if he could affect a plant by concentrating on it. Ingo looked at the plant and the plant monitoring equipment showed no change. Ingo went to the office 2 doors down the hall to think about it.

After a few minutes the pen on the strip chart recorder became very active and was pegging. Then the voice of Ingo came from down the hall. He yelled "I think I got it"! 

The product of this work culminated in a final report "Organic Biofield Sensor" by H. E. Puthoff and R. Fontes dated November 1975. 

Randall Fontes is currently conducting research on the effects of light and sound on human consciousness. He plans to soon reintroduce plants as an Organic Biofield Sensor.

.

 

The Media

Santa Rosa Press Democrat - SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 31, 1972
SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 31, 1972 MEDLEY MAGAZINE SANTA ROSA, CALIFORNIA
talk nice to plants . . . .
they may be listening!
Randall Fontes attaching electrodes to plant leafListen to Article
By Staff Writer
Many amateur gardeners are said to have a "green thumb," but if asked what this means, few people can give a very good answer. 

They usually say something like, "well, for some reason plants grow better for them."

But what is the reason?

This may come as a surprise, but a group of plant researchers, including two California State College at Sonoma, psychology seniors, think they are coming close to some answers and their findings could have some far reaching effects on man's future.

It's a long story, but essentially, according to students Randall Fontes, 27, and Robert Swanson, 26, the researchers think plants respond to human emotions or consciousness, and this response can be tapped for the benefit of man.

In the case of the "green thumber," the researchers think people who say plants do better for him because he gives them "tender loving care" are probably right.

"Experts in the field," says Randall, "have proven that plants respond to care." 
Bob Swanson and Dr. David Van Nuys
In fact, Marcel Vogel, an International Business Machines research chemist in Los Gatos, with whom Randall has worked for several years, says plants appear to have feelings quite as sensitive as those of human beings. 

He says, for example, some of his experiments have shown that if a person thinks derogatory thoughts about one of his plants or talks to a plant in a derogatory way, while praising some other plant, the first plant can be made to wither to the point of death.

In one experiment, he picked two leaves from a plant and "willed" one to live, while leaving the other unattended. The one given special attention lasted much longer than the other.

By using a galvanometer to measure plant reaction on a graph and placing electrodes to each side of a leaf, another researcher found that when he formed the image of fire in his mind the recording pen bounded off the top of the chart. However, when he actually burned a leaf the reaction on the graph was less, and when he merely pretended to burn the leaf there was no reaction.

Vogel says plants react favorably to being talked to, admired, or touched, and claims anyone can get a plant to flourish and grow in direct proportion to the amount of affection and admiration it receives from its caretaker.

As an example, in a recent article in Harper's Magazine about plant research, Vogel said "love is expressed to a plant as a wish for it to be happy and grow. It is like feeding it energy in the form of psychic food."

Actually, there is nothing new in this as scientists such as Charles Darwin and plant breeders like Santa Rosa’s own Luther Burbank said similar things decades ago.

For instance, Burbank, according to the author of the Harper's article, talked to his plants to create vibrations of love, said he was able to build plants to a form mocked up in his mind, and that plants responded to his mental image, indicating some form of intelligence and transmission of thought. Burbank also was quoted as saying "The secret of improved plant breeding, apart from scientific knowledge, is love."

How do plants react to humans?

For one thing, experiments have confirmed the presence in plants of electric impulses similar to the well-known nerve impulses in man, and these are transformed into motor impulses.

Similarly, Randall and Bob, who work as a team at the college, Vogel and other authorities in the field, think there is an energy exchange between plants and animals.

As an example, while working in the laboratory with leaves of a plant attached to a galvanometer by electrodes, Bob accidentally yawned, and this was markedly recorded on the machine's graph. They then both began yawning, with similar results on the graph.

"This was one experiment that showed us there is an energy exchange between plants and people," says Randall.

Other tests have shown, among other things, that plants react to people being changed from a peaceful to excited state through light or sound. Plants, for example, react favorably to classical music (remember the experiments with cows and music in the barn?) but appear to "cringe" at "acid rock."

Randall and Bob think this energy exchange between plants and human, is more psychic than physical, and can be tapped for the benefit of man.

"People have various levels of consciousness, many of them hidden, and through the use of highly sensitive plants that soon will be developed these levels could be measured.

"Some people have strong personalities, others weak, and some have a lot of energy and others don't, and we are able to sense these and other characteristics, which have an effect on plants.

Randall Fontes and Bob Swanson"If you could measure these characteristics, or talents, or levels of consciousness or whatever you want to call them, you have many possibilities.

'''This could, for example, be especially useful in career selection as you could tell if a psychologist has the ability to help people, a lawyer is good at law, a politician at politics, or artist at art. Many brilliant people or geniuses going unnoticed could be discovered. 

"Similarly, you could measure the negative qualities of a person, such as whether he might be a criminal, have suicidal tendencies, or be an airplane hijacker. I think it will only be a few years before plants are used as a means of finding negative traits." 

Randall and Bob think that the key to this is the fact there is uniqueness to each individual's consciousness (psyche), plants react in a certain way, and this can be measured.

Just as a plant reacts one way to a joyous, loving person, and another to any angry, upset or depressed person, they don't see why it wouldn't also react to more subtle personality traits.

Randall and Bob think first man will develop highly sensitive plants for his own use, but eventually manufacture semi-living crystals sensitive to changes in consciousness.

These crystals, they feel, only await the discovery of the primary sensing source in plants. "There's no reason why the source can't be isolated and manufactured to sense consciousness," said Randall.

With the crystals, they think man not only will be able to very finely measure levels of consciousness such as positive and negative Psychic energy, hut also span time and space.

"In the not too distant future man will have mind actuated machines," says Randall. "He will think at a machine and it will do what he wants it to."

If that seems rather far out, an electronics engineer not too long ago was able to build sophisticated equipment to mentally trigger a device through a plant at considerable distance. In one experiment he set a philodendron on a laboratory bench 2 1/2 miles from his home, and sent a strong emotion to the plant. When the plant received his telepathic message, it triggered a radio signal that turned on the ignition of a car in the laboratory parking lot, starting the motor.

The same engineer has conducted a similar test 70 miles away, and believes it would be successful cross-country, which would determine for the first time whether the energy of ESP travels either at, or faster than, the speed of light.

Along the same line, Randall says He has conducted a telepathic plant experiment of more than 100 miles with Marcel Vogel.

He said he had the plant, a philodendron, in the laboratory at the college and called Vogel in San Jose, asking him to concentrate on the plant, then on his wife. The result was marked deviations on a graph.

Randall thinks that with the development of semi-living crystals and mind-actuated machines, man can harness the energy exchange between himself and plants for many benefits.

"This would be a great boon to the space program, for example, because you could locate a trouble spot in an instant just by thinking at a machine.

"Or, say someone is down at the bottom of the ocean in a submarine. He could communicate his problem instantly using the same type of machine."

Randall and Bob, soon to receive degrees in psychology and India studies, plan to seek masters' degrees and to continue their research. They are applying for private grants for equipment and to support themselves while doing the research. Most of this will be carried on at what they feel is better conditions at Marcel Vogel's summer place on the Russian River.

“This is a brand new field with many ways to go” says Randall. "I guess that's one of the things that makes it so exciting.

Up to now, man has been pretty much centered on the physical world. But, by communicating with plants he will be getting into the more subtle world of what makes him tick.

He’ll be getting inside the nature of all living things and close to the source of life. And to solving all of his problems.

More Articles (Click Below)
San Francisco Examiner Chronicle - January 1, 1974
San Francisco Examiner & Chronicle
Sunday January, 6, 1974
San Francisco Examiner - Monday, March 18, 1977
San Francisco Examiner
Monday, March 18, 1977

 
Ocala Star-Banner - Thrusday, July 7, 1977
Ocala Star-Banner
Thursday, July 7, 1977

 
 
The Daily Review - Friday, August 5, 1977
The Daily Review
Friday, August 5, 1977


Randall Fontes
Joins the
Exploratorium
Science and Art Museum
Exploratorium at the Palace of Fine Arts, San Francisco, Ca. The Exploratorium's museum floor
In May of 1987 Randall Fontes, M.A. joined the staff of the Exploratorium Science and Art Museum. In 1993 he became a “Life Sciences Project Designer” in the Biology department, under National Science Foundation funding.  (1993 to 2000)
    The founder of the Exploratorium was Physicist Dr. Frank Oppenhiemer who believed Science and Art should be experienced together as different views of the same truth; that they should be seen to reinforce each other.
    In August of 2000 Randall began to independently focus his full attention to the integration of Science, Art and Spirit and for the last eight years he dedicated himself full time to the exploration and development of the 
Play of Light Meditation Experience.
The Play of Light Meditation Experience Page
The Play of Light Meditation Experience
 
Journey into The Play of Light
The Play of Light is about the Beauty of Light, of Sound and of Form. As each of these is deeply resonant with the other, the underlying unity that they share is revealed within their dance; and can be realized through direct experience. Within this experience, the mind becomes still and spontaneous Meditation arises. I have developed this technique over a period of 45 years, and this is as effortless and joyful a path into meditation as I am aware of.
The Play of Light Meditation Experience
Individual and Group sessions are available. Please call or email me, I look forward to sharing this experience with you.

Randall Fontes
R.fontes@comcast.net

The Play of Light 
Art and Science in the Spirit of Meditation

The Play of Light Meditation Experience

Be Still 
Be Still Within 
Be Still Within Yourself 
Be Still Within Your Own Self 
Be Still Within Yourself 
Be Still Within 
Be Still 
Be
 
 

ph: 510.235.5371 
cell: 510.772.9762
 

The Play of Light Meditation Experience

The Play of Light Meditation Experience Page

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In Quest of the
Spiritual Jewel
of India
Secret Life of
Plants
CIA-investigation at SRI
of Paranormal Abilities
"Star Gate"
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Meditation
Experience
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What About?
Cleve Backster

Bob Swanson

Marcel Vogel

Harold E. Puthoff

Russell Targ

Hella Hammid

Ingo Swann

Pat Price

Peter Tompkins

Edgar Mitchell

David Van Nuys

Christopher Bird

--
©2010 Randall Fontes and Bob Swanson



 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

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