permaculture

["Steve Diver" <steved@ncatark.uark.edu>]

Milo, 

Thanks for sharing that info on Sir Jagadis Chandra Bose.

I fondly remember reading "Autobiography of a Yogi" by Paramahansa 
Yogananda, wherein he talks about Jagadis Chandra Bose and his 
experiments with sensitive plants.   

On both my trips to Calcutta, his research was on my mind because 
there's an institute named after him.  Of course it is one thing to be in 
Calcutta and another thing to actually find your way around.  Calcutta 
is like another planet....there are so many people (highest density in the 
world, at one point I was in a sea of people walking down a busy street 
and the push carts and delivery trucks were at a complete stand-still, a 
wall to wall people jam)....and every new corner brings a funky surprise.  
Though, on my last trip I did manage to accomlish trips to the Calcutta 
Botanical Gardens, Botanical Survey of India, Calcutta Flower Show, and 
the Development Research Communications and Services Centre.  

Development Research Communications and Services Centre is one 
noteworthy organization that deserves mention.  DRCSC publishes a 
quarterly magazine that focuses on sustainable agriculture in West Bengal 
and Bangladesh titled "Debacle."  They also conduct on-farm research and 
teach village workshops.  

Development Research Communications and Services Centre
18-B Gariahat Road (South)
Dhakuria, Calcutta 700 031
Tel:  473 4364
Publishes "Debacle" quarterly newsletter 

As an aside, I compiled a 10-page bibliography titled "Selected Bibliography 
on the Useful Plants and Agriculture of India, Version 1.0" from 
visits to non-profit institutes and bookstores during my Winter '96-'97 
trip....which I will be glad to send by email.   Emphasis is on medicinal 
plants, useful plants, sustainable agriculture, organic farming, seed 
preservation, ethnobotany, water, traditional Indian agriculture, 
biofertilizers, crops, and the politics of the green revolution. 

But, I have yet to come across any of Sir Jagadis Chandra Bose's 
publications or meet anybody who can speak about his  work. 

Do you have any citations that you can share?  What about those
five ponderous tomes?  

In India, the people I was hanging with (yogis, homeopaths, 
naturopaths, organic farmers) used the word "bio-energy" in 
every day conversation.  No big deal.  Been there, done that.... 
about 4,000 years worth of living in touch with the concept of
bio-frequency. 

Western science, on the other hand, has not been very hospitable 
to bio-energy practices in agriculture and medicine, until recently 
at least.

Still, at the same time we are witnessing a shift from the Chemical 
Agriculture Era of post-WWI to the Biological Agriculture Era 
(sustainable agriculture, organic farming, and permaculture) there 
are hints that the next era, the Subtle Energy Era, is just over 
the horizon.  Biodynamic preparations, radionics in agriculture, 
dowsing, johrei, reiki-enhanced seed treatments, homeopathy for 
livestock, acupunture for livestock, ayurvedic pest control....they 
each have an energetic component--in addition to their physical or 
chemical  components--that cannot be explained very easily by 
19th-20th century science. 

I ain't saying these energetic practices are a substitute for 
good old common sense ("get the engine running first, then adjust
the carbeurtor") and a truckload of compost.  But, I am saying that 
biophotonic information transfer from microbes in one compost pile 
to microbial cousins in a second compost pile located some distance
away....and how we might adjust composting practices and microbial 
populations through light and sound frequencies--including mental 
thought forms such as meditation and prayer--to enhance the healing and 
rejuvenating qualities of compost..... is something we've only begun 
to fathom.

Steve Diver
Fayetteville, AR 

  
> It has been 65 years since Sir Jagadis Chandra Bose (1858-1932) died. During
> his career, he demostrated beyond scientific doubt that plants replicate the
> functions of animals and humans in nearly complete analog. His work, 
> although
> resisted for many years by the botanical establishment, was finally accepted
> by the ultra conservative Royal Society and published in the heavily peer
> reviewed magazine "Nature."
> 
> Probably the only function inadequately differentiated in plants is the
> ability to scream vocally, within the limited ranges of human aural 
> capacity,
> when tortured. Bose demonstrated, however, that plants react quite sharply 
> to
> heat, cold, pinching, cutting. etc. One has to be quite insensitive not to
> recognize these reactions. Humankind is noted as being among the most
> insensitve species to torture of others elsewhere, especially other humans. 
> 
> Apparently, the botanical community (if that word can be used among those
> dedicated in-fighters) as well as society in general has chosen to ignore
> Bose's work--the bulk of which is published in, I believe, five rather
> ponderous tomes containing massive details on both his methods and his
> findings.
> 
> Milo Clark
> Berkeley CA USA





--
steved@ncatark.uark.edu