Stephen Buhner, plant-talkin' guy

I've been reading Stephen Buhner's "Secret Teachings of Plants" about how to pay attention to what plants are telling you, and thus find out way, way more about them than trial and error will let you know. He quotes Fukuoka a lot, and probably would quote Sepp Holzer too if there was a book on his philosophy available in English Wondering if anyone has had success with the conscious application of his methods? In reading this book, I kept wondering if the reason that "no one has been able to replicate what Fukuoka has done" is because Fukuoka has figured out to DO this direct communication stuff

Erin.

I think so. Often when I see people treating weeds as enemies I think it's no wonder that they find it hard to find a good solution. If you were sharing land with someone who hated you would you be inclined to help them?

Stephen Buhner is awesome. Many herbalists work in the way that Buhner does. Within permaculture it's trickier because there are permies who don't want anything 'unscientific' associated with permaculture. People probably don't talk about it as much as a result. In native cultures it's completely normal to have direct relationships with plants that include communication.

While I understand the desire to not be seen as unscientific, I think we may be hamstringing ourselves if we ignore Buhner's ideas about what plants are capable of. Especially if there's a subgroup of people that use this method, and have success where others just can't make permaculture work as well. Like making pie without flour

Anyways. Just wanted to put the idea out there, to see what happened.

Rose Pinder wrote:Within permaculture it's trickier because there are permies who don't want anything 'unscientific' associated with permaculture. People probably don't talk about it as much as a result. In native cultures it's completely normal to have direct relationships with plants that include communication.

I would agree with you here, Rose. People don't tend to talk about it. I have seen surprising reactions from people simply seeing his books in my house. And yet, Buhner has had a huge impact on me, along with others like Martín Prechtel (especially his latest book on plants), Paul Astin and David Abram. I don't know if I just marked myself or not. I don't think I'm looking for unicorns and faeries just because I believe plants are more than mere biological machines and that they communicate.

~Bill

Bill - thanks for the book recommendations! I hate wading through the buttloads of fluffy stuff, while looking for serious information. I think that the people that lump Buhner in with the "purple breathers" are doing both him and themselves a serious disservice.. As the Bard says, "There are more things in Heaven and Earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy"

Purple breathers. I like that. Nice to meet you Erin. I hope you like those books too. They are not about permaculture but have lots to say about humans in relationship with the nonhuman world.

Just go out there to a plant and aks: "hey you, is there anything you want to tell me?" Then wait in silence and something will hit you. It's magic. It helps a lot when you are barefoot, Fukuoka walked barefoot a lot! Literally talk to plants.

Thanks Tal. I think you are right about this. I think we can communicate in more ways than we assume. Nice to meet you.