The Secret Life of Plants

A Fascinating Account of the Physical, Emotional, and Spiritual Relations Between Plants and Man

By: Peter Tompkins, Christopher Bird

Narrated by: D. Michael Hope

Length: 16 hrs and 28 mins

Publisher's summary

Explore the inner world of plants and its fascinating relation to mankind, as uncovered by the latest discoveries of science. A perennial best seller! 

In this truly revolutionary and beloved work, drawn from remarkable research, Peter Tompkins and Christopher Bird cast light on the rich psychic universe of plants. Now available in a new edition, The Secret Life of Plants explores plants' response to human care and nurturing, their ability to communicate with man, plants' surprising reaction to music, their lie-detection abilities, their creative powers, and much more. 

Tompkins and Bird's classic book affirms the depth of humanity's relationship with nature and adds special urgency to the cause of protecting the environment that nourishes us.

©2018 Peter Tompkins and Christopher Bird (P)2020 HarperCollins Publishers

Skeptics beware. Lots of psychobabble.

I could only make it through the first chapter. I gave up when I realized it was going to be a whole book based on confirmation bias. The first chapter talks about how a researcher discovers via lie detector,that plants are connected to their caretaker. Ok... Then when he has to reproduce in a scientific setting, he can't. He rationalizes it away with silly excuses rather than admit he had fooled himself by misunderstanding how a galvanometer works. The second chapter starts with a guy employing a team to all try the experiment, and only HE could reproduce. That likely means he is the one that is mistaken in his approach. I turned it off when I realized the whole book is based on heresay and not backed by real evidence. It's sad. the book is written in an interesting prose, and the reader is fine. I am just too sceptical to be able to finish. I know other people will disagree, but it's my two cents.

Fiction not Fact. Google it before buying.

I was excited to see the positive reviews on this book when I purchased it however I have since discovered that the 'science' in this book has been largely debunked years ago. Google this for yourself before you buy it. This is a book of fiction and not scientific fact as suggested. This book was debunked so long ago it seems strange that it would be made into an audio book today. Besides the fact that this is utter nonsense, the performance is horrible. The book is far longer than it needs to be. I am returning this book.

Disinformation and hogwash

If you picked this up because, like me, you were hoping for an in-depth and scientific look at plants at the cellular level, full of the soaring wonder with which Carl Sagan describes the Cosmos, you will be sorely disappointed. Parts are shakey, others are pure fantasy, and still more are harmful charlatanry preying on the hopes and dreams of the credulous and untrained. In chapter 2 I kept waiting for the moment the irony would become evident, and they would talk about applying electrodes to rocks and beakers of salt water and getting the same results. They state "scientists stood in awe" but have no sources, and quote no names. They say (very conveniently) that skeptics "would not be able to get the same result" and that scientific probing will only shut up the plants forever, as if good science doesn't require the practicioner to be open to the possibility of being wrong.

Not only will you listen to pseudoscience presented in the least convincing way possible, but the narrator reads with all the sparkle and imagination of a funeral durge. So if you are not credulous enough to believe it, you will not even be entertained. Truly a waste of a very good title.

Amazing doesn't even begin to describe it

I have read this book 3 times, and am so grateful that I can listen to it as I go about my daily work. It has been more illuminating than I have words to express, and it has actually turned the direction some of my friend's lives. I am so grateful to the many people interested in loving the earth and the plants that are here to love us. God bless Peter and Christopher for their efforts.

Magical, uplifing and hopeful.

i loved this writing. Surprising and uplifing, it made me even more hopeful about this world.

Timless and brilliant...always the classic!!!!

I first read this 50 years ago....It is even better now...much better ..Much i seem to have missed has come forward to reveal itself here. Shabari Bird is still in full action (farming in australia with her HUGH) and with her place in georgia...

Thank you more than I can say for this volume rich and wealthy with insights!!

Bravo!

Reviewing "The Secret Life Of Plants"

Mind Blowing. If there were a couple of parts
of the book I didn't like, I don't remember them.
Wow, just wow. if 90% of this is true, "wow!"

Good plant stories

Though a good deal of this book is outdated , I appreciated the author's devotion to his topic and the lengths he went to to illuminate people who we may not have ever heard of, making discoveries about Plants that we are only now beginning to understand. Once you accepted that most of his research was anecdotal, it became rather entertaining.

You Need To Know These Things

Nearly every sentence is a profound revelation and/or confirmation of things which you fundamentally recognize and know are true and accurate.

Oh, and The Man does Not want you to know any of it. After 170+ years of irrefutable scientific evidences and confirmations, it has all been harshly, continually, systematically, and conspiratorially suppressed and undermined by the conventional, ruling "science" establishments.

Why? All Truth has many powerful enemies.
But, you already know that.

Set yourself free. Listen to this book.

A very secret life

Definitely not worth 16 1/2 hours of listening. I stopped with about 11 hours left

Heavy and horrible

This is a very heavy book for me as an engineer of electronics. I understand how authors try to present a multitude of opinions, I understand how they tie together incomplete data and coincidental observations with modern approach unveiling the history behind some things. While I give credit and benefit of a doubt to many things described in this book - electric and magnetic fields influencing plant development, something similar to simplistic neural system that allows plants make decisions and feel discomfort, and stuff like that. There are many things which are a complete nonsense. Dowsing on maps? Measuring how good the food is in angstroms? Some stories describe methodology, like the discussion about element transmutation, so if one doubts it - one can actually repeat the experiment and do spectroscopy analysis to confirm or disprove it. My uni had a fairly good spectroscope, and had I read the book some 5 years ago, I could easily replicate some things at no cost. Other stories are based on publications which just claim things out of the blue. This frequency is healthy, so this food is healthy. Why? Because I said so! How about at least assuming that it's not just one frequency but a spectrum, and it's not the main frequency but other frequency distribution pattern, that makes things good or bad? IF that measuring device even is working and repeatable at all. Anyone who has done any radio or signal processing will see that research is full of holes.
That's why this book is so heavy. Every word needs to be taken with a grain of salt, every fact needs to be checked. This is a major headache if you want to really understand something.

Excellent for Insomnia

I'll be honest, I can't remember a word of it, but I have insomnia and this is the only thing helping me get to sleep at the moment. For all I can remember I just press play, set a timer, then wake up some time later.

It's great because I love plants so it's a topic I'm happy to listen to whilst tired, but because I love plants I'm aware of the scathing reviews and opinions of most plant scientists, so I feel absolutely no pressure to actually pay attention or remember what I've heard.

I'll probably relisten at some point out of actual interest and form my own opinion, but for now 10/10 this audiobook is great for sending me to sleep.

fantastic

fascinating book. loaded with information. I will re listen. it touched my soul. thank you for producing and sharing. Bless All.