Do plants feel pain?

[Jaymes]

Every now and then when I bring up that I'm vegetarian, someone will pipe up with "plants feel pain, too!"

I always answer with "No. No, they don't. They have no nervous system. How can they feel pain?" To which "a study showed it!" is usually the answer.

So here I ask for proof of plants feeling pain. Someone? Anyone?

 

[FerventGodSeeker]

Certain kinds of animals don't feel any pain, either...what is necesary to feel pain is not just a nervous system, but a portion of the brain (I believe it's the cerebral cortex) as well, which some animals don't have.

 

[Ormiston]

Every now and then when I bring up that I'm vegetarian, someone will pipe up with "plants feel pain, too!"

I always answer with "No. No, they don't. They have no nervous system. How can they feel pain?" To which "a study showed it!" is usually the answer.

So here I ask for proof of plants feeling pain. Someone? Anyone?

I can't tell if this is a serious story or not: http://www.bbspot.com/News/2003/08/plant_pain.html

 

[Jaymes]

Given that it says this is a related story, I'm going to have to call 'satire'.

 

[Ardent Listener]

I don't have proof that may convince you Jensa, but Luther Burbank wrote a lot about this subject years ago. You can read about him in a chapter of the book Autobiography of a Yogi which can read online at www.crystalclarity.com/yogananda/.

 

[Druidus]

Jenna, physically they cannot, or, at least, I do not believe so.

But if you try out that meditation I told you about, you will be able to sense, in a way, the pain that a tree, at least, may feel. It's not the same as our pain. It's more of a subdued sadness or melancholy, at least in my experience. I don't know if this applies to anything other than trees.
​

 

[Maxist]

Well, I would think that these people are simply saying that as a reason to go against vegitarianism.

 

[Jaymes]

Ardent Listener: Could you point me at a specific chapter? 48 is a large number to wade through.

Maxist: That's what I'm leaning toward, yes.

 

[Shadow Wolf]

I will second the meditation, and that it's not a pain as humans percieve it, but a type of depression and drop in energy.

 

[Ardent Listener]

Well, I would think that these people are simply saying that as a reason to go against vegitarianism.

Not at all. I think the topic is interesting enough without going down that road.

 

[Ardent Listener]

*Races to his beloved copy of Autobiography of a Yogi*

You are looking for Chapter 38: Luther Burbank: A saint amid the roses
(Who would have thought, eh? Hehe.)

My copy is the 1971 printing. Yeah, I have had it awhile.

(Unrelated nugget: Do check out the parts about Lahiri Mahasaya and Babaji.)

It really is a wonderful book isn't it YmirGF?

 

[michel]

As a Taoist, I am rather surprised you would ask this. Um, why not meditate on a flower and then in mid meditation, when your senses are sharpest... pluck it. You ought to detect something... when you remove the flower, instantly drop it, then try to sense the residual energy patterns of the plant and its fallen part.

You just might detect the answer to your question... maybe.

An excellent point ! And one I have also felt..........a 'shimmer' in the balance of nature; just as much a one as if I killed a wasp..........which I used to, because I am terrified of them.

Plants are a form of life that are grown from seed, reproduce, and die; what more definition would you need for a vessel for a soul ? The soul may be 'younger', of a different type, but a soul is there, as far as I am concerned. Which is why when I eat food (meat, vegetables..whatever), I give thanks to the life that was sacrificed for my nourishment.

 

[Valjean]

I think you'd have to have a pretty broad definition of pain for plants to be included.

Plants can react to noxious stimuli. They can even communicate them to other plants, but, as has been pointed out, our experience of pain is a neurololgic phenomenon, mediated by a brain. This pretty much bars plants from the kind of sensation or experience we have when injured.

Another thing to consider is what function pain would serve in a sessile organism.
Organisms generally do not develop useless functions, especially if they're metabolically costly, and even when a function is well-developed it is generally lost if the need for it goes away.

 

[Jaymes]

As a Taoist, I am rather surprised you would ask this. Um, why not meditate on a flower and then in mid meditation, when your senses are sharpest... pluck it. You ought to detect something... when you remove the flower, instantly drop it, then try to sense the residual energy patterns of the plant and its fallen part.

You just might detect the answer to your question... maybe.

Oops, sorry; somehow I missed this comment!

I've never been able to meditate "well" (things sort of mess up for me and go wonky after about 10-15 minutes), and I guess I'm what you'd call skeptical of anything but scientific evidence.

 

[Cynic]

Certain kinds of animals don't feel any pain, either...what is necesary to feel pain is not just a nervous system, but a portion of the brain (I believe it's the cerebral cortex) as well, which some animals don't have.

Yes, it's the somatosensory region of the cerebral cortex.
In order to feel and experience pain, plants would also have to be conscious. Many regions of the brain contribute to conscious experience, and without a brain, well that's just impossible.