Are You A Tree Hugger?

One of the many things I love about Bill is his ability to come up with topics for our newsletter each month that provokes thinking in a whole new way. When we talked on the phone, he told me this month’s topic would be on how trees communicate with each other via the under-ground fungi. I always try to do some research on a topic before sitting down to write my article. When I thought about going to the web for some information, it made me wonder if trees have a “wood wide web” to work with when trying to fig-ure things out like us humans do in using the world wide web. Perhaps that’s a failed attempt at humor or a bad play on words, but it did start my thinking process on how trees communicate. As a child, I remember running around in our backyard playing dodge with my neighborhood friends when the crab apple trees produced their small size ornamental apples we picked to throw at each other. I loved these trees so much that I was always climbing up in them to see how far off the ground I could get. In the spring of 1970, my Dad had the idea these trees needed pruning & he did so by cutting the branches right to the trunk. After his pruning, I climbed up too far & lost my footing causing me to fall out of control to-wards the ground. I’m not sure if the tree was trying to save me from the long fall down to the ground or teach me a lesson not to climb up the tree again. As I slipped & began my sudden de-scend, I got about two feet further down the tree when suddenly I found myself stuck in the most excruciating position. One of the pruned branch-es went under my arm pit, all the way thru my

small body protruding out the back of my shoul-der. Here I was….7 years old & stuck hanging in the tree unable to get myself down. After the firemen & paramedics arrived to cut the branch off to get me out of the tree, I remember hearing the words of the Dr. at the E.R. telling my parents I best not be allowed to climb up in a tree again. This was one of life’s tough lessons, but I be-came a quick learner after that incident & haven’t climbed up a tree since. No one will ever know for sure, but I believe the tree I loved so dearly saved me from a more substantial injury had I fallen to the ground way below. Many years after that, I went back to that tree to say Thank You for catching me. I was always taught to respect na-ture & all its glory & I think that’s one of the rea-sons I consider myself to be a mindful tree hug-ger. Trees are just one of God’s many creations, so it goes without saying they are probably far more advanced than what we are able to under-stand. Biologists, ecologists, foresters & natural-ists have made strong arguments that trees can speak & humans can learn to hear this lan-guage. In the ground under us, there is this other world, a world of infinite biological pathways that connect trees & allow them to communicate giv-ing entire forests the ability to behave as a single organism. It’s like another form of intelligence we are taking for granted. Next time you pass by a tree that “speaks to you” for its brilliant fall foliage or its sweeping branches that rustle in the wind, take a moment & put your arms around that tree to say Thank You!

Love & Blessings~Doug

July 2019 Newsletter

ONGOING EVENTS AT SLC

Every Tuesday at 4:30 p.m. Join our group

in the Hall for Movie Night! We share a Pot

Luck together and then enjoy a good spir-

itual movie or documentary.

Every Third Thursday at 4:30 p.m. Barba-

ra Meister Vitale usually hosts a Spiritual

Discussion in the Fellowship Hall. This is

POSTPONED until August 15.

Every First and Third Friday (July 5 & 19)

at 4 p.m. Sandy Frary will host Crafts Night

in the Fellowship Hall. Its fun and you learn

a lot!

SUNDAY SPEAKERS

July 7, 11 a.m.

Sheila Kaye has her Master’s in Clinical

Social Work with 30+ years experience in

the field including inpatient psychiatric

counseling. She embraces metaphysical

ministry, Reiki, healing touch, and medita-

tion. She will speak on “The Source of

Love – The Power of Love.”

July 14, 11 a.m.

Barbara Meister Vitale is director of Meta-

Intelligence Institute and author of two best-

selling books. She is has been trained in the

ancient Celtic and Lakota traditions and is an

active member of SLC. She will speak on “I

AM and More.”

July 21, 11 a.m.

Dale Allen Hoffman is an internationally

known scholar of Aramaic and other ancient

languages. He is a true friend of SLC and

loves our center as his second home. Dale

has recently published his first book Echoes

of an Ancient Dream. He will speak on

“The Jesus Sutras: When East Met

West.”

July 28, 11 a.m.

Bill Groves, our own SLC Administrator,

will lead a group discussion on the general

topic of this newsletter. Try to read it before

you come (if you can) as we will discuss

“The Consciousness of our Forests and

the Creatures Within”.

SPIRITUAL LIGHT CENTER INFORMATION

80 Heritage Hollow Drive, Franklin, NC 28734 (behind the Gazebo Restaurant)828-369-3065 slcfranklin@frontier.com www.spirituallightcenter.com

The Consciousness of the Forest

Let’s do something different this month. When researching this fascinating topic I found

a wealth of information by Peter Wohlleben, a German forester and author who writes

on ecological themes. In his passion for forests he takes the perspective of the trees,

much as Jacques Cousteau took the perspective of the inhabitants of the oceans. I

found I could get more information into this newsletter by simply sharing various quotes

from his wonderful book The Hidden Life of Trees: What They Feel, How They Com-

municate – Discoveries from a Secret World. We live in a national forest, and it is for

the amazing life of these trees that I chose to move a thousand miles to be here with

them. Let’s learn more about how this forest consciously communicates and creates an

environment that enriches our soul. ~Bill

“There are fungi present that act as intermediaries to guarantee quick dissemination

of news. These fungi operate like fiber-optic Internet cables. Their thin filaments pene-

trate the ground, weaving through it in almost unbelievable density. One teaspoon of

forest soil contains many miles of these "hyphae." Over centuries, a single fungus can

cover many square miles and network an entire forest. The fungal connections transmit

signals from one tree to the next, helping the trees exchange news about insects,

drought, and other dangers. Science has adopted the term "wood wide web" pervading

our forests. What and how much information is exchanged are subjects we have only

just begun to research. For instance, Dr. Simard discovered that different tree species

are in contact with one another, even when they regard each other as competitors. And

the fungi are pursuing their own agendas and appear to be very much in favor of coop-

eration and equitable distribution of information and resources.”

“To enter into a partnership with one of the many thousands of kinds of fungi, a tree

must be very open, literally, because the fungal threads grow into its soft root hairs.

There's no research into whether this is painful or not, but as it is something the tree

wants, I imagine it gives rise to positive feelings. However the tree

feels, from then on the two partners work together. The fungus not

only penetrates and envelops the tree's roots, but also allows its web

to roam through the surrounding forest floor. In so doing, it extends

the reach of the tree's own roots as the web grows out toward other

trees. Here, it connects with other trees' fungal partners and roots. A

network is created, and now it's easy for the trees to exchange vital

nutrients and even information-such as an impending insect attack.

This connection makes fungi something like the forest Internet.”

“But the most astonishing thing about trees is how

social they are. The trees in a forest care for each

other, sometimes even going so far as to nourish the

stump of a felled tree for centuries after it was cut

down by feeding it sugars and other nutrients, and so

keeping it alive. Only some stumps are thus nour-

ished. Perhaps they are the parents of the trees that

make up the forest of today. A tree’s most important means of staying connected to

other trees is a “wood wide web” of soil fungi that connects vegetation in an intimate

network that allows the sharing of an enormous amount of information and goods. Sci-

entific research aimed at understanding the astonishing abilities of this partnership be-

tween fungi and plant has only just begun. The reason trees share food and communi-

cate is that they need each other. It takes a forest to create a microclimate suitable for

tree growth and sustenance. So it’s not surprising that isolated trees have far shorter

lives than those living connected together in forests. Perhaps the saddest plants of all

are those we have enslaved in our agricultural systems. They seem to have lost the

ability to communicate, and are thus rendered deaf and dumb.”

“Why are trees such social beings? Why do they share food with their own species

and sometimes even go so far as to nourish their competitors? The reasons are the

same as for human communities: there are advantages to working together. A tree is

not a forest. In this protected environment, trees can live to be very old. To get to this

point, the community must remain intact no matter what. If every tree were looking out

only for itself, then quite a few of them would never reach old age. Regular fatalities

would result in many large gaps in the tree canopy, which would make it easier for

storms to get inside the forest and uproot more trees. The heat of summer would reach

the forest floor and dry it out. Every tree would suffer. Every tree, therefore, is valuable

to the community and worth keeping around for as long as possible. And that is why

even sick individuals are supported and nourished until they recover. Next time, per-

haps it will be the other way round, and the supporting tree might be the one in need of

assistance. When thick silver-gray beeches behave like this, they remind me of a herd

of elephants. Like the herd, they, too, look after their own, and they help their sick and

weak back up onto their feet. They are even reluctant to abandon their dead.”

“The average tree grows its branches out until it encounters the branch tips of a

neighboring tree of the same height. It doesn't grow any wider because the air and bet-

ter light in this space are already taken. However, it heavily reinforces the branches it

has extended, so you get the impression that there's quite a shoving match going on up

there. But a pair of true friends is careful right from the outset not to grow overly thick

branches in each other's direction. The trees don't want to take anything away from

each other, and so they develop sturdy branches only at the outer edges of their

crowns, that is to say, only in the direction of "non-friends." Such partners are often so

tightly connected at the roots that sometimes they even die together.”

“So, let's get back to why the roots are the most important part of a tree. Conceiva-

bly, this is where the tree equivalent of a brain is located. Brain? you ask. Isn't that a bit

farfetched? Possibly, but now we know that trees can learn. This means they must store

experiences somewhere, and therefore, there must be some kind of a storage mecha-

nism inside the organism. Just where it is, no one knows, but the roots are the part of

the tree best suited to the task. What grows underground is the most permanent part of

the tree-and where else would it store important information over a long period of time?

It is now an accepted fact that the root network is in charge of all chemical activity in the

tree. Roots absorb substances and bring them into the tree. In the other direction, they

deliver the products of photosynthesis to the tree's fungal partners and even route warn-

ing signals to neighboring trees. But a brain? For there to be something we would rec-

ognize as a brain, neurological processes must be involved, and for these, in addition to

chemical messages, you need electrical impulses. And these are precisely what we can

measure in the tree, and we've been able to do so since as far back as the nineteenth

century. For some years now, a heated controversy has flared up among scientists. Can

plants think? Are they intelligent?”

In conjunction with his colleagues, Frantisek Baluska from the Institute of Cellular and

Molecular Botany at the University of Bonn is of the opinion that brain-like structures

can be found at root tips. In addition to signaling pathways, there are also numerous

systems and molecules similar to those found in animals. When a root feels its way for-

ward in the ground, it is aware of stimuli. The researchers measured electrical signals

that led to changes in behavior after they were processed in a "transition zone." If the

root encounters toxic substances, impenetrable stones, or saturated soil, it analyzes the

situation and transmits the necessary adjustments to the growing tip. The root tip

changes direction as a result of this communication and steers the growing root around

the critical areas.

Right now, many plant researchers are skepti-

cal about whether such behavior points to a

repository for intelligence, the faculty of

memory, and emotions. Among other things,

they get worked up about carrying over find-

ings in similar situations with animals and, at

the end of the day, about how this threatens to

blur the boundary between plants and animals.

And so what? What would be so awful about that? The distinction be-

tween plant and animal is, after all, arbitrary and depends on the way

an organism feeds itself: the former photosynthesizes and the latter

eats other living beings. Finally, the only other big difference is in the

amount of time it takes to process information and translate it into ac-

tion. Does that mean that beings that live life in the slow lane are au-

tomatically worth less than ones on the fast track? Sometimes I sus-

pect we would pay more attention to trees and other vegetation if we

could establish beyond a doubt just how similar they are in many

ways to animals.”

“Trees also use the senses of smell and taste for communication. If a giraffe starts

eating an African acacia, the tree releases a chemical into the air that signals that a

threat is at hand. As the chemical drifts through the air and reaches other trees, they

“smell” it and are warned of the danger. Even before the giraffe reaches them, they

begin producing toxic chemicals. Insect pests are dealt with slightly differently. The sali-

va of leaf-eating insects can be “tasted” by the leaf being eaten. In response, the tree

sends out a chemical signal that attracts predators that feed on that particular leaf-

eating insect. Life in the slow lane is clearly not always dull.”

“So trees communicate by means of olfactory, visual, and electrical signals. What

about sounds? When it is said that trees are definitely silent, the latest scientific re-

search casts doubt even on this statement. Dr. Monica Gagliano from the University of

Western Australia has, quite literally, had her ear to the ground. It's not practical to study

trees in the laboratory; therefore, researchers substitute grass seedlings because they

are easier to handle. They started listening, and it didn't take them long to discover that

their measuring apparatus was registering roots crackling quietly at a frequency of 220

hertz. Crackling roots? The noise discovered in the laboratory caused the researchers

to sit up and pay attention because the roots of seedlings not directly involved in the ex-

periment reacted. Whenever the seedlings' roots were exposed to a cracking at 220

hertz, they oriented their tips in that direction. That means the grasses were registering

this frequency, so it makes sense to say they "heard" it.”

“When trees are really thirsty, they begin to scream. If you're out in the forest, you

won't be able to hear them, because this all takes place at ultrasonic levels. Scientists at

the Swiss Federal Institute for Forest and Landscape Research recorded the sounds,

and this is how they explain them: Vibrations occur in the trunk when the flow of water

from the roots to the leaves is interrupted. We know how the sounds are produced, and

if we were to look through a microscope to examine how humans produce sounds, what

we would see wouldn't be that different: the passage of air down the windpipe causes

our vocal cords to vibrate. When I think about the research results, in particular in con-

junction with the crackling roots I mentioned earlier, it seems to me that these vibrations

could indeed be much more than just vibrations. They could be cries of thirst. The trees

might be screaming out a dire warning to their colleagues that water levels are running

low.”

“Students at the institute for Environmental Research at Aachen discovered some-

thing amazing about photosynthesis in undisturbed beech forests. Apparently, the trees

synchronize their performance so that they are all equally successful. And that is not

what one would expect. Each beech tree grows in a unique location, and conditions can

vary greatly in just a few yards. The soil can be stony or loose. It can retain a great deal

of water or almost no water. It can be full of nutrients or extremely barren. Accordingly,

each tree experiences different growing conditions; therefore, each tree grows more

quickly or more slowly and produces more or less sugar or wood, and thus you would

expect every tree to be photosynthesizing at a different rate.

And that's what makes the research results so astounding. The rate of photosynthesis is

the same for all the trees. The trees, it seems, are equalizing differences between the

strong and the weak. Whether they are thick or thin, all members of the same species

are using light to produce the same amount of sugar per leaf. This equalization is taking

place underground through the roots. There's obviously a lively exchange going on

down there. Whoever has an abundance of sugar hands some over; whoever is running

short gets help. Once again, fungi are involved. Their enormous networks act as gigan-

tic redistribution mechanisms. It's a bit like the way so-

cial security systems operate to ensure individual mem-

bers of society don't fall too far behind. It appears that

nutrient exchange and helping neighbors in times of

need is the rule, and this leads to the conclusion that

forests are superorganisms with interconnections much

like ant colonies.”

“If things become dire for the fungi and their trees

despite all this support, then the fungi can take radical

action, as in the case of the pine and its partner Laccaria bicolor, or the bicolored de-

ceiver. When there is a lack of nitrogen, the latter releases a deadly toxin into the soil,

which causes minute organisms such as springtails to die and release the nitrogen tied

up in their bodies, forcing them to become fertilizer for both the trees and the fungi.”

“Whether we can somehow listen in on tree talk is a subject addressed by Korean

scientists who have been tracking older women as they walk through forests and urban

areas. The result? When the women were walking in the forest, their blood pressure,

their lung capacity, and the elasticity of their arteries improved, whereas an excursion

into town showed none of these changes. It's possible that phytoncides have a benefi-

cial effect on our immune systems as well as the trees' health, because they kill germs.

Personally, I think the tree talk is the reason we enjoy being out in undisturbed forests

so much. Walkers who visit one of the ancient deciduous preserves in the forest I man-

age always report that their heart feels lighter and they feel at home. If they walk instead

through disturbed forests they don't experience such feelings. Possibly it's because in

ancient beech forests fewer "alarm calls" go out, and therefore, most messages ex-

changed between trees are contented ones, and these messages reach our brains as

well, via our noses. I am convinced that we intuitively register the forest's health.”

“When you know that trees experience pain and have memories and that tree par-

ents live together with their children, then you can no longer just chop them down and

disrupt their lives. If a tree falls in the forest there are other trees listening.”

Witnesses

We stand somberly alongside the road as our fallen comrades roll by, carcasses piled high in the back of trucks not covered, exposed… Liquid seeps from our pores as cadaver after cadaver are paraded for all onlookers to behold. But most, go on past, maybe giving a glance at all that remains of our brethren. We used to wave good-bye as the stacked bodies of our relatives and friends flowed by… but we tired… Then we swayed as the thousands of cadavers

passed by us. And we stood rooted and stupid. We, who endlessly, contribute & provide. We, who love you, who callously do not regard. You inhale us . . . we exhale out to you-- all in a oneness, you do not yet grasp. Into the air, we recall their names as the trucks rumble on… Cedar, Loblolly, Nutmeg, Oak, Pine, and Poplar Now to join our ancestors annihilated long ago-- Sassafras, Chestnut & Ash. Don’t you know you are killing your-selves?

By Pam Keyser

◄ June July 2019 August ►

Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat

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4:30 p.m. Movie Night

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4

5

4:00 p.m. Craft Night with Sandy Frary

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7 11:00 Sunday Service

Sheila Kaye

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4:30 p.m. Movie Night

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14 11:00 Sunday Service

Barbara Meister Vitale

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16

4:30 p.m. Movie Night

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4:30 p.m. Spiritual Dis-cussion POSTPONED Until August

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4:00 p.m. Craft Night with Sandy Frary

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21 11:00 Sunday Service

Dale Allen Hoffman

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23

4:30 p.m. Movie Night

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28 11:00 Sunday Service

Bill Groves Group Discussion

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4:30 p.m. Movie Night

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ECOLOGY CORNER: Tired of all that junk mail piling up? Get it off your desk

and into the garden, where it will feed your plants for months. First, put it through the shredder, removing staples as needed. Then place a

6-inch layer of shredded paper around your plants. Water well: the paper will

settle down to about 1 1/2 inches deep. Top with a thin layer of organic mulch or

topsoil. After a couple of seasons, the paper will break down completely, enriching the soil.