Tree Energy

[Alienist]

Has anyone considered taking and using spiritual energy from a tree? I hear it's an interesting experience. As plants are living beings, they have energy of their own. I was told that trees can also boost ones mental capbalities. In Abrahamic faiths, there is a Tree of Knowledge as well as life. and I notice wise sages have been known to meditate under trees. Even the Buddha attained enlightenment meditating under the Bohdi tree.

Talking to them I hear helps as well asking for spiritual energy. I am wanting to learn how to do this and wondered if anyone else knew how to use energy from trees.

[nbdy]

Re: Tree Energy

Alienist, so long as the tree is cool with what you are doing. I still shudder when I think about a friend who proudly told how she was doing so much better because she was sending all her negative energy into a tree. She is a lovely person, but did not once consider how the tree might feel about that. I realize that animism isn't everybody's flavor, but it can't hurt to tread softly when you "use" other living things.

[Sean R. R.]

Re: Tree Energy

Personal Beliefs:

Trees do have energy. However, I think their energy is in direct correlation to their physical/organic properties.

Trees are very strong and solid. They are rooted in the ground, and are really hard to move or nudge. Therefore, I would think that a tree's energy could be useful for when I need to stand my ground against adversities, or when I need a steady position.

I wouldn't use a tree's energy for mental capabilities as trees, well, don't have a mind. Or at least not a physical one. I don't believe trees or plants to have a soul. For me, a soul is energy bound by a consciousness. To my understanding, a tree has no consciousness, and acts solely on stimuli.

[Alienist]

Re: Tree Energy

Alienist, so long as the tree is cool with what you are doing. I still shudder when I think about a friend who proudly told how she was doing so much better because she was sending all her negative energy into a tree. She is a lovely person, but did not once consider how the tree might feel about that. I realize that animism isn't everybody's flavor, but it can't hurt to tread softly when you "use" other living things.

I don't like the idea of releasing negative energy onto a living thing. I mean the tree didn't do anything to me, so why make it suffer needlessly? I want to dissapate my negative energy, not transfer it into someone else. I figure the best relationship so to speak with trees is to plant one yourself, talk to it, and help take care of it. I don't like the idea of "using" it so I can get it's energy. Rather, I would ask it politely for some spare energy than demand it to give me the energy I want.

When I looked into Druidism, I realized how important trees are in religions. Druidism, being a nature religion tends to talk about it more than others but even religions like Romuva mentions the World Tree, Abrahamic Religions talk of the Tree of Knowledge and Life, Buddhism mentions the Bohdi tree, even Heathenry mentions yggdrasil, the world tree. Even non nature religioons mention some sort of important tree.

If I could I would rather have my house be made of stone, instead of having to use trees for construction. It's not that I would never touch a tree. just like I would hunt animals in the wild if I had to, but I rather not if I can help it. Trees get cut enough as it is. and I'm always up for things that don't use trees, like with digital animation. If trees are to be used I would use it for more practical purposes and things that we need. Like with camping I of course would use logs for a fire. and I know even in some construction woood is used but I would try to avoid using so much. Trees get cut down way more often than people say in the news and pollution is much more common than people think. I try to show respect to trees as I would any other living organism., which is why I think it's important to show respect to trees if one is to receive help from them.

I am wondering that if the tree is larger, would it be logical to assume it has more spiritual energy? Like great oak trees?


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Personal Beliefs:

Trees do have energy. However, I think their energy is in direct correlation to their physical/organic properties.

Trees are very strong and solid. They are rooted in the ground, and are really hard to move or nudge. Therefore, I would think that a tree's energy could be useful for when I need to stand my ground against adversities, or when I need a steady position.

I wouldn't use a tree's energy for mental capabilities as trees, well, don't have a mind. Or at least not a physical one. I don't believe trees or plants to have a soul. For me, a soul is energy bound by a consciousness. To my understanding, a tree has no consciousness, and acts solely on stimuli.

We don't know exactly what kind of "mind" a tree has. A tree may be more intelligent than one might think. I don't think it's a coincidence that wise sages tend to meditate under trees. I don't think it's just to receive shade. After all, aren't certain vegetable good for the brain? Maybe connecting with a tree makes us more perceptive of the physical and spiritual. Also I believe it depends on what your definition of a "soul" is. A tree is cut down and it doesn't howl in pain, but that doesn't mean it doesn't feel pain. Like if I squash an ant, the ant doesn't scream but it doesn't mean it doesn't feel pain either. I believe a tree's mind is different from us, but it's a mind nonetheless. Not saying you're wrong, I'm saying sometimes things aren't always as they seem

[nbdy]

Re: Tree Energy

Some interesting things to think about:

http://www.smithsonianchannel.com/sc/web/video/titles/12151/do-plants-respond-to-pain

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/15/science/15food.html?pagewanted=all

I do try not to peg the worthiness of another being based upon how "like me" it is. Don't get me wrong, I get that my life requires the deaths of others; I try to have a life worthy of their deaths. To my mind that is what gluttony is, to live in a way unworthy of deaths that sustain your living.

So apologies if I wandered way off topic, Alienist, and had I known you better I would have known your intention was more "working with" rather than "using." Words trip me up all the time.

[Sean R. R.]

Re: Tree Energy

We don't know exactly what kind of "mind" a tree has. A tree may be more intelligent than one might think. I don't think it's a coincidence that wise sages tend to meditate under trees. I don't think it's just to receive shade. After all, aren't certain vegetable good for the brain? Maybe connecting with a tree makes us more perceptive of the physical and spiritual. Also I believe it depends on what your definition of a "soul" is. A tree is cut down and it doesn't howl in pain, but that doesn't mean it doesn't feel pain. Like if I squash an ant, the ant doesn't scream but it doesn't mean it doesn't feel pain either. I believe a tree's mind is different from us, but it's a mind nonetheless. Not saying you're wrong, I'm saying sometimes things aren't always as they seem

I agree, it is wrong to try to force a human concept such as "mind", into a non-human being. But I don't know about intelligence. I think intelligence is the use of information for a goal beyond survival. As opposed to instinct, which is the use of information for the survival of the individual. Then again, in a spiritual level, any attempt to commune with plants in general on my part has been a failure, other than sensing no thought, just a concentration of energy inside a living being. As I said before, a soul, for me, is energy bound by a consciousness.

Pain is a feeling we have to alert us that something is frigging terribly wrong with something, and it triggers the survival instinct, such as taking the hand out of the blender, or realizing you might not want to leave that glass bit incrusted in your foot where it is. Pain induces a physical reaction to get rid of the harmful object.

I think plants have a far more simpler. It's useless for a plant to feel pain. Instead, I think their chemical and hormonal reactions to threats are painless, as we ourselves perceive it, since pain would only distract resources from the plant. In any case, pain as we understand it, comes from a neuronal connection inside our brains. Without a nerve network, I doubt plants can feel pain as we do. Maybe plants feel something, but not something we can understand, as they work totally differently from us. And if the system is so different, the result has to be. I think plants don't feel pain, in a way that they don't feel something unpleasant, but rather have a chemical-hormonal signal that indicates that something is threatening their survival, just as us. Maybe they don't even feel, maybe they just react to the signals, which considering the reaction time of average plants, sounds more efficient.

I think maybe most insects don't feel pain, but as plants, they just ignore any judgement of the information, and skip straight to the reaction.

Sometimes things are as they seem, sometimes they are the opposite, sometimes they don't even are at all. So it's always good to always think out of the box, and IN it.

Some interesting things to think about:

http://www.smithsonianchannel.com/sc/web/video/titles/12151/do-plants-respond-to-pain

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/15/science/15food.html?pagewanted=all

I do try not to peg the worthiness of another being based upon how "like me" it is. Don't get me wrong, I get that my life requires the deaths of others; I try to have a life worthy of their deaths. To my mind that is what gluttony is, to live in a way unworthy of deaths that sustain your living.

So apologies if I wandered way off topic, Alienist, and had I known you better I would have known your intention was more "working with" rather than "using." Words trip me up all the time.

The first video only proves plants react to stimuli which can be inhibited the same way we can inhibit our stimuli. And it also proves that plants are capable of generating and electrical signal when a harmful stimuli appears, which of course can be supposed to be a trigger for some kind of defensive mechanism. The video should be renamed "Plants respond and react to stimuli in a pretty similar ways than animals including us!". It doesn't prove in any way that plants feel pain, but rather that they react to stimuli, can be inhibited in the same way as us (which means they probably have a way of transmitting information pretty similar to us).

In a spiritual way, I do not care about the harm I may cause when using the magical properties of something that's alive. I think and I consider the consequences of my acts, and if I judge that there are no possible negative effects against me in my workings, I conduct them. I don't believe in a kind of universal balance. Things change chaotically. Balance is our excuse for trying to make the current situation stagnant, only when it's convenient for us. If species go extinct, it's because they weren't adapted to survival. If we become extinct, it's because we weren't able to maintain a man-made balance fit for our survival. If endangered species survive and don't go extinct thanks to human intervention, it's because we're creating a synthetic balance in order to preserve the species in a stagnant environment fittest for it's survival.

I don't think taking without giving, and taking and "giving" something in a symbolical way are too different. How is the tree going to be content (if they can feel content, that is) when you're taking some of it's spiritual life force away, if what you give is a physical retribution in which the terms were dictated by yourself? We will never find balance, because we cannot quantify how much retribution is enough, too much, or too little.

Just throwing my thoughts out there.

[Azvanna]

Re: Tree Energy

... To my mind that is what gluttony is, to live in a way unworthy of deaths that sustain your living.

Love this!

[Northman]

Re: Tree Energy

I quite like the idea there's an oak in the valley bottom I tend to frequent en route to my local moor (joys of living in the peak district XD) that I like to climb onto the branches of and meditate with, especially as it has beautiful views of my city and the surrounding wood and moorland. Even at home I always keep a plant of some sort in my room (currently I have a geranium I grew in biology GCSE classes in a cloning experiment ) because living things can really help me centre myself in general.

[mmc411]

Re: Tree Energy

I would have to say that trees have therapeutict value for me. I know when I am under a tree a meditating, it seems like I am at peace and I feel really calm. Seems I have a heightened sense of awareness,of my surrounding, smells, wind and the sound of the world.I feel very energized after this.

[SleepingCompass]

Re: Tree Energy

I am wondering that if the tree is larger, would it be logical to assume it has more spiritual energy? Like great oak trees?

I thought the following video kind of sheds some light on why larger trees might have more spiritual energy: