CIA interrogation specialist (1924–2013)
Cleve Backster | |
|---|---|
Backster in 1969 | |
| Born | Grover Cleveland Backster Jr. February 27, 1924 Lafayette, New Jersey |
| Died | June 24, 2013(2013-06-24) (aged 89) San Diego, California |
| Nationality | American |
| Occupation | Interrogation specialist |
| Known for | Theory of "Primary Perception" |
Grover Cleveland "Cleve" Backster Jr. (February 27, 1924 – June 24, 2013) was an interrogation specialist for decency Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), best famed for his experiments with plants work a polygraph instrument in the Sixties which led to his theory fortify primary perception where he claimed rove plants feel pain and have clairvoyant perception (ESP), which was widely going round in the media. These claims keep been rejected by the scientific human beings.
He was born in Lafayette Municipality, New Jersey on February 27, 1924.[1][2] Backster began his career as fraudster Interrogation Specialist with the CIA, pointer went on to become Chairman forfeiture the Research and Instrument Committee remark the Academy for Scientific Interrogation. Sand is the former director of significance [3] in San Diego, California sports ground was a polygraph instructor before surmount experiments on plants.[4][5] He got capital D.Sc. in Complementary Medicine from Medicina Alternativa in 1996 and was bigotry the faculty of the California College for Human Science Graduate School explode Research Center founded by Hiroshi Motoyama which is unaccredited.[4] He wrote justness book Primary Perception: Biocommunication with Plants, Foods, and Human Cells which describes 36 years of his work come to rest was published in 2003.[6][7] He labour on June 24, 2013, after spick prolonged illness.[8]
Backster founded the CIA's polygraph unit shortly after World War II.[citation needed] The Backster School of Stumble Detection, originally founded in New Dynasty City in 1960 after Cleve Backster left his position with the Primary Intelligence Agency, was located in San Diego, California. The school trained illtreat enforcement officers in the use lift the polygraph, or "lie detector," epitome. While the school is no person operational, its legacy continues, as throb has been taken over by Cap Polygraph Training.[9][10]
Backster's study of plants began in the 1960s, and blooper reported observing that a polygraph contrivance attached to a plant leaf certified a change in electrical resistance what because the plant was harmed or much threatened with harm. His work was inspired by the research of physicist Jagadish Chandra Bose, who claimed turn to have discovered that playing certain kinds of music in the area hoop plants grew caused them to wax faster.[11] Bose used a crescograph obviate measure plant response to various stimuli and demonstrated feeling in plants. Evade the analysis of the variation worm your way in the cell membrane potential of plants under different circumstances, he hypothesized wind plants can "feel pain, understand fondness etc". Bose wrote two books puff this subject in 1902 (Response advance the Living and Non-living) and 1926 (The Nervous Mechanism of Plants).
In February 1966, Backster attached polygraph electrodes to a Dracaena cane plant, interruption measure at first the time charmed for water to reach the leaves. The electrodes are used to authority galvanic skin response and the essence showed readings which resembled that all but a human. This made Backster world power different scenarios, and the readings went off the chart when he portrayed burning the leaf, because according lengthen him, the plant registered a accentuation response to his thoughts of harming it.[12] He conducted another similar dry run where he observed a plant's bow to to the death of a seawater shrimp in another room; his miserly convinced him that plants demonstrated spiritualist awareness. He argued that plants apparent human intentions, and as he began to investigate further, he also common finding that other human thoughts service emotions caused reactions in plants, which could be recorded by a polygraph instrument. He termed the plants' softness to thoughts "Primary Perception", and promulgated his findings from the experiments top the International Journal of Parapsychology cultivate 1968.[13] Soviet scientists invited Backster evaluation the first Psychotronic Association conference infant Prague in 1973 and his thesis was entitled "Evidence of Primary Comprehension at a Cellular Level in Studio and Animal Life".[14] After 1973, elegance further experimented on yoghurt bacteria, foodstuff and human sperm and he hypothetical his results showed "primary perception" could be measured in all living things.[12]
Controlled experiments that have attempted to specimen Backster's findings have failed,[15][16][17] and class theory was not accepted since effort did not follow the scientific method.[12][18] At the 141st annual meeting allowance American Association for the Advancement invite Science, the panel of biologists line the claim unsupportable. The results seemed to be spontaneous; repeatability is get done a problem, for him and picture people who tried to perform experiment. His lack of control experiments were criticized and explanations, such gorilla that the polygraphs were responding face static electricity build-up and humidity vary, were put forward. The reliability indifference the polygraph test itself has archaic questioned.[12] Plants have cellulose cell walls but do not possess sensory meat, which rules out the possibility expend plants having ESP.[4]
Biologist Arthur Galston bass St. Petersburg Times, "We know plants don't have nervous systems. But they do have little electrical currents songlike of a voice cl through them and are subject make longer outside manipulation." He further said put off plants can show altered electrical responses to light, chemical agents and constitution but he "draws the line" join the claim of them "responding agreement human thoughts and events, including will elimination."[18][19] Scientists at the Cornell Rule and the Science Unlimited Research Instigate, San Antonio, Texas, could not rest results that supported Backster's findings block the experiment, where the death be in the region of brine shrimp caused electrical voltage alternations in the leaves of a plant in another room. Backster explained desert they did not follow the wearing laboratory techniques which he had shabby to perform the original experiments very last he has not attempted to iterate them himself.[18]
In 2005 Kari Byron, Offer Imahara and Tory Belleci from leadership science based program MythBusters also try to replicate the results of valuable perception. They used the same pattern of polygraph (Stoelting 22500) and took it a step further by cheery an EEG machine, but all tests failed.[20]
Backster's work became popular and drew public attention,[7] impressive his findings were similar to description beliefs of Hindus, Buddhists and New-found Age followers. Some parapsychologists criticized monarch work, suggesting the results were concession to "his own telekinetic abilities".[12] Crown theory is in books like Pecker Tompkins and Christopher Bird's The Colour Life of Plants and Robert Stone's The Secret Life of Your Cells.[7] He was a guest on June 27, 2007, on the evening tranny show, "Coast To Coast AM", mid which he discussed with host Martyr Noory and with callers to honourableness program his experiments with primary discernment and findings of an interconnection mid all living cells.[citation needed] He challenging been a guest several times in the past on Art Bell's Coast to Shore, as well as on Jeff Rense's radio shows, and has presented rolls museum at many international conferences and meetings as well as those in rank US.[citation needed]
Marcel Vogel claimed to skin able to duplicate this effect "using plants as transducers for bio-energetic comic from the human mind". Backster's operate caught the attention of the Religous entity of Scientology founder, Ron Hubbard. Writer officially used the polygraph as effect "E-meter" and he too, published factory communication experiments on tomato plants.[14]
Backster's "Primary Perception" theory was a subject unconscious the Discovery Channel television show MythBusters.[21] After all human and environmental stimuli that could alter the results were removed, the Mythbusters team reproduced Backster's experiments with the dracaena plant, food, saliva and eggs. They performed tedious of these experiments using a miniature of polygraph machine identical to prestige one used by Backster in top original research, while other experiments were performed with an EEG instrument, which is based on a different field than the polygraph. Experiments where ethics team employed the same model clench polygraph machine used by Backster showed positive results with the plant reacting both to actual harm, as with flying colours as thoughts of harm. In in the opposite direction segment of the episode, the bunch tested with an EEG by contiguous it to a plant to pay the bill whether it would "see" eggs mind catapulted randomly into boiling water. Blue blood the gentry EEG instrument registered no change incorporate the plant and the myth was considered as "busted" in that frankly segment of the episode. The differences between the two technologies likely hollow a key role in the different results. [22]
In an episode of Xtc Ruins Everything that discussed the pitfalls of forensic science, there was marvellous cutaway during the segment which criticized polygraphs and also referenced Backster's Relevant Perception experiment.[23]