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Thus Spoke the Plant

By: Monica Gagliano, Suzanne Simard - foreword
Narrated by: Julie Slater
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Publisher's Summary

An accessible and compelling story of a scientist's discovery of plant communication and how it influenced her research and changed her life.

In this "phytobiography" - a collection of stories written in partnership with a plant - research scientist Monica Gagliano reveals the dynamic role plants play in genuine firsthand accounts from her research into plant communication and cognition. By transcending the view of plants as the objects of scientific materialism, Gagliano encourages us to rethink plants as people - beings with subjectivity, consciousness, and volition, and hence having the capacity for their own perspectives and voices. The audiobook draws on up-close-and-personal encounters with the plants themselves, as well as plant shamans, indigenous elders, and mystics from around the world and integrates these experiences with an incredible research journey and the groundbreaking scientific discoveries that emerged from it. 

Gagliano has published numerous peer-reviewed scientific papers on how plants have a Pavlov-like response to stimuli and can learn, remember, and communicate to neighboring plants. She has pioneered the brand-new research field of plant bioacoustics, for the first time experimentally demonstrating that plants emit their own "voices" and, moreover, detect and respond to the sounds of their environments. By demonstrating experimentally that learning is not the exclusive province of animals, Gagliano has reignited the discourse on plant subjectivity and ethical and legal standing. This is the story of how she made those discoveries and how the plants helped her along the way.

©2018 Monica Gagliano (P)2019 North Atlantic Books

Critic Reviews

“In this revelatory new book, we are brought into the presence of gifted storytellers in three different forms: a scientist, traditional plant practitioners, and the plants themselves. Gagliano’s discoveries uproot assumptions about the plant world as insensate, revealing their capacities to listen, learn and remember. This is a compelling story of discovery at many levels, simultaneously personal, scientific, and spiritual. It will change the way you see the world.” (Dr. Robin Wall Kimmerer, SUNY distinguished teaching professor, director of the Center for Native Peoples and the Environment, and author of Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants)

“Beautifully written and thought provoking, this book brings to light the relationship of an accomplished evolutionary ecologist deeply rooted in Western science and culture, and some plant species, which guide her through dreams and visions with the support of indigenous wise women and men. An inspiration for those willing to listen to the many voices of nature, living as we are in an animated intelligent world we are rapidly destroying.” (Luis Eduardo Luna, author of Vegetalismo: Shamanism Among the Mestizo Population of the Peruvian Amazon, and coauthor of Ayahuasca Visions: The Religious Iconography of a Peruvian Shaman

“In part guided by indigenous shamans, in part by the author’s own cultivated receptivity, Gagliano dives into isolation with various plant species which have been recognized as having strong voices that humans can hear. She consults with plants that give specific instructions about how to prove botanical consciousness in both the seen and unseen worlds.” (Kathleen Harrison, MA, ethnobotanist, Botanical Dimensions) 

What listeners say about Thus Spoke the Plant

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Astounding!

This book is an enlightening and engaging spiritual awakening. A must read that I will listen to over and over.

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Beautiful, revolutionary and easy to read

I loved this book from the first chapter to the end. Highly recommend to anyone curious about seeing the world in a different way; way that evokes evolution of human consciousness and the way we relate to our world and all life within.

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incredible

I've listened to this over and over. I love it. it's incredible, thankyou Monica Gagliano

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eye-opening, heart-opening

this book opened a possibility for me and for our planet... that maybe all is not lost, but that plants may be out allies in wanting to save the Earth, but we just need to learn how to listen... thank you Monica for your courage to walk in both worlds at once...

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incredible

an amazing personal account of the interconnectedness of life.
brilliantly narrated humble words of wisdom

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Brilliant book

loved this book. A great story also very educational in a simple way to understand

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The plants have spoken.

Inspirational and ground breaking book which addresses the important relationship between humanity, plants and the biosphere. I think plants have communicated a message to us through Monica.

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Amazing

Brilliant inspiring awkening and wholesome. Thankyou for deepening my connection with the plant kingdom. Now the journey begins

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One of the best books I have ever read

Monica Gagliano addresses both mind and deeper layers of us with this book. Here experiments are really interesting and her results clearly asking for a change of our approach to plants and all life on this planet in general. The messages she got from the plants directly have touched me deeply. Give it a go!

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so lovely. the way is open

theres an energy that seems to be chasing people. i feel it is only felt by a few at this moment in linear time. this book is a great key to understanding in a way but more surrendering to the joy of this energy. reformation of the conscious mind to undo thousands of years programming of seperation from the green world. this book takes one back to a hearty place where life is fulfilling once more. a must read for those seeking a way out of consumer materialism reductionist theory Newtonian logic and Euclidean geospacial conformity. a joyous of joy joy joy to listen too. thankyou Monica and thank the gods the sacred ones the plants and fungi have not abandoned us dispite our ignorance and horrifying unnatural practices. a new hope

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In the spirit of reconciliation, Audible acknowledges the Traditional Custodians of country throughout Australia and their connections to land, sea and community. We pay our respect to their elders past and present and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples today.