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Ep.120 Two Polymaths in Conversation with Laura Alyn
76 Plays12 days ago
Is your intuition is truly “yours,” or is it a conversation with the living field all around you?
In this episode, I sit down with Laura Alyn—a true polymath, hula dancer, scientist, and plant communicator—for a deep exploration of intuition, plant consciousness, and what it means to be truly present with our bodies and our kin. We talk about how plants teach us to trust subtle signals, integrate the wisdom of art and science, and dissolve the old boundaries between “woo” and “rigor.”
Laura and I dig into how embracing all your senses—physical, subtle, and imaginative—can transform how you relate to nature, your creativity, and even your business. Plus, we share stories of how movement, mythology, and collective fields are reshaping how we know ourselves.
Curious? This conversation is for anyone ready to experience intuition, plant communication, and self-awareness in a whole new light.
Topics Covered about Plant Communication and Intuition
➡️ What intuition really is (beyond just “gut feeling”) and why it’s relational, not isolated
➡️ How plants and movement practices (like hula) can help you access deeper wisdom
➡️ The power of integrating science, art, and myth in your personal evolution
➡️ Why collective fields (including non-human kin) change how we know and create
Chapters
00:00 Defining Polymathy and Interconnected Curiosity
08:22 Living a Life of Many Threads
16:47 The Gift and Challenge of Nonlinear Paths
25:05 Weaving Ecosystems and Identities
33:31 Plant Wisdom, Personal Myth, and Creative Integration
36:03 Learn with Gaia (Ad)
42:00 The Courage to Stay Whole
Resources Mentioned
🌱 Gaia.com
🌱 ILA Radio
🌱 Book: The Island of Missing Trees
🌱 Enhanced Plant Communication workshop
Expanded Show Notes
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Transcript
Welcome and Introduction
00:00:00
Speaker
Hello, hello, hello, everyone. Welcome back to another episode of Reconnect with Plant Wisdom. It's me, Tigre Gardenia. You are going to absolutely love this conversation. If you've ever thought about intuition, if you've ever thought about what it means to be in a connection that goes beyond your own physical body, so many different topics that we touched on with Laura Alin that you are... We even talked about hula because she's a hula dancer. So, I mean, it was...
00:00:34
Speaker
It was a moment of deep awareness of of, as she talks about, grounded spirits. So we talked about plant spirits. We talked about so many different things. And what I love about her is that she's bringing the whole concept of intuition and of deep connection with plants and of like understanding yourself in this shared field into the academic world with her PhD. So, I mean, this isn't just like fluffy, I don't know, not to say that I love woo conversations, you know, I am a woo person, but this is like woo meets science meets the arts.
00:01:07
Speaker
So
Meet Tigre and Laura
00:01:08
Speaker
without further ado, and want to share with you episode one, 20, two polymaths in conversation with Laura Alin.
00:01:19
Speaker
Enjoy.
00:01:21
Speaker
Welcome to Reconnect with Plant Wisdom. I'm your host, Tigria Gardenia, nature-inspired mentor, certified life coach, and the founder of the Naturally Conscious Community. For over a decade, I've been known as a world ambassador for plant advocacy, working closely with plants to share their practical wisdom to help you consciously embody the elements of life that nourish your evolution.
00:01:43
Speaker
In this podcast, I delve into ancient and modern knowledge from biology to spirituality, about the wondrous ways of plants. Together, we'll explore how ecosystem thinking helps you overcome limiting beliefs, understand the true nature of relationships, and live an authentic, impactful life.
00:02:03
Speaker
Hello, Laura. I am ah so excited to be sitting here with you today. there are um i After we had our little pre-interview, I made myself a list of things that I wanted to talk about in this in in in this interview.
00:02:17
Speaker
so But before we start, I'd love for you to tell everybody who is Laura Alaini. Yeah, thank you so much for having me here. um So a little bit about me I grew up loving everything. And so now i have finally like ah portioned it into my little self.
00:02:35
Speaker
So I'm an artist. So I'm a hula dancer. I'm a painter. um i'm an author. and I'm also a scientist. So i'm getting my PhD right now. i love data. I love working um with large data sets. I love web design, but development, technology.
00:02:53
Speaker
all things technical and like AI, love that too. And then I'm a host. So I have two podcasts right now where I take people on little paths to learn more about themselves.
00:03:07
Speaker
I love it. Like, talk about the core of being a multi potential light and yet synthetic, like synthetic, synthetic, synthetic. That's not what I meant to say. Like succinct in the way that you were saying things.
00:03:18
Speaker
Sometimes my language is mixed in my head. And especially on days like today, where I've been like jumping around from one to the other. But I love that list of things. I am going to come back to the hula because hula is more than just like, oh, I'm going to do the dance. I mean, hula is is is ah like is a way of being in and of it's a way of life all in of itself. So we're going to come back to the hula because I want to come to it from the perspective of at least in my very teeny tiny limited experience and in what I know from others that I've spoken to.
00:03:51
Speaker
it is it is a connection point. It's like a movement that literally connects you to something way more than just, I'm going to stand there and and do these
Hula, Plants, and Connection
00:04:02
Speaker
moves. So we're we're going to go there. But before that, I want to... So when we had our our pre pre-interview, we started to talk about obviously all the different things that you that you've connected to. And you've had a very special relationship with plants.
00:04:16
Speaker
like which you didn't mention in there, but you have a very special relationship. Can you tell us more about like where did that start and and where has it taken you today? Yeah, I think I didn't mention it before because plants, my relationship with plants like over is through all of them. so like with art, a lot of my art is based through plants. Sometimes I even put plants into the art. um I press flowers. So the flowers that I grow here, i press them and and put them into the art um with the data.
00:04:46
Speaker
I've been, well, that's kind of how my dissertation topic started was with this relationship with plants and really, by the way, in all of that list of stuff she just said, she's a PhD student.
00:04:59
Speaker
but Sorry, I had to say that.
00:05:03
Speaker
ah so so like, yeah, like really understanding them as beings and not just something that people don't even really take the second to look at. Like, that's like the saying, you know, like stop and smell the roses, you know, like,
00:05:15
Speaker
So like really get get deeper with them. And Grounded Spirits, one of the podcasts is about being grounded with plants and growing our own roots within ourselves, just like plants. And so I really see plants as guides, teachers, mentors, however you you want to put it. But it really connects us to the great divine.
00:05:36
Speaker
And it's a really beautiful relationship that I have with them. It's really interesting that you you you said that because just today, this morning, I was working on ah on a project. I'm working on a a new workshop.
00:05:49
Speaker
And as I was working on that, so in my own work with plants, I've gone from, you know, a deeply probably spiritual connection to start with to then down a technical route going into plant neurobiology and see the entire world of like plant sciences.
00:06:07
Speaker
And then, um you know, through the whole artistic realm. And now it's kind of coming full circle where, I'm reconnecting to that spirit side um in a whole different way because it becomes informed by all these other pieces and it connects into all these pieces.
00:06:26
Speaker
And I think that that that for some, that's of course like the main piece, but I'm going ask a really weird question and- I don't know why it just came to me, but it's because i was, I've been listening recently to a lot of different speakers that are talking about their connection to plants and how they communicate with plants. And as
Exploring Intuition and Plant Communication
00:06:45
Speaker
I'm thinking about plant communication across different pieces, I'm I'm trying to try to even find the words to this question. But the question is kind of like, so if I think of myself as a human being, right, I think of myself at at multiple levels. And I know that I have my to divine component. mike A part of me is divine.
00:07:05
Speaker
ah part of me is also physical. But there is no kind of separation. There's just a... ah probably gradient of like how much do I rely on whatever it is that I'm experiencing on my physical senses versus my subtle senses versus something that's even beyond my personal realm.
00:07:22
Speaker
And yet I hear a lot of people who talk about plants kind of almost like there's a separate being, ah distinction between the physical entity that is the plant and And the kind of more divine or spiritual entity the is the plant. i'm so curious as to how do you see that?
00:07:42
Speaker
Like, is it different? Is it the same? Feel free to elaborate and go off on tangents. Awesome. so yes, I think that they are different because plants, they move at a different time. Like they're in like a different time space than us physically.
00:08:00
Speaker
But when, when communicating with plants in a spiritual sense, it's, it's that you're finally able to connect. It's like building that bridge.
00:08:11
Speaker
And so I call it intuition, but I'm sure there's other ways or like more nuanced ways to, to talk about that ah communication, but it's about getting still within the self. And I think that plants just naturally are still.
00:08:23
Speaker
And that's what we see them as still, even though they do move, they do do a lot of things that people don't really realize. Um, but But that's that's how like the distinction works. like Physically, we can't connect on that communication level, but spiritually we can.
00:08:39
Speaker
Interesting perspective. Yeah, see, I find and and I'm going to get into the intuition part because that also opens for me a kind of worms, which is if we think of ourselves right as all having this divine spark, this divine spirit, which means when we think about intuition, again, most of us think about intuition based on myself. Right. It's my intuition.
00:09:04
Speaker
And as I work more with other kin and I work specifically with plants and I move into realms of plant communication, I'm very much having ah doubt that my what I've been calling intuition, even when I've been using the term my intuition, is actually even mine, not just because plants are communicating with me and probably everybody is, but it's kind of like relational processing.
00:09:30
Speaker
It's almost as if there is no isolation anywhere. You're always just reading into a field and that field is made up of all the beings that are around you. Some of them are talking directly at you.
00:09:42
Speaker
Some of them are just being in that space, but they're all still plugging into that field. So when I think of intuition And I think of like grounding into myself, like you said, that presence, my presence, what it does is allow me to hear the field, right? Everything that's coming from my five senses, plus the other senses that I've been able to awaken and connect to, um whether it's the aura and the electromagnetic field, or whether I'm talking about something else.
00:10:11
Speaker
But either way, all of those elements that I'm kind of pulling from, including even if I'm talking about a divine channel that connects into divinities, which are also fragments of large populations putting in to this energy field to create this being.
00:10:29
Speaker
It's all still, I mean, does, I guess the question is, does personal intuition really exist or is it just, a shared ah ah field of understanding that I then kind of tune based on my needs.
00:10:46
Speaker
Did that even make any sense? Yeah, definitely. And that's actually what I'm looking at with my PhD dissertation, that but we people in the science community would just dismiss intuition, like, oh, that you're just making it up in your head, it's not real, right?
00:11:00
Speaker
But if we're all looking at this one thing and we all see it from these different from our own, we call it our own intuition, but we're really just tapping into whatever this is, then that's how you know that it's real. Where you see it, one thing is from the different perspectives is still the same thing. It's still real.
00:11:17
Speaker
Then that's how I've been able to to quantify it scientifically. um And so with plants, it's that they... they emit this energy that then we can tap into. And that's what I was saying, like spiritually, we can tap in spiritually, whereas physically, we can't see them move the way that we can. If we zoom in on ah and a plant, have like a time lapse, then you can see them move and and be so alive. um So that that's that's how I was...
00:11:45
Speaker
seeing it. That's interesting. Yeah, it it connects it. And I get what you mean about not being able to necessarily um see it. That's why I often i just taught a workshop actually this weekend from when we're recording um ah called reawaken lost senses, which is this concept of understanding that we have a whole series of other senses that, as you said, are not really online or more importantly,
00:12:08
Speaker
They might even be online. And that's the reason why we get overwhelmed, because we're not
Sensory Awareness and Intuition
00:12:12
Speaker
conscious of them. We're not connected into them. And these are the ones that give us access to those parts, like you said, of plants that maybe today I don't understand. For example, plants do make a clicking type noise that many are trying to understand, whether that's a form of phytoacoustics, a form of communication that plants are using amongst themselves, because There have been patterns that have been recognized in this. And so that's an area of study of which, of course, we can hear and we hear the vibrations. Now, we don't necessarily consciously hear at the frequencies that they're clicking, but it doesn't mean that my hearing, my vibrational body, my my sense of hearing or of auditory sense is actually not able to pick it up.
00:12:55
Speaker
It's just that I myself, my mind is not tuned directly. to being able to recognize this. And the more I go down this this work with plants and I go down this rabbit hole of like really stretching my own body to understand, you know, we talk about the aura, but the aura is the electromagnetic body.
00:13:12
Speaker
And so therefore, that also is a sense that we have forgotten, we have access to, and it has many of different layers within it, so many different things that we can connect into. And so I'm just, the more I go down this path, both physically feeling it in my body, and also kind of mentally trying to put the constructs back in place, I start to realize that You know, entanglement really is the the core, right? Relationship is the core of everything and what the plants are helping me to do. And the and what I'm hearing as i talk to more and more people is helping us tune into things better, like rather than being subject things.
00:13:56
Speaker
a feeling, a sensation, a belief system, ah whatever it might be. It's about tuning into it so that then it becomes kind of another piece of data, regardless of whether it comes through a physical mean or a non-physical mean.
00:14:10
Speaker
I mean, who's to say when I take a deep breath in what are all the chemicals that are coming in from the plants around me And that I might not think I'm smelling them because I don't I don't actually like they don't have a ah perfume to them that I know how to recognize.
00:14:26
Speaker
But that doesn't mean that my body is not reacting to these in different ways. And I wonder, and I'd love to hear more about your, you know, your PhD and the work and the research that you're doing for it, because I'm just wondering whether as you go down the, the you know, down the whole intuition perspective, we're not going to get to a point where we realize that all of these terms that we've been using, like you said, they're just fractals of the same truth, which is we're in a relational field. We have a bunch of senses. We actually know how to respond to them. And when you know how to like consciously understand the sense, it's called knowledge.
00:15:03
Speaker
And when I don't know, it's called intuition. Exactly. And I think it all comes down to awareness. And I think that's what plans are teaching us. Like how do we become more aware and more present in the moment?
00:15:16
Speaker
And i um draw a lot of my belief system from Carlos Castaneda's work where he talks about everything is about awareness and tuning into that attention.
00:15:27
Speaker
And so when you give the hands, like the first attention, second attention, third attention. And so these different attentions will get you deeper into that, that space where we don't know the unknown so that we can bring it out and become more aware of it to then call it knowledge.
00:15:43
Speaker
And, um Yeah, just a little bit more about about that book. um That's actually what got me started because before um i I thought I was crazy that I was like going to talk to plants and communicate with them.
00:15:58
Speaker
and but You're in good company. You're in very, very good company. I'm so drawn to your show. um But in that book, he um his mentor tells him, you have to talk to this plant. It's a Datura plant um in the book.
00:16:13
Speaker
And he he's he talks he says, like I feel so silly talking to this plant. But then the deeper that he goes in this relationship, he's able to see he ends up really connecting with this plant.
00:16:23
Speaker
And it just brought me a alive because i I also connect with plants. And so it was just really beautiful that it came up in that book. and And you said it beautifully when you, you know, we at Dom and her use the phrase, there is no, there's no truth in the world of form, absolute truth, excuse me, on the way of, on the in the world of form, because it's always, um there's fractals of truth.
00:16:45
Speaker
And the more pieces of the fractal, the more i i see it from like these different directions and I get different inputs, the more I can start to see where the absolute truth could possibly be, because it's made up of all of these different fractals that that are always our perceptions, our environment, the way we interact with others.
00:17:04
Speaker
and And I think that plants really help us to feel comfortable in that non-absolute space. um Because it's like, because plants I think are sessile, at least this is how it feels to me, because plants are sessile and can't run away, you know, not only do you, as you said, become more aware, you have to put your attention ah You have to expand your attention and and choose consciously where I put my awareness.
00:17:36
Speaker
um ah In Italian, we use the word consapevolezza, which is basically awareness, but it's very specific. And it's something extremely important because I think that's one of the places where we as humans have kind of Let go of our power in every single way because we've given away our awareness where we're not present and therefore we're not aware. And I i call that your plantness, right? Your plantness is that that stillness connected with awareness, connected with, you know, high attention that then leads to conscious awareness.
00:18:07
Speaker
Right. And in there, it's such an empowering space. And I think that that's probably why it is the space of intuition and it is the space of answers and of communication with other kin.
00:18:20
Speaker
It's the space where I realize that within me, within this physical, non-physical structure that is me that goes off. not just you know limited to my skin, but also beyond, there are so many different receptors and capabilities and ah opportunities two to understand the world around me at such a fine level if I give myself the space.
00:18:49
Speaker
So do you find that in the work that you're doing with intuition, there's sort of like in order to really tap into that intuition, there's like a prequel, like a series of things or how you have to get to it.
00:19:02
Speaker
I'm just curious as to what angle you're taking. I think that we all have it. It's just a matter of like how we were talking about, like getting, becoming aware of it and like trusting. I think that's like the main point is trusting it. Because like even people will have like these visceral, like gut wrenching moments.
00:19:20
Speaker
But then sometimes people will just disregard it. Like, oh, okay. Like and I just have stomach issues. Like it's not my gut telling me something. Yeah. um but But it is. And if we were to quiet even further, then you would just hear it in your head or um things would come up where it is your intuition telling you, but it's very quiet.
00:19:40
Speaker
And I think that's where the real power comes from is how quiet it is, because it it's like you can listen to me or you could go do whatever you want to do and then come back eventually.
00:19:51
Speaker
um And so, yeah, that that's how I see it. But I feel like intuition is just a way of getting signals either from your truest self, I say like the soul, um or plans, other kin, um but regardless, that's what I would call intuition.
00:20:11
Speaker
Yeah, I like that. I like the fact that you look at it as a whole, like intuition isn't, I think there's this false idea, my opinion that it's false, might be not, but that's my opinion, that there's this false idea that intuition is only listening to myself.
00:20:26
Speaker
But it's way more than that. Again, like I was saying, because of this relational field in which we're in even that myself it still has to be connected to something. And that myself more likely than not, as you said, is my body or it's me listening to my body react to something greater.
00:20:45
Speaker
And so you have like, you know, the mind, uh, I was talking, how was it? How was it? I was, uh, Oh my God. Oh, when i when I met with Marco, that was great. Like one of the, um, episodes pre previous episodes where we were talking about this and he was saying how there's the brain mind, the heart mind,
00:21:02
Speaker
you know, the gut mind and tuning into those like minds and allowing, like you said, that when my stomach hurts, it's not just because I ate something or I have indigestion, but even that is still a reaction to something. And therefore it is still telling you something about your environment.
00:21:20
Speaker
And so no matter where it is that you're looking on your body, So there's like that body sense, which is one form of intuition. Then there's that like emotional, like deep kind of knowing that comes from like what he calls the heart mind.
00:21:34
Speaker
And then there is the, okay, this logically makes sense because here are the things that came in, which is that brain kind of knowledge-based mind. And I would love to see our children develop these pieces more from when they're really little because they have it already. And if we just allow them to tell us in that way, I remember years and years ago, the small ah cousin of of somebody, of a friend of mine.
00:22:03
Speaker
He and I were talking and at some point he looks at me and he's like, I don't like you. He was four years old at the time. and He was like, I don't like you right now. And I was like, I was like, what? And he was like, oh, he he didn't want to play with me or something like that. And i was like, why don't you want to play with me? He's like, because right now i just don't like you.
00:22:19
Speaker
I might like you later, but I don't like you now. And it was like, OK, because he was speaking not from a place of like you did anything or bad. He was just in a place. Like you said, his soul, his personality. He had a personality that didn't gel with me in this moment.
00:22:36
Speaker
And he was very clear, like this is a temporary state. Like right now, this is where I am. Give me 10 minutes and I might be somewhere else. And I think that in those cases, it's such an important piece to two for him to to be able to tune into himself.
00:22:51
Speaker
and say, okay, I need to make space from you because right now you're not the person that's best for whatever it is that's going on with me. I think if we were allowing ourselves to continue to evolve that, which I do think plants do so, so well, because even though they can't move, they know how to shut off communication from one or bring into another and tune and move physically in order to like be in that place that is necessary.
00:23:18
Speaker
And I think if we allowed o ourselves as humans to think of ourselves more in that way, and to, to not necessarily, like you said, discard it, but instead, ah lean into it more and say, Okay, I'm going to trust that if right now, i don't want need to talk to you, there's a reason.
00:23:35
Speaker
And that reason could be so many different things from like, I don't know. I'm talking to you right now. And you, because you just had a cold are giving off something that my body is saying, if I spend more time with you, I'm going to get sick.
00:23:50
Speaker
And so I'm going to walk away from you because I don't need to get sick. Like, can you imagine if we trusted our bodies to that level and we gave ourselves the opportunity to distance, to bring closer and even things that seem somewhat irrational, right?
00:24:07
Speaker
how much healthier we probably would be. Yeah, definitely. and it's interesting that you're talking about the difference, the different minds, like what, Marca? So my research, the way that it is now it's with intuition, but what it originally started with was trying to understand the soul, mind, and spirit, soul, mind, and body.
00:24:28
Speaker
And what realized is that soul was actually split up into soul and spirit. And so I think when you're talking about like the aura or like the electromagnetic field that we give off, that spirit, and According to, so I tried to just looking at them separately, but I couldn't, it's not possible because they're so interconnected, like we were talking about earlier. So it's like the, so intuition is the spirit of the body, whereas the soul would be, I mean, the heart would be the soul of the body.
00:25:02
Speaker
And so I have this chart where it outlines all of these different things, but here we're just talking about intuition. And so if we look at it, if we look at intuition as the spirit of our bodies, it's that this aura or this ah electromagnetic field that it's constantly out there seeking
Trusting Intuition and Natural Reactions
00:25:19
Speaker
information and it's bringing it back to the body. And so that's why it's so crucial to listen to the body.
00:25:24
Speaker
um So I loved your example um with but the cold um with other somebody ah somebody else, but it's also just any anything that happens to us. Like for instance, it was so weird when I would paint my nails the middle finger nail polish would always come off. And i'm like, what is going on?
00:25:42
Speaker
And so then i like tune into it. Turns out there was um unresolved anger that makes the middle finger something with the middle finger and and the anger. And so then once I was able to tap into like what is that? Where is that underlying anger coming from and heal that?
00:26:01
Speaker
Now I'm fine with them, with my nails. So like something so little like that, um or it could be something full blown like cancer, where it's like your body has been telling you for years and years and years, and you're not listening to it. And so then it has to hit you with something so hard and so heavy to be able to to wake you up.
00:26:19
Speaker
Right, right. And it it is amazing how we are um almost taught to discard our body's reactions in that way, especially when they go against societal norms. Instead of teaching us how to better deal with those situations. So for example, I don't know, you're in a party and all of a sudden you're like, nope, I got to go. Like I'm one of those people that I, as soon as I walk into a room,
00:26:49
Speaker
my body will tell me like, this is a safe space, or this is not a safe space. And whenever I mean, i am a very, I'm kind of like a social introvert, like I love my alone time, and I have my highly sensitive moments.
00:27:02
Speaker
And I also love being super outlandish and like really talkative and stuff like that. So I can swing both ways. So I trust myself in being able to
00:27:16
Speaker
So my my phone is actually ringing. My phone never rings and the ringer had been off for years, but it just did an update. And so now all of a sudden my phone is ringing behind me and I'm not used to because I'm like, what is that sound? It's happening.
00:27:31
Speaker
But so I was saying that my body, for example, kind of knows that. that like what is safe for me or what's good for me, I can't always identify whatever it is, but i absolutely trust it. So if I'm in a place and maybe I'm having a great time with my friends or, you know, it's a party or something like that. And then all of a sudden something will change in me and it will say time to go.
00:27:59
Speaker
And at first I used to feel bad because I was like, am I being anisocial? Am I just, you know, because the whole society thing and then You're like, oh, I need to go say goodbye to everybody. I don't even say goodbye to everybody. Everybody knows. Like, I just go.
00:28:11
Speaker
I just, like, pick my stuff up and I go. I'm not mean about it. If I'm talking to somebody, I don't do it in the middle of talking with them. But I have learned to sort of navigate those sort of social situations from the perspective of trusting. And I really do think that my the plants have helped me a lot in in finding over the years that I've been working with the plants. The thing that the plants have helped me is one,
00:28:36
Speaker
to then kind of scan into myself to understand better like where that's coming from. Is it a, is it just, I'm overwhelmed? Is it a psychological thing? Like, I'm just like, whatever. Or is there even like a set of physical thing? Like I am a hundred percent, I've had the experience where I've been in a group of people and then I've felt the need to leave. And then I'll find out like the next day that a bunch of them got sick and it's like, Oh, okay. Now I understand it.
00:29:02
Speaker
And I, what the plants have helped me is in part, obviously tuning more into that and being able to be comfortable with um ah accepting it and going with it and flowing with that.
00:29:14
Speaker
But also, believe it or not, in the in the communication perspective of it, because in the plants sharing with me and um the the trust of this and like helping me better get in touch with these types of feelings, it no longer comes from a place of resentment.
00:29:32
Speaker
The plants have really helped me see that in an ecosystem, you have like cells that attract and cells that repel. You have cells that have certain functions and cells that, you know, are supposed to do other things.
00:29:44
Speaker
And so if I trust into whatever it is that I'm experiencing and I know that it has a function, that it's being carried out for a reason. And even if that reason is I have a trauma, I still can't deal with that trauma in the group of people.
00:29:57
Speaker
I need to like... I need to go and work on that and figure it out in order to come back. So I feel like the plants have helped me wrap a vocabulary of this is natural.
00:30:11
Speaker
And therefore, I don't try to make excuses or I don't try to like color it into ton tons of like language like, oh, I'm so sorry. So and so called me away. No, no.
00:30:22
Speaker
Look, I'm sorry. i just have a feeling that it's time for me to go. And so I just need to go. you know, I love you. We'll see each other another day. Everything is great, you know, type of thing. But like really tapping into the perspective that this is natural and also helping me scan myself better because I think plants are really, really good and scanning their bodies and scanning and understanding things different things that their bodies are doing and not labeling it good or bad. Like right now there's an aloe in front of me that looks very, very, very dry, but it's summer and it's hot as hell here. And that's that plant's way of kind of, you know, making sure that the body is attuned to the space and to the heat in the space and to what's going on in the space and to everything in it.
00:31:06
Speaker
And I think that that's the kinds of things that the plants are really helping me better understand, which I think others would just call intuition. But for me, it's like, oh, thank you. Thank you, Gary. And thank you, Jaina, for sharing that information with me.
00:31:20
Speaker
Yeah. And I think just as they're spending time in nature. so with me, it's with trees. So I'll just go sit under a tree. Well, first I'll ask um or I'll see like what tree like stands out to me because I feel like they kind of pull you with their with their energy towards a certain plant or tree.
00:31:37
Speaker
And so I'll go and sit under a tree and I'll just sit there. And sometimes I get bored and I'm like, why am I just sitting here? But I'll look at like the the leaves and the branches and just kind of follow with my eyes.
00:31:49
Speaker
um In Carlos Castagneda's work, they call it gazing, where you just, you're just gazing. You're not really looking for anything. You're just kind of allowing it all to come in. And then hours later, I'll, it'll be like, like past memories that come up where where it's like actually coming from the tree where,
00:32:05
Speaker
Like the tree taught me how to shut off my energy or how to expand my energy or how to to do a bunch of different things that I don't realize is happening in the moment. But later on, I'm like, oh, okay, it was because of this.
00:32:19
Speaker
um And so I think that's another way of of tuning into the body and seeing like where where is this line, this thread of knowledge coming from? And it's always coming back to to nature for me.
00:32:31
Speaker
I love that because I do that all. like I'll be walking somewhere and I'll get just a hit that says sit and you don't know why you're just sitting. Like yeah I'll be sitting and I'll be like running my hand through the grass. And sometimes it'll last, like you said, like you'll gaze, you'll sort of, i do that a lot also from, from my place. Cause I have this beautiful meadow and then a river and Gary, the silver furs in the middle. And,
00:32:57
Speaker
Oftentimes I'll sit on the on the on the balcony and I'll just stare out kind of lost in a haze. And as you said, it's only hours later that something clicks in you and you're just like,
00:33:11
Speaker
Oh, that's what I was processing. Because probably your body also needs time. Going back to that whole discussion I was saying about how the fact that we have all these senses that are not really fully online, they're not tuned, they're so they're probably receiving, but they've got to kind of work their way through things in order for me to be able to ah learn from them or connect into what the message is because that's, and because, because i'm I'm just not there yet. I mean, I, I'm getting closer, but I'm not there yet. So it's not instantaneous.
Integration and Personal Growth
00:33:44
Speaker
And also, as you said, plants have a different timescale, right? So they, they are communicating with us in ways that maybe are chemical signatures that our body has to digest and integrate, and it has to come into our bloodstream and it has to go through and it has to hit the brain and then in the brain and then, in or in whatever other part,
00:34:01
Speaker
that then has to connect in and all of a sudden then mind wakes up and says, Oh, that's what that meant. And, and I think that that's probably most likely why also the art has become such a big part of your life. The same as it has been for mine, because art allows me to capture also in other ways,
00:34:18
Speaker
to receive whatever it is that's coming from that field, from that shared relational field with plants and with other kin, with other beings that I might not see or recognize, or even to parse through, because if I'm sitting with 15 plants and all of them are doing something, I might have to parse through which is the one that's actually trying to talk to me.
00:34:38
Speaker
And I find that that that time element which is something that i'm I'm working on right now, actually, in my enhanced plant communication workshop that I'm going to be doing at the end of July.
00:34:49
Speaker
um that is a really big piece of it, like the time element. And then also the fact of giving yourself that space for your body to integrate into it and for you to kind of put the pieces together in some way that makes humanly sense.
00:35:06
Speaker
hope Yeah. I love that. With my... Go ahead. It's that and what i've what I've been realizing through through my research is when we say i we're talking about our mind. Like our mind just wants to know about everything. And so like even with Hula, my body just knows the steps.
00:35:24
Speaker
But my mind, i it needs to be present so that I can enjoy it more. And So it's been like this really cool thing of trying to connect your mind with your body, because then if you overthink it, then you're going just going to mess up all the steps.
00:35:40
Speaker
So it's really about like balancing that out. But I think it all comes back to the mind is just so curious and just wants to know, oh, so what are you doing? What are you working on spirit? What's going on here?
00:35:51
Speaker
um And ah yeah, so yeah, it's just about like bringing them all together and like really integrating the different parts of self. But before we go on to that subject, I want to take a moment to share one of my eco-conscious business partners.
00:36:06
Speaker
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Speaker
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Speaker
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Speaker
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00:37:27
Speaker
That's probably the hardest pieces. in So the spiritual founder of Dhammenherr always said that um the the I does the eye exists in five people.
00:37:38
Speaker
In other words, it takes five people to make an eye. And I always thought that that's fascinating because of course, you know, when I first heard it, it was five humans makes, you know, that's where, and to a certain extent, he was talking a lot about that. The fact that a group is really the eye mind, like the way that we can get because of the fractals of truth, because of the diversity and understanding things, because We all have our blind spots and we have things and we all have knowledge in different areas and different skill sets. So for him, minimum five people was what five humans was the necessity in order.
00:38:15
Speaker
As time has gone on for me, I've realized that those five people could be any kind of people. And it could be also more than human, but it does require awareness. Awareness, not just that they are there, because, you know, I could say, oh, yeah, my cat and, um you know, and Gary the Silverfur and, you know, name out five others. But if I'm not literally engaging with them.
00:38:40
Speaker
and I don't have a relationship of communication and of any kind of, like, I haven't developed something, then that's just false. That's absolutely false. It's not it's not the this the right five.
00:38:52
Speaker
But instead, if I've given myself that space to... form a relationship with those five beings, you know, whether we're talking about about bacteria or whether we're talking about a plant or a horse or anything or another human being. And I've given myself then all of a sudden that five is really fascinating.
00:39:10
Speaker
But those five also need to all interact. It's not a matter of like, oh, OK, I'm a I'm an I because I talked to Gary over here and then now I'm talking to Laura over here and I'm like, no, no, it doesn't work that way.
00:39:22
Speaker
We all have to be interacting together. And so that means bringing consciousness to that fact that that field good gets created as as a together. And we call it here a super individual.
00:39:33
Speaker
The idea that the individual um is only as good as the sum of the parts, right? Or it's better than the sum of the parts. So it's the relationships between these minimum of five that actually create that oneness, um, that can be, um, that can be evolutive, that can help you move and process through things beyond just the mundane and what's here in your, you know, right in front of you.
00:40:00
Speaker
Yeah.
Sacred Geometry and Awareness
00:40:01
Speaker
It's actually interesting. It's, you're going into like sacred geometry and like how the five different points that come together and create, um, like the tree of life, for instance, at the the circles, um,
00:40:12
Speaker
Yeah, it's really that's how that's why I love all of this because it all comes back together. And
Interdisciplinary Approaches to Plant Communication
00:40:18
Speaker
so like when I talk about me being a scientist, I usually use the term polymathic because polymath means like loving a little of everything. But the way that I define it is specifically in like the four disciplines of academia. So ah like arts, humanities, social sciences, and natural sciences.
00:40:35
Speaker
And so when you take something like plant communication and you're able to see them in all four of the different um academic subject or academic disciplines.
00:40:46
Speaker
it's That's how how you were talking about earlier, like the factors of truth come together and create something so marvelous. Oh, I love that. I love that you've just put together a ah things that I hadn't kind of said, like I hadn't put together in that way. So I do a plant consciousness commentary on Fridays. And one of the things I love, I read scientific papers or go through academic conferences and then comment on them and, and you know, break it down for people who maybe don't have the experience.
00:41:16
Speaker
And what I love, love about doing it is that I started ah in the kind of more sciences, like in the biological sciences, because I started in the disciplines of where the birth of plant neurobiology and plant neurobiology was originally born inside of the world of plant sciences, then moved into ah philosophy of biology. And so there's a lot of philosophers that work in the philosophy of science.
00:41:41
Speaker
either in the biological sciences or in just the sciences in general. And so you have this mix that first starts to be born between hardcore like biology, as well as, you know, plant physiology, plant electrophysiology, ah neuroscience, these areas, and then how these come together with ah philosophy. And these become kind of the first two merging of disciplines that end up making plant neurobiology or as others who are much more conservative want to call it plants, plant signaling and behavior.
00:42:11
Speaker
But then after that, ah there's, it's been really interesting to see where the disciplines have moved. because then gets the whole critical plant studies world that starts to up and, and critical plant studies is basically the plant humanities.
00:42:27
Speaker
And it's everything around how is it that we bring together in and we bring in the humanities. And this also brings in the artistic world, which is fundamental, in my opinion, to being able to understand other kin, because without the arts,
00:42:43
Speaker
We do not have tools at our disposal to see the unseen or to imagine. Unfortunately, I think one of the atrophied layers of our aura is the layer of imagination for many people, especially in the sciences, because they like shut them down on purpose.
00:43:04
Speaker
Even though I think that they do experience them, they just shut them down because they feel like they're not allowed to rely on them. And I find it super fascinating that the arts is that place, that liminal zone that allows you to create something out of nothing and be okay with it.
00:43:25
Speaker
And it doesn't matter whether you believe that it's possible or not. The fact that you've put it outside of yourself through a work of art, whether we're talking about abstract art or we're talking about some kind of sculpture. We're talking especially about the performance art. I just watched a performance piece by, what was his last name? Sean. I can't remember his last name right now. Unfortunately, he was talking about smelly fungi.
00:43:51
Speaker
And he put it into kind of a performance piece. And it was fascinating because, again, it conceptualized things that we maybe hadn't connected together. And he did it through this performance.
00:44:01
Speaker
And so I do think that the fact of passing through all of these different disciplines, as you said, gives us the opportunity to not know one of them is more important than the other. And I think that that's the other piece. And in Planned Consciousness commentary, I've made commentary on you know, beautiful, really interesting essays and papers on plant performance, on arts, on plants, like plant agency through art, um, on all kinds of different sciences on philosophies on now eco, like eco, uh, feminism and plant critical studies and plant humanities.
00:44:38
Speaker
And like mixing these all together is so great because it's helped me see kind of the bigger picture. And, and then now, um, Thanks to beautiful work done by the Harvard Divinity School, there's this whole now spirit aspect that's finally being talked about in within the hard sciences. So you have hard sciences.
00:45:02
Speaker
like, you know, in plant physiology and in botany and in areas that are also talking about their intuitive and connected experiences.
00:45:14
Speaker
And we hadn't been able to see those types of things as much before. So now that they're all merging, we get the bigger picture and the better understanding of who are these beings that, you know, share this earth with us.
00:45:27
Speaker
and And how can, because just like I have all these different sides of me, they have also can have all these different sides. And I think that's the most marvelous part of it all is that we, every time that we think we're we learned we learned everything about a specific species, there's always another layer. there's always another layer. And I think even within ourselves that when we think we have a good good sense of self, you can always go deeper. And I think that that's a a lot of what my work is looking at um in that chart that I was talking about. It's going to be a book coming out later in September.
00:46:00
Speaker
um But
Body Practices and Connection
00:46:01
Speaker
I found 16 different parts of self. And by being able to tap into all these different parts, oh, like, for instance, imagination. Imagination is the soul of the mind. And so that's why the mind doesn't really want to go there, because it it kind of stops that awareness, which is the mind of the mind.
00:46:19
Speaker
And so through these 16 different um boxes, I guess we could call them, I was able to to see the different parts of self. And now I've been testing it on, I have two German shepherds. I've been testing it like on them, do they have these, all these 16 different parts?
00:46:34
Speaker
And they do. And so now that I've been looking at plants. So i if i were just if you were to ask me right now, I would say, yes, I think that they also have the 16 parts, but I haven't tested it fully, so I can't say for sure.
00:46:46
Speaker
um but Speaking like a true scientist, I feel it, but I can't guarantee it. Exactly.
00:46:55
Speaker
I love it. Okay, so I'm going to go back to the hula for a second. What got you into hula? So it was such like um a divine, but in what's it called? um divine moment, I would call it like a fate, destiny kind of thing, because i was living um in in Redland. So it's like this little city where a lot happens.
00:47:17
Speaker
And I just really wanted to get back out. This is like right after COVID, where we had just been shut in for such a long time. so I was just looking for any kind of class. And there was a free um class at the senior center.
00:47:30
Speaker
So it was just me and and and these women. And and It was just ah the most amazing experience to to learn hula as if it were Zumba class where you would just follow along. And it was, but that's how it started. But I fell in love with the movements and how every movement is telling a story. And it's really connecting you to yourself and to the divine. And from there, when I moved out here to l LA,
00:48:00
Speaker
um One day i had this um this little spot in the wilderness, um which unfortunately burned down within in the e the Eton Canyon fires earlier this year.
00:48:11
Speaker
But when I was there, um i just got this punch in my gut where it was like, you need to find a hula school now. And so right there on that rock in the middle of of the wilderness, I just looked it up on on Google.
00:48:26
Speaker
And it was just so incredible that it happened to be the halal, the hula school that I'm at now. It was just the perfect fit for me. And um that's why I say that it i felt like it was divinely guided the whole time, because now in this halal, it is so, so rooted Balaam.
00:48:45
Speaker
in looking at at hula through all the different lenses. So um right now the song that we're performing is um a Kahiko song. So it means like from like the ancient part before when hula was but illegal when the color of the colonizers came over. And so like the song that we're dancing that I just performed yesterday, so it's like fresh in my mind.
00:49:07
Speaker
um It's for King Kalakaua, where he was the monarch. Now it's like the merry monarch. So it's like a big celebration um for him. It's kind of like the Olympics of Kula.
00:49:17
Speaker
right And um he's the one that that said, like, no, like let's let's keep dancing. Let's keep this the act alive. And it's really just connecting us to to nature and to to ourselves and to our our inner worlds.
00:49:35
Speaker
Wow, I love that so much. That's so great. i mean, it's it's beautiful when we start to do, you know, when when we tap into these disciplines, I think that they connect.
00:49:48
Speaker
Again, going back to the whole art, they allow us to connect into threads that with that gesture, that only pass through gesture. Yeah. And that that is so important to later then bring them into the body. And then as they get, you know, alchemically sort of distilled into the body, they eventually make it to all the other minds in different ways.
00:50:11
Speaker
But they need that sense. They need that source to come through, you know, the physicalness of it. And i i love that so much. I took a many, many years ago, I took a Tai Chi class after a difficult period in my life.
00:50:27
Speaker
And I was shocked at how much I loved the idea of like, again, getting in tune with my body in such a detailed way. And like you said, for you, you know, with hula and other disciplines that has that storyline, it has that that that that connection directly to that mythology, which is reality in other in other forms. It's just another way, it's another way of expression. Actually, it only understands through analogies and through mythology. So these mythologies, it's just the way that the soul is expressing itself.
00:51:03
Speaker
And so it's, it is real. It's just an analogy for what's actually happening. And then we could even look at it scientifically, what's actually happening, like the sun, the way that the sun goes across, we could say that it is um that the God bringing like bringing it ah arrows bringing it over.
00:51:20
Speaker
um But it's it's still true. It's just looking at it in a different perspective. Yeah, I had a big discussion about this with Wendy Woods in a previous um in a previous episode of the podcast. And it was wonderful because that's exactly what we got into. She's she's rewriting certain mythology. And we also have used it inside the naturally conscious community where we you know started to rework the Garden of Eden.
00:51:44
Speaker
And it's been amazing what has come since then, because the work that we did, we spent we spent eight months, maybe, maybe even a year, like working on this, where we explored the topic of the garden only to discover that there is no garden and all these different pieces, which when I look at where I am today in my life, how much of that knowledge has informed and led me to people and understandings and readings and knowledge That I am so grateful for those explorations. And like you said, it all comes from going deep into that mythology that allows you to retell the story and then ask your body even, you know, where do I go with this story? And then everybody else gets to participate in it because so many of these stories are.
00:52:32
Speaker
with the animals, the plants, with other kin in general. And so you get to bring them into the story, both metaphorically into the energy of like their own ancestors, as well as through our our ancestors and even past lives and all kinds of different things. But that would open an entirely different can of worms, which we're happy to have.
00:52:53
Speaker
Laura, this has been a fantastic conversation. I am so grateful. Is there any last words you want to share with everyone? Yeah, if you enjoy talking about intuition and knowing how do you know what you know, um i have my podcast called Ila Radio, where we dive into that.
00:53:12
Speaker
And also looking at um education and how you were talking about earlier with the kids, they do need to have this intuition development. And so we talk about that on the show, too. So thank you so much for having me here.
00:53:26
Speaker
Yeah, beautiful. So we're definitely going to put all the links into the show notes so that you can find Laura wherever it is that you want to look. And of course, if you want to continue these conversations, head over, listen to her podcast and listen to and connect out with her, but also come into the naturally conscious community, because this is exactly what the community was born for. It is the place of these communities.
00:53:47
Speaker
you know, human and more than human connections and the ability for us to work deeply with our plants to explore these different aspects of ourselves through art in the, you know, writing and creativity group in the book club where we, you know, bring in new knowledge and and stories.
00:54:03
Speaker
We did a great book recently. Great, great book. called The Island of Missing Trees. go Go check out our our recordings on our discussions because it was great. um Tree up as protagonist. Awesome.
00:54:15
Speaker
And we also have, you know, long range masterclass discussions as well as deep meditations to kind of go on the more mystical side. So please head over to the Naturally Conscious Community. Everything is in the show notes.
00:54:28
Speaker
And
Conclusion and Invitation
00:54:29
Speaker
that's it for another episode of Reconnect with Plant Wisdom. Remember, resist the urge to hold back your emerging green brilliance. That's it. Bye. Thanks for tuning in to this episode of Reconnect with Plant Wisdom.
00:54:43
Speaker
To continue these conversations, join us in the Naturally Conscious Community, your premier online ecosystem for plant reawakening and accelerated evolution and co-creation with other kin.
00:54:53
Speaker
Here, you'll find expansive discussions, interactive courses, live events, and supportive group programs like the Plant Wisdom Book Club and the Sprouts Writing and Creativity Group. Connect with like-minded individuals collaborating with plants to integrate these insights into life. Intro and outro music by Steve Shuley and Poinsettia from The Singing Life of Plants.
00:55:14
Speaker
That's it for me, Tigria Gardenia, and my plant collaborators. Until next time, remember, resist the urge to hold back your emerging green brilliance. I'm out. Bye.