Botanical WiFi

Hundreds of millions of years before the Internet, Mother Earth developed her own “World Wide Web” — a mycelial network. This network consists of a single-cell layer of mushroom cells within the first layer of the Earth. The network is so fine that if we took a walk in an old-growth forest, under each footstep would lie enough mycelial cells to stretch 300 miles[1].

These tiny, subterranean fungal strands connect plants and trees together, sharing nutrients and helpful substances to protect them from pathogens and harmful insects. This is the same network used by “mother trees” to pass along nutrients to smaller trees — even of a different species — who cannot reach the same resources as the older, taller trees.

Communication between trees, plants and flowers does not require a brain, and they do not experience themselves as separate from their ecosystem, as we humans do. Through this mycelial network, plants are inseparable from one another and pass along information in a series of subtle electrical impulses; it could be said they speak in waves of energy. Additionally, the entire communication network is a giant living organism that grows several inches daily and recharges itself, no outlet needed.

Similarly, every day humans use technology to stream invisible waves of energy through space to receive texts on cell phones, listen to music on the radio, or watch moving pictures on a computer or television. Just as technology transmits information through space, so do flowers. I like to call it “Floral WiFi.”

Flowers Have Energy

Until recently, most people believed that bees were attracted to flowers for their bright colors or fragrances. However, recent research demonstrates that bees are attracted to the energy in flowers, not their fragrance or color. Flowers emit electrical impulses in the form of vibrations and the bees are able to detect the electrical fields of different flowers.

Research led by Professor Daniel Eric, at the University of Bristol in the U.K., demonstrated that bumblebees and flowers communicate through electrical fields. The researchers placed electrodes inside the stems of petunias and they found that each flower’s electrical charge changed after a bee had visited. It stayed that way for several minutes, alerting other bees to the fact that a bee had already been there. They also found that flowers emit different electrical impulses when they are full of nectar and pollen versus when they have none left, communicating to bees whether or not to alight.

Flowers emit electrical impulses in the form of vibrations, and the bees are able to detect the electrical fields of different flowers through the hairs on their legs, which may move in a way similar to how our hair moves with the presence of static electricity[2].

This is one way that we know that flowers have electrical energy. Some people would call it the ‘chi’ of the flower, or even its aura.

In this way, flowers are like the antennae of the Earth’s wisdom, emitting subtle electricity that is invisible to the human eye, just like the waves of technology.

Unlike our electronic WiFi that is incompatible with our bodies and over time can make us feel fatigued, “Floral WiFi” is rejuvenating to our bodies. We human beings are the sophisticated technology that translates the information and knows what to do with it. While we may not fully understand it, it makes us feel more balanced and stable.

We don’t question our technology because we know it works — we just use it. So, isn’t it then possible that Mother Earth has had this technology long before we have?

How Can We Use This Botanical WiFi?

Close your eyes and imagine yourself in a rose garden — and notice how you feel when thinking about being surrounded by deep red roses overflowing from the bushes.

Now imagine yourself walking in a vast field of wild white daisies, waving back and forth in the breeze and the sunshine.

How do you feel? 

How about while walking in a redwood forest? Or when burying your face in a bunch of huge ruffly peonies? Or sitting underneath a willow tree? Or gazing at a pristine pink lotus or water lily in a pond? 

Did you notice how even just the visualization of different flowers and trees evokes different feelings?

That feeling — whether in reality or through visualization — is indicative of the benefits and special qualities of that particular flower, tree or plant.

Those qualities can be captured, collected and infused into water — Mother Nature’s greatest recording device. Water, like the shiny substrate on CDs or the magnetic strip inside cassette tapes, records information. In this case, water can retain the special qualities of a flower in the form of what we call a flower essence, flower elixir or flower remedy.

If you have an intense or chronic physical issue, however, it would be more appropriate to use the whole body of the plant in the form of herbal tinctures or teas, employing the roots, stems, leaves, seeds, flowers.

Similarly, essential oils or aromatherapy are like the blood, or immune system of a plant that is extracted into a highly aromatic oil. Essential oils often help the plant keep predators away. When we infuse essential oils into something like massage oil, it stimulates our circulation and our immune system. It also works through the olfactory pathways and affects the nervous system through the brain. Essential oils are an aromatic, sensual experience and stimulate our mood or emotions; they have become widely used in recent years.

Flower essences, by contrast, are like the mind or consciousness of a plant, and are less well known. Different from aromatherapy, flower elixirs don’t have a scent and work through the acupuncture meridians. They work on a mind and heart level and have emotional, mental, spiritual and energetic benefits. Flower essences have more subtle and long-term effects. They operate differently from essential oils and help shift emotional and mental patterns over time with consistent use.

Flowers are the part of the plant used to collect the essence because they contain the highest concentration of energetics within the plant. A flower elixir is a solar infusion of that flower in water, which can then be preserved and stabilized with alcohol. It is a liquid infusion of a flower or plant’s ‘chi’ or life-force, perfectly encapsulating the quality of the flower.

An elixir can be taken internally or applied topically, shifting your mood within minutes. Taken consistently over time, they accelerate personal growth. Long-term flower essence fans say they are utterly life-changing.

For example, when Cheryl came to see me, she was terrified of flying on a plane. For years she refused to travel. Yet, one month after taking a flower elixir regularly, she got on an airplane!

After six months of taking flower remedies, she had flown so much that she started to accumulate enough frequent flyer miles to book free travel! She was overjoyed to be able to reconnect with family and friends in other parts of the country as well as take vacations internationally.

I’ve spent the last 20 years working with flower elixirs and observing their transformative effects on people. At a time when we are more distracted, fatigued and stressed than ever, nature offers us an inspiring way to rebalance. With most of us living in metropolitan areas or working indoors all day, flower elixirs help us tap into the abundant healing power of nature and bring it back effortlessly into our everyday lives to help us be our best selves.

[1]Paul Stamets, Mycelium Running: How Mushrooms Can Help Save the World (Berkeley, CA: Ten Speed Press, 2005).

[2] Dominic Clarke, Heather Whitney, Gregory Sutton, and Daniel Eric, “Detection and Learning of Floral Electrical Fields by Bumblebees,” Science 340, no. 6128 (2013): 66-69, doi: 10.1126/science.1230883.