How are plants conscious? I have vines growing at my house that just know where to grow. They can be 2 feet from anything to crawl up yet they surely find their way over to something without any eyes. (That I know of)

I also read that plants excrete a certain oil when they hear the sounds of caterpillars eating leaves, the oil deters caterpillars from eating.

This got me thinking about psychoactive molecules in plants ( tryptamines) that are similar to our own neurochemicals (serotonin). Are these chemicals responsible for the plants consciousness? What would happen if they were removed? Would the plant still know where to grow? What would happen if we dosed a plant with serotonin, would it trip out? Do plants actually have little tiny eyes and ears? Are vegans monsters for all the sentient plants they consume?

I think a problem here is the implication of human type neurology as a requisite for consciousness. The nervous system basically performs the same function as every other cell system in existence. Ie it uses it's DNA as a response template to environmental alterations via messenger RNA and protein synthesis. It certainly has it's unique features which allow for the rapid transmission and integration of signals. And we certainly seem to identify our awareness with our nervous system more so than say our immune system. But plants don't, to my knowledge, share those features. I don't see the importance of indolamines over fats or any other signal substance in constructing plant consciousness. They may extend a role in the auxin pathway which would be sort of analogous to how indolamines regulate neuron growth in humans. But that's speculative.

Now plants are certainly "intelligent" as is all life. They do not have tiny eyes and ears but they do have all manners of environmental sensors. Even the simplest of life does. If you ever get a chance at using a dark field microscope spit onto a slide and watch those bacteria. They are not the mechanistic dumb objects that textbooks make them out to be. They are incredibly agile and responsive to the environment. They move just like wild animals being chased by a predator. I can not bring myself to believe that consciousness has anything to do with neurology. In my mind it is an intrinsic property of existence.

Plants really are amazing. They have social behaviors, like sharing nutrients with saplings by transferring them through the mycelium network attached to each plants' roots. Acacias in Australia were found to send chemical messages to warn other acacias when they were eaten by mammals so neighboring plants could also increase tannin production to deter predators.

Here's one really interesting documentary...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CrrSAc-vjG4

Some relevant threads:

Are plants conscious?

Do Plants Have Consciousness?

Plant intelligence

Plant Consciousness: How do we communicate?

... wow.

I never saw greater meaning in plants other than just being growing things that were either tasty to eat or important to avoid, until I used DMT in the rain forest. The speculative analysis's of their behavior, biology and supposed legitimacy of either sentience or other awareness seemed like blatant "mumbo-jumbo". Postulation and pseudo-intellectual conjecture.

The pure life force that comes from these organisms is clearly visible to me now. I don't know why I had to look through a DMT coloured lens to first see it. Now I can see it though, I can't unsee it.

They are part of the great inter-dimensional transmutation of living energy, as are we. Whether or not we choose to attribute our values of perception on them is irrelevant, as a major side effect of being alive is having "feeling" and they are clearly alive.

edit: and yes, vegans are monsters

https://www.youtube.com/...v=Q-4w5xYLwiU&t=489s
another interesting documentary
plants an fungus do have network structures like roots and mycelium which could be the equivalent of a nervous system
and also this pic

Fascinating isn't it? I think for most humans plants are nothing more than a static backdrop. I have some beef with fundamentalist vegans as well for this reason But it's interesting you say that. I tip toed in hyper space for the first time in a long time the other day. And afterwords while taking a walk in the forest I kept visualizing everything like one of those brain animations where electrical impulses keep flying around the network. Except the network were the roots and mycelia under my feet and trees towering above me. Everything was so electric and alive and aware and intelligent and I just couldn't help but feel robbed of my connection to it. It was a busy conversation and I, being a city slicker, had no idea what it was saying. It's certainly life changing to see intelligence as something beyond the human nervous system. It really makes the dead cold world of asphalt feel like a sickness