The weirdest paranormal

The Mirror
The lie detector
2004-01-14 0:00

The weirdest paranormal experiment was conducted by an ex-CIA interrogator named Cleve Backster, who pioneered polygraphs, the lie detectors which detect human stress levels by measuring the flow of electricity through skin.

Backster wired up his potted rubber plant to a lie detector to see if the needle flickered when the plant was harmed. There was no reaction when he dipped a leaf in hot coffee – maybe rubber plants like a good, frothy cappuccino – but when he thought to himself, “I’m going to light a match and burn a stem,” the polygraph went into overdrive.

Plants, it seems, can read our minds. Backster went on to prove that his plant shared in the suffering of even the tiniest creatures, by watching the needle jump every time he dropped a live shrimp into boiling water.

Told you it was weird.