"If a tree fell in the woods
and nobody was around to hear it,
would it make a sound?"
If a tree fell in the woods and someone was there to yell "TIMBER!", there is no doubt that the tree would make a noise, and when it hit the ground, someone would be there to hear it.
But how about the classic question that asks, "If a tree fell in the woods and NOBODY was around to hear it, would it make a sound?" That depends on how you want to define "sound."
If you define sound as a compressed air wave, created in this case by the tree hitting the ground, interacting with the components of the inner ear which is interpreted by the brain, there is no sound being made because the ear/brain component is missing.
Who Has Consciousness?
On the other hand, it also depends on how you define the "body" in "nobody". If you mean, in the broad sense of the word, "somebody" or "something" which has the ability to NOTICE the event on some level, then you have a different story.
Why? Because the sound would be registered by other life forms in the forest, at the very least, other animals with ears. We can also include the plant kingdom as it, too, responds to external stimuli. Indeed, plants seem not only to be able to consciously perceive their environment, but they even have social tendencies.
We assume that plants would register this tree-to-ground impact as an event of sorts. Add to this the woods themselves because they, too, are conscious. You could take this one step further and say if there were no other plants or animals around, the fallen tree ITSELF would hear the fall. Assuming of course, that it was not dead or had not lost all consciousness before it hit. However, that is another story.
Do Minerals Communicate?
Hey, how about minerals? Do they "rate" as conscious entities, or are they "merely inorganic?" In some of our other-dimensional explorations we have seen that crystalline life-forms DO communicate, albeit in radically different ways than human beings. In fact, in their own way, they are more perfect servants to the All That Is than humanity. They don't have free will to say no to spirit. They just say Yes and fulfill whatever function it is for them to do.
Everything is made of Consciousness Itself. Sometimes it just "lies low" in its expressive ability, and when it expresses itself in forms that don't appear to consciously react to our probing, we term it "inorganic". However, that is one life form's point of view.
So, back to the question: "If a tree fell in the woods and nobody was around to hear it, would it make a sound?" Our answer is a most emphatic, "Yes!"
Related book:
Animals As Teachers and Healers; True Stories and Reflections
by Susan Chernak McElroy.
About The Authors
Reprinted with permission from The Federation Flash, published by Starbuilders, P.O. Box 22-0964, Hollywood, FL 33020. (Write for free copy.) Michael and Khatrie are Evolutionary Agents dedicated to manifesting the New Civilization.
