Can Plants Have Consciousness? New Film and Science Push Boundaries of Awareness
Green foliage macro. Scientists and filmmakers alike are asking whether plants may possess a form of consciousness. Photo: Unsplash
In a bold fusion of cinema and cutting-edge neuroscience, a new film reopens an ancient question: might the trees, flowers, and ferns around us possess their own form of consciousness?
Hungarian filmmaker Ildikó Enyedi and neuroscientist Anil Seth of the University of Sussex have collaborated on Silent Friend, a film that imagines a neurologist attempting to measure the inner life of a ginkgo tree on a university campus. The film dramatises a real scientific frontier — researchers have long defined consciousness loosely as "the ability to experience," and a growing body of evidence suggests plants respond to their environment in ways that defy simple mechanical explanations.
Premiering this season, Silent Friend arrives as neuroscientists worldwide turn their tools toward non-human forms of awareness. Studies show plants communicate through underground fungal networks, respond to sounds, synchronise electrical signals to activate drought resilience, and even mimic shapes and colours. While these do not constitute proof of consciousness as humans experience it, they push scientists to broaden their definitions.
According to Enyedi, exploring plant consciousness "helps us to move out from this instinctive position that our perception is the default." If consciousness is not uniquely human, it challenges the foundations of how we treat other living beings and our place in the natural order. As Seth told Scientific American, "We're trying to get indicators of consciousness that are meaningful for the populations we might apply them to." The same tools that measure human awareness may one day reveal the inner world of the silent kingdom beside us.
#PlantConsciousness #SilentFriend #Neuroscience #Science #Film
Sources: Scientific American, "Can Plants Have Consciousness? The Film Silent Friend Reimagines the Science" (May 15, 2026); Scientific American, "What Is Consciousness? Science Faces Its Hardest Problem Yet" (January 20, 2026)
Image: Green foliage macro — Unsplash
#PlantConsciousness #SilentFriend #Neuroscience #Science #Film
Article by Editorial Dept