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Annals of Inquiry

How I Started to See Trees as Smart

First, I took an acid trip. Then I asked scientists about the power
of altered states.

By Matthew Hutson

May 12, 2022

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Illustration of a Sierra Juniper tree
Illustration by Ian Mackay

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A couple of decades ago, on a backpacking trip in the Sierra Nevada,
I was marching up a mountain solo under the influence of LSD. Halfway
to the top, I took a break near a scrubby tree pushing up through the
rocky soil. Gulping water and catching my breath, I admired both its
beauty and its resilience. Its twisty, weathered branches had endured
by wresting moisture and nutrients from seemingly unwelcoming
terrain, solving a puzzle beyond my reckoning. I sensed a kind of
wisdom in its conservation of resources. I imagined that the tree
somehow wanted me to learn its lessons, to slow down and save my
strength for the rest of the climb.

Later, when I told the story to a friend, she noted that I talked
about sitting "with" the tree. I'd anthropomorphized it, making the
tree sound like an elder or a friend. Given that I became an atheist
at the age of ten, and that I always found more comfort in science
than any kind of spirituality, these feelings amused me. I know that
humans see intention or purposeful design in many places where it
doesn't exist. We see Jesus in pieces of toast, yell at our laptops,
concoct conspiracy theories, and say that everything happens for a
reason. Psychologists say that humans have "hyperactive agency
detection"; psychedelic drugs probably turn up the knob.

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[matt_hutso]
Matthew Hutson is a contributing writer at The New Yorker covering
science and technology.
More:IntelligenceLSDPlantsBiologyNatureTreesScience

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