[MENTION=6839]Scott N Denver[/MENTION]
i was surprised to see someone mention the "akashic records" right when i was thinking about them. supposedly, the idea behind the records--something that exists to record every thought and deed, every happening in any form of the word--exists in multiple cultures, the physical form it takes just varies upon the culture itself... like some will believe that the records are chiseled onto stone, or written on paper, etc. the first time i heard of the records was when i was looking into edgar cayce. he could do things no one can explain and he knew things that modern science thought was impossible, but we now take it to be fact (such as certain deserts once being covered in water, suggesting the implantation of screws into someone's shattered leg when modern medicine didn't practice it, or healing his son's eyes with holistic medicine when most doctors prognosis was to cut them out). basically, he was a world renowned psychic who world leaders would come to meet when they wouldn't take the time to visit our own president--i think there's a documentary of him on the history channel website still.
edit: oh duh, and cayce believed he was tapping into this record in order to know things he couldn't possibly know. like what a medicine bottle description said in someone's cabinet three states away, etc. he used to be a devout christian until he came into his "awareness" and then forsook it all--he believed we all had only a glimpse of the truth when it came to religion, and he was constantly hounded by skeptics who set out to prove he was a fraud, only to have them write a biography about him lol.
[MENTION=15773]greenfairy[/MENTION]
as far as trees having some form of consciousness... i think people would initially disagree with you because they would think you were implying that they have thoughts and emotions similar to that of a human, but as far as some alien sort of awareness (alien as in it wouldn't be something we experience or understand--as in our awareness isn't the awareness, it's just that, our own, and believing otherwise i think would limit us to understanding other forms of awareness or existence)...
i'm going to look for a link because i know that someone will demand it, but... i saw show/documentary where people were testing to plants for some sort of sentient reaction. they believe they got one. they cut a plant with a pair of scissors, and noticed a disturbance in some sort of wave they were measuring ("some sort of wave" is very vague, i know, but this was years ago). when they put the scissors away, the wave went back to a slow, measured pace--when they brought the scissors back out, the wave jumped, not only in that one plant, but in all the ones surrounding it as well.
interesting, right?