Most people know that plants and trees have medicinal benefits. What’s less acknowledged is how deeply alive they are.

For much of human history, across many cultures, plants were seen as conscious beings with their own intelligence. Aristotle described a “vegetative soul.” Charles Darwin observed that plants’ behaviour suggested they had nervous systems. And countless indigenous cultures, from Australia to Europe, believed that trees and plants had spirits.

Western science, for a long time, dismissed this idea because plants don’t have a brain or central nervous system. But our understanding of consciousness is shifting. Researchers now speak about distributed intelligence — awareness spread through networks rather than one control centre. Plants demonstrate memory, anticipation, even decision-making abilities.

But aside from sciencitifc proof: all you have to do to sense a tree’s intelligence is touch it. Plants are alive, aware, and capable of relationship. They want to connect with us.

And one of the most profound ways humans have cultivated that connection is through plant diets (or dietas.)

Although the term "plant diet" suggests a period of time where you consume nothing but a particular plant, this isn't the case. The word "diet" originates from the Latin diaeta, meaning "way of life."

A plant “diet” is a shamanic practice where you work with a specific plant to receive its teachings, wisdom, and healing. It’s a rich, fruitful relationship that can deeply change you, and lead to a new way of life.

How does it work?

Well, just as science recognises that plants and trees have distinct medicinal properties, shamanic traditions see them as beings with their own essences, spirits, and healing potential. You choose a medicinal plant depending on what your physical ailments are. In a plant diet, you choose a plant according to what’s hurting within you emotionally, psychologically or spiritually.

For example, you might diet Rose to heal the heart and strengthen boundaries, Mugwort for energetic protection, dreams and intuition, Oak for grounding, or Cacao for opening to joy and connection.

Essentially, you choose to enter into relationship with a specific plant, and welcome it as your teacher, healer, and ally. The diet opens a energetic portal between your spirit and the plant’s. Through this, the plant can expand your consciousness, ground you, teach you, and help you heal.

Practically, it involves consuming the plant in an intentional way, devoting time to spiritual growth, listening, processing, and healing.

Plant diets are best known from the Peruvian Amazon, where they are considered central to shamanic healing. There, people enter into relationship with “master plants” through periods of retreat, ceremony, and strict discipline, creating the conditions for deep communion with the spirit of the plant. While some diets involve psychoactive plants like ayahuasca, many focus on non-psychoactive plants.

However, many people believe that all indigenous cultures - all over the world - had their own form of dieting; guided by the spirits of their local landscapes.

In the UK and Ireland, interest in plant diets is part of a wider return to earth-based spiritual practices. More and more people are feeling the call to reconnect with nature in this profound way - the kind of relationship that only a plant diet can create.

What are Plant Diets?

Rose Medicine: Heart Healing