Becoming a Plant: an Introduction to Narcissism

We know of an organism which, before becoming a plant, possesses a nervous system with a vestibular organ crowned by an eye, which in turn is mounted on a peduncle [Llinás, 2002]. Its entire life consists of filtering water and reproducing by budding. In its larval stage, it is equipped with a ganglion comprising three hundred cells which, like a central nervous system, guides it for a day, or even less, until it has finally found a comfortable spot where it can settle: “The first scenes that passed before our eyes were fantastically jagged rocks… there were also rocky outcrops buried beneath carpets of ascidians and anemones…” [Verne, 1870]. It swims–like a tadpole–sensing the part of the biotope that concerns it, in order to bury its head and to absorb and digest its nervous system, its spinal cord and, once the process has begun, its tail as well. In short, it is the story of an animal that eats its own brain and becomes sessile once more.