---
born: 1919-04-19
category: Psychics & Remote Viewers
died: 2007-01-23
location: Athens, Georgia
summary: American journalist, former OSS officer, and co-author of the 1973 bestseller
  The Secret Life of Plants on plant sentience.
tags:
- Person
- RemoteViewer
---

[Peter Tompkins](/people/peter-tompkins/) was an American journalist, author, and former [OSS](/organizations/office-of-strategic-services/) officer. He is best known for co-authoring the 1973 bestselling book, *[The Secret Life of Plants](/sources/the-secret-life-of-plants/)*, which popularized the controversial experiments of [Cleve Backster](/people/cleve-backster/) on plant sentience.[^1]

[^1]: Jacobsen, Annie. *Phenomena: The Secret History of the U.S. Government's Investigations into Extrasensory Perception and Psychokinesis*. Little, Brown and Company, 2017.