As soon as I say Crystals or Plants speak to me someone thinks I'm titched, go ahead it's nothing new, but first realize I don't mean this literally. They speak in my inner mind because even though they are not form with soul, they have spirit or the consciousness life force that  flows through all creation unifying it.  So those that communicate with the plant or mineral kingdom are simply connecting to this consciousness that is within all things by reading the vibration it emits. Main stream society has become so wrapped up in their physical life that they no longer take time to connect to their inner self or that energy. Like I don't use clocks, cause my inner clock is tuned into the planetary rhythm.  People hardly know themselves and their feelings let alone being able to feel others, and because they can no long feel this, over time they are led to believe those that still do must then be crazed. People who are sensitive to this energy vibration can feel it's frequency because all things within this consciousness field move on waves of vibration. This "fact" of science was actually shared with us in the Bible when  we were told all is created by the word and the word was God. (this information was not give in clear understanding - it was distorted originally as give to people who still thought the world was flat or by those putting the information together to make it part of their political control over the people we will never really know) But sound creates because vibration can be increased or decreased to exist in spirit or matter, this principal behind all that is. That's getting a little deep, but none the less physics proved what was written, but only deep cause we have come to believe only when laced by what we physically can touch or see.  I'm one who has cast off most of the belief systems which have developed around this, to deal strictly with what could be called simplified universal fact. This fact now vitrified, must be shared through our language and that places limitation on it again because our languages were developed around the explanatory beliefs.  So I ask that you try to get past your beliefs long enough to view our universe in the Raw, seeing the pure truth that lays under the beliefs.
Once you get beyond all the frills of these beliefs you'll begin to see why/where they actually come from. You'll sense how religions developed it's dogma, and cultures developed beliefs which even those not following the religion now tend to incorporate as their belief. You'll become far more accepting of others through understanding the naivety of humanity on it's quest for understanding itself, and come to realize All of us are part of this in one way or another because we all have acquired beliefs of some kind individually, as a culture  and as a species. Then begin to see that the differences are only beliefs developed by small groups in different areas but in the greater context we all share a commonality  that unify the reality we experience.  Now I'm not preaching here, only attempting to help other see a bigger picture by getting down to the RAW truth that lays at the base of our existence, so we accept our differences by better knowing ourselves.
 
So before you point fingers and laugh at another beliefs, consider that you have your own that were devised beyond Raw Truth simply to try and explain you to you. The raw truth is some people feel the frequency vibrating within things and other don't, some try to answer with one belief and some another, but in the end we as all things are just part of a unified field of consciousness experiencing in the individual way we choose to vibrate.