Morphic Resonance: The Nature of Formative Causation

333 Pages·2009·2.51 MB·English

by  Rupert Sheldrake

To Dom Bede Griffiths, O.S.B.
MORPHIC RESONANCE

“Rupert Sheldrake is one of the most innovative and visionary scientists of
our times. Rupert will be both vilified and praised for his theory of morphic
resonance. Whatever your personal opinion of his work, he will not be
ignored. In my opinion, his contributions will be recognized one day on the
same level as those of Newton and Darwin.”

DEEPAK CHOPRA, AUTHOR OF REINVENTING
THE BODY, RESURRECTING THE SOUL

“Morphic Resonance presents a revolutionary information-field
understanding of the nature and evolution of life. Acquaintance with it is an
essential part of new-paradigm scientific literacy.”

ERVIN LASZLO, AUTHOR OF
SCIENCE AND THE AKASHIC FIELD
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

In the continued development and testing of the hypothesis of formative
causation, many people have helped me through discussions, comments,
suggestions and criticisms. In particular I would like to thank Ralph Abraham,
Ted Bastin, Patrick Bateson, Dick Bierman, the late Richard Braithwaite,
Stephen Braude, John Brockman, David Jay Brown, Christopher Clarke, John
Cobb, Stephen Cohen, Hans-Peter Dürr, Lindy Dufferin and Ava, Ted Dace, the
late Dorothy Emmet, Suitbert Ertel, Addison Fischer, Matthew Fox, Stanislav
Grof, Brian Goodwin, Franz-Theo Gottwald, the late Stephen Jay Gould, David
Ray Griffin, Christian Gronau, Stephan Harding, the late Willis Harman, Mary
Hesse, Nicholas Humphrey, Francis Huxley, Jürgen Krönig, David Lambert,
Bruce Lipton, Nancy Lunney, the late Margaret Masterman, Katinka Matson, the
late Terence McKenna, John Michell, the late Robert Morris, Carl Neumann,
Guy Lyon Playfair, Jill Purce, Dean Radin, Anthony Ramsay, the late Brendan
O’Reagan, Keith Roberts, Steven Rooke, Steven Rose, the late Miriam
Rothschild, Janis Rozé, Edward St. Aubyn, Gary Schwartz, Martin Schwartz,
Merlin Sheldrake, Alexander Shulgin, Harris Stone, James Trifone, the late
Francisco Varela, Christopher Whitmont, and Götz Wittneben.

I am very grateful to Matthew Clapp, who started my website,
www.sheldrake.org, in 1997 and served as webmaster until 2002; to my current
webmaster, John Caton, who has looked after my site since 2002; and to Helmut
Lasarcyk, my German webmaster, who has also kindly translated many letters,
articles, and manuscripts for me. I am also very grateful to my research assistant,
Pam Smart, who has worked with me since 1994 and has helped in many ways.

I gratefully acknowledge organizational and financial support for research
from the Institute of Noetic Sciences, California; the International Center for
Integral Studies, New York; the Schweisfurth Foundation, Germany; the
Lifebridge Foundation, New York; the Bial Foundation, Portugal; the Fred
Foundation, Holland; and the Perrott-Warrick Fund, administered by Trinity
College, Cambridge. I am also grateful to the following benefactors for their
generous support: the late Laurance Rockefeller; the late Bob Schwartz, of New
York; the late C. W. “Ben” Webster, of Toronto; Evelyn Hancock, of Old
Greenwich, Connecticut; Bokhara Legendre, of Medway, South Carolina; Ben
Finn, of London; and Addison Fischer, of Naples, Florida.

For helpful comments on drafts of this new edition I thank Ted Dace, Nicholas
Greaves, Helmut Lasarcyk, Jill Purce, and Götz Wittneben. Merlin Sheldrake
drew the diagrams in figures 20, A.2, A.3, A.4, and A.5; and Suitbert Ertel gave
me permission to reproduce figure A.7.
CONTENTS

TITLE PAGE

DEDICATION

EPIGRAPH

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

PREFACE TO THE 2009 EDITION

This new edition
How mechanistic biology has revealed its own limitations
The evolution of development
Epigenetics
Morphogenetic and morphic fields
The relationship of morphic fields to modern physics
Experimental tests
A new way of doing science
Controversies
INTRODUCTION

1 THE UNSOLVED PROBLEMS OF BIOLOGY
1.1 The background of success
1.2 The problems of morphogenesis
1.3 Behavior
1.4 Evolution
1.5 The origin of life
1.6 Minds
1.7 Parapsychology
1.8 Conclusions
2 THREE THEORIES OF MORPHOGENESIS
2.1 Descriptive and experimental research
2.2 Mechanism
2.3 Vitalism
2.4 Organicism
3 THE CAUSES OF FORM
3.1 The problem of form
3.2 Form and energy
3.3 The structures of crystals
3.4 The structures of proteins
3.5 Formative causation
4 MORPHOGENETIC FIELDS
4.1 Morphogenetic germs
4.2 Chemical morphogenesis
4.3 Morphogenetic fields as “probability structures”
4.4 Probabilistic processes in biological morphogenesis
4.5 Morphogenetic germs in biological systems
5 THE INFLUENCE OF PAST FORMS
5.1 The constancy and repetition of forms
5.2 The general possibility of trans-temporal causal connections
5.3 Morphic resonance
5.4 The influence of the past
5.5 Implications of an attenuated morphic resonance
5.6 An experimental test with crystals
6 FORMATIVE CAUSATION AND MORPHOGENESIS
6.1 Sequential morphogeneses
6.2 The polarity of morphogenetic fields
6.3 The size of morphogenetic fields
6.4 The increasing specificity of morphic resonance during morphogenesis
6.5 The maintenance and stability of forms
6.6 A note on physical “dualism”
6.7 A summary of the hypothesis of formative causation
7 THE INHERITANCE OF FORM
7.1 Genetics and heredity
7.2 Altered morphogenetic germs
7.3 Altered pathways of morphogenesis
7.4 Dominance
7.5 Family resemblances
7.6 Environmental influences and morphic resonance
7.7 The inheritance of acquired characteristics
7.8 Epigenetic inheritance
7.9 Experiments with phenocopies
8 THE EVOLUTION OF BIOLOGICAL FORMS
8.1 The neo-Darwinian theory of evolution
8.2 Mutations
8.3 The divergence of chreodes
8.4 The suppression of chreodes
8.5 The repetition of chreodes
8.6 The influence of other species
8.7 The origin of new forms
9 MOVEMENTS AND BEHAVIORAL FIELDS
9.1 Introduction
9.2 The movements of plants
9.3 Amoeboid movement
9.4 The repetitive morphogenesis of specialized structures
9.5 Nervous systems
9.6 Morphogenetic fields, motor fields, and behavioral fields
9.7 Behavioral fields and the senses
9.8 Regulation and regeneration
9.9 Morphic fields
10 INSTINCT AND LEARNING
10.1 The influence of past actions
10.2 Instinct
10.3 Sign stimuli
10.4 Learning
10.5 Innate tendencies to learn
11 THE INHERITANCE AND EVOLUTION OF BEHAVIOR
11.1 The inheritance of behavior
11.2 Morphic resonance and behavior: an experimental test
11.3 The evolution of behavior
11.4 Human behavior
12 FOUR POSSIBLE CONCLUSIONS
12.1 The hypothesis of formative causation
12.2 Modified materialism
12.3 The conscious self
12.4 The creative universe
12.5 Transcendent reality
APPENDIX A: NEW TESTS FOR MORPHIC RESONANCE

A.1 Bose-Einstein condensates
A.2 Melting points
A.3 Crystal transformations
A.4 Adaptations in cell cultures
A.5 Heat tolerance in plants
A.6 The transmission of aversion
A.7 The evolution of animal behavior
A.8 Collective human memory
A.9 Improving human performance
A.10 Resonant computers
APPENDIX B: MORPHIC FIELDS AND THE IMPLICATE ORDER—A
DIALOGUE WITH DAVID BOHM

ENDNOTES

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