Morphic Resonance: The Nature of Formative Causation |  | Author: Rupert Sheldrake
Publisher: Park Street Press
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Sales Rank: 46130
Media: Paperback
Pages: 352
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.2
Dimensions (in): 8.9 x 6 x 1
ISBN: 1594773173
Dewey Decimal Number: 576.83
EAN: 9781594773174
ASIN: 1594773173
Publication Date: September 9, 2009
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| • | ISBN13: 9781594773174 | | • | Condition: NEW | | • | Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark. |
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Product Description
New updated and expanded edition of the groundbreaking book that ignited a firestorm in the scientific world with its radical approach to evolution
• Explains how past forms and behaviors of organisms determine those of similar organisms in the present through morphic resonance
• Reveals the nonmaterial connections that allow direct communication across time and space
When A New Science of Life was first published the British journal Nature called it “the best candidate for burning there has been for many years.” The book called into question the prevailing mechanistic theory of life when its author, Rupert Sheldrake, a former research fellow of the Royal Society, proposed that morphogenetic fields are responsible for the characteristic form and organization of systems in biology, chemistry, and physics--and that they have measurable physical effects. Using his theory of morphic resonance, Sheldrake was able to reinterpret the regularities of nature as being more like habits than immutable laws, offering a new understanding of life and consciousness.
In the years since its first publication, Sheldrake has continued his research to demonstrate that the past forms and behavior of organisms influence present organisms through direct immaterial connections across time and space. This can explain why new chemicals become easier to crystallize all over the world the more often their crystals have already formed, and why when laboratory rats have learned how to navigate a maze in one place, rats elsewhere appear to learn it more easily. With more than two decades of new research and data, Rupert Sheldrake makes an even stronger case for the validity of the theory of formative causation that can radically transform how we see our world and our future.
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| Customer Reviews:
A vastly revamped title perfect for any collections with older editions December 11, 2009
Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
MORPHIC RESONANCE: THE NATURE OF FORMATIVE CAUSATION appears in a newly revised, expanded edition of A NEW SCIENCE OF LIFE, and will appeal to any interested in new science, biology and blends of new age thought. Using his theory of morphic resonance, Sheldrake was able to reinterpret the regularities of nature as being more like habits than laws. His ongoing research results in a vastly revamped title perfect for any collections with older editions.
An ingenious hypothesis by an ingenious mind! November 29, 2009
M. Hameer
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
Sheldrake's hypothesis of morphic fields and morphic resonance cannot be explained by anyone better than Sheldrake himself. What I love about Rupert Sheldrake (besides his simple yet elegant hypothesis) is that he is willing to find ways to test his ideas. In this book, he has an appendix where he brilliantly puts forth ways of testing for the existence of morphic resonance.
Whether Sheldrake's hypothesis is correct or not, future experiments will tell (so far findings seem to favor his hypothesis). One thing is certain: his ideas are refreshingly original. Reading this book will take you on a journey into the mind of one of the greatest and original thinkers of our time.
A New Edition of a Wonderful Dogma Buster November 13, 2009
Dr. Richard G. Petty (Atlanta)
13 out of 13 found this review helpful
When the first edition of this book came out in 1981 with the title "A New Science of Life," I well remember getting one of the first copies and being electrified by the ideas and the data to support them. There was also the guilty pleasure of reading a book that the editor of the esteemed journal Nature had declared, "This infuriating tract... is the best candidate for burning there has been for many years."
In the intervening years Rupert Sheldrake has worked tirelessly to either prove or disprove his hypotheses, published many peer-reviewed papers as well as several more books on this and related topics. I have also had the pleasure of meeting him several times and discussing his ideas with him in great detail. There are three things that have always come across: his intelligence, his integrity and his humility.
It is sad that when that Nature editor - Sir John Maddox - passed away last year, a number of commentators took the opportunity to renew their attacks on Sheldrake's work. Many of those attackers have clearly not examined the research - some even admitted it! - neither were they aware of the fact that Rupert had provided Sir John with detailed scientific responses to his critique of a later book, "Dogs That Know When Their Owners Are Coming Home: And Other Unexplained Powers of Animals," but never received a response. So most students of biology and behavior have probably never even heard about this work, and many online sites simply dismiss the notion of "morphic resonance" as pseudoscience.
This is the third edition of the book that started all the controversy.
So what is this book about, and why does elicit such emotional - and unscientific - responses? The book proposes that current biochemical and genetic models cannot explain the ways in which atoms, molecules, crystals, cells, organs and even ecosystems organize themselves. The Hypothesis of Formative Causation proposes that the forms of self-organizing systems are arranged and fashioned by "Morphic fields." These fields provide the templates for the ways in which organisms develop and are also responsible for the behavior and social and cultural development of organisms and social groups. These are not static fields, they are able to learn and establish new patterns and habits across time and space, which is termed "Morphic resonance."
For example, it can be very hard to coax a newly created chemical compound into forming a crystal. But once it has been done in one laboratory, others find it ever easier to make crystals of the new compound. The idea being that the morphic field has learned how to do it. Or another example: rats were taught to run a maze. Once they had learned the task, rats on the other side of the world learned to run the same maze far more quickly. And could it be that the ever-younger age at which people master the game of chess is not only because of the use of computers for training, but also that the morphic field associated with chess is becoming stronger?
You will see why this is a controversial theory, even though it answers a lot of questions, and the research data appears firmly to support it. Having examined the research in great detail as well as analyzing virtually all of the supporting material that Rupert cites in this book, I think that his fundamental ideas are correct, and that they will in time be understood to be as important as the ideas of Darwin and the great men and women who created the theories of relativity and quantum mechanics.
This new edition is well written and even for someone familiar with the ideas, a thrilling read. And if you are new to the concepts, this is the best book to start with.
If you have read an earlier edition of the book, do you need to look at this one as well? My answer is a definite "Yes." Not only is there a new 23 page introduction, the entire text has been updated and there are two appendices - "New Tests for Morphic Resonance" and "Morphic Fields and the Implicate Order - A Dialogue with (the late) David Bohm," which add another 65 pages of fascinating material.
Very highly recommended.
Richard G. Petty, MD, author of Healing, Meaning and Purpose: The Magical Power of the Emerging Laws of Life
Charge of the ENLIGHTENED Brigade !!! October 22, 2009
Heidi Guedel (The Theater of the Mind)
12 out of 12 found this review helpful
Watch Video Here: http://www.amazon.com/review/R6QLP4DM3SCRY As the late American Attorney General, Robert F. Kennedy, once stated in a speech he delivered in South Africa decades ago, "Moral Courage" is the willingness to incur the backlash of your own peer group for the sake of the truth as you see it.
Dr. Rupert Sheldrake has demonstrated such Moral Courage for decades, himself - standing up under the poorly substantiated ridicule of the scientific community for his daring theories of Formative Causation, Morphogenetic Fields, and Morphic Resonance, which contradict the unproven (but generally accepted in mainstream scientific circles) material reductionist theories of a random, chaotic and mindless universe giving birth to an equally random and mindless process of abiogenesis and evolution.
This book is the up-to-date compilation of his more than 30 years of research and experimentation. It will surprise, challenge and enlighten you.
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