Rupert Sheldrake

In 1981, a young British biologist named Rupert Sheldrake authored a book titled, The New Science of Life: It offered a theory of life that was substantially different than evolutionary Darwinism.

Rupert Sheldrake

Sheldrake sees individual consciousness connected. In his view, the brain is not the depository of all one's essence. Instead, he postulates the existence of what he calls morphic fields that connect all living things to each other. He sees the brain as, more or less, like a transceiver that links the body to indivdual consciousness as well as to these morphic fields.  Resonance is a powerful word in Sheldrake's lexicon. According to his theory, morphic resonance is the force that binds us.

Sheldrake's grand vision has progressed little beyond audacious theory. In fact, many scientists  dismiss morphic resonance as little more than illogical magic.  With that disclosed,  there is some evidence that is compelling.

Sheldrake cites the 100th monkey phenomenon as a reason to believe.  In Japan, a handful of snow monkeys (Japanese Macaques)  were observed 'washing' their food in salt water.   It started out with one or two monkeys in one group. Soon enough, that whole group was doing it.  Then, after a certain number of monkeys had picked up that 'washing' habit,  very quickly, almost overnight,  snow monkeys in other parts of Japan, totally isolated from the originating group, began to exhibit the same behavior. Strange but true.

I'm not sure if Rupert Sheldrake is on to something or not.  I do find it difficult to believe that the essence of a human being can be contained in a couple of pounds of brain matter. So, Sheldrake and his ideas remain interesting and very much on the radar with me.

Rupert Sheldrake's website is   http://www.sheldrake.org/homepage.html