Morphic Resonance: The Nature of Formative Causation [Paperback]

Rupert Sheldrake (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 1594773173 | ISBN-13: 978-1594773174 | Publication Date: September 9, 2009

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.

Editorial Reviews

Review

“Sheldrake is an excellent scientist; the proper, imaginative kind that in an earlier age discovered continents and mirrored the world in sonnets.”
(New Scientist )

“Well written, provocative and entertaining . . . Improbable? Yes, but so was Galileo.”
(Biologist )

“Books of this importance and elegance come along rarely. Those who read this new edition of A New Science of Life may do so with the satisfaction of seeing science history in the making.”
(Larry Dossey, M.D., author of Recovering the Soul and Reinventing Medicine )

“For decades, Rupert Sheldrake has been at the leading edge of highly innovative and controversial ideas about the organization of biological systems. Morphic Resonance poses a serious challenge to traditionalists and is a most welcome book about how we see the world and how we should head off into the future.”
(Marc Bekoff, author of The Emotional Lives of Animals and Wild Justice: The Moral Lives of Animals )

“Morphic Resonance is destined to become one of the landmarks in the history of biology. It is rare to find so profound a book so lucidly written.”
(Bruce H. Lipton, Ph.D., cell biologist and bestselling author of The Biology of Belief: Unleashing the Power of Consciousness, Matter and Miracles )

“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 )

“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 )

"Though his theory has much to say about the nature of evolution and the biological sciences, it also has a lot to say about consciousness, dreams, mental imagery and what I might consider ordinary and extraordinary dream/hypnotic experiences." (
Baywood Reprints, Vol. 28, No. 3, Aug 2009 )

" . . . will appeal to any interested in new science, biology, and blends of new age thought."
(The Midwest Book Review, Vol. 4, No. 12, Dec 2009 )

" . . . Sheldrake has steadily developed into one of the world's leading parapsychologists, conducting groundbreaking research in areas where well-behaved scientists fear to tread."
(EnlightenNext: The Magazine for Evolutionaries, Issue 46, Spring/Summer 2010 )

"Sheldrake's theories continue to gain verification, and this book is particularly important because its implications affect the way we view the natural world, as well as ourselves, as one small part of it. Morphic Resonance is therefore strongly recommended to anyone interested in understanding current thought about what may lie behind the formation of all natural systems."
(New Age Retailer, March 2010 )

From the Back Cover

NEW SCIENCE / BIOLOGY

“Books of this importance and elegance come along rarely. Those who read this new edition of A New Science of Life may do so with the satisfaction of seeing science history in the making.”
--Larry Dossey, M.D., author of Recovering the Soul and Reinventing Medicine

“For decades, Rupert Sheldrake has been at the leading edge of highly innovative and controversial ideas about the organization of biological systems. Morphic Resonance poses a serious challenge to traditionalists and is a most welcome book about how we see the world and how we should head off into the future.”
--Marc Bekoff, author of The Emotional Lives of Animals and Wild Justice: The Moral Lives of Animals

“Morphic Resonance is destined to become one of the landmarks in the history of biology. It is rare to find so profound a book so lucidly written.”
--Bruce H. Lipton, Ph.D., cell biologist and bestselling author of The Biology of Belief: Unleashing the Power of Consciousness, Matter and Miracles

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.

RUPERT SHELDRAKE, Ph.D., is a former research fellow of the Royal Society and former director of studies in biochemistry and cell biology at Clare College, Cambridge University. He is the author of more than 80 technical papers and articles appearing in peer-reviewed scientific journals and 10 books, including The Presence of the Past, The Rebirth of Nature, and Seven Experiments That Could Change the World.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 352 pages
• Publisher: Park Street Press (September 9, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1594773173
• ISBN-13: 978-1594773174
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #22,694 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #95 in Books > Religion & Spirituality > New Age > New Thought

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

103 of 106 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A New Edition of a Wonderful Dogma Buster, November 13, 2009

By 

Dr. Richard G. Petty (Atlanta) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Morphic Resonance: The Nature of Formative Causation (Paperback)

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

69 of 74 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Charge of the ENLIGHTENED Brigade !!!, October 22, 2009

By 

Heidi Guedel "Whatever does not defeat me, on... (The Theater of the Mind) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Morphic Resonance: The Nature of Formative Causation (Paperback)

Length:: 8:43 Mins

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.

28 of 29 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An ingenious hypothesis by an ingenious mind!, November 29, 2009

By 

M. Hameer - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Morphic Resonance: The Nature of Formative Causation (Paperback)

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.