<========= Open Window This Wide For Best Results Reading the Below ==========> On Morphogenic Field Theory by Rupert Sheldrake, Ph.D. Presence of the Past: Introduction & Chapter One Rupert Sheldrake, Ph.D. Challenging the fundamental assumptions of modern science, this ground-breaking radical hypothesis suggests that nature itself has memory. The question of morphogenesis - how things take their shape - remains one of the great mysteries of science. What makes a rabbit rabbit-shaped? How do newts regenerate limbs? Why are molecules shaped the way they are? Why do societies arrange themselves in certain predictable patterns? "They say that habit is second nature. Who knows but nature is only first habit?" -Blaise Pascal, Pensees his book explores the possibility that memory is inherent in nature. It suggests that natural systems, such as termite colonies, or pigeons, or orchid plants, or insulin molecules, inherit a collective memory from all previous things of their kind, however far away they were and however long ago they existed. Because of this cumulative memory, through repetition the nature of things becomes increasingly habitual. Things are as they are because they were as they were. Thus habits may be inherent in the nature of all living organisms, in the nature of crystals, molecules, and atoms, and indeed in the entire cosmos. A beech seedling, for example, as it grows into a tree takes up the characteristic shape, structure, and habits of a beech. It is able to do so because it inherits its nature from previous beeches; but this inheritance is not just a matter of chemical genes. It depends also on the transmission of habits of growth and development from countless beech trees that existed in the past. Likewise, as a swallow grows up, it flies, feeds, preens, migrates, mates, and nests as swallows habitually do. It inherits the instincts of its species through invisible influences, acting at a distance, that make the behaviour of Past swallows in some sense present within it. It draws on and is shaped by the collective memory of its species. All humans too draw upon a collective memory, to which all in turn contribute. If this view of nature is even approximately correct, it should be possible to observe the progressive establishment of new habits as they spread within a species. For example, when birds such as blue tits learn a new habit, such as stealing milk from milk bottles by tearing off the bottle caps, then blue tits elsewhere, even beyond the range of all normal means of communication, should show an increasing tendency to learn the same thing. When people learn something new, such as wind-surfing, then as more people learn to do it, it should tend to become progressively easier to learn, just because so many other people have learned to do it already. When crystals of a newly synthesized chemical substance, for example a new kind of drug, arise for the first time they have no exact precedent; but as the same compound is crystallized again and again, the crystals should tend to form more readily all over the world, just because they have already formed somewhere else. In the same way that this inheritance of habits may depend on direct influences from previous similar things in the past, so the memory of individual organisms may depend on direct influences from their own past. If memory is inherent in the nature of things, then the inheritance of collective habits and the development of individual habits, the development of the individual's "second nature," can be seen as different aspects of the same fundamental process, the process whereby the past in some sense becomes present on the basis of similarity. Thus, for example, our own personal habits may depend on cumulative influences from our past behaviour to which we "tune in." If so, there is no need for them to be stored in a material form within our nervous systems. The same applies to our conscious memories-of a song we know, or of something that happened last year. The past may in some sense become present to us directly. Our memories may not be stored inside our brains, as we usually assume they must be. All these possibilities can be conceived of in the framework of a scientific hypothesis, which I call the hypothesis of formative causation. According to this hypothesis, the nature of things depends on fields, called morphic fields. Each kind of natural system has its own kind of field: there is an insulin field, a beech field, a swallow field, and so on. Such fields shape all the different kinds of atoms, molecules, crystals, living organisms, societies, customs, and habits of mind. Morphic fields, like the known fields of physics, are non-material regions of influence extending in space and continuing in time. They are localized within and around the systems they organize. When an particular organized system ceases to exist, as when an atom splits, a snowflake melts, an animal dies, its organizing field disappears from that place. But in another sense, morphic fields do not disappear: they are potential organizing patterns of influence, and can appear again physically in other times and places, wherever and whenever the physical conditions are appropriate. When they do so they contain within themselves a memory of their previous physical existences. The process by which the past becomes present within morphic fields is called morphic resonance. Morphic resonance involves the transmission of formative causal influences through both space and time. The memory within the morphic fields is cumulative, and that is why all sorts of things become increasingly habitual through repetition. When such repetition has occurred on an astronomical scale over billions of years, as it has in the case of many kinds of atoms, molecules, and crystals, the nature of these things has become so deeply habitual that it is effectively changeless, or seemingly eternal. All this obviously contrasts with currently orthodox theories. There is no such thing in contemporary physics, chemistry, or biology as morphic resonance; and the known fields of physics are generally assumed to be governed by eternal laws of nature. By contrast, morphic fields arise and evolve in time and space, and are influenced by what has actually happened in the world. Morphic fields are conceived of in an evolutionary spirit, but the known fields of physics are not. Or at least, until quite recently they were not. Until the 1960s, the universe was generally believed by physicists to be eternal; so were the properties of matter and of fields; so were the laws of nature. They always had been and always would be the same. But the universe is now thought to have been born in a primordial explosion some fifteen billion years ago and to have been growing and evolving ever since. Now, in the 1980s, theoretical physics is in ferment. Theories are reaching back into the first moments of creation. Entirely new, evolutionary conceptions of matter and of fields are coming into being. The cosmos now seems more like a growing and developing organism than like an eternal machine. In this context, habits may be more natural than immutable laws. This is the possibility that this book explores. But before beginning this exploration, it is helpful to consider in more detail the habitual assumptions we make about the nature of things. The hypothesis of formative causation conflicts with a number of scientific theories which have been orthodox for decades, or even for centuries, so it is important to be aware of what these theories are and how they have developed and to take account of their successes and limitations. At various stages throughout this book, the interpretations of phenomena in terms of orthodox theories are compared with those in terms of the hypothesis of formative causation. This comparison enables the alternative approaches to be understood more clearly, and it also enables us to see where they make different predictions that can be tested by experiment. By means of such tests, it should be possible to find out which approach is in better accordance with the world we live in. The Plan of This Book Any new way of thinking has to come into being in the context of existing habits of thought. The realm of science is no exception. At any given time, the generally accepted models of reality, often called paradigms, embody assumptions that are more or less taken for granted and which easily become habitual. In the first three chapters, we examine the two predominant models of reality in contemporary science: on the one hand the idea that physical reality is constant and entirely governed by eternal laws, and on the other hand the idea that nature is evolutionary. In chapter 1, we consider the way these two models of reality have coexisted for over a century, and how they are now in conflict as a result of the recent revolution in cosmology. All nature is now thought to be evolutionary, and consequently the assumption of eternal laws of nature is thrown into question. Rather than being governed by eternal laws, the nature of things may be habitual. This possibility was already being considered by philosophers and biologists towards the end of the last century, but it was ruled out by the orthodox assumption of an eternal physical reality that was essentially constant. In chapter 2, we examine the history of the idea of the eternity of nature. It is rooted in mystical intuition, and came down to modern science through traditions of thought inherited from classical Greece. The theoretical eternities of physics have evolved from ancient, pre-evolutionary conceptions of reality, and are now at variance with the new evolutionary cosmology. In chapter 3 we look at the evolution of the idea of evolution. Its historical roots can be found in Christians' faith in the progressive movement of human history towards the fulfillment of God's purposes. From this belief, in seventeenth-century Europe a new vision of human progress began to develop: a faith in the transformation of the world for the benefit of humanity through progress in science and technology. This conviction was continually reinforced by the advances of science, industry, medicine, and agriculture and has by now become predominant on a global scale. In the course of the nineteenth century, the progress of humanity came to be seen in a much wider context: it became one aspect of a great evolutionary process which had given rise to all forms of life on earth. Finally, in the new cosmology the idea of evolution has been taken to its ultimate limits: the whole universe is evolutionary. As a result, we can no longer take the eternal laws of nature for granted. But if we think of them as habitual, we find ourselves in conflict with the conventional assumptions of physics, chemistry, and biology, which were formulated in the context of an eternal mechanistic universe. In chapter 4, we consider the nature of atoms, molecules, crystals, plants, and animals. They are all complex structures of activity which come into being spontaneously. Why do they have the structures they do? How are they organized? How do complex living organisms such as trees develop from much simpler structures such as seeds? We look at the orthodox answers to these questions and at the assumptions they embody, and in chapter 5 we see that the coming into being of living organisms-the growth of a fly, for example, from a fertilized egg-still remains mysterious, despite the many impressive discoveries of twentieth-century biology. In contemporary biology, one of the most promising ways of thinking about the development of living organisms is in terms of organizing fields, called morphogenetic fields. However, the nature of these fields has itself remained mysterious. In chapter 6 we discuss the nature of these fields, and the interpretation of them provided by the hypothesis of formative causation; and in chapter 7 we see how this hypothesis applies to the development of molecules and crystals as well as living organisms. The morphic fields of all these systems can be thought of as containing an inherent memory, due to morphic resonance from all previous similar systems. In chapter 8 we consider the new interpretation of biological heredity that this hypothesis provides and look at ways in which it could be tested experimentally. The next four chapters are concerned with memory, learning, and habit in animals and human beings. The idea of morphic resonance enables memory to be understood in terms of direct causal influences from an organism I s own past. This therefore provides a radical alternative to the conventional theory that habits and memories are somehow stored as material "traces" within the nervous system. This way of looking at the phenomena is unfamiliar, but it seems to be more consistent with the available evidence than the conventional theory. It leads to a range of empirically testable predictions, and I describe some experiments that have already been done to test it. In chapter 13 the concept of morphic fields is extended to the organized societies of social animals, such as termite colonies and flocks of birds, and chapter 14 considers the structures of human societies and cultures in the light of this idea. In chapter 15, I suggest that the concept of morphic resonance could provide a new interpretation of rituals, customs, and traditions, including the traditions of science. The evolution of morphic fields by natural selection and the role of morphic resonance in the evolutionary process is discussed in chapter 16, and in chapter 17 the nature of morphic fields is considered in relation to the new evolutionary theories of physics. Chapter 18 addresses the question of evolutionary creativity: What are the possible sources of new patterns of organization? How do new morphic fields arise in the first place? I have tried to keep technical terminology to a minimum, but the use of some specialized scientific and philosophical terms is unavoidable. These terms are explained as the book goes along, and I hope their meanings will become clear even if they are unfamiliar to start with. There is also a glossary at the end of the book which summarizes what these words and phrases are taken to mean. Source: Unknown; was (in 1998) at http://www.sheldrake.org/articles/by/presence_one.html [===] ===[ === ]=== [===] Related: [===] ===[ === ]=== [===] * Morphic Field Theory, A Biological Approach to Systems David Brent deMoville http://www.chalicebridge.com\Files\MorphicFieldsTheory-BiologicalApproachToSystems.txt I want to examine an approach to systems from the biological perspective. These are living systems, or as Kelly calls them, vivisystems. These living systems may be organically based and encompass life and biology as we normally think of them or they may be mechanical, forcing us to think of the meaning of life in new contexts. * NEW SCIENCE OF LIFE with RUPERT SHELDRAKE, Ph.D. http://www.williamjames.com/transcripts/sheldra1.htm From The Intuition Network, A Thinking Allowed Television Underwriter, presents the following transcript from the series A Thinking Allowed, Conversations On the Leading Edge of Knowledge and Discovery, with Dr. Jeffrey Mishlove. * Nature As Alive: Morphic Resonance and Collective Memory* by Rupert Sheldrake, Ph.d. http://www.primalspirit.com/pr1_1sheldrake_nature_as_alive.htm This article was originally presented at the International Transpersonal Association Conference on "Science, Spirituality, and the Global Crisis: Toward a World with a Future," which was held in Prague, Czechoslovakia. It was delivered on 25 June 1992 and was titled, "Morphic Resonance and Collective Memory." It was originally published in Primal Renaissance: The Journal of Primal Psychology, Vol. 1, No. 1, Spring, 1995. * Interview with Rupert Sheldrake, Oct 29, 1999 by David Bradley, scientist by training, award-winning science and tech writer-editor since 1989 http://www.sciencebase.com/science-blog/interview-with-rupert-sheldrake.html This interview appeared on October 29, 1999, in David Bradley’s monthly BioFeedback column in the now defunct and much missed (not least for the monthly fee!) HMSBeagle on BioMedNet. * Integral Evolutionary Biology at http://integrallife.com/node/1559 Contributors: Rupert Sheldrake and Ken Wilber The man behind the theory of morphic resonance shares his impulse to explore the evolutionary impulse behind the Kosmos itself. From physics, to chemistry, to biology, to psychology, to spirituality and more, these two pioneers share their understanding of how Spirit is manifesting moment-to-moment in and through the leading edge of consciousness awareness.... * Rupert Sheldrake & Ken Wilber at http://in.integralinstitute.org/landing/rupert_sheldrake/index.html Integral Evolutionary Biology. Part 1. How Do We Account for Memory in Nature? The man behind the theory of morphic resonance shares his impulse to explore the evolutionary impulse behind the Kosmos itself. From physics, to chemistry, to biology, to psychology, to spirituality and more, these two pioneers share their understanding of how Spirit is manifesting moment-to-moment in and through the leading edge of consciousness awareness…. * SHELDRAKE’S THEORY OF MORPHOGENESIS by Ken Wilber, Excerpted from The Collected Works of Ken Wilber: Volume 4 http://integrallife.com/apply/science-technology/sheldrakes-theory-morphogenesis <========= Open Window This Wide For Best Results Reading the Below ==========> _____________________________________________________________________ ¸,ø¤º°`°º¤ø,¸¸,ø¤º°`°º¤ø,¸¸,ø¤º°`°º¤ø,¸¸,ø¤º°`°º¤ø,¸¸,ø¤º°`°º¤ø,¸¸,ø¤ EDITOR/Web Site Host Information (Claiming no credit for the above information) Chris Pringer, Reiki Master || * Chalice Productions * Specialist in Energy-Body-Work || Integrative Art & Writing * Personal Coach in Mind-Body || * By Appt Only: 206-286-0899 Preventative Health Awareness || Seattle, WA 98119 * Ordained Minister || Chaliser@iinet.com Chalice Bridging Ministries: Body-Mind-Soul Integration for a Healthy Planet =========== ///\\\ ============= Essays, Art, Professional Info, Links, FTP via: Body-Mind-Chalice Integration Website: Professional Brochure Compact Trifold PDF via http://www.chalicebridge.com/Files/ReikiBrochure-[TRI-Fold]v3.pdf http://www.chalicebridge.com: Essays, Poetry, and Art for Bridging the Mind-Body Connection, "Body-Parenting", Psycho-Spiritual Self-Healing, Consciousness, Theology, Practical Emotional Intelligence, and Psycho-Social Trends & Ideas for Evolving. http://www.chalicebridge.com/Chalice-Integration-Index.html: (Chalice Art, Mandalas, Sacred Geometry, & Related Philosophy: via http://www.chalicebridge.com/4CPublishing.html: Chalice Creations & Concept Charting - Desktop Publishing for Vibrant Greeting Cards, Logos, Display Ads, Promotional Presentations, Charts & Web Books, Mandala & Prayer Cards ________________ Professional Bio I began my studies in multi-level self-healing when in the service, in Thailand in the Winter of '73. The focus then was on self-help psychology, consciousness, and eastern and western mystical perspectives. This continued through my university studies in Norman, OK '74-'79. 1980 took me into naturopathic studies, primarily nutrition and herbology when I lived in Oklahoma City. Not seeing the naturopathic doctor route as affordable at the time, I found direction via a five-evening massage course, Fall '83. That led to a six month professional practice, followed up with the training in Sante Fe, NM, '84-'85 (described in the next paragraph). Since then I have practiced massage and/or healing facilitation for others, initially in Santa Fe, NM (during/after my training), then San Louis Obispo, CA, and Seattle, WA. This includes exploring personal challenges and self-healing methodology. A session may include various energy work modalities, Body/Energy-Awareness based Preventative Health Maintenance Instruction, or only Reiki or relaxation work in total silence. A client chooses based on whatever stress, pain, or concerns are present at that session. A client may request a "Body Pattern Reading," as well as various massage/bodywork therapies, all of which techniques are listed & described in my brochure. Individual, program, and 3-6 week interval-based rates are available. My interests have primarily centered in three areas: 1) Body-Centered Psycho-Spiritual Process (as in "Hakomi" style of) counseling and bodywork, including as assessing an individual for the most efficient means of addressing connective tissue injury, short and long term, and the most efficient application of the results of that assessment (on physical and/or emotional levels); 2) in The Basic How's And Why's Of Psycho-Emotional Storage In The Body-Mind, and in the related fascia memory storage dynamics - referring to the technical aspects of neuro-physical interface between connective tissue, emotion, and the brain); 3) "Chalice-Bridging" style chakra balancing - based in the perspective that the chalice, far more than just a cup in this interpretation, is about the human embodiment of Spirit into the three "lower bodies" (mental, emotional, and physical) which compose the "Body-Mind". Which is also a "cauldron" for the balancing and integrating of Humanity with the Divine - individually and communally. My training includes over 1370 hours of classes and practicum, including with the New Mexico Academy of Massage and Advanced Healing Arts in Santa Fe, NM (1984-85), and with various accredited bodywork and therapy workshops (`86-present), as well as 100 hours training with the Alchemical Hypnotherapy Institute (1989), over 100+ hrs apprenticeship with healing practitioner Robert "Mitra" (`85-`86), and 150 hours apprenticeship with Silena Heron in Herbal Studies (`83-`84). For the detailed version my training, you may go to the latter half of my Reiki Therapy Practice Brochure. Which also includes (and relates context for) links to essays elaborating on aspects of imbalance and injury, assessment, and healing. ________________________________ Some Body-Mind Quotes From Chris BODY-MIND AWARENESS, at the core of preventive health awareness, is one of the most simple, efficacious, & cost-effective forms of HEALTH INSURANCE there can be. Hence, massage is far from just "a luxury item," and bodywork therapies can be indispensable for the healing of certain conditions. MUSCLES RELATE TO ATTACHMENTS - to what we use to take our stance, to hold our place, to perceive and respond to our environment, and to extend who we are and/or want to be. Or used to be (in too many cases, perhaps). That speaks not only to the body's condition and function, but to how it communicates awareness of where one is along one's path (of becoming who one truly is). THE BODY IS . . . among other amazing things, a unique communications system --intimately linked with one's TOTALITY. Establishing rapport with one's body can be a PATH to self realization. ONE OF MY DREAMS is a society where/in all children are taught how to feel/see/read their own body-mind communications such that preventive health maintenance eventually becomes second nature. And actually, for the most part, they would be encouraged to re-awaken and build upon what I believe to be a NATURAL INCLINATION - conscious self-healing and continuous expansion of awareness.