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A morphogenetic field (a subset of morphic field) is a hypothetical biological (and potentially social) field that contains the information necessary to shape the exact form of a living thing, as part of its epigenetics, and may also shape its behaviour and coordination with other beings (see also morphogenesis). This hypothesis is not accepted by some scientists, who consider it pseudoscientific.^{[1] [2]} Wikipedia does not have an article with this exact name. ... A morphic field (a term introduced by Rupert Sheldrake, the major proponent of this concept, through his Hypothesis of Formative Causation) is described as consisting of patterns that govern the development of forms, structures and arrangements. ... A morphic field (a term introduced by Rupert Sheldrake, the major proponent of this concept, through his Hypothesis of Formative Causation) is described as consisting of patterns that govern the development of forms, structures and arrangements. ... Epigenetics is the study of reversible heritable changes in gene function that occur without a change in the sequence of nuclear DNA. It is also the study of the processes involved in the unfolding development of an organism. ... Morphogenesis is also the name of a band. ... Phrenology is regarded today as a classic example of pseudoscience. ...

Research background

British biologist Rupert Sheldrake posited a theory of morphogenetic fields that has become well-known for the criticism and skepticism directed towards it by some prominent members of the scientific community. Rupert Sheldrake Dr. Rupert Sheldrake, born 28th June 1942 [1] is a British biologist and author. ...

Sheldrake trained as a plant physiologist and became interested in the way that living things took on their form. In particular, he was interested in how what began as a single cell that split into identical copies eventually changed to take on specific characteristics such as leaves or stems in a plant.

At the time of his research in the late 1960s and 1970s, the mechanisms for such development were unclear. In the 1920s, embryo regeneration and the ability of willow shoots to grow whole new trees implied to some researchers the possibility of some influencing field. The later discovery of DNA appeared at first to offer a clearer explanation, but since the DNA remains largely identical throughout an organism, it was thought that DNA could not explain form. Subsequent research revealed that DNA controls the form of a creature through the complex mechanism of cellular differentiation. The general structure of a section of DNA Deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) is a nucleic acid that contains the genetic instructions for the biological development of a cellular form of life or a virus. ... Embryonic stem cells differentiate into cells in various body organs. ...

Sheldrake observed:

"The instructors [at university] said that all morphogenesis is genetically programmed. They said different species just follow the instruction in their genes. But a few moments' reflection show that this reply is inadequate. All the cells of the body contain the same genes. In your body, the same genetic program is present in your eye cells, liver cells and the cells in your arms. The ones in your legs. But if they are all programmed identically, how do they develop so differently?"

Sheldrake then became interested in "holistic" ideas after reading Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's works on the topic. He developed a theory to explain this problem of morphology, with its basic concept relying on a universal field encoding the "basic pattern" of an object. He termed it the "morphogenetic field". Holism (from holon, a Greek word meaning entity) is the idea that the properties of a system cannot be determined or explained by the sum of its components alone. ... Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. ...

The morphogenetic field would provide a force that guided the development of an organism as it grew, making it take on a form similar to that of others in its species. DNA was not the source of structure itself, but rather a "receiver" that translated instructions in the field into physical form.

A feedback mechanism, morphic resonance, would lead to changes in this pattern, as well as explain why humans did not "pick up" the pattern of plants during development. In Sheldrake's theory, the existence of a form is itself sufficient to make it easier for that form to come to exist somewhere else.

Evidence

Sheldrake first published his ideas in 1973, offering several examples as evidence in support.

One was the research of Harvard University researcher William McDougall, who, in the 1920s, studied the abilities of rats to correctly solve mazes. He found that the offspring of rats that had learned the maze were able to run it faster. The first rats would get it wrong 165 times before being able to run it perfectly each time, but after a few generations it was down to 20. McDougall attributed this to some sort of Lamarckian evolutionary process. An alternative explanation, however, involved the rats following the scent left behind by their predecessors. Harvard University (incorporated as The President and Fellows of Harvard College) is a private university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. ... There have been several people called William McDougall For the Canadian politician, see William McDougall (politician) For the British psychologist, see William McDougall (psychologist) This is a disambiguation page — a navigational aid which lists other pages that might otherwise share the same title. ... Species 50 species; see text *Several subfamilies of Muroids include animals called rats. ... Lamarckism is a term used for Lamarckian evolution, a theory put forward by the French biologist Jean-Baptiste Pierre Antoine de Monet, Chevalier de Lamarck, based on heritability of acquired characteristics, the once widely accepted idea that an organism can acquire characteristics during its lifetime and pass them on to...

Sheldrake attributed this process to morphogenetic fields. The rats running the maze the first times built their pattern of learning into the "rat field", and later rats were able to draw on this now-established pattern. Several examples of this sort of "universal learning" were offered.

Another piece of evidence came from pure chemistry, where another unexplained "learning behaviour" takes place during the formation of crystals. When a new chemical compound is first created it will crystallize slowly, but when other researchers repeat the experiment they find it occurs more quickly. Chemists hypothesize that this is due to better experiments — the parts of the first experiment that result in slower growth are documented and not repeated. If this is correct, using documented processes should consistently result in slower crystal growth; however, this hypothesis does not appear to have been tested. Sheldrake also attributed this to a morphogenetic field, suggesting that the crystals being formed for the first time were influencing a field that later crystals drew on. Chemistry (from Greek χημεία khemeia meaning alchemy, see below for possible origins of this word) is the science of matter at the atomic to molecular scale, dealing primarily with collections of atoms (such as molecules, crystals, and metals). ... Quartz crystal In chemistry and mineralogy, a crystal is a solid in which the constituent atoms, molecules, or ions are packed in a regularly ordered, repeating pattern extending in all three spatial dimensions. ...

Although Sheldrake had talked about the theory in the 1970s and had become somewhat well known, the "big release" occurred when the theory was presented in book form in 1981 in A New Science of Life. Interestingly the book does not provide any examples from the problem that actually led Sheldrake to the theory in the first place: the theory was offered as an explanation of plant and animal development, but no actual direct evidence along these lines was offered. In addition, the scope of the theory was expanded, with Sheldrake claiming that all of physics might operate along the same lines. In this view, nature may be not a set of laws, but rather of habits.

Critical reception

The reception of many scientists to Sheldrake's theories was negative. "Theories of everything" are generally greeted with skepticism, particularly if they are written in layman's language and not published in peer-reviewed journals, and even more so if the author claims insight into fields that they have no direct experience in. A New Science of Life was all three, and thus generally dismissed out of hand. Sheldrake seems to have become increasingly disenchanted with the science world's reaction. On his website, he dismisses it all as a closed-minded bureaucracy.

Sheldrake's theories, however, became popular in the new age field, where it attracted attention; chiefly due to its view of the "connectedness" of the world, as well as his being an example of a "real scientist" whose theories were being dismissed by the scientific establishment. In 1988 he followed up his earlier book with The Presence of the Past: A Field Theory of Life. New Age describes a broad movement characterized by alternative approaches to traditional Western culture. ...

Since then, Sheldrake has drifted away from his work on the morphogenetic field. Although he still considers it the basis of his work, more recent publications have had little directly to do with it.

Continuing experiments

As he moved away from interest in mainstream institutions, he proposed a list of Seven Experiments That Could Change the World (1994), which included, among other things, the seed of his study of Dogs that Know When Their Owners are Coming Home (1999). Seven Experiments That Could Change the World is the name of a book by Rupert Sheldrake. ...

In 2003 he published The Sense of Being Stared At, about a sense reported widely by a great many people. This included an experiment where people were blindfolded and having other people behind them either stare at them or at another target; the object beings stared at determined randomly. A loud click would cue the subject to declare if he was being stared at or not. Sheldrake claimed that if the guess was wrong and the subject was told that, they would subsequently get it wrong less often.

Sheldrake reported that, in over tens of thousands of trials, the scores were consistently above chance (60%) when the subject was being stared at, but only 50% (random chance) when the subject was not being stared at. This suggested a weak sense of being stared at but no sense of not being stared at. Sheldrake claims that these experiments have been very widely repeated, in schools in Connecticut and Toronto and a science museum in Amsterdam, with consistent results. Skeptics doubt his results and attribute the results to bad randomization during the experiments [1], despite the fact that these same results occur under pure random number generation (coin flipping) as well as many other randomization schemes[2]. This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... Amsterdam Location Flag Country Netherlands Province North Holland Population 743,905 (1 April 2006) Demonym Amsterdammer Coordinates Website www. ...

Sheldrake maintains that this skepticism is due, not to problems with the work, but instead to the preconceptions of the scientists that hold them. His approach to the scientific method, based on Darwin's careful observations, took him further away from molecular biology and the focus on gene, enzyme, protein and cell functions. This, he says, is a challenge to the mechanistic paradigm that views biology as a function of chemistry and physics—part of 19th century materialism that has led to genetic engineering and to biotechnology in general, but away from an account of consciousness, which the field theories are seeking. Scientific method is a body of techniques for investigating phenomena and acquiring new knowledge, as well as for correcting and integrating previous knowledge. ... Charles Robert Darwin FRS (12 February 1809 – 19 April 1882) was an English naturalist who achieved lasting fame by producing considerable evidence that species originated through evolutionary change, at the same time proposing the scientific theory that natural selection is the mechanism by which such change occurs. ... Molecular biology is the study of biology at a molecular level. ... This stylistic schematic diagram shows a gene in relation to the double helix structure of DNA and to a chromosome (right). ... Ribbon diagram of the enzyme TIM, surrounded by the space-filling model of the protein. ... A representation of the 3D structure of myoglobin, showing coloured alpha helices. ... Cells in culture, stained for keratin (red) and DNA (green). ... Chemistry (from Greek χημεία khemeia meaning alchemy, see below for possible origins of this word) is the science of matter at the atomic to molecular scale, dealing primarily with collections of atoms (such as molecules, crystals, and metals). ... The first few hydrogen atom electron orbitals shown as cross-sections with color-coded probability density. ... Alternative meaning: Nineteenth Century (periodical) (18th century — 19th century — 20th century — more centuries) As a means of recording the passage of time, the 19th century was that century which lasted from 1801-1900 in the sense of the Gregorian calendar. ... In philosophy, materialism is that form of physicalism which holds that the only thing that can truly be said to exist is matter; that fundamentally, all things are composed of material and all phenomena are the result of material interactions. ... An iconic image of genetic engineering; this autoluminograph from 1986 of a glowing transgenic tobacco plant bearing the luciferase gene of the firefly, illustrating the possibilities of genetic engineering. ... The structure of insulin Biotechnology is a technology based on biology, especially when used in agriculture, food science, and medicine. ... Consciousness is a quality of the mind generally regarded to comprise qualities such as subjectivity, self-awareness, sentience, sapience, and the ability to perceive the relationship between oneself and ones environment. ...

His critics reply, however, that their skepticism is based on the lack of good experimental evidence. They also claim that, since Sheldrake first proposed his theories in the 1970s, tremendous strides have been taken in understanding how form arises from genetic material.

Notes

A digital object identifier (or DOI) is a permanent identifier (permalink) given to a World Wide Web file or other Internet document so that if its Internet address changes, users will be redirected to its new address. ...

Use in fiction

Fictional works that use morphogenetic fields or morphic resonance:

• Terry Pratchett's Discworld.
• Grant Morrison's Animal Man.
• Will Clarke's Lord Vishnu's Love Handles.
• George Turner's Genetic Soldier.
• Brian K. Vaughan's Y: The Last Man.
• The Doctor Who audio play Scaredy Cat.

This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... Diskworld, spelled with a k, was a disk magazine for the Apple Macintosh, later renamed Softdisk for Mac. ... Grant Morrison (born January 31, 1960, Glasgow) is a Scottish comic book writer and artist. ... Animal Man is a fictional superhero in the DC Universe. ... Will Clarke is the author of Lord Vishnus Love Handles: A Spy Novel (sort of) and The Worthy: A Ghosts Story. ... George Turner could be George Turner the United Kingdom politician George Turner the United States politician George Turner the Australian politician George Turner the science fiction writer This is a disambiguation page — a navigational aid which lists other pages that might otherwise share the same title. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ... Y: The Last Man is a comic book series written by Brian K. Vaughan (Swamp Thing) and published by Vertigo. ... Doctor Who is a long-running British science fiction television programme produced by the BBC about a mysterious time-travelling adventurer known as The Doctor, who explores time and space with his companions, fighting evil. ... This is a list of audio plays based on the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who produced by Big Finish Productions. ... Scaredy Cat cover by Lee Binding. ...

See also

• Odic force
• Akashic Records
• Planes of existence
• L-field
• Biophoton

Also called Od [õd] and Odyle, Odic Force is the 19th century name given to a hypothetical vital energy or life force that proponents say permeates all living plants, animals, and humans. ... The Akashic Records (Akasha is a Sanskrit word meaning sky, space or aether) are said to be a collection of mystical knowledge that is stored in the aether; i. ... In metaphysics and esoteric cosmology, a plane of existence (sometimes called simply a plane, dimension, vibrating plane, or an inner, invisible, spiritual, supraphysical world, or egg) is conceived as a subtle region of space (and/or consciousness) beyond, but permeating, the known physical universe (or a portion of the physical... The L-field is an alleged common phenomenon of all life, which can be detected by standard voltmeters. ... A biophoton (from the Greek βιο meaning life and φωτο meaning light) is a photon of light emitted in some fashion from a biological system. ...

References

• Shermer, Michael. "Rupert's Resonance". Scientific American, Nov. 2005, p. 19.
• Freeman, Anthony (editor). Sheldrake and his Critics: The Sense Of Being Glared At, Journal of Consciousness Studies, vol. 12, no. 6 (June 2005).

Scientific American is a popular-science magazine, published monthly since August 28, 1845, making it the oldest continuously published magazine in the United States. ...

External links

• Rupert Sheldrake (Homepage)
• Co-Intelligence Website: More on Morphogenetic Fields
• Sheldrake introduces 'The Extended Mind: Recent Experimental Evidence' (Video at Microsoft Research)
• "morphic resonance" The Skeptic's Dictionary article on Morphic resonance.
• Rupert Sheldrake: The delightful crackpot - November 1999 article in Salon magazine