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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 17: Fall 1981 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects What was, is, and shall be Rupert Sheldrake, an English plant physiologist, has written a new book entitled A New Science of Life; The Hypothesis of Formative Causation. In it, he revives and expands the theory of morphogenic fields. Basically, this theory states that existing organized structures, such as crystals and organisms, establish fields that shape the future organization of matter into similar crystals and organisms in a probabalistic way. In other words, once a specific crystal (or life form) is synthesized, it sets up a morphogenic field that will make it easier to synthesize further the same, or nearly the same, crystal (or ... form). To support his ideas, Sheldrake claims that it is common knowledge that a brand-new crystal form is difficult to synthesize at first but that further syntheses become easier and easier. The prevailing "scientific" explanation of this amazing fact is that fragments (seeds) of the initial synthesis are carried from lab to lab by humans and even the air! Morphogenic fields, however, explain such phenomena very nicely without postulating tiny crystal seeds in scientists' beards. Sheldrake then goes on to review McDougall's experiments in the 1920s in which trained rats from water mazes apparently passed their new knowledge on to their progeny. McDougall thought that he had proved the inheritance of acquired characteristics. Other biologists repeating his heretical experiments found that their first-generation rats solved the same water mazes ...
Terms matched: 2 - Score: 269 - 15 May 2017 - URL: /sf017/sf017p05.htm
... in the form of a unique, or at least very rare electronic state in the computer memory. Once this has been done, the time taken for the same pattern to be grown in subsequent attempts should become less and less. One of Sheldrake's major claims is that once a new crystal is synthesized it thereafter becomes easier and easier to resynthesize it -- due to the presence of morphogenic fields. But Varela and Letelier found that, even after 100 million crystallizations, no acceleration of the growing process was detectable. The authors conclude that either Sheldrake's hypothesis is falsified or that it does not apply to silicon chips. (Varela, Francisco, and Letelier, Juan C.; "Morphic Resonance in Silicon Chips," Skeptical Inquirer, 12:298, 1988. ... Comment. At least one other interpretation is possible: the particular "crystal" grown in the computer had actually been synthesized many times before by other computers within the range of morphogenic fields. From Science Frontiers #57, MAY-JUN 1988 . 1988-2000 William R. Corliss ...
Terms matched: 2 - Score: 181 - 15 May 2017 - URL: /sf057/sf057g17.htm
... .) Comment. We could add to Beloff's list of phenomena: UFOs, the Loch Ness monster, crop circles, cold fusion, infinite-dilution results, the fifth force, windshield pitting, ancient astronauts, and polywater, to name a few. We predict that the scientific community will not countenance these "violations" of natural order any more than it welcomed Sheldrake's morphogenic fields! From Science Frontiers #93, MAY-JUN 1994 . 1994-2000 William R. Corliss ...
Terms matched: 2 - Score: 143 - 15 May 2017 - URL: /sf093/sf093p15.htm
... results support the conclusion that acquired behaviors can be transferred between animals by transferring brain DNA, and further suggest that the transfer effect is dependent upon and specific to the learning of the donors." (Oden, Brett B., et al; "Interanimal Transfer of Learned Behavior through Injection of Brain RNA," Psychological Record, 32:281, 1982.) Comment. Of course, morphogenic fields, as described in R. Sheldrake's A New Science of Life, could also explain this effect. From Science Frontiers #25, JAN-FEB 1983 . 1983-2000 William R. Corliss ...
Terms matched: 2 - Score: 141 - 15 May 2017 - URL: /sf025/sf025p05.htm
... system would detect great external stresses, the brain would process the information, and direct some astute genetic shuffling. The genetic inheritance of an organism is not sacrosanct. Radiation, chemicals, and various others mutagens are recognized. There seems to be no a priori reason why the brainbody combination cannot generate mutagens -- possibly not randomly but intelligently! (We ignore here selfish DNA and Sheldrake's morphogenic fields.) Does this mean that if we wish to mutate, we can? Well, it's probably not as simple as wishing warts away, but Maddox's editorial underscores the complexity and subtlety of the brain-body combination. From Science Frontiers #35, SEP-OCT 1984 . 1984-2000 William R. Corliss ...
Terms matched: 2 - Score: 141 - 15 May 2017 - URL: /sf035/sf035p20.htm
