Morphic field
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Morphic field is a term introduced by British scientist Rupert Sheldrake, the major proponent of this concept, through his Hypothesis of Formative Causation in the early 1980s. It is described as consisting of patterns that govern the development of forms, structures and arrangements.
Sheldrake's concept has little support in the mainstream scientific community. Members of the scientific community consider Sheldrake's concept to be unfalsifiable and therefore scientifically faulty. Thus outside the scope of main stream science, the concept Morphic field falls into the realm of pseudoscience.[1][2][3]
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[edit] Morphic field
Sheldrake proposes that there is a field within and around a morphic unit which organizes its characteristic structure and pattern of activity.[4]
According to this concept, the morphic field underlies the formation and behaviour of holons and morphic units, and can be set up by the repetition of similar acts or thoughts. The hypothesis says that a particular form belonging to a certain group which has already established its (collective) morphic field, will tune into that morphic field. The particular form will read the collective information through the process of morphic resonance, using it to guide its own development. This development of the particular form will then provide, again through morphic resonance, a feedback to the morphic field of that group, thus strengthening it with its own experience resulting in new information being added (i.e. stored in the database). Sheldrake regards the morphic fields as a universal database for both organic (living) and abstract (mental) forms.
That a mode of transmission of shared informational patterns and archetypes might exist did gain some tacit acceptance, when it was proposed as the theory of collective unconscious by renowned psychiatrist Carl Jung. According to Sheldrake, the theory of morphic fields might provide an explanation for Jung's concept as well. Also, he agrees that the concept of Akashic Records, term from Vedas representing the "library" of all the experiences and memories of human minds (souls) through their physical lifetime, can be related to morphic fields,[5] since one's past (an Akashic Record) is a mental form, consisting of thoughts as simpler mental forms (all processed by the same brain), and a group of similar or related mental forms also have their associated (collective) morphic field. (Sheldrake’s view on memory-traces is that they are “non-local”, and not located in the brain.)[6]
[edit] Morphic resonance
Essential to Sheldrake's model is the hypothesis of morphic resonance. This is a feedback mechanism between the field and the corresponding forms of morphic units. The greater the degree of similarity, the greater the resonance, leading to habituation or persistence of particular forms. So, the existence of a morphic field makes the existence of a new similar form easier.
Sheldrake proposes that the process of morphic resonance leads to stable morphic fields, which are significantly easier to tune into. He suggests that this is the means by which simpler organic forms synergetically self-organize into more complex ones, and that this model allows a different explanation for the process of evolution itself, as an addition to the Darwin's evolutionary processes of selection and variation.
[edit] Morphogenetic field
- For the mainstream developmental biology concept, see Morphogenetic field.
Morphogenetic fields are defined by Sheldrake as the subset of morphic fields which influence, and are influenced by living things.
The term [morphic fields] is more general in its meaning than morphogenetic fields, and includes other kinds of organizing fields in addition to those of morphogenesis; the organizing fields of animal and human behaviour, of social and cultural systems, and of mental activity can all be regarded as morphic fields which contain an inherent memory.—Rupert Sheldrake, The Presence of the Past (Chapter 6, page 112)
Morphogenetic fields are said to contain the information necessary to shape the exact form of a living thing and may also shape its behaviour and coordination with other beings.[citation needed] The term morphogenetic field has also been used in a different sense by mainstream developmental biologists, as regions within a developing embryo that will subsequently develop into particular structures or organs. Since the 1920s, mainstream biology has used the term morphogenetic field to mean "that collection of cells by whose interactions a particular organ formed". This usage is distinct from Sheldrake's in that nothing external to the cells themselves is implicated.[7] Sheldrake admits that biologists use the term "morphic field" as a heuristic device, which is conceptually distinct from his own use of the term. He says that most biologists regard morphogenetic fields as "a way of thinking about morphogenesis rather than something that really exists".[8]
[edit] Scientific reception
The only published responses by the scientific community to Sheldrake's theory of "morphic fields" have been critical. John Maddox, editor of Nature wrote : "Sheldrake's argument is an exercise in pseudo-science. — Many readers will be left with the impression that Sheldrake has succeeded in finding a place for magic within scientific discussion — and this, indeed, may have been a part of the objective of writing such a book.".[1][2]
[edit] Rose's critique
Morphic resonance predicts that memories of one generation are automatically passed on to the next generation or to other conspecifics. A neuroscientist and memory expert, Steven Rose, has been critical of this view. A major reason for the the criticism is that Rose does not feel there to be any anomalous phenomena which require the theory of morphic resonance as an explanation. Rose suggested an experiment to resolve the matter. In Rose's opinion the resulting study, done in collaboration with Sheldrake, disproved morphic resonance,[9] but Sheldrake has challenged this.[10]
[edit] Popular reception
The concept of morphic fields has become popular with the new age thinkers.[who?] The concept has attracted speculation from neurolinguistic programming, as an explanation for action at a distance.[11] Sheldrake's book The Presence of the Past: A Field Theory of Life was positively reviewed by spiritually oriented philosophers,[who?] theoreticians,[who?] and the physicist Amit Goswami, who relates them to his own views.[12]
[edit] See also
[edit] Notes
- ^ a b "A book for burning?". Nature 293 (5830): 245–246. 24 September 1981. doi:. Online quote
- ^ a b L'Imposture Scientifique en Dix Lecons, "Pseudoscience in Ten Lessons.", By Michel de Pracontal. Editions La Decouverte, Paris, 2001. ISBN 2-7071-3293-4.
- ^ Sheldrake, Rupert; Stanislav Grof, Editor (1984). Morphic Resonance. seventh Conference of the International Transpersonal Association, Bombay: SUNY Press, Albany. pp. 154–156. ISBN 0-87395-848-9.
- ^ Glossary at www.sheldrake.org, accessed 18 Aug 2007
- ^ Sheldrake, Rupert (1988) The Presence of the Past, Chapter 17
- ^ http://www.theosophy-nw.org/theosnw/science/prat-shl.htm
- ^ Gilbert, Scott (1997), The "Re-discovery" of Morphogenetic Fields, http://8e.devbio.com/article.php?ch=3&id=18, retrieved 2007-03-03
- ^ Sheldrake, Rupert; Stanislav Grof, Editor (1984). Morphic Resonance. seventh Conference of the International Transpersonal Association, Bombay: SUNY Press, Albany. p. 155. ISBN 0-87395-848-9.
- ^ So-called "formative causation" - A hypothesis disconfirmed, Response to Rupert Sheldrake Rivista di Biologia - Biology Forum 85 (3/4), 1992, 445-453; Steven Rose
- ^ An experimental test of the hypothesis of formative causation, Rivista di Biologia - Biology Forum 86 (3/4), 1992, 431-44; 86 (3/4), 431-44, (1992), Rupert Sheldrake
- ^ "It has been speculated that this level of processing and change influences our environment and ourselves through what Rupert Sheldrake termed 'morphogentic fields.'" Dilts R, DeLozier J (2000). "Encyclopedia of Systemic NLP and NLP New Coding". http://www.nlpuniversitypress.com/html2/N34.html. Retrieved 2007-08-16.
- ^ Goswami, Amit (2002). The Physicists' View of Nature: The Quantum Revolution: Pt. 2. Kluwer Academic / Plenum Publishers. pp. 277–289. ISBN 978-0306465093.
[edit] 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).
- Sheldrake, Rupert (1995). Nature As Alive: Morphic Resonance and Collective Memory. Source: [1] (Accessed: Thursday, 1 March 2007)
