Navigating Consciousness with Rupert Sheldrake

Most people have had the experience of waking soon before an alarm clock goes off and some can even wake before a specified time without an alarm. The usual assumption is that this depends on an exquisitely sensitive time sense, but Rupert argues that it may be explained better in terms of presentiment, or ‘feeling the future’, or even in terms of an ‘extended present’. We already know that our sense of the present is not a mathematical instant, but has width, and perhaps it widens over ranges of seconds to include portions of the near future, Presentiment is now a well-established phenomenon in laboratory experiments, carried out at the Institute of Noetic Sciences, Cornell University and elsewhere, and may be widely distributed among people and non-human animals. It could play an important part in everyday life, and become especially significant in fast-moving sports like downhill skiing, tennis and ping pong. Some people may make use of this ability in day trading where they make decisions on movements of the markets over very short time periods, sometimes only a few seconds. Rupert discusses how this ability could potentially be trained, enabling airline pilots and racing drivers to be better prepared for potential accidents, and helping some people to get rich quick – as some day traders already have – by using intuitive abilities that cannot be duplicated by computers. References ____ An Experiment with Time by John William Dunne https://archive.org/details/AnExperimentWithTimeEbook ____ Listen to the Animals: Why did so many animals escape December's tsunami? https://www.sheldrake.org/tsunami ____ Predicting the unpredictable; evidence of pre-seismic anticipatory behaviour in the common toad https://www.sheldrake.org/toads ____ Dogs That Know When Their Owners Are Coming Home https://www.sheldrake.org/dogs ____ Unconscious Perception of Future Emotions: An Experiment in Presentiment by Dean Radin, Journal of Scientific Exploration, Vol. 11, No. 2, pp. 163-180, 1997 https://www.sheldrake.org/RadinPresentiment

March 18th, 2024 University College London Expeditions and Fieldwork Society In this talk given Rupert Sheldrake explores the allure of expeditions and fieldwork, delving into his own adventures exploring Mayan ruins in Mexico and studying tropical plants in Malaysia. Throughout the talk he illustrates how these experiences broadened his scientific and spiritual horizons, connecting this intrinsic human curiosity to our ancestral hunter-gatherer roots.

TEDx Whitechapel, Jan 12, 2013 The theme for the night was Visions for Transition: Challenging existing paradigms and redefining values (for a more beautiful world). In response to protests from two hardcore materialists in the US, the talk was taken out of circulation by TED, relegated to a corner of their website and stamped with a warning label. Room for discussion was made, but those who condemned the talk never showed up. The vast majority of those who spoke out were outraged, including those who'd never heard of morphic resonance. Ironically, at the time of removal the video had a modest 35,000 views on YouTube; since then, its clones have been watched over 7 million times. The video has been translated into 24 languages by generous members of the YouTube community. Read more: https://www.sheldrake.org/ted

Modelled on the BBC radio series, this long-standing local programme was produced live by a group in Hampstead, London, in 2023. As the castaway on a theoretical desert island, Rupert could bring with him eight pieces of music (listed below), a few books, and one luxury item. 1:07 If you had not been a scientist what would you have been? 2:27 Getting to the island 4:47 Bach, Mass in B minor (Gloria) 7:25 Purcell, Music for a While 16:47 Monteverdi, Madrigal 24:33 Beatles, Because 36:41 Subbulakshi, Devotional Song 45:07 Mozart, Laudate Dominum 54:55 Cosmo Sheldrake, Solar Walz 1:03:19 Tallis, Salvator Mundi, Hampstead Parish Church Choir Some music was cut for copyright reasons, or poor audio quality. Here's the playlist on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLQNvVzO_W4EzTopdM6ZxrrYBQoIvhxNGe

A lecture for the Psychedelic Research Society at the University of Sussex, Nov 6th, 2023. https://www.facebook.com/sussex.uni.psychesociety/

This was recorded at the Beyond the Brain 2023 conference, by The Scientific and Medical Network: https://scientificandmedical.net/ Video is also available here: https://youtu.be/KyNgE6RsGnw Iain McGilchrist and Rupert Sheldrake delve into a spectrum of profound subjects, touching upon the essential role of spirituality in human endeavors, the revitalization of spiritual practices, and the fundamental structure of the cosmos. They discuss panpsychism's implications for the interconnection of consciousness and matter, the enduring nature of memory, the archetypal forms that underpin our reality, and the subtle energy fields that animate existence. The conversation also navigates the terrain of values and the purpose they serve in our lives.

Episode 4 of the online course How To Transform the Sciences: Six Potential Breakthroughs https://www.sheldrake.org/online-courses Around 2015, scientists were shocked to find that most papers in high-prestige peer-reviewed scientific journals are not reproducible. In one study of papers in prestigious biomedical journals, 90% could not be replicated, and in experimental psychology more than 60%. This crisis partly arises from systematic biases that Rupert discusses in his chapter on ‘Illusions of Objectivity’ in The Science Delusion (2012, new edition 2020; in the US this book is called Science Set Free), including the selective observation and reporting of results, and perverse incentives for scientists and journals to publish striking positive findings. The crisis continues to roll on, as shown, for example, by an editorial in Nature, December 2021, about un-reproducible results in cancer biology. All this is relatively straightforward, but Rupert suggests that some experiments may also involve direct mind-over-matter effects. It has long been known that experimenters can influence their experimental results through their expectations, in so-called ‘experimenter expectancy effects’, which is why many clinical trials, psychological and parapsychological experiments are carried out under blind or double-blind conditions. In most other fields of science, experimenter effects are ignored and blind methodologies are rarely employed. Rupert suggests that in addition to the usual sources of bias, experimenters may also influence experiments psychokinetically, through direct mind-over-matter effects. Scientists may be particularly prone to this source of error because most scientists believe psychokinesis is impossible, and hence take no precautions against it. They practise unprotected science. Rupert proposes experiments on experiments to test for the effects of experimenters’ hopes and expectations. References References ____ A Dream, or the Astronomy of the Moon Johann Kepler, published posthumously in 1634 by his son https://sheldrake.org/somnium ____ Rupert's essay The Replicability Crisis in Science https://sheldrake.org/replicability ____ Bad Pharma Ben GoldacreFourth Estate, 2012 https://sheldrake.org/badpharma ____ Artifacts in Behavioral Research Robert Rosenthal and Ralph L. Rosnow, Oxford University Press, 2009 https://sheldrake.org/rosenthal ____ Over half of psychology studies fail reproducibility test https://www.nature.com/articles/nature.2015.18248 ____ Differential indoctrination of examiners and Rorschach responses https://psycnet.apa.org/record/1965-12396-001 ____ A longitudinal study of the effects of experimenter bias on the operant learning of laboratory rats https://psycnet.apa.org/record/1965-01547-001 ____ Could Experimenter Effects Occur in the Physical and Biological Sciences? Skeptical Inquirer 22(3), 57-58 May / June 1998 https://sheldrake.org/skepticalinquirer98 ____ Quantum‐Mechanical Random‐Number Generator https://aip.scitation.org/doi/abs/10.1063/1.1658698 ------ Dr Rupert Sheldrake, PhD, is a biologist and author best known for his hypothesis of morphic resonance. At Cambridge University, as a Fellow of Clare College, he was Director of Studies in biochemistry and cell biology. As the Rosenheim Research Fellow of the Royal Society, he carried out research on the development of plants and the ageing of cells, and together with Philip Rubery discovered the mechanism of polar auxin transport. In India, he was Principal Plant Physiologist at the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics, where he helped develop new cropping systems now widely used by farmers. He is the author of more than 100 papers in peer-reviewed journals and his research contributions have been widely recognized by the

Esalen, California, 1992. A cultural history of utopianism. Surges of utopian renewal. The trinitarian utopian model. Are the utopian and millenarian movements tendencies of the European mind in reaction to Christianity? Millenarians are dominated by the apocalyptic idea. How have these trends influenced the trialoguers? The Marxist utopian model. Scientific utopianism. Liberal political utopianism. New age and psychedelic utopianism. A mathematical utopia. 2012 - the end of history? What is the connection between the Archaic Revival and the Timewave? Is millenarianism an anti-progressive force? Origins and end-points. Utopianism is reasonable if we can change our minds. Our role as care-takers of the world. Is time speeding up? A fractal model of time. A model of history that shows catastrophic transformations to new equilibria. Self-fulfilling prophecies. Does the Omega Point concern the entire cosmos or is it limited to human destiny on earth? A vision of a world revived through animism, mathematical vision, stellar communication and psychedelics. Questions and answers: Large scale vacuum fluctuation. The birth of universe. Life after death. Ralph considers new forms of trialoguing and teaching the trialogue idea. Related Book Chapter 10 of The Evolutionary Mind https://sheldrake.org/books-by-rupert-sheldrake/the-evolutionary-mind

A seminar at Cambridge University, June 2023

Hazelwood, Devon, England, June 1993 Ralph tells a fractal story and explains how fractal models can illuminate our understanding of the world. Applying fractals to individual psychology.. The need for chaos and disorder in the personality. Multiple personality 'dischaos'. A 'sandy beach' model of the mind. Therapeutic strategies to increase chaos. The need to restore pantheism. A mathematical model for monogamy. Order and chaos must be balanced. Multiple attractors at the end of time. A polytheistic psychology. The unity within polytheistic systems.. Cultures and individuals need fractal rather than rigid boundaries. A fractal cosmos. The mystery of the Holy Trinity. The loss of unity through rigid boundaries. How can we fractalize our boundaries and create unity? Psychedelics, meditation, travel, tantra and chanting. Returning to the pre-verbal mode of expression. What about people whose boundaries are too low already? The cure to boundary anxiety can be found within. Is there any culture that has managed to avoid 'dischaos'? Questions and answers: The Aristotelian perspective of modern science needs to be balanced by the Platonic. Maths anxiety. Chaos is a kind of order and vice versa. Jung's deconstruction of Yahweh. The sacred trinity of the goddess. Recovering the aboriginal state of consciousness. Cultural taboos. Related Book Chapter 7 of The Evolutionary Mind https://sheldrake.org/books-by-rupert-sheldrake/the-evolutionary-mind

Esalen, California, 1992. The ancient view of the universe as alive. The anima mundi. The fall into the deterministic and mechanistic worldview. How this view is now being transcended. The recovery of the sense of the life of nature and of the heavens. Creativity and morphic resonance in nature. Resacralizing the earth through seasonal festivals and pilgrimage. Linking astronomy and astrology and resacralizing the heavens. Is the universe somehow conscious? Contacting celestial intelligences. Elizabethan star magic and the concept of the great chain of being. Are the contents of our imagination somehow real? Organismic philosophy and the re-infusion of spirit into nature. Re-animating the cosmos. The different levels of intelligence in the universe, and possible techniques for communicating with them. Channelling the stars. A synthesis of astrology and astronomy. Guiding intelligences. Questions and answers: The need to engage with the environment. Light and energy as a manifestation of spirit. Various ways to invoke stellar deities. Long barrows. The feeling of reverence for the heavens. The sky as teacher. The consciousness of the sun. Imagination as the source of creativity in nature. Renaissance magic. Related Book The Evolutionary Mind https://sheldrake.org/books-by-rupert-sheldrake/the-evolutionary-mind

1995, Esalen Institute The apocalyptic tradition: paranoid self-fulfilling prophecy or an intuition of instability? Stripping the provincialism from apocalyptic messages. Apocalyptic scenarios, including the 'God-whistle' theory. The ecological catastrophe as the appropriate interpretation of the Apocalypse. Steering the Apocalypse toward a tolerable conclusion. The power of faith. Big Bang cosmology as a projection of the Judaeo-Christian model of history. The fate of the sun. The projection of the Apocalypse in 2012. Ecological catastrophe and forces of novelty that may create planetary metamorphosis. Global crucifixion. The recovery of Eden. The personal apocalypse: a glimpse of post-mortal life. Interplanetary morphic resonance. The green version of the apocalyptic vision. Related Book Chaos, Creativity and Cosmic Consciousness https://sheldrake.org/books-by-rupert-sheldrake/chaos-creativity-and-cosmic-consciousness

The Scientific and Medical Network (SMN) is a worldwide professional community and membership organisation for open-minded, rigorous and evidence-based enquiry into themes bridging science, spirituality and consciousness. It promotes a cultural shift in our understanding of reality and human experience beyond the limits imposed by exclusively materialist and reductionist approaches. 2023 is the Network's 50th Golden Jubilee. https://scientificandmedical.net/

Hollyhock, 2008 Andrew Weil, MD, is a world-renowned pioneer in the field of integrative medicine, an approach to health care which encompasses body, mind, and spirit. Rupert and Andrew had a series of conversations over eight years at Hollyhock, on Cortes Island, BC, Canada. In this talk they discuss Rupert's stabbing in Santa Fe, epigenetics, the broken US healthcare system, fasting, laughter yoga, Dr Weil as a brand, and many other topics still relevant today.

Hollyhock, 2011 Andrew Weil, MD, is a world-renowned pioneer in the field of integrative medicine, an approach to health care which encompasses body, mind, and spirit. Rupert and Andrew had a series of conversations over eight years at Hollyhock, on Cortes Island, BC, Canada. In this talk they discuss the rise in gluten sensitivity and autism, amongst a variety of medical mysteries.

Part of an online course on potential scientific breakthroughs: https://www.sheldrake.org/online-courses In this talk Rupert discusses new ways in which the hypothesis of morphic resonance can be tested, including with holistic quantum systems like Bose-Einstein condensates, with new materials like high-temperature superconductors, through experiments on cellular adaptation to toxins and heat stress, in experiments on learning in non-human animals, including nematode worms and fruit flies, and with popular online puzzles like Wordle. The implications of these tests, if successful, would be very far reaching, and could lead to new understandings of physical phenomena like the melting points of crystals, which would depend on influences from previous similar crystals, rather than on timeless laws. In biology, morphic resonance from past organisms would play an essential role in heredity, in addition to genes and epigenetic modifications of gene expression. In humans, collective memory would facilitate learning and problem-solving, and morphic resonance would underlie what the psychologist Jung called ‘the collective unconscious’. _References_ Mind, Memory, and Archetype: Morphic Resonance and the Collective Unconscious https://sheldrake.org/memory Rat Learning and Morphic Resonance https://sheldrake.org/rats The Flynn effect https://james-flynn.net/ The Sound of a Hidden Order https://www.nature.com/articles/498041a A reprogrammable mechanical metamaterial with stable memory https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-020-03123-5 Evidence for unconventional superconductivity in twisted trilayer graphene https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-022-04715-z Antiferromagnetic half-skyrmions and bimerons at room temperature https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-021-03219-6 Conditioned aversion https://dictionary.apa.org/conditioned-aversion An Experimental Test of the Hypothesis of Formative Causation https://sheldrake.org/rose Steven Rose's 'A hypothesis disconfirmed' refuted by Rupert https://sheldrake.org/rose-refuted The Hill Effect as a Test for Morphic Resonance https://sheldrake.org/essays/the-hill-effect-as-a-test-for-morphic-resonance

Are disincarnate and non-human entities mental projections or non-physical, autonomous entities? What can we learn from them? Their variety and persistence in human history. Early modern science and angelic communication. The shamanic model. The aversion to the irrational in Christianity and science. The need to analyze the entities' messages. A mathematical model of body, soul and spirit. Entities as inhabitants of the spiritual domain of the logos. The evolution of their multifarious representations. The dogma of purgatory. Contacting these entities through dreams and psychedelics. The deepest layers of the faery tradition. Metaphors of light? Entities as artificers and their use of language. Is the world soul behind these entities? Corn circles. The call to prepare language for these encounters. Experiential contact with the celestial sphere. The humanist illusion of self-sufficiency, leading to societal possession. Mammon. A celestial battle on earth? Redirecting attention to the positive forms. The ultimate partnership - reconnecting the Gaian and celestial spheres to the human spirit. Where could the new alchemical kingdom be? From the book: Chaos, Creativity and Cosmic Consciousness first published as Trialogues at the Edge of the West, Chapter 6. https://sheldrake.org/books-by-rupert-sheldrake/chaos-creativity-and-cosmic-consciousness 0:00Terence 12:40Ralph 18:17Terence 20:55Ralph 23:20Terence 26:05Ralph 30:41Terence 31:22Rupert 35:10Terence 39:54Rupert ...

1995, Esalen Institute The idea of an attractor for the entire cosmic evolutionary process. The role of the attractor in chaos dynamics. Motivation and attraction. The value of spoken language. Mathematical modelling. The relationship between mathematical models with chaotic behaviour and the chaos in life. Idolatry and models becoming reality. The feminine aspect of creativity. Related Book Chaos, Creativity and Cosmic Consciousness https://sheldrake.org/books-by-rupert-sheldrake/chaos-creativity-and-cosmic-consciousness

1995, Esalen Institute The chaos revolution, chaotic attractors and indeterminism in nature. The emergence of form from the field of chaos. The formative process in cooling. Is the mathematical realm of the world soul in co-evolution with ordinary reality? The potential of mathematics to aid us in our own evolution by extending our language for dealing with complex systems. Visual intuitions and the Butterfly Effect. Related Book Chaos, Creativity and Cosmic Consciousness https://sheldrake.org/books-by-rupert-sheldrake/chaos-creativity-and-cosmic-consciousness

The second of a series of six talks on potential scientific breakthroughs: https://www.sheldrake.org/online-courses Rupert proposed a new hypothesis of cellular rejuvenation in an article in Nature in 1974, and in 2023 published a review article entitled ‘Cellular Senescence, Rejuvenation and Potential Immortality’ in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B, summarising results of recent research, which support his hypothesis. In this talk he gives an overview of this hypothesis, which applies to cells of all kinds, including bacteria and yeasts as well as plants and animals, and he shows how it sheds new light on the nature of stem cells. In mammals, embryonic stem cells have a special property that enables them to divide indefinitely without senescing and Rupert suggests that cancerous transformations involve the hijacking of this embryonic stem cell system. He suggests ways in which this hypothesis could be tested, and shows how it could lead to new approaches in cancer therapy – by blocking the rejuvenative system that cancers have acquired. If this system were inhibited, then cancer cells might senesce like most other somatic cells and become less virulent. References ____ Sheldrake, R. (1974). The ageing, growth and death of cells. Nature, 250, 381-385. https://www.sheldrake.org/ageing ____ Sheldrake, R. (2022) Cellular Senescence Rejuvenation and Potential Immortality. Proceeding of the Royal Society B, 289, 20212434 https://www.sheldrake.org/immortality ____ Nine open questions suggested by the cellular rejuvenation hypothesis, and ways of answering them empirically (Supplementary to the above paper in Proc. Royal Soc. B) https://rs.figshare.com/ndownloader/files/34255402