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Morphogenetic Fields
There is mounting evidence that as more and more people learn or do something it becomes easier for others to learn or do it. In one experiment, British biologist Rupert Sheldrake took three short, similar Japanese rhymes -- one a meaningless jumble of disconnected Japanese words, the second a newly-composed verse and the third a traditional rhyme known by millions of Japanese. Neither Sheldrake nor the English schoolchildren he got to memorize these verses knew which was which, nor did they know any Japanese. The most easily-learned rhyme turned out to be the one well-known to Japanese. This and other experiments led Sheldrake to postulate that there is a field of habitual patterns that links all people, which influences and is influenced by the habits of all people. This field contains (among other things) the pattern of that Japanese rhyme. The more people have a habit pattern -- whether of knowledge, perception or behavior -- the stronger it is in the field, and the more easily it replicates in a new person. In fact, it seems such fields exist for other entities too -- for birds, plants, even crystals. Sheldrake named these phenomena morphogenetic fields -- fields which influence the pattern or form of things.
Resources
Books
Rupert Sheldrake, A New Science of Life (Tarcher, 1981) and The Presence of the Past (Times Books, 1988)
Morphogenetic Fields
There is mounting evidence that as more and more people learn or do something it becomes easier for others to learn or do it. In one experiment, British biologist Rupert Sheldrake took three short, similar Japanese rhymes -- one a meaningless jumble of disconnected Japanese words, the second a newly-composed verse and the third a traditional rhyme known by millions of Japanese. Neither Sheldrake nor the English schoolchildren he got to memorize these verses knew which was which, nor did they know any Japanese. The most easily-learned rhyme turned out to be the one well-known to Japanese. This and other experiments led Sheldrake to postulate that there is a field of habitual patterns that links all people, which influences and is influenced by the habits of all people. This field contains (among other things) the pattern of that Japanese rhyme. The more people have a habit pattern -- whether of knowledge, perception or behavior -- the stronger it is in the field, and the more easily it replicates in a new person. In fact, it seems such fields exist for other entities too -- for birds, plants, even crystals. Sheldrake named these phenomena morphogenetic fields -- fields which influence the pattern or form of things.
Resources
Books
Rupert Sheldrake, A New Science of Life (Tarcher, 1981) and The Presence of the Past (Times Books, 1988)
Morphogenetic Fields
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