Rupert Sheldrake : morphogenetic resonance

[Ian Livingston]

> It seems Sheldrake is coming up with his own version of Jung's
> Collective Unconscious.  But his version seems really absurd:
>
> "The more people who learn a new skill, such as snowboarding, the
> easier it will be for others to learn it because of morphic resonance
> from previous snowboarders."
>
> Seems he thinks the Collecive Memory is instantly updated, as if all
> minds are linked by a psychic internet.  I can accept the concept of
> collective memory, but only as a function of evolution, a genetic
> process that is far from instantaneous.  As I've said before, in
> humans I would call it "instinct," something form over millions of
> years.
>

Actually it sounds from this little exchange, at any rate, more like
Sheldrake is building off Maturana and Varela's theory of autopoesis.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autopoiesis

And his morphogenetic resonance as a collective memory of sorts sounds
more like Buddhist karma than Jung's theory of the unconscious.


On Thu, Mar 29, 2012 at 8:17 AM, David Morris <fqmorris at gmail.com> wrote:
> It seems Sheldrake is coming up with his own version of Jung's
> Collective Unconscious.  But his version seems really absurd:
>
> "The more people who learn a new skill, such as snowboarding, the
> easier it will be for others to learn it because of morphic resonance
> from previous snowboarders."
>
> Seems he thinks the Collecive Memory is instantly updated, as if all
> minds are linked by a psychic internet.  I can accept the concept of
> collective memory, but only as a function of evolution, a genetic
> process that is far from instantaneous.  As I've said before, in
> humans I would call it "instinct," something form over millions of
> years.
>
> David Morris
>
> On Thu, Mar 29, 2012 at 9:32 AM, Matthew Cissell <macissell at yahoo.es> wrote:
>> From what little I have read, I am skeptical.
>> Mr. Sheldrake's new book "The Science Delusion: Freeing the Spirit of
>> Enquiry" was also covered in the April issue of the Fortean Times. FT quotes
>> him:  "The formation of habits depends on a process called morphic
>> resonance. Similar patterns of activity resonate across space and time with
>> subsequent patterns. This hypothesis applies to all self-reorganising
>> systems, including atoms, molecules, crystals, cells, plants, animals, and
>> animal societies. All draw upon a collective memory and in turn contribute
>> to it... A growing oak seedling follows the habits of growth and development
>> of previous oaks... The more people who learn a new skill, such as
>> snowboarding, the easier it will be for others to learn it because of
>> morphic resonance from previous snowboarders." Apparently, Sheldrake  thinks
>> memories are not located in the brain but rather outside of it. He also has
>> doubts about the speed of light as a constant.
>> Now, Sheldrake may be a Cambridge-trained biochemist with a PhD ,as the
>> article informs the reader, but does that qualify him to doubt universal
>> constants in physics?
>>
>>  Although I haven't read any of his books, the article brought out my
>> skeptical side. Of course, Sheldrake is not responsible for the article, but
>> it gives pause. The author of the article states that "any modern
>> research programmme is under a good deal of pressure to not produce
>> unexpected or unwanted results." This is simply not true, look at the
>> hullabaloo about the faster-than-light neutrinos. In fact scientists yearn
>> to find something unexpected since it will get them recognition.
>>
>> I appreciate what thinkers like Kuhn, Feyerabend and Latour have done to
>> shake up the way we think about science and the questions we ask of and
>> about it. However, it has helped a school of thought that says that science
>> is dogmatically constrained or, worse, that it is not open-minded, fair and
>> unbiased. This can in turn play into the hands of climate change doubters or
>> evolutionists.
>>
>> Sheldrake does sound like a nice fellow, but until he establishes "a
>> testable hypothesis with predictions and effects that could be falsified" he
>> only has my respectful disbelief.
>>
>> mc otis



-- 
"Less than any man have I  excuse for prejudice; and I feel for all
creeds the warm sympathy of one who has come to learn that even the
trust in reason is a precarious faith, and that we are all fragments
of darkness groping for the sun. I know no more about the ultimates
than the simplest urchin in the streets." -- Will Durant