DOCSLIB.ORG

Relating to the Work of People, Places, Books and Papers

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Relating to the Work of People, Places, Books and Papers relating to the work of People, Places, Books and Papers : Ralph Abraham, PhD: Dr. Ralph Abraham, professor emeritus of mathematics at the University of California, Santa Cruz, has been a great inspiration to me. I met Ralph at a conference in 1991, and credit him with encouraging me to believe in myself enough to leave my job and strike out on my own, leading among other things to writing my evolutionary art system. I derive much of my fascination with computer models of dynamical systems from Ralph's writings and conversations with him. As he stated once: "When we see these computer generated spacetime patterns of chaotic cooperation on the computer screen, we recognize them. We have seen them in our dreams. We have seen them in our telescopes. We have seen them in our microscopes: the universal language of spacetime pattern, which is the subject of the mathematics of tomorrow." (emphasis added; see longer quotation in my statement of philosophy) Though my own efforts are a far cry from Ralph's supercomputer simulations, his comments resonate with my feelings about my own images, and the elements of deterministic chaos in some of them are indeed evocative of Ralph's spacetime patterns. Click here to jump to Ralph's homepage, or here for the Visual Math Institute homepage. Ralph's use of computer graphics to visualize dynamical systems (chaoscopes), writings on morphodynamics, and experiments with chymatics to study vibrations and rarefactions in fluid media suggest to me that it might be possible to construct an apparatus to function as a putative `archetype camera'. See also Sheldrake. Ruth G. Applegarth I cannot write these webpages without acknowledging my mother's influence and support. I have certainly benefited from Ruth's wide-ranging knowledge, including her personal remembrances of Aldous Huxley and Gerald Heard around mid- century, and a general Jungian outlook. Richard Dawkins, PhD. Dawkins' books on evolution have been very helpful to me in understanding some of the subtleties of Darwinian evolution. Dawkins also wrote the first computer software that caused virtual organisms to evolve under guided selection to produce line-drawing graphic figures (see The Blind Watchmaker). Karl Sims credits Richard Dawkins with some of his own inspiration. I was initially led to Dawkins' The Selfish Gene by a passage in Rupert Sheldrake's The Presence of the Past, quoting Dawkins' introduction of the term meme. Since then memes have become a popular concept, and I see visual memes replicating throughout the graphic arts and commercial advertising worlds everywhere. Evolutionary art could give us a new tool for studying meme propagation, since visual elements may be selected by people for inclusion (replication) in different forms, but also by passing around and mutating the genetic expressions from which they derive. This would require an international standard of visual image genetic representation. How likely might another evolutionary artist be to replicate one of my images by guessing at my `nucleotides' or building blocks and attempting to retrace their evolution? Richard Dawkins once offered $1000 to anyone who could re-evolve an image of a chalice he had bred in his Biomorph Land (reported in Out of Control, p. 269) - and lost his bet within a year. But I agree with Kevin Kelly's analysis that it was the secondary biological nature of biomorphs that permitted the chalice to be rediscovered - that, and the size of the search space. Perhaps a real mathematician could calculate the odds for me; I'm currently using some 120 `genes', hence a 120- dimensional search space, with hundreds of additional parameters setting initial conditions, and zillions of choices made during evolution by a pseudorandom number generator, dependent on the seed I assigned it for each run, not to mention all my own aesthetic fitness score assignments and later color post-processing... that, and the fact that an image such as In the Beginning has a history of prior evolution going back thousands of generations over three years. I'd be happy to offer $2000 of my own to someone able to re-evolve In the Beginning down to some specifiable error tolerance once this thing gets going, and the right forum appears. Murray Gell-Mann, PhD, Nobel laureate in physics A cofounder of the Santa Fe Institute, Gell-Mann's book The Quark and the Jaguar has been influential in helping me understand complex adaptive systems. I have to agree with his comment about the process of evolving images being addictive (p.299). And I am now putting my own artwork to the test of a higher order complex adaptive system by placing it in the marketplace. As Gell-Mann indicated, failure would mean pleasing myself with these images but, like a dilettante horse breeder, enjoining in a maladaptive process. Failure in the next year or two would also prevent me from continuing to support my expensive computer habit and pursuing my consuming interest in furthering evolutionary simulation and artwork. John Holland, PhD. Professor Holland of the University of Michigan and the Santa Fe Institute basically invented the field of genetic algorithms. I currently employ a genetic strategy in the lineage of John Koza's tree-shaped "chromosomes", but that lineage traces its own ancestry back to that of Holland. His book Hidden Order is an accessible treatment of how adaptation can build complexity from a simple starting point. Aldous Huxley One of the giants of English literature, Huxley's writings, and lectures as recalled by my mother, have had a profound influence on me. In his last decade of life Huxley practiced and advocated for certain individuals a style of safe, infrequent, and responsible use of what are now called `entheogens' (a certain class of psychoactive substances) with which I largely credit my remission from debilitating rheumatoid arthritis some ten years ago. Without that remission, along with the extensive hand surgery it enabled, I would have been unable to function as a computer programmer generating evolutionary art. Stuart Kauffman, PhD, MacArthur Fellow Kauffman's influence on me is far-reaching. When I first heard him talk and later read his books, I realized that he was articulating beautifully an intuitive feeling I had always had that the increasing order and complexity throughout the evolution of the Universe since the Big Bang was itself "built-in" to the whole process, not some chance or unlikely event. I firmly believe that Kauffman's search for fundamental underlying principles of order and self-organization will bear rich fruit beyond its already impressive achievements. Kauffman's description of the vast space of possible proteins that could be manufactured, compared to the relatively tiny number that have been manufactured by Earthly organisms - or that could possibly have been manufactured by hypothetical organisms working feverishly around the clock on planets all over the Universe in the 12 billion years or so since the Big Bang - is relevant to a discussion of evolutionary art. Some might argue that because we are creating images on a computer using a finite number of mathematical "genes" or "nucleotides", of finite genome size, we are merely prospecting for a smallish number of forms and shapes that anyone might uncover given enough time. I would refer anyone thinking in that manner to Kauffman's book - the space of possible artforms that can be evolved in a computer is so vast that only the most limited, primitive forms are likely to be evolved more than once. I tend to create hyperspaces of hundreds of dimensions of art-genomic space, a labyrinth of possible images so huge I could never hope to view even a fraction of them if I had millions of lifetimes in which to do it. It would be most interesting, however, to be proven wrong; see Dawkins' Challenge. One of my "back-burner" projects involves experimenting with Kauffmanian NK networks as part of a different kind of evolutionary art system. Kevin Kelly Executive editor of Wired Magazine, Kelly first came to my attention at MIT during the Artificial Life IV conference. His book Out of Control had just been published, and I found it a refreshing survey of the developing fields of ecosystem theory, complexity, and artificial life. Kelly's Chapter 14, "In the Library of Form", is all about evolutionary art and raises very interesting questions about the existence of form as an infinite library of eternal Platonic forms that may be best searched for using the principles of variation and selection. In my opinion Kelly not only pulled together the right material on this emerging new view of the world in Out of Control, but he added to the debate with his own speculations and insights. Wired magazine (3.12, December 1995) printed an article on me and the process I use, based on a packet of slides and descriptive materials I sent Kelly. I was later asked to create an Absolut Rooke artwork, which appeared on the back of Wired in April and November, 1996 (4.04 & 4.11). For an interactive evolutionary art experience on the Web, check out Absolut Kelly. John Koza, PhD. John Koza gave a talk in Santa Fe in June 1992 at Artificial Life III on his new genetic programming paradigm, which provided additional information to that in Karl Sims' 1991 SIGGRAPH paper on how to write software that could be used to produce evolutionary art. I read Koza's Genetic Programming (`Jaws-1') in January 1993, and was soon experimenting with public-domain LISP interpreters to run his GP kernel, downloadable from Stanford. Unable to communicate effectively with the graphics system on my Silicon Graphics Indigo workstation, I next obtained a commercial LISP interpreter and compiler, and was able to get a primitive form of image evolution working.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Article Template
    Ethical Record The Proceedings of the South Place Ethical Society Vol. 117 No. 2 £1.50 February 2012 ON RUPERT SHELDRAKE’S ‘DOGMAS OF SCIENCE’ A Materialist’s Reactions to 10 alleged delusions scientists hold (see p 7) 1. Dogs are complex mechanisms, rather than living organisms. Fathoming an animal’s complex mechanisms can only enhance one’s appreciation of it as a living organism. 2. All matter is unconscious. Consciousness is an illusion. Not all matter is unconscious – physical brains generate consciousness (ie experience) which is a real, not an illusory, phenomenon. 3. The total amount of matter and energy is always the same. In 1948, respected physicists H.Bondi, F.Hoyle and T.Gold proposed a steady- state cosmology wherein new matter continually appeared – a genuine scientific theory because it was capable of falsification by evidence – it made predictions. 4. The laws of nature are fixed. If, say, the strength of gravity did fluctuate, physicists would naturally seek the ‘law’ that governed the fluctuations…… which law, if found, would not itself fluctuate. 5. Nature is purposeless; evolution has no goal. The shift from barren, Aristotelian teleology (eg as in Genesis) to the fecund, Darwinian mechanism of natural selection is justified by a wealth of evidence. 6. Inheritance is material…….carried in the DNA, RNA etc…… but not in Sheldrake’s ‘morphogenetic field’ which makes no predictions. 7. The image of a tree you see is inside your brain, not out there. Is your phantom limb ‘out there’as well? 8. Memories are stored in brains. Yes, unfortunately – would we could save them all in cyberspace! 9.
    [Show full text]
  • The Presence of the Past: Morphic Resonance and the Habits of Nature Pdf, Epub, Ebook
    THE PRESENCE OF THE PAST: MORPHIC RESONANCE AND THE HABITS OF NATURE PDF, EPUB, EBOOK Rupert Sheldrake | 512 pages | 01 Jul 2011 | Icon Books Ltd | 9781848313064 | English | Duxford, United Kingdom The Presence of the Past: Morphic Resonance and the Habits of Nature by Rupert Sheldrake In place of the mechanistic worldview that has dominated biology since the nineteenth century, this book offers a revolutionary alternative, and opens up a new understanding of life, minds and evolution. Reviews Review policy and info. Published on. Flowing text, Google-generated PDF. Best for. Web, Tablet, Phone, eReader. Content protection. Myths Rituals and the Influence of Tradition. The Evolution of Life. Creativity Within a Living World. Morphic Resonance in Human Learning. Remembering and Forgetting. Minds Brains and Memories. Bibliografische Informationen. Eternity and Evolution. Written in English — pages. Not in Library. Paperback in English - New Ed edition. The presence of the past: morphic resonance and the habits of nature , Vintage Books. The presence of the past: morphic resonance and the habits of nature , Park Street Press. The presence of the past: morphic resonance and the habits of nature , Collins. The presence of the past: morphic resonance and the habits of nature , Times Books. The presence of the past morphic resonance and the habits of nature First published in Subjects Science , Philosophy , Morphogenesis , Origin , Life , Morphogenese , Morfogenezis , Sciences , Tudomanyfilozofia , Philosophie. Edition Notes Bibliography: p. Includes index. S Loading Related Books. The Presence of the Past: Morphic Resonance and the Habits of Nature for sale online But, Sheldrake suggests that nature is not a machine and that each kind of system - from crystals to birds to societies - is shaped not by universal laws that embrace and direct all systems but by a unique "morphic field" containing a collective or pooled memory.
    [Show full text]
  • The Sense of Being Stared at Part 1: Is It Real Or Illusory?
    Rupert Sheldrake The Sense of Being Stared At Part 1: Is it Real or Illusory? I: The Sense of Being Stared At in People and Other Animals Most people have had the experience of turning round feeling that someone is looking at them from behind, and finding that this is the case. Most people have also had the converse experience. They can sometimes make people turn around by staring at them. In surveys in Europe and North America, between 70% and 97% of the people questioned said they had had personal experiences of these kinds (Braud et al., 1990; Sheldrake, 1994; Cottrell et al., 1996). The sense of being stared at is often alluded to in fiction, as in stories or novels by Tolstoy, Dostoyevsky, Anatole France, Victor Hugo, Aldous Huxley, D.H. Lawrence, John Cowper Powys, Thomas Mann, J.B. Priestley and many other writers (Poortman, 1959). Here is an example from Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, the creator of Sherlock Holmes: The man interests me as a psychological study. At breakfast this morning I suddenly had that vague feeling of uneasiness which overcomes some people when closely stared at, and, quickly looking up, I met his eyes bent upon me with an intensity which amounted to ferocity, though their expression instantly softened as he made some conventional remark upon the weather (Conan Doyle, 1884). In questionnaire surveys about the details of these experiences I carried in Brit- ain, Sweden and the United States, more women (81%) than men (74%) said they had felt they were being stared at. This experience occurred most commonly with strangers in public places, such as streets and bars.
    [Show full text]
  • Art, Science and Technology in an Expanded Field
    University of Wollongong Research Online Faculty of Law, Humanities and the Arts - Papers Faculty of Arts, Social Sciences & Humanities 1993 Art, science and technology in an expanded field Adam Robert Lucas University of Wollongong, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://ro.uow.edu.au/lhapapers Part of the Arts and Humanities Commons, and the Law Commons Recommended Citation Lucas, Adam Robert, "Art, science and technology in an expanded field" (1993). Faculty of Law, Humanities and the Arts - Papers. 821. https://ro.uow.edu.au/lhapapers/821 Research Online is the open access institutional repository for the University of Wollongong. For further information contact the UOW Library: [email protected] Art, science and technology in an expanded field Abstract The author suggests that new concepts in twentieth-century science not only provides commonalitites between the arts, sciences and humanities, they also point to the emergence of a new philosophy of nature with some promising political, sociological and technological implication. These developments demand a throught-going ethical practice and a fundamental reformulation of accepted notions of creativity, consciousness and natural and social organization. Outlining key concepts and discoveries in twentieth-century science and philosophy, the author draws attention to the existence of a strong organismic or process tradition in Western culture that is re-emerging in various fields of the physical, biological and social sciences. The author asserts that such a change in science and technology will have global ramifications for humands and that it is the amplification of these insightso t which artists should turn their attention.
    [Show full text]
  • Carl G. Jung's Synchronicity and Quantum Entanglement: Schrödinger's Cat 'Wanders' Between Chromosomes
    Carl G. Jung’s Synchronicity and Quantum Entanglement: Schrödinger’s Cat ’Wanders’ Between Chromosomes Igor Limar To cite this version: Igor Limar. Carl G. Jung’s Synchronicity and Quantum Entanglement: Schrödinger’s Cat ’Wan- ders’ Between Chromosomes. NeuroQuantology, NeuroQuantology, 2011, 9 (2), pp.313-321. hprints- 00637383v2 HAL Id: hprints-00637383 https://hal-hprints.archives-ouvertes.fr/hprints-00637383v2 Submitted on 22 Jun 2012 (v2), last revised 19 Jul 2012 (v3) HAL is a multi-disciplinary open access L’archive ouverte pluridisciplinaire HAL, est archive for the deposit and dissemination of sci- destinée au dépôt et à la diffusion de documents entific research documents, whether they are pub- scientifiques de niveau recherche, publiés ou non, lished or not. The documents may come from émanant des établissements d’enseignement et de teaching and research institutions in France or recherche français ou étrangers, des laboratoires abroad, or from public or private research centers. publics ou privés. Limar IV., C.G. Jung’s Synchronicity and Quantum Entanglement 1 C.G. Jung’s Synchronicity and Quantum Entanglement: Schrodinger’s Cat ‘Wanders’ Between Chromosomes Igor V. Limar Abstract One of the most prospective directions of study of C.G. Jung’s synchronicity phenomenon is reviewed considering the latest achievements of modern science. The attention is focused mainly on the quantum entanglement and related phenomena – quantum coherence and quantum superposition. It is shown that the quantum non-locality capable of solving the Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen paradox represents one of the most adequate physical mechanisms in terms of conformity with the Jung’s synchronicity hypothesis. An attempt is made on psychophysiological substantiation of synchronicity within the context of molecular biology.
    [Show full text]
  • Ance of a Sun-Centered Model of the Universe (Formulated As Early As the Third Century B.C.) for Another 300 Years
    CURRENT BOOKS ance of a sun-centered model of the universe (formulated as early as the third century B.C.) for another 300 years. Love11 attributes the eventual adoption of Copernicus's model of the solar system, in the 16th century, to its compatibility with the ancient Greeks' belief in a harmonious, concentric universe (which made his idea appear less revolutionary), as well as to Galileo's wersuasive demonstra- tions. The same classical emphasis on harmo- nious heavenly relationships led Johannes Kepler, in 1609, to discover elliptic orbits; his principles of planetary motion, in turn, laid the groundwork for Isaac Newton's laws of gravity and inertia (1687). Theory and obser- vation were unified in Newton's cosmology. In our own century, Albert Einstein exploded the concepts of absolute time and motion and forced scientists to recognize the subjective, man-centered nature of their ordering princi- ples. As a consequence, most scientists now believe there is no absolute order of the uni- verse to be discovered- only more useful cosmic models to be devised. A NEW SCIENCE OF LIFE: Heredity, we are told, depends on the ar- The Hypothesis of rangement of nucleic acids on the double hel- Formative Causation ical strands of DNA. But this "mechanistic" by Rupert Sheldrake explanation of the ultimate mystery of biol- Blond & Briggs, 1981 ogy has serious limits. The differences be- 229 pp. S12.50 tween the DNA sequences of, say, humans and chimpanzees amount to only 1.17 per- cent. The genetic discrepancy between two species of mice is actually greater. And why does one cell become a kidney tubule while another with the identical DNA structure be- comes a brain cell? Some "mechanistic" sci- entists claim that such cells are simply "programmed" differently.
    [Show full text]
  • Philosophy of the Social Sciences Patrick Baert and Fernando Rubio Dominguez
    --Please do not quote or circulate without the authors’ permission. This version may differ from the final published version-- Philosophy of the Social Sciences Patrick Baert and Fernando Rubio Dominguez Published in “Philosophy of the Social Sciences”. In Turner, Brian (ed.) The Blackwell Companion to Social Theory. 3rd edition. Blackwell: Oxford, pp. 60-80 Introduction Compared to other subdivisions within philosophy (such as philosophy of mind and indeed philosophy of science), philosophy of the social sciences occupies a distinctive, and perhaps idiosyncratic position. Unlike most other strands, it does not enjoy a long heritage. Although a number of questions posed by philosophers of the social sciences clearly predate the modern era, the discipline as such cannot be traced back further than the nineteenth century, with its origins closely tied to the emergence and establishment of the social sciences themselves. Before then, philosophers might have reflected on the nature of social inquiry, but there was not a clearly distinguishable area of philosophy of the social sciences as such, nor was the need felt by philosophers or anyone else to carve one out. The appearance and formation of the social sciences within academic institutions during the nineteenth century led to widespread concerns (not just amongst philosophers and practising social researchers but also amongst other academicians) about the methodology and scientific legitimacy of these newly founded disciplines, which seemed to find themselves at the crossroads “between science and literature” (Lepenies 1988). The new disciplines, regarded with a mixture of enthusiasm, hope and suspicion, were in serious need of both academic recognition and methodological guidance.
    [Show full text]
  • Theoria to Theory; an International Journal Of
    Three Approaches to Biology: Part 11. Vitalism RUPERT SHELDRAKE Real and Imaginary Vitalism Accounts of modem biology mention vitalism as if it were a kind of superstition which has been swept away by the advance of rational understanding. It is usually regarded as ofmerely historical interest, rather like the theory of phlogiston in the history of chemistry. Vitalists are portrayed as ludicrous figures clinging desparately to the belief that living organisms do not obey the laws of physics and chemistry, while the whole tide of science has flowed ever more strongly against them. The 'discrediting' ofvitalism is usually said to have begun with the first synthesis of an organic chemical, urea, in the early nineteenth century, and to have been made more and more conclusive by every new discovery of physiology, genetics, biochemistry, biophysics and molecular biology. This imaginary history forms an important part of the folk-lore of the mechanists. But in reality, vitalists did not deny that processes in living organisms took place in accordance with the laws of physics and chemistry. What they did think was that matter was organized in a special way in living organisms, which was different from that discoverable by ordinary chemistry. For example, J. C. Reil (1759-181S) held the view that "the most general attribute of the unique animal matter is a special son of crystallization".' But this is not entirely unlike the mechanistic idea that morphogenesis takes place by complex spontaneous processes somehow analogous to crystallization. A typical vitalist of a later generation, J. Mueller, in TMtnitJ to TIa.ory.
    [Show full text]
  • Scott Reeves Telephone Telepathy Experiments Results
    Os textos são da exclusiva responsabilidade dos autores All texts are of the exclusive responsibility of the authors The Investigation of Telepathy in Animals and Humans Results: 1. Many people claim to have thought about someone for no apparent reason, who then called on the telephone. Pamela Smart and I carried out experiments to test whether people really could tell who was calling. Each participant had four potential callers, and when the telephone rang had to guess who was calling. By chance the success rate would have been 25%. In a total of 842 trials, involving 66 participants, the overall success rate was 42%. This effect was hugely significant statistically (p < 1 x 10-20). We ruled out the possibility of cheating by videotaping the participants continuously. Success rates did not fall off even when callers were 18.000 km away. With familiar callers the success rate was 61% (p = 1 x 10-13). With unfamiliar callers the success rate was at chance levels. When they were confident about their guesses, participants were indeed more successful than when they were not confident. 2. Aimée Morgana and I continued our studies of her language-using African Grey parrot, N’kisi, who seemed to respond to her thoughts and intentions telepathically. In a series of trials, Aimée and the parrot were in different rooms, on different floors, both videotaped continuously. At the beginning of each trial, Aimée opened an envelope containing a photograph correspond to one of 19 prespecified key words, and looked at it for two minutes. N’kisi said key words in 71 trials.
    [Show full text]
  • Reflections from an Interior World but in Breaking an Ideological Lock That Stephen Jay Gould Had Subtly Led Scientists to a Belief That Such Things Could Not Be Done
    NATURE VOL. 320 17 APRIL 19c:..86=-----------SPRING BOOKS---------------------'64-' seded both conceptually and practically), Reflections from an interior world but in breaking an ideological lock that Stephen Jay Gould had subtly led scientists to a belief that such things could not be done. Many pre­ decessors had not tackled the subject of Memoir of a Thinking Radish: An Autobiography. By Peter Medawar. organ and tissue transplantation because a Oxford University Press:1986. Pp.209. £12.50, $17.95. prevailing view of genetic inexorability (stronger in more class-conscious Britain WITH the honesty and irreverence that kindly to one "of Arabic extraction" than elsewhere) had implied that a per­ have long been his trademarks, Peter (Medawar's father was Lebanese, his son's intrinsic construction could not be so Medawar begins his autobiography with mother English; he quotes a friend of simi­ compromised by accepting foreign bits three quotations, one his own, explaining lar "extraction" who said: "I can't bear into a working machinery. Medawar why the lives of scientists make such that expression, it makes you sound like writes: "Some people had maintained that dreadful reading. Choosing his own ver­ some kind of gum".) In this section on his this was in principle impossible, since sub­ sion from Pluto's Republic: early life, Medawar first gives vent to a stances that provoke the normal rejection central theme ofthis book (so identified in reaction are part of the genetic make-up, The lives of scientists, considered as Lives, his introduction): that Britain's greatness something that could no more be changed almost always make dull reading ...
    [Show full text]
  • Morphic Fields and Extended Mind an Examination of the Theoretical Concepts of Rupert Sheldrake
    Fraser Watts Morphic Fields and Extended Mind An Examination of the Theoretical Concepts of Rupert Sheldrake Abstract: This paper examines the central theoretical concepts in the work of Rupert Sheldrake. The first section examines Sheldrake’s account of morphic fields and questions whether difficulties arise when these concepts are extended upwards from the biological level. The second section reviews Sheldrake’s concept of extended mind and considers the criticism that it is reductionist about mentality. In con- sidering both of these criticisms it is argued that Sheldrake’s theories can be taken in a reductive direction, but need not be. The third and final section draws on the work of Joseph Bracken and David Ray Griffin to suggest a panpsychist metaphysics of field as one possible way that Sheldrake could sidestep these dangers and strengthen his approach. An Examination of the Work of Rupert Sheldrake This essay will examine the striking and controversial theoretical pro- posals of Rupert Sheldrake concerning both the development of biolog- ical form and the question of consciousness.1 Sheldrake is no stranger Correspondence: Fraser Watts, Faculty of Divinity, University of Cambridge, West Road, Cam- bridge, CB3 9BS Email: [email protected] [1] This essay is the outcome of a regular series of discussions with Philip Clayton, Russell Re Manning, Leon Turner, and Fraser Watts on Sheldrake’s work which took place in Queens’ College, Cambridge. The essay is greatly indebted to the help and ideas of the above as well as to Rupert Sheldrake, who was present at the final meeting of the group on 17 February 2010 to discuss and defend his theories.
    [Show full text]
  • THE EXTENDED MIND by Rupert Sheldrake
    Published in the July-August 2003 issue of The Quest THE EXTENDED MIND By Rupert Sheldrake My idea of the existence of the mind beyond the physical brain is what I call the extended mind. I would like to suggest that the mind is much more extensive than the brain and stretches out through fields that I call morphic fields. Morphic fields, like the known fields of physics such as gravitational fields, are non-material regions of influence extending in space and continuing in time. They are localized within and around the systems they organize. When any particular organized system ceases to exist, as when an atom splits, a snowflake melts, or an animal dies, its organizing field disappears from that place. But in another sense, morphic fields do not disappear: they are potential organizing patterns of influence, and can appear again physically in other times and places, wherever and whenever the physical conditions are appropri- ate. When they do so, they contain within themselves a memory of their previous physical existences. Because the existence of these fields has intrigued me for a long time, I have developed experiments that do provide strong evidence for them as a scientific hypothesis. We are all familiar with fields that extend from material objects; the most obvious example is a magnet. The magnet is a physical, material object you can hold in your hand, but it has a region of influence stretching all around it—the magnetic field—that is invisible and can have effects over a distance. Another, more modern example is the cellular phone.
    [Show full text]