Can Morphic Fields Help Explain Telepathy and the Sense of Being Stared At? Introduction he morphic feld hy- pothesis proposes that sia) could well be a result of this minds are systems of process, mediated by perceptual felds that are located felds, which are kinds of morphic T felds. inside brains but also extend far beyond them, just as the felds of Morphic felds are felds within magnets are both within magnets and around systems in which the and extend invisibly beyond them, whole is greater than the sum of and as the electromagnetic felds the parts, including molecules, of mobile telephones are both cells, organs, organisms, and so- within them and extend beyond cieties of organisms. They contain | by RUPERT SHELDRAKE, PhD them. an inherent memory, given by a Minds are extended beyond process called morphic resonance, If rats ran a new trick in London, brains in every act of perception, namely the infuence of similar for example rats all over the world and the felds of visual perception patterns of activity in self-orga- should be able to learn the same link the looker to the object that nizing systems on subsequent trick quicker. There is already is looked at. Hence something can similar systems across time and evidence that this happens (Shel- be afected by looking at it. In an- space. This hypothesis predicts, drake, 2009). imals, human and non-human, the for example, that each species In the light of morphic felds, sense of being stared (scopesthe- has a kind of collective memory. telepathy can be understood as 26 Mindfield Volume 11 Issue 1 2019 WWW.PARAPSYCH.ORG Can Morphic Fields Help Explain Telepathy Volume 11 Issue 1 2019 and the Sense of Being Stared At? an interaction between members felds are. Most researchers treat B a s i c p r e m i s e s of social groups within the mor- them as a descriptive convenience, and postulates phic feld of the group as a whole, placeholders for fully mechanistic which interconnects the individual explanations that have not yet The basic postulates of the hy- animals (Sheldrake, 2013). been discovered. I fnd it more pothesis of formative causation, Morphic felds associated with fruitful to think of them as real the overall name for the hypothe- specifc intentions could perhaps felds, of a similar degree of reality sis of morphic felds and morphic help in understanding psychokinet- to magnetic felds, with their own resonance, are as follows: ic phenomena and remote viewing. particular properties. These include 1. Self-organizing systems, But this hypothesis does not pro- memories from previous systems including molecules, cells, vide any immediate explanation for that shape the felds themselves. tissues, organs, organisms, precognition or presentiment. This memory is given by morphic societies and minds are made Intellectual history and ancestry resonance, a connection from up of nested hierarchies (hol- From the 1964 to 1974, I did re- past to present systems across archies) of holons or morphic search on developmental biology space and time on the basis of units (Figure 1). At each level at Cambridge—in particular on similarity (Sheldrake, 2009). These the whole is more than the the development of plants. I also felds work by drawing developing sum of the parts, and these worked on plants growing under systems towards attractors, as parts themselves are wholes feld conditions at an International described mathematically by the made up of parts. Agricultural Research Institute French mathematician René Thom in India from 1974 to 1985. But (Thom, 1975). neither my own work nor other This hypothesis has many impli- research in developmental biology cations for the understanding of gave an adequate explanation of biological processes like protein the development of form. Chemical folding, inheritance, collective signals, gene activation, and other memory, learning, and memory molecular processes seemed inad- itself, which on this hypothesis de- equate. Something more was need- pends on morphic resonance rather ed and I was drawn to the long than on material traces stored established concept of morphoge- within brains (Sheldrake, 2012). netic felds, or form-shaping felds, My interest in psi phenomena frst proposed in the 1920s. These arose in the 1980s when I realized Figure 1. A nested hierarchy or holar- felds shape the form of developing that this hypothesis implies that chy of morphic units, each organized cells, tissues, organs and organ- scopesthesia and telepathy should by a morphic feld. These could be sub- isms. They are within and around be widespread in the animal king- atomic particles in atoms, molecules, the system they are shaping. dom. They are biological phenome- and crystals. Or they could be cells, Although this concept is widely na, natural, not supernatural, nor- tissues, organs, organisms, and soci- used by developmental biologists, mal, not paranormal, and probably eties of organisms. no one knows what morphogenetic common to many animal species. WWW.PARAPSYCH.ORG Volume 11 Issue 1 2019 Mindfield 27 Can Morphic Fields Help Explain Telepathy The Bulletin of the Parapsychological and the Sense of Being Stared At? Association 2. The wholeness of each level collective memory. Mor- the implicate order, according to depends on an organizing phic resonance depends on Bohm, “everything is enfolded into feld, called a morphic feld. similarity and is not atten- everything” (Bohm, 1980). This feld is within and around uated by distance in space Or resonance may pass through the system it organizes and is or time. Morphic fields are the quantum vacuum feld, also a vibratory pattern of activity local, within and around the known as the zero-point energy that interacts with electro- systems they organize, but feld, which mediates all quantum magnetic and quantum felds morphic resonance is non-lo- and electromagnetic processes of the system. The generic cal. (Laszlo, 2007). name morphic feld includes 5. Morphic resonance involves a Or similar systems might be a. Morphogenetic felds that transfer of form, or in-form- connected through hidden ex- shape the development of ation, rather than a transfer of tra dimensions (there are fve in plants and animals. energy. string theory and six in M-theory) b. Perceptual and behavior- 6. Morphic felds are felds of (Carr, 2008). It’s also possible al felds that organize the probability, like quantum that morphic resonance depends perceptions, movements, felds, and they work by im- on new kinds of physics as yet instincts and learned behav- posing patterns on otherwise unthought-of. ior of animals. random events in the systems As applied to the sense of being c. Social felds that link under their infuence. stared at (scopesthesia), morphic together and coordinate the 7. All self-organizing systems feld hypothesis implies that the ef- behavior of social groups are infuenced by self-reso- fects on the subject being stared at such as termite colonies, nance from their own past, depend more on the focusing of at- schools of fsh, focks of which plays an essential role tention and intention than on dis- birds, packs or herds of ani- in maintaining a holon’s iden- tance. For example, this sense may mals, and human societies. tity, continuity and memory work just as well over a distance of d. Mental felds that underlie (Sheldrake, 2009). hundreds of feet as over a few feet mental activities and shape if the process of watching is aided the habits of minds. This hypothesis leaves open the by telescopic lenses. It may also 3. Morphic felds contain at- question of how morphic reso- work through indirect means, as in tractors (goals) and chreodes nance actually works. There are television or closed circuit televi- (habitual pathways towards several suggestions. One is that sion (CCTV), although more weakly those goals) that guide a the transfer of information occurs than through direct vision, which system toward its end state through the “implicate order,” establishes a more direct connec- while maintaining its integrity, as proposed by the quantum tion (Sheldrake, 2013). stabilizing it against disrup- physicist David Bohm (Sheldrake In relation to telepathy, this tions. 2009, Appendix B). The impli- hypothesis suggests that telep- 4. Morphic fields are shaped by cate or enfolded order gives rise athy will occur primarily between morphic resonance from all to the world we can observe, the bonded members of social groups similar past systems, and explicate order, in which things rather than between strangers thus contain a cumulative, are located in space and time. In (Sheldrake, 2013). 28 Mindfield Volume 11 Issue 1 2019 WWW.PARAPSYCH.ORG Can Morphic Fields Help Explain Telepathy Volume 11 Issue 1 2019 and the Sense of Being Stared At? Telepathy would be consciously perceived and may be There is now good evidence that part of a background unconscious dogs know when their owners expected to occur awareness. are coming home even when they most effectively In the course of evolution, a are miles away, when they return greater awareness of being ob- at randomly selected times, and between people who served may have been of adaptive when they travel in unfamiliar are strongly bonded value, especially to a prey animal vehicles. The pets seem to detect sensing when it is being watched their owners’ intentions telepathi- emotionally, like by a potential predator. This cally. This hypothesis also pre- mothers and babies, ability could have become wide- dicts that these efects will occur twins, parents and spread within the animal kingdom. only between animals and people It could also be expected to be with whom they are strongly children, lovers, widespread among human beings, bonded, in agreement with the spouses, and best and indeed surveys show that over facts (Sheldrake, 2011). 90% of the population, including The same principles apply to friends.