The Past is Present with Rupert Sheldrake

Program Description

This dialogue reviews Sheldrake’s theory of “morphic resonance,” which challenges some fundamental assumptions of established science. Sheldrake offers a revolutionary alternative to the mechanistic worldview, and points toward a new understanding of the nature of life, matter and mind. One of the more profound implications of Sheldrake’s account here is his suggestion that the brain may be more like a tuning system than a recording device. (For more New Dimensions dialogues with Rupert Sheldrake find program #2080, #2593, #2792)

Rupert Sheldrake, Ph.D. studied natural sciences at Cambridge and philosophy at Harvard, took a Ph.D. in biochemistry at Cambridge, and is the author of more than fifty scientific papers. He’s the author of several books including The Presence of the Past (Times Books 1995), A New Science of Life: The Hypothesis of Morphic Resonance (J.P. Tarcher 1995), The Rebirth of Nature; The Greening of Science and God (Bantam 1991), Dogs That Know When Their Owners Are Coming Home: And Other Unexplained Powers of Animals (Three Rivers Press 2001), Seven Experiments That Could Change the World: A Do-It-Yourself Guide to Revolutionary Science (2nd Edition with Update on Results) (Park Street Press 2002), The Sense of Being Stared At: And Other Aspects of The Extended Mind (Crown 2003), and co-authored with Matthew Fox Natural Grace: Dialogues on Creation, Darkness, and the Soul in Spirituality and Science (Doubleday 1996) and The Physics of Angels: Exploring the Realm Where Science and Spirit Meet (HarperSanFrancisco 1996). He also co-authored with Terence McKenna & Ralph Abraham,The Evolutionary Mind: Conversations on Science, Imagination and Spirit (Revised, Monkfish 2005).To learn more about the work of Rupert Sheldrake go to www.sheldrake.org

Topics Explored in this Dialogue:

• Why the laws of nature may not be fixed in advance
• What are morphogenetic fields
• How it is easier for us to learn something that has been learned by others
• What is the nature of remembering
• What is the evidence that children can tune in to past lives
• How do rituals help us to tune in to the past

Program Number: 2080                        Host: Michael Toms                           Interview Date: 3/8/1988