Product Description

Have you ever had a premonition, the feeling of being watched, or a telepathic experience? Renowned biologist Rupert Sheldrake explores the intricacies of the mind and discovers that our perceptive abilities are stronger than many of us could have imagined.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #42942 in Books
• Published on: 2004-10-07
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 320 pages

The Good Book Guide
'Sheldrake uses many case studies, along with scientific theory, to support his research, and the result is, quite literally, mind-expanding'

From the Publisher
An accessible new approach to the nature of the mind and of perception.

About the Author
Dr Rupert Sheldrake is a biologist and author of more than sixty technical papers and nine books, including Dogs That Know When Their Owners are Coming Home. A former Research Fellow of the Royal Society, he studied natural sciences at Cambridge University, where he took a PhD in biochemistry, and philosophy at Harvard University, where he was a Frank Knox Fellow. He was a Fellow of Clare College, Cambridge, and Director of Studies in biochemistry and cell biology. He is currently a Fellow of the Institute of Noetic Sciences, near San Francisco, and lives in London with his wife and two sons.

Customer Reviews

Biological approach to psychic phenomena
Dr. Sheldrake is no "paranormalist" but a highly respected researcher and theorist, a former professor of cell biology at Cambridge, who investigates unexplained, "psychic" powers because they can tell us a great deal about the nature of life and mentality. He not only reveals irrefutable statistical evidence for the existence of telepathy, remote viewing, precognition, and the "power of attention," but more importantly his explanation of these phenomena roots them firmly in the biological sciences. He refers to them collectively as the "7th sense," after the five senses and the lesser-known ability of certain animals to sense electromagnetic fields. The field concept, which began in physics and spread to biology in the 1920s, is essential to Sheldrake's theory. "Morphogenetic fields" are invoked by developmental biologists to account for the curious ability of cells in a given organism to perform different tasks despite having identical DNA. Why does one area of an embryo form into an arm, for instance, while another area forms into a heart? Because different cells fall under the influence of different "form-giving" fields. Most biologists assume that these fields, which are essential in describing organic development, will one day be explained according to genes. Sheldrake is not the only theorist who disagrees and claims that these fields are as real as gravitational or magnetic fields. What we call the "mind" may simply be the morphogenetic field associated with the brain. According to this view, sense organs involve extended fields that embrace objects of perception. This is why people can tell when they're being stared at. While this book is not the first to provide overwhelming evidence for the 7th sense (see Dean Radin's The Conscious Universe), it is the first to place this material within the context of an explanatory hypothesis. The importance of this book cannot be overstated.

the so-called 'skeptics' look silly again
Renegade biologist Rupert Sheldrake analyzes in depth an experience that many of us have had at some point - a strange compulsion to look up or behind, only to see someone staring intently at us. In his latest installment Sheldrake discusses a variety of anecdotal and experimental evidence that establishes the reality of the phenomenon, and attempts to explain it with his theory of the 'extended mind' - the idea that our minds are not confined to our brains, but may extend into our environment. Needless to say, Sheldrake's work is a challenge to scientific orthodoxy, making Sheldrake the modern equivalent of a heretic. Shortly after publication of his first book, Nature magazine, one of Britain's leading scientific periodicals, called it "the best candidate for burning there has been for many years." In an interview broadcast on BBC television in 1994, John Maddox, the former editor of Nature, said: "Sheldrake is putting forward magic instead of science, and that can be condemned in exactly the language that the Pope used to condemn Galileo, and for the same reason. It is heresy."

However, Sheldrake follows an impeccable scientific approach. The writing in this book is very clear, and the evidence for the reality of the phenomenon is very impressive. The empirical sections of the book are the most persuasive. His theoretical explanations will likely generate the most controversy among those scientists and philosophers who are willing to drop their prejudice and concede the reality of the sense of being stared at.

Sheldrake combines his theory of the 'extended mind' with his idea of morphic fields - regions of influence not currently recognized by mainstream physics, but (it is argued) necessary to explain the growth and regeneration of organisms. Those readers interested in this will want to read Sheldrake's best and most important work, The Presence of the Past.

Where this explanation of ESP in terms of fields may falter is that all of the other fields recognized by physics decline with distance. Parapsychology experiments have demonstrated that ESP is not affected by distance, or by shielding of any sort. Explanations of ESP in terms of electromagnetic fields, for example, have been convincingly falsified by such experiments. Morphic fields, if they exist, must have very different properties from the known fields if they are to explain ESP. Some physicists feel that the non-local quantum mechanical effects that have been corroborated in physics experiments may more plausibly explain ESP. If there is any shortcoming to this book, it is that related profound issues - such as the mind/body problem or the implications of quantum mechanics - are dealt with only briefly. Again, this is not true of Sheldrake's masterwork, The Presence of the Past.

So, readers who wish to delve more deeply into Sheldrake's theories know where to look. Sheldrake is a bold scientist, one who never lets convention or dogma interfere with his explorations.

As Sheldrake writes in the Introduction,

"I believe it is more scientific to explore phenomena we do not understand than to pretend they do not exist. I also believe it is less frightening to recognize that the seventh sense is part of our biological nature, shared with many other animal species, than to treat it as weird or supernatural."

Sheldrake is a daring and imaginative theorist, and his ideas deserve to be taken seriously. This is an important work, well-worth reading.

So what is scientific?
One of the most intriguing aspects of this book - and Sheldrake in general - is the questions it raises about what it means to be scientific.

Sheldrake is a pariah. He is fully signed up to parapsychology, a "quack science" if ever there was one. Yet Sheldrake - and it's hard not to feel his irritation here - insists HE is the scientific one. There is so much data in this book it is overwhelming. There are only three possible conclusions from the wealth of results here from literally tens of thousands of vaild experiments. Either 1) he is a witting or unwitting liar. 2) There is an elusive flaw to his (many) methods or 3) there is something in it. (Incidentally, another reviewer called his results having "only minor effects", which apparently reveals a staggering lack of understanding of both science and statistics).

Human nature being what it is, your own response to his experiments is predictable depending on your world view. Indeed, this is Sheldrake's point that he discusses at length - it is possible to dismiss evidence by simply dismissing evidence.

In the meantime, the book is extremely readable and raises a lot of fascinating observations, experiments and theories for anyone who might define themselves as open-minded. For me, it would be productive indeed if mainstream sceptical scientists would engage in proper dialogue with people such as Sheldrake. Let them fight it out. Both groups claim to be true scientists, but only one will be right.