The Science Delusion: Freeing the Spirit of Enquiry
By Rupert Sheldrake
UK edition now in Paperback

Powerful challenge to the materialist worldview January 7, 2012
For those of us who are suspicious of the claims of materialism it's astonishing, and also heartening, to hear a scientist agree that it's a hidebound ideology, dismiss the belief in determinism as a 'delusion' and call on the 'high priests' of science to abandon their 'fantasy of omniscience'.

This all sounds rather rhetorical, and the title seems to have been chosen as a counterblast to Richard Dawkins. Actually this is as polemical as his language gets; the book certainly has little about religion. For the most part it's a dispassionate expose of materialism's failures, and a plea for scientists to open up to new thinking. Despite his reputation as a heretic, gained from his controversial theory of morphic resonance and his psychic research, Sheldrake has impeccable credentials as a biochemist - Cambridge, Harvard, ground-breaking research and a stint in India helping to develop high-yield crops - that demand respect.

Sheldrake identifies ten core beliefs that scientists take for granted: that people and animals are complex mechanisms rather than goal-driven organisms; that matter is unconscious and human consciousness an illusion; that the laws of nature are fixed; that nature is purposeless; that all biological inheritance is carried via material structures like genes, and so on. Each is the basis of a chapter, in which he draws attention to unresolved tensions, problems and dilemmas. Most scientists think these will eventually be ironed out. However Sheldrake argues they are symptoms of a deeper malaise, and that the failure of the materialist model to make good on its predictions will eventually lead to its demise.

A key idea for Sheldrake is the existence of information fields that act as a kind of universal memory. Once a form or activity has come into being it provides the blueprint for other similar effects, which may then multiply with ease. The classic example is the formation of crystals, for which Sheldrake has elsewhere provided evidence, but in principle he thinks it can apply to anything, from the development of organisms to the acquisition of new skills.

This has implications for cosmology, he believes. Far from being set in stone since the Big Bang, nature's laws should be considered as evolving habits that grow stronger through repetition; the universe is an ongoing creative process, of which human creativity is part. In biology the machine metaphors beloved of materialist thinkers are misleading, he insists. No machine starts from small beginnings, grows, forms new structures within itself and then reproduces itself. Yet plants and animals do this all the time and to many people - especially those like pet owners and gardeners who deal with them on a daily basis - it's 'blindingly obvious' that they are living organisms. For scientists to see them as machines propelled only by ordinary physics and chemistry is an act of faith.

Despite the excitement over gene science in the past two decades, and the $100 billion biotechnology boom that it fuelled, only a very limited genetic basis has been discovered for human disease, he points out. The genes associated with development have turned out to be almost identical in mice, humans, flies and reptiles, offering no insights as to why these forms differ so dramatically.

On the subject of consciousness Sheldrake points out that even materialists can't decide what causes it, which is why there are so many rival theories. He quotes Galen Strawson, himself a materialist, who is scathing about the way fellow philosophers are willing to deny the reality of their own experience - testament to the power of the materialist faith. He approves Strawson's interest in panspychism, the doctrine that all matter is invested with mental as well as physical aspects.

There is just one chapter on psychic research: this covers telepathy and precognition, with especial focus on animal telepathy. (The sense of being stared at is covered in a chapter on consciousness.) There is also a chapter on mechanistic medicine, in which he acknowledges its record of success, but questions whether it is the only kind that works.

This is a superb and timely book. My own academic research has convinced me that psychic phenomena genuinely occur, and that the rejection of it is driven largely by ideology and personal antipathy. That being the case, it's hard to conceive that the materialist model is the whole story. Most scientists will brush off Sheldrake's arguments as a persistence of discredited vitalism, but it may encourage some to be open about the more sympathetic views that Sheldrake claims they often express to him in private.

There's also a need for a book like this that's authoritative, wide ranging and accessible, and that challenges the materialist paradigm for the benefit of a wider audience. That applies especially to young people whose ideas have not yet been shaped by it, and their curiosity tamed and dulled as a result. It would be good to think that their generation may have a greater opportunity to question the prevailing dogmas and perhaps eventually forge a new science, one that describes more closely what humans observe and feel about their world.
By Robert McLuhan - author of Randi's Prize

Order The Science Delusion Paperback Edition from Amazon.co.uk
or
The Hardback Edition
Press Reviews... The Independent ... The Financial Times ... The Spectator ... The Guardian ... Irish Times ... Country Life ... The Sunday Times... London Review .... JSPR

Dogs That Know When Their Owners Are Coming Home
And Other Unexplained Powers of Animals: An Investigation
By Rupert Sheldrake

New Edition Announcing a new edition of Dogs That Know When Their Owners Are Coming Home, You can order now by clicking on the link below:
Many people who have ever owned a pet will swear that their dog or cat or other animal has exhibited some kind of behavior they just can't explain. How does a dog know when its owner is returning home at an unexpected time?
Filled with captivating stories and thought-provoking analysis, Dogs That Know When Their Owners Are Coming Home is a groundbreaking exploration of animal behavior that will profoundly change the way we think about animals, and ourselves. After five years of extensive research involving thousands of people who own and work with animals, Sheldrake conclusively proves what many pet owners already know - that there is a strong connection between humans and animals that lies beyond present-day scientific understanding.
Order Dogs That Know When Their Owners Are Coming Home

The new edition only available from America: New Edition from Amazon.com

A New Science of Life:
The Hypothesis of Formative Causation
By Rupert Sheldrake

Rupert's book A New Science of Life was published in the UK in February 2009 in a completely revised new edition, with an update on research on morphic resonance.
Conventional scientific theories cannot explain certain phenomena. For instance, when laboratory rats have learned a new maze, rats elsewhere seem to learn it more easily. Rupert Sheldrake describes this process as morphic resonance, in which the forms and behaviours of the past shape living organisms in the present.
Order the new edition:A New Science of Life

Sheldrake and his Critics: The sense of being glared at.
by Rupert Sheldrake and Anthony Freeman (Editor)
A special edition of the Journal of Consciousness Studies (JCS Vol 12 No. 6, 2005) in paperback format

In 1981 Rupert Sheldrake outraged the scientific establishment with his hypothesis of morphic resonance. Subsequently he devoted his research to pioneering science, winning popular acclaim and continued establishment approbium with a series of ground-breaking works. In this special edition of JCS Rupert summarises his case for the 'non-visual detection of staring'. His claims are scrutinised by fourteen critics, to whom Rupert then responds.
Order Sheldrake and his Critics

The Evolutionary Mind
Conversations on Science, Imagination & Spirit
by Rupert Sheldrake, Terence McKenna & Ralph Abraham
Published by Monkfish Book Publishing Company

A jam-session of the mind, an intellectual movable feast…… Stimulating and often startling discussions between three friends, all highly original thinkers: Rupert Sheldrake, controversial biologist, Terence McKenna, psychedelic visionary, and Ralph Abraham, chaos mathematician. Breaking out of paradigms that retard our evolution and exploring new possibilities, they venture where few have gone before taking their readers on an exciting journey of discovery.
Order the Paperback editionThe Evolutionary Mind
Book Reviews

The Sense of Being Stared At
by Rupert Sheldrake

In his latest book, biologist Rupert Sheldrake explores the intricacies of the mind and discovers that our perceptive abilities are stronger than many of us could have imagined. Most of us know it well - the almost physical sensation that we are the object of someone’s attention. Is the feeling all in our head? And what about related phenomena, such as telepathy and premonitions? Are they merely subjective beliefs? Basing his conclusions on years of intense research, Sheldrake argues persuasively in this compelling, innovative book that such phenomena are real.
Paperback edition Order The Sense of Being Stared At
Hardback edition The Sense of Being Stared At
Book Review

Seven Experiments That Could Change the World:
A Do-It-Yourself Guide to Revolutionary Science
by Rupert Sheldrake

Rupert Sheldrake's groundbreaking book examines unexplained natural phenomena and suggests explanations that push the boundaries of science.How does your pet know when you are coming home? How do pigeons home? Can people really feel a "phantom" amputated arm? These questions and more form the basis of Sheldrake's look at the world of contemporary science as he puts some of the most cherished assumptions of established science to the test. New edition with results update.
Order Seven Experiments that Could Change the World

The Presence of the Past:
Morphic Resonance & the Habits of Nature
By Rupert Sheldrake

Challenging the fundamental assumptions of modern science, this ground-breaking radical hypothesis suggests that nature itself has memory. The question of morphogenesis - how things take their shape - remains one of the great mysteries of science. What makes a rabbit rabbit-shaped? How do newts regenerate limbs? Why are molecules shaped the way they are? Why do societies arrange themselves in certain predictable patterns?

According to Sheldrake's hypothesis of formative causation, these questions remain unanswered in part because convention is hobbled by the reductionist assumption that finding the answers to such questions is largely a matter of figuring out the machinery of nature, of getting to the bottom of an ultimately mechanical universe. 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. So organisms no only share genetic material with others of their species, but are also shaped by a "field" specific to that species.
Order Order The Presence of the Past New edition in paperback format

Chaos, Creativity and Cosmic Consciousness
Ralph Abraham, Terence McKenna and Rupert Sheldrake
(First published as Trialogues at the Edge of the West)

Explore the relationships between chaos, creativity, and imagination, and their connection to the soul of the world. Join Ralph Abraham, mathematician and leader in the new science of chaos, Terence McKenna, shamanologist and ethno-pharmcologist, and Rupert Sheldrake, acclaimed biologist and originator of the theory of morphogenetic fields, as they "trialogue" on such questions as: How can chaos contribute to our lives? Is Armageddon a self-fulfilling prophecy? How can scientists and mystics share the same planet?
Chaos, Creativity and Cosmic Consciousness challenges us to the deepest levels of thought as it calls into question our current views of reality, morality, and the nature of life in the universe.
Order Chaos, Creativity and Cosmic Consciousness

Natural Grace:
Dialogues on Creation, Darkness, and the Soul in Spirituality and Science
By Rupert Sheldrake and Matthew Fox

The chasm between science and religion has been a source of intellectual and spiritual tension for centuries, but in these ground breaking dialogues there is a remarkable consonance between these once opposing camps. In Natural Grace, Rupert Sheldrake and Matthew Fox show that not only is the synthesis of science and spirituality possible, but it is unavoidable when one considers the extraordinary insights they have both come upon in their work. Sheldrake, who has changed the face of modern science with his revolutionary theory of morphic resonance, and Fox, whose work in creation spirituality has had a significant impact on people's sense of spirit, balance each other with their unique yet highly complementary points of view. In these inspired dialogues a variety of ancient topics--including ritual, prayer, and the soul--are freed from the past and given new power for the future in the liberated universe Fox and Sheldrake show us.
Order Natural Grace

The Rebirth of Nature:
The Greening of Science and God
By Rupert Sheldrake

Rupert Sheldrake, one of the world's foremost biologists, has revolutionized scientific thinking with his vision of a living, developing universe with its own inherent memory. In Rebirth of Nature Sheldrake urges us to move beyond the centuries-old mechanistic view of nature, explaining in lucid terms why we can no longer regard the world as inanimate and purposeless. Through an astute critique of the dominant scientific paradigm, Sheldrake shows recent developments in science itself have brought us to the threshold of a new synthesis in which traditional wisdom, intuitive experience, and scientific insight can be mutually enriching.
Order The Rebirth of Nature