Navigating Consciousness with Rupert Sheldrake
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129 afleveringen, van nieuw naar oud
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Spiritual Practices That Actually Work
15 september 2026 · 1 uur 13 min
Spiritual practices work, and this is not a matter of opinion. Scientists have been measuring their effects for more than thirty years, and there are now thousands of papers in peer-reviewed journals showing that people with a regular spiritual or religious practice tend to be healthier, happier and longer-lived than those without one, whatever they happen to believe. In this talk I look at the practices themselves rather than the arguments around them: gratitude, meditation and prayer, mantras, ritual, holy days and festivals, sport, and pilgrimage. Most of them cost nothing and require no prior belief system. Lees meer
The thread running through all of them is connection. Meditation and prayer are complementary rather than rival, more like breathing in and breathing out. Rituals and festivals connect people to each other and to those who did the same things before them. Even sport, which is usually thought of as a supremely secular activity, brings people into the present more quickly than almost anything else.
This talk was recorded live at Hollyhock on Cortes Island in British Columbia, 2026.
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The World Soul and the Fields of Nature | Clare College, Cambridge University
25 augustus 2026 · 48 min
We’re often told that the scientific revolution banished souls from nature, leaving a universe of dead matter pushed around by blind forces. I don’t think that’s what happened. The soul of the world didn’t disappear in the seventeenth century; it changed its name. It’s now called a field. Lees meer
Gravity turns out to be an attraction, a pull toward a final unity, which is to say a purpose. The electromagnetic field turns out to be what William Gilbert in 1600 called the soul of the earth, and I’ll show you what it does with a handful of magnets, something I’ve never done in front of an audience before. Matter turns out to be frozen light, with the energy trapped within quantum matter fields. And the fields that shape a growing leaf turn out to be very close to what Aristotle meant by the vegetative soul. Formal and final causes were never really expelled from science. They’ve been hiding in plain sight, in the one part of physics almost nobody thinks to examine. I’ll also make the case that the laws of nature are better understood as habits, and that nature has a memory, an idea that got my first book condemned in the pages of Nature as a candidate for burning, and which my colleagues in India found entirely unremarkable.
Delivered at The World Soul Symposium, a conference of the Cambridge Centre for the Study of Platonism, on the 19th of June 2026, Thirkill Room, Clare College, Cambridge University.
Chapters
00:00 Introduction: Why the World Soul Matters to Science Now
03:06 Gravity as the Unifying Principle of Modern Cosmology
11:36 The Electromagnetic Field, Polarity, and the Soul of the Earth
18:00 Magnet Demonstration: Formal and Final Causes in Plain Sight
21:16 Quantum Matter Fields: Matter as Frozen Light
23:23 Morphogenetic Fields and the Vegetative Soul
29:38 Morphic Resonance: Memory and Habit in Nature
33:46 Questions and Discussion
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A Book for Burning, with Jonas Atlas
29 juni 2026 · 1 uur 1 min
Rupert speaks with Jonas Atlas about the high cost of scientific heresy and what it reveals about the gap between science's public face and its private reality. Beginning with the 1981 Nature editorial that branded A New Science of Life "a book for burning," they trace how Rupert was effectively excommunicated from mainstream science, then turn to deeper questions: how to tell genuine inquiry from pseudoscience in a "post-truth" age flooded with AI-generated theories of everything, why morphic resonance remains a hypothesis to be tested rather than a truth to be defended, and why survey evidence suggests hardcore materialism is actually a minority view among working scientists who mostly stay quiet about it. Lees meer
First published on the Re-visioning Religion podcast, Sep 02, 2025.
https://creators.spotify.com/pod/profile/re-visioning-religion/
About Jonas: A scholar of religion, teaching at KDG University of Applied Sciences and Arts, Jonas is also an independent researcher at the Radboud University, as a member of the Race, Religion and Secularism network.
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Holy Trinities: Threefold Models of Reality - Live in London
28 mei 2026 · 1 uur 23 min
Across decades of reading and travel, something has struck me again and again: wildly different traditions, from Daoism to Hinduism to Christianity, converge on a threefold or Trinitarian model of ultimate reality. In this talk I trace that pattern through philosophy, theology, and modern physics, and suggest it reflects something fundamental about the nature of things. Lees meer
Many churches will be celebrating the Holy Trinity on Sunday May 31, Trinity Sunday.
This talk was recorded live at St James’s Church London, May 13th, 2026 as part of the Alternatives programme. The full video with human readable transcript is available on substack.
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Science, Spirituality & the Practices That Transform Us, with Dr. Jessica Harland
21 oktober 2025 · 1 uur 8 min
Watch on YouTube: https://youtu.be/0_Lkku3QH-c Lees meer
What if gratitude isn't just good manners, but measurably changes your wellbeing? What if the medieval Christians were right about nature being alive, and we've spent the last 400 years getting it fundamentally wrong? And why are half a million people now walking ancient pilgrimage routes across Europe when rationalist materialism promised to free us from such "superstitions"?
In this wide-ranging conversation at Hampstead Parish Church, I explore these questions with Dr. Jessica Harland, touching on everything from my early crisis of conscience in a vivisection lab to discovering LSD at Cambridge, from the Protestant Reformation's assault on pilgrimage to why your GP should probably be prescribing forest walks. We go into the scientific evidence behind spiritual practices—yes, there are thousands of peer-reviewed studies—and discuss why saying grace before meals, walking to holy places, and reconnecting with the living world aren't quaint relics of the past, but practices our secular age desperately needs to rediscover.
Whether you consider yourself religious, spiritual-but-not-religious, or simply curious about why these ancient practices refuse to die, I hope you'll find something here that sparks your imagination—and perhaps your own spiritual journey.
Recorded at The Parish Church of St John-at-Hampstead, October 2025. If you're in London, I highly recommend coming by to experience choral evensong.
https://www.choralevensong.org/uk/the-parish-church-of-st-john-at-hampstead-27.php -
How do Animals Predict Natural Disasters? London Society for Psychical Research
7 oktober 2025 · 34 min
For more see Rupert’s Substack article on this topic
👉 https://rupertsheldrake.substack.com/p/animal-warnings-of-earthquakes Lees meerRecorded on November 4, 2017 at the Society for Psychical Research in London.
When disasters strike, it is often animals who seem to know first. Long before seismographs were invented, people noticed that snakes, rats, dogs, and birds behaved strangely in the days leading up to earthquakes. Similar reports come before tsunamis, avalanches, air raids, and even medical crises like seizures. Are these simply heightened senses—an ability to detect tremors, gases, or subtle vibrations—or do they point to something deeper, an anticipatory awareness we do not yet understand?
In this talk, I share some of the evidence I’ve gathered over the years: from ancient Greek accounts to modern field studies, from the Chinese earthquake networks under Mao to the toads of central Italy abandoning their mating grounds days before a quake. The pattern repeats across cultures and circumstances, yet mainstream science has largely dismissed it as superstition.
Why is that? What are we overlooking when we ignore such a consistent body of observations? Could systematic study of animal behavior, especially with today’s global communications, provide early warnings and even save lives?
I don’t claim to have the answers. But I invite you to explore these questions with me, and to consider what they reveal not only about animals, but about our shared sensitivity to the unseen.
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Consciousness and the Mysteries of Everyday Life – How the Light Gets In Festival
23 september 2025 · 41 min
What if the “weird” feelings we shrug off—being watched, knowing who’s calling, waking seconds before an alarm—aren’t glitches but signals? In this talk, given at the How The Light Gets In festival, September 21st, 2025, Rupert Sheldrake argues that these everyday hunches point to mind-to-world reach (projective vision), mind-to-mind links (telepathy), and mind-to-future sensitivity (presentiment). How do we decide what counts as evidence, who gets to ask taboo questions, and how science should treat common human experiences? Beyond anecdotes, Rupert shares simple experiments, huge natural-history datasets, and a working picture of mind as something that reaches, bonds, and anticipates—often strengthened with emotional closeness. He flags practical paths forward: citizen science, the Eyesense Training app to sharpen sensitivity, and real-world applications from caregiving to early-warning via animal behavior. Lees meer
Try the Eyesense Training app
👉 https://eyesense.trainingSee Rupert’s Substack for the Latest articles and early access to videos
👉 https://rupertsheldrake.substack.com -
Ancestors and Pilgrimages, with Bishop Marc Andrus at Hollyhock
16 september 2025 · 53 min
A dialogue on praying for ancestors and on pilgrimage: Hollyhock, Cortes Island, BC; August, 2016. Lees meer
See Rupert’s Substack for the Latest articles and early access to videos
👉 https://rupertsheldrake.substack.com -
Detoxifying Christianity, with Bishop Marc Andrus at Grace Cathedral
27 augustus 2025 · 31 min
For many people, Christianity is like a toxic brand. Why is this so and what can be done about it? A dialogue with Marc Andrus, the Bishop of California, at Grace Cathedral, San Francisco; September, 2015. Lees meer
See Rupert’s Substack for the Latest articles and early access to videos
👉 https://rupertsheldrake.substack.com -
What is a blessing? Is it just wishing someone well, or is there more to it? ...with Marc Andrus
19 augustus 2025 · 26 min
A dialogue with Marc Andrus, former Bishop of California, at Grace Cathedral, San Francisco, in August of 2016. Lees meer
See Rupert’s Substack for the Latest articles and early access to videos
👉 https://rupertsheldrake.substack.com -
What Insights Can Psychedelic Experiences Give Us? University of York
22 juli 2025 · 1 uur 23 min
Watch on Substack
https://open.substack.com/pub/rupertsheldrake/p/psychedelic-experiences-what-insights Lees meerThis is a talk I gave recently to the Drug Science and Bioscience Societies at the University of York.
I first became interested in psychedelics when I was at school in the 1950s and a young doctor friend was involved in some of the early research on the effects of LSD. When I was 17, before going to Cambridge, I worked in a pharmacology research lab on the effects of LSD and mescaline on chicks. However, it was not until 1970, when I was 28, that I experienced the mind-opening effects of LSD for myself.
In the 1980s, I became friends with Terence McKenna, an expert on the shamanic use of psychedelics, and Ralph Abraham, a chaos mathematician at the University of California, Santa Cruz. We had many discussions about the effects of these substances, including their influence on the growth of computer graphics. I also attended a series of conferences on psychedelics at the Esalen Institute in California and have been in continual contact with recent researchers on the subject.
In this talk, I discuss the nature of psychedelic visions, their possible relationship to dreams and near-death experiences, and the ‘entities’ that many people encounter through them, including machine elves and angels. I look at the cultural history of their use, the emergence of new psychedelic religions such as Santo Daime in Brazil, and suggest that the current psychedelic renaissance is part of a major cultural shift—away from materialism towards a more interconnected worldview.
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Spiritual Practices and Transformative Experiences in a Scientific Age
8 juli 2025 · 31 min
A talk delivered to the Conference of the International Network for the Study of Spirituality, University of Northampton, UK in June 2025. Lees meer
The INSS is a unique international network for people interested in bringing the study of spirituality to life through research, scholarship, education and practice.
https://spiritualitystudiesnetwork.wildapricot.org/conference-2025
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God in Nature and Nature in God - Panentheism
13 juni 2025 · 55 min
In this talk, Rupert Sheldrake explores panentheism—the idea that the divine is not separate from the world but present throughout it, while also transcending it. With the grip of mechanistic materialism loosening, Rupert invites us to reconsider how we see nature, mind, and spirit. Tracing a broad arc from ancient philosophies and Christian mysticism to AI-generated worldviews, panpsychism, and psychedelics, he reflects on how the sacred presence in nature—-long affirmed by spiritual traditions-—is re-emerging through science, experience, and renewed practices of attention. Lees meer
Recorded at St James Church, Piccadilly, a longstanding hub for open spiritual inquiry and progressive theology in the heart of London.
Rupert’s Substack
Latest articles, early access to videos, exclusive talks
👉 https://rupertsheldrake.substack.com -
Reconnecting With Religious Roots, with Bishop Marc Andrus
11 maart 2025 · 34 min
A dialogue with Marc Andrus, former Bishop of California, at Grace Cathedral, San Francisco. Our ancestors’ lives from birth to death were shaped and structured by spiritual traditions but today many people are no longer connected to religious festivals or practices. This loss of religious faith in unprecedented, and in 2016 in the UK a survey showed that for the first time in history a majority of the population say they have no religion. In this dialogue Rupert and Marc discuss the possibility of reconnecting through festivals, pilgrimages and sacred places. Lees meer
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The Healing Power of Animals, with Bishop Marc Andrus at Grace Cathedral
27 februari 2025 · 32 min
A dialogue with Marc Andrus, former Bishop of California, at Grace Cathedral, San Francisco. Many people who keep pets have experienced their ability to comfort and heal. There is now a pet therapy movement where people take dogs and cats into hospices and children’s hospitals, and the human animal bond can help many physical and mental issues. In this dialogue Rupert and Marc discuss the many powers of animals and explore to what extent animals themselves live spiritual lives. Lees meer
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Is Christianity a victim of its own success? with Bishop Marc Andrus at Grace Cathedral
17 december 2024 · 30 min
A dialogue with Marc Andrus, former Bishop of California, at Grace Cathedral, San Francisco. European civilisation has been shaped in many ways by its Christian heritage. In the Middle Ages the Church started schools, universities and hospitals, and set up systems for caring for the sick and the poor. In the twentieth century, the hospice movement was started by Christians. Even the principles of democracy and human rights are rooted in the Christian doctrine that all people are equal before God. Yet these achievements are now widely seen as a triumph of secularism. What is going on? Lees meer
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Holy Days and Festivals, with Bishop Marc Andrus at Grace Cathedral
3 december 2024 · 21 min
Many traditions include holy days or ‘holidays’ as days of festivity to celebrate and many traditional festivals revolve around the cycles of creation including solar and lunar cycles, harvests, death and rebirth. Festivals help connect individuals and the community to the pulse of nature. Rupert and Marc explore the on-going relevance of festivals and holy days in the modern secular world. Lees meer
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All Souls Day, with Bishop Marc Andrus at Grace Cathedral
23 oktober 2024 · 28 min
A dialogue with Marc Andrus, former Bishop of California, at Grace Cathedral, San Francisco. All Souls Day — the day of the dead — falls on November 2, and is particularly spectacular in Mexico. Hallowe'en, or All Hallows' Eve, is the eve of the festival of the dead, which starts with All Saints' Day on November 1. Lees meer
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Angels and the festival of Michaelmas
19 september 2024 · 26 min
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Rethinking Education: From Passive Learning to Holistic Understanding with Dr. James Mannion
17 september 2024 · 1 uur 2 min
In this episode of the "Rethinking Education" podcast, I join Dr. James Mannion to explore the state of modern education and its implications for science and spirituality. We discuss the dominance of the passive voice in science education, the impact of a moral vacuum, and the need for a more holistic, hands-on approach to learning. Drawing from my experiences, I argue for reimagining education to embrace interdisciplinary connections, practical engagement with nature, and a broader understanding of consciousness beyond the brain. Join us as we challenge the status quo and explore new ways of fostering curiosity and creativity in the classroom. Lees meer
Watch on YouTube
https://youtu.be/lX3AyZy7oS4 -
Consciousness, Temples, Mysticism, and Science, with Praveen Mohan
5 september 2024 · 1 uur 22 min
In this episode, I join Praveen Mohan to explore the deep connections between science, consciousness, and spirituality. We delve into the purpose of ancient temples, the resurgence of pilgrimage in both India and Europe, and the implications of panpsychism and morphic resonance. This conversation offers fresh insights from my experiences living in India, discussing the mystical roots of sacred places with someone steeped in the culture. Tune in for a thoughtful exchange on how science and spirituality intersect and why challenging materialist paradigms can open new doors for understanding our reality. Lees meer
Watch on Praveen's Channel:
https://youtu.be/zBEwy8cpt8M -
Finding God in Nature and Consciousness; from the Realizing God Online Summit
13 augustus 2024 · 1 uur 2 min
In this interview with Dr. Marc Stollreiter for the Realizing God Online Summit, Rupert Sheldrake shares his journey from atheism to spiritual awakening, discussing the intersection of science and spirituality, the power of prayer, and the revival of pilgrimage in modern times. Lees meer
Attend the Summit
https://realizing-god.comRunning from 02/07/2025 - 02/16/2025, the summit includes workshops, Satsangs and interactive sessions led by esteemed spiritual guides from around the world.
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Vision Quests, with Marc Andrus, Bishop of California
30 juli 2024 · 34 min
Many cultures have rites of passage, especially for people entering adulthood. Among many Native American communities boys often underwent a vision quest by going out into the wilderness alone and fasting. Rites of passage for girls were generally quite different. Monastic retreats also offer a kind of vision quest although people on retreat do not have to encounter the external struggles of the physical landscape, but like the early hermits have to wrestle with internal struggles. In this dialogue Marc and Rupert explore the potential for vision quests in the modern world. Lees meer
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Fields as Formal Causes, with David Bentley Hart
16 juli 2024 · 35 min
Watch the talk: https://youtu.be/dU0NIU5d4BI Lees meer
In this conversation, Rupert Sheldrake and David Bentley Hart delve into the concept of fields in physics, discussing their nature as non-material formative causes and their historical context in scientific thought. They explore the idea that fields, such as gravitational and electromagnetic, act as top-down causes, aligning with Aristotle's formal and final causes, and argue for a re-evaluation of these ancient concepts in modern science.
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Dying, Death and Beyond, with Satish Kumar & Guy Hayward
2 juli 2024 · 1 uur 10 min
Watch the talk: https://youtu.be/j91Er2Zh3j4 Lees meer
Join Satish Kumar and Rupert Sheldrake in an expansive conversation covering death, reincarnation, the afterlife, cycles, intentional dying, NDEs and more. Hosted by Guy Hayward, this discussion delves into personal memories, cultural practices, and philosophical views on death and what lies beyond. Interview questions were designed in collaboration with death doula Sierra Campbell. Video recorded in Hampstead, London, Dec 7, 2023, by Leslie Knott (Tiger Nest Films), with audio editing by Lucy Martens.
@rupertsheldrake @resurgencetrust @drguyhayward @pilgrimtrust @choosenurture @tigernestfilms @lucylnmartens
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The Power of Chanting: Exploring Sonic Resonance and Morphic Fields
18 juni 2024 · 11 min
Watch the full talk: https://iai.tv/video/discovering-the-world-beyond-science-rupert-sheldrake Lees meer
Dive into the fascinating world of chanting and its profound impact on personal and collective resonance. In this enlightening talk, we explore the vibratory power of mantras across different religious traditions. Through a series of simple experiments, discover the physical and spiritual resonance of chanting, from the basic "Amen" to the universal "Om," and learn how these sounds can transform our bodies, minds, and the spaces around us.
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The Nature of Phantom Limbs
4 juni 2024 · 32 min
Video: https://youtu.be/v0i1xc-khTQ Lees meer
After the amputation of a limb, most amputees experience a phantom limb in the place where their limb used to be. Subjectively, these phantoms feel real even though they do not behave like normal limbs and can be pushed through solid objects. The standard theory is that these phantoms are produced as illusions inside the brain, but Rupert suggests they may be the subjective experience of the fields of the missing limbs, which are located exactly where they seem to be. If so, the phantoms might interact with the fields of other people, and some types of healers may be particularly sensitive to them. Rupert discusses simple experiments that can reveal whether phantoms really are where they seem to be and remain part of the body-field even though the material limbs are no longer even present. This research has profound implications for our understanding of the relations between minds, body images and bodies.
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Anatheism: Rediscovering God in a Secular Age
21 mei 2024 · 1 uur 27 min
March 20th, 2024 St. James's Church, London
Video: https://youtu.be/QuicgRaE7E8 Lees meerIn this talk, Rupert Sheldrake explores the theme of finding God again, in an increasingly secular society. Drawing from personal experiences in India and his journey through various spiritual traditions, Rupert provides insights into anatheism, or returning to God, and how this process is unfolding in a post-Christian world. He touches on the connections between science and spirituality, the value of pilgrimage and sacred places, and the emerging concept of panpsychism, which considers consciousness as a fundamental quality in nature. An engaging Q&A session with the audience dives deeper into perennial philosophy, the role of feminine energy in Christianity, and the impact of psychedelics on spiritual practices.
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Presentiment: Waking Before Alarms, Making Millions Through Day Trading
9 april 2024 · 51 min
Most people have had the experience of waking soon before an alarm clock goes off and some can even wake before a specified time without an alarm. The usual assumption is that this depends on an exquisitely sensitive time sense, but Rupert argues that it may be explained better in terms of presentiment, or ‘feeling the future’, or even in terms of an ‘extended present’. Lees meer
We already know that our sense of the present is not a mathematical instant, but has width, and perhaps it widens over ranges of seconds to include portions of the near future, Presentiment is now a well-established phenomenon in laboratory experiments, carried out at the Institute of Noetic Sciences, Cornell University and elsewhere, and may be widely distributed among people and non-human animals.
It could play an important part in everyday life, and become especially significant in fast-moving sports like downhill skiing, tennis and ping pong. Some people may make use of this ability in day trading where they make decisions on movements of the markets over very short time periods, sometimes only a few seconds.
Rupert discusses how this ability could potentially be trained, enabling airline pilots and racing drivers to be better prepared for potential accidents, and helping some people to get rich quick – as some day traders already have – by using intuitive abilities that cannot be duplicated by computers.
References
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An Experiment with Time
by John William Dunne
https://archive.org/details/AnExperimentWithTimeEbook
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Listen to the Animals: Why did so many animals escape December's tsunami?
https://www.sheldrake.org/tsunami
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Predicting the unpredictable; evidence of pre-seismic anticipatory behaviour in the common toad
https://www.sheldrake.org/toads
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Dogs That Know When Their Owners Are Coming Home
https://www.sheldrake.org/dogs
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Unconscious Perception of Future Emotions: An Experiment in Presentiment
by Dean Radin, Journal of Scientific Exploration, Vol. 11, No. 2, pp. 16… -
My scientific explorations through fieldwork in Asia and Europe
19 maart 2024 · 1 uur 22 min
March 18th, 2024
University College London Expeditions and Fieldwork Society Lees meerIn this talk given Rupert Sheldrake explores the allure of expeditions and fieldwork, delving into his own adventures exploring Mayan ruins in Mexico and studying tropical plants in Malaysia. Throughout the talk he illustrates how these experiences broadened his scientific and spiritual horizons, connecting this intrinsic human curiosity to our ancestral hunter-gatherer roots.
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The Science Delusion: TEDx Whitechapel, the "banned" talk
7 maart 2024 · 19 min
TEDx Whitechapel, Jan 12, 2013 Lees meer
The theme for the night was Visions for Transition: Challenging existing paradigms and redefining values (for a more beautiful world). In response to protests from two hardcore materialists in the US, the talk was taken out of circulation by TED, relegated to a corner of their website and stamped with a warning label.
Room for discussion was made, but those who condemned the talk never showed up. The vast majority of those who spoke out were outraged, including those who'd never heard of morphic resonance. Ironically, at the time of removal the video had a modest 35,000 views on YouTube; since then, its clones have been watched over 7 million times. The video has been translated into 24 languages by generous members of the YouTube community.
Read more: https://www.sheldrake.org/ted
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Desert Island Discs in Hampstead: Music in Rupert’s Life
20 januari 2024 · 1 uur 21 min
Modelled on the BBC radio series, this long-standing local programme was produced live by a group in Hampstead, London, in 2023. As the castaway on a theoretical desert island, Rupert could bring with him eight pieces of music (listed below), a few books, and one luxury item. Lees meer
1:07 If you had not been a scientist what would you have been?
2:27 Getting to the island4:47 Bach, Mass in B minor (Gloria)
7:25 Purcell, Music for a While
16:47 Monteverdi, Madrigal
24:33 Beatles, Because
36:41 Subbulakshi, Devotional Song
45:07 Mozart, Laudate Dominum
54:55 Cosmo Sheldrake, Solar Walz
1:03:19 Tallis, Salvator Mundi, Hampstead Parish Church ChoirSome music was cut for copyright reasons, or poor audio quality.
Here's the playlist on Youtube:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLQNvVzO_W4EzTopdM6ZxrrYBQoIvhxNGe -
Psychedelics and Consciousness, University of Sussex
29 december 2023 · 1 uur 28 min
A lecture for the Psychedelic Research Society at the University of Sussex, Nov 6th, 2023. Lees meer
https://www.facebook.com/sussex.uni.psychesociety/
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Dr Iain McGilchrist - The Intersection of Consciousness and Matter
12 december 2023 · 1 uur 14 min
This was recorded at the Beyond the Brain 2023 conference, by The Scientific and Medical Network: https://scientificandmedical.net/ Lees meer
Video is also available here: https://youtu.be/KyNgE6RsGnw
Iain McGilchrist and Rupert Sheldrake delve into a spectrum of profound subjects, touching upon the essential role of spirituality in human endeavors, the revitalization of spiritual practices, and the fundamental structure of the cosmos. They discuss panpsychism's implications for the interconnection of consciousness and matter, the enduring nature of memory, the archetypal forms that underpin our reality, and the subtle energy fields that animate existence. The conversation also navigates the terrain of values and the purpose they serve in our lives.
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The Reproducibility Crisis in Science: How do Expectations Influence Experimental Results?
18 november 2023 · 51 min
Episode 4 of the online course How To Transform the Sciences: Six Potential Breakthroughs
https://www.sheldrake.org/online-courses Lees meerAround 2015, scientists were shocked to find that most papers in high-prestige peer-reviewed scientific journals are not reproducible. In one study of papers in prestigious biomedical journals, 90% could not be replicated, and in experimental psychology more than 60%. This crisis partly arises from systematic biases that Rupert discusses in his chapter on ‘Illusions of Objectivity’ in The Science Delusion (2012, new edition 2020; in the US this book is called Science Set Free), including the selective observation and reporting of results, and perverse incentives for scientists and journals to publish striking positive findings. The crisis continues to roll on, as shown, for example, by an editorial in Nature, December 2021, about un-reproducible results in cancer biology.
All this is relatively straightforward, but Rupert suggests that some experiments may also involve direct mind-over-matter effects. It has long been known that experimenters can influence their experimental results through their expectations, in so-called ‘experimenter expectancy effects’, which is why many clinical trials, psychological and parapsychological experiments are carried out under blind or double-blind conditions.
In most other fields of science, experimenter effects are ignored and blind methodologies are rarely employed. Rupert suggests that in addition to the usual sources of bias, experimenters may also influence experiments psychokinetically, through direct mind-over-matter effects. Scientists may be particularly prone to this source of error because most scientists believe psychokinesis is impossible, and hence take no precautions against it. They practise unprotected science. Rupert proposes experiments on experiments to test for the effects of experimenters’ hopes and expectations.
ReferencesReferences
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A Dream, or the Astronomy of the Moon… -
Trialogue: Utopianism and Millenarianism, with Terence McKenna and Ralph Abraham
11 november 2023 · 1 uur 22 min
Esalen, California, 1992. Lees meer
A cultural history of utopianism. Surges of utopian renewal. The trinitarian utopian model. Are the utopian and millenarian movements tendencies of the European mind in reaction to Christianity? Millenarians are dominated by the apocalyptic idea. How have these trends influenced the trialoguers? The Marxist utopian model. Scientific utopianism. Liberal political utopianism. New age and psychedelic utopianism. A mathematical utopia. 2012 - the end of history? What is the connection between the Archaic Revival and the Timewave? Is millenarianism an anti-progressive force? Origins and end-points. Utopianism is reasonable if we can change our minds. Our role as care-takers of the world. Is time speeding up? A fractal model of time. A model of history that shows catastrophic transformations to new equilibria. Self-fulfilling prophecies. Does the Omega Point concern the entire cosmos or is it limited to human destiny on earth? A vision of a world revived through animism, mathematical vision, stellar communication and psychedelics. Questions and answers: Large scale vacuum fluctuation. The birth of universe. Life after death. Ralph considers new forms of trialoguing and teaching the trialogue idea.
Related Book
Chapter 10 of The Evolutionary Mind
https://sheldrake.org/books-by-rupert-sheldrake/the-evolutionary-mind -
Panpsychism, Cambridge University
24 oktober 2023 · 1 uur 2 min
A seminar at Cambridge University, June 2023
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Trialogue: Fractal Boundaries and Dischaos, with Ralph Abraham and Terence McKenna
11 oktober 2023 · 1 uur 27 min
Hazelwood, Devon, England, June 1993 Lees meer
Ralph tells a fractal story and explains how fractal models can illuminate our understanding of the world. Applying fractals to individual psychology.. The need for chaos and disorder in the personality. Multiple personality 'dischaos'. A 'sandy beach' model of the mind. Therapeutic strategies to increase chaos. The need to restore pantheism. A mathematical model for monogamy. Order and chaos must be balanced. Multiple attractors at the end of time. A polytheistic psychology. The unity within polytheistic systems.. Cultures and individuals need fractal rather than rigid boundaries. A fractal cosmos. The mystery of the Holy Trinity. The loss of unity through rigid boundaries. How can we fractalize our boundaries and create unity? Psychedelics, meditation, travel, tantra and chanting. Returning to the pre-verbal mode of expression. What about people whose boundaries are too low already? The cure to boundary anxiety can be found within. Is there any culture that has managed to avoid 'dischaos'? Questions and answers: The Aristotelian perspective of modern science needs to be balanced by the Platonic. Maths anxiety. Chaos is a kind of order and vice versa. Jung's deconstruction of Yahweh. The sacred trinity of the goddess. Recovering the aboriginal state of consciousness. Cultural taboos.
Related Book
Chapter 7 of The Evolutionary Mind
https://sheldrake.org/books-by-rupert-sheldrake/the-evolutionary-mind -
Trialogue: The Heavens, with Terence McKenna and Ralph Abraham
12 september 2023 · 1 uur 30 min
Esalen, California, 1992. The ancient view of the universe as alive. The anima mundi. The fall into the deterministic and mechanistic worldview. How this view is now being transcended. The recovery of the sense of the life of nature and of the heavens. Creativity and morphic resonance in nature. Resacralizing the earth through seasonal festivals and pilgrimage. Linking astronomy and astrology and resacralizing the heavens. Is the universe somehow conscious? Contacting celestial intelligences. Elizabethan star magic and the concept of the great chain of being. Are the contents of our imagination somehow real? Organismic philosophy and the re-infusion of spirit into nature. Re-animating the cosmos. The different levels of intelligence in the universe, and possible techniques for communicating with them. Channelling the stars. A synthesis of astrology and astronomy. Guiding intelligences. Questions and answers: The need to engage with the environment. Light and energy as a manifestation of spirit. Various ways to invoke stellar deities. Long barrows. The feeling of reverence for the heavens. The sky as teacher. The consciousness of the sun. Imagination as the source of creativity in nature. Renaissance magic. Lees meer
Related Book
The Evolutionary Mind
https://sheldrake.org/books-by-rupert-sheldrake/the-evolutionary-mind -
Trialogue: The Apocalypse, with Terence McKenna and Ralph Abraham
21 augustus 2023 · 1 uur 24 min
1995, Esalen Institute Lees meer
The apocalyptic tradition: paranoid self-fulfilling prophecy or an intuition of instability? Stripping the provincialism from apocalyptic messages. Apocalyptic scenarios, including the 'God-whistle' theory. The ecological catastrophe as the appropriate interpretation of the Apocalypse. Steering the Apocalypse toward a tolerable conclusion. The power of faith. Big Bang cosmology as a projection of the Judaeo-Christian model of history. The fate of the sun. The projection of the Apocalypse in 2012. Ecological catastrophe and forces of novelty that may create planetary metamorphosis. Global crucifixion. The recovery of Eden. The personal apocalypse: a glimpse of post-mortal life. Interplanetary morphic resonance. The green version of the apocalyptic vision.
Related Book
Chaos, Creativity and Cosmic Consciousness
https://sheldrake.org/books-by-rupert-sheldrake/chaos-creativity-and-cosmic-consciousness -
David Lorimer: The Scientific and Medical Network
15 augustus 2023 · 29 min
The Scientific and Medical Network (SMN) is a worldwide professional community and membership organisation for open-minded, rigorous and evidence-based enquiry into themes bridging science, spirituality and consciousness. It promotes a cultural shift in our understanding of reality and human experience beyond the limits imposed by exclusively materialist and reductionist approaches. 2023 is the Network's 50th Golden Jubilee. Lees meer
https://scientificandmedical.net/
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Dr Andrew Weil: From Epigenetics to Healthcare System Failure, Fasting, Laughter Yoga and Beyond
25 juli 2023 · 1 uur 1 min
Hollyhock, 2008 Lees meer
Andrew Weil, MD, is a world-renowned pioneer in the field of integrative medicine, an approach to health care which encompasses body, mind, and spirit. Rupert and Andrew had a series of conversations over eight years at Hollyhock, on Cortes Island, BC, Canada. In this talk they discuss Rupert's stabbing in Santa Fe, epigenetics, the broken US healthcare system, fasting, laughter yoga, Dr Weil as a brand, and many other topics still relevant today.
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Dr Andrew Weil, Unsolved Mysteries in Science and Medicine
18 juli 2023 · 1 uur 10 min
Hollyhock, 2011 Lees meer
Andrew Weil, MD, is a world-renowned pioneer in the field of integrative medicine, an approach to health care which encompasses body, mind, and spirit. Rupert and Andrew had a series of conversations over eight years at Hollyhock, on Cortes Island, BC, Canada. In this talk they discuss the rise in gluten sensitivity and autism, amongst a variety of medical mysteries.
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The Force of Habit: New Tests for Morphic Resonance
4 juli 2023 · 39 min
Part of an online course on potential scientific breakthroughs:
https://www.sheldrake.org/online-courses Lees meerIn this talk Rupert discusses new ways in which the hypothesis of morphic resonance can be tested, including with holistic quantum systems like Bose-Einstein condensates, with new materials like high-temperature superconductors, through experiments on cellular adaptation to toxins and heat stress, in experiments on learning in non-human animals, including nematode worms and fruit flies, and with popular online puzzles like Wordle.
The implications of these tests, if successful, would be very far reaching, and could lead to new understandings of physical phenomena like the melting points of crystals, which would depend on influences from previous similar crystals, rather than on timeless laws. In biology, morphic resonance from past organisms would play an essential role in heredity, in addition to genes and epigenetic modifications of gene expression. In humans, collective memory would facilitate learning and problem-solving, and morphic resonance would underlie what the psychologist Jung called ‘the collective unconscious’.
_References_
Mind, Memory, and Archetype: Morphic Resonance and the Collective Unconscious
https://sheldrake.org/memoryRat Learning and Morphic Resonance
https://sheldrake.org/ratsThe Flynn effect
https://james-flynn.net/The Sound of a Hidden Order
https://www.nature.com/articles/498041aA reprogrammable mechanical metamaterial with stable memory
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-020-03123-5Evidence for unconventional superconductivity in twisted trilayer graphene
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-022-04715-zAntiferromagnetic half-skyrmions and bimerons at room temperature
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-021-03219-6Conditioned aversion
https://dictionary.apa.org/conditioned-aversionAn Experimental Test of the Hypothesis of Formative Causation
https://sheldrake.org/roseSteven Rose's 'A hypothesis disconfi…
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Trialogue: Disincarnate and Non-human Entities, with Terence McKenna and Ralph Abraham
20 juni 2023 · 1 uur 19 min
Are disincarnate and non-human entities mental projections or non-physical, autonomous entities? What can we learn from them? Their variety and persistence in human history. Early modern science and angelic communication. The shamanic model. The aversion to the irrational in Christianity and science. The need to analyze the entities' messages. A mathematical model of body, soul and spirit. Entities as inhabitants of the spiritual domain of the logos. The evolution of their multifarious representations. The dogma of purgatory. Contacting these entities through dreams and psychedelics. The deepest layers of the faery tradition. Metaphors of light? Entities as artificers and their use of language. Is the world soul behind these entities? Corn circles. The call to prepare language for these encounters. Experiential contact with the celestial sphere. The humanist illusion of self-sufficiency, leading to societal possession. Mammon. A celestial battle on earth? Redirecting attention to the positive forms. The ultimate partnership - reconnecting the Gaian and celestial spheres to the human spirit. Where could the new alchemical kingdom be? Lees meer
From the book:
Chaos, Creativity and Cosmic Consciousness first published as Trialogues at the Edge of the West, Chapter 6.
https://sheldrake.org/books-by-rupert-sheldrake/chaos-creativity-and-cosmic-consciousness0:00Terence
12:40Ralph
18:17Terence
20:55Ralph
23:20Terence
26:05Ralph
30:41Terence
31:22Rupert
35:10Terence
39:54Rupert
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Trialogue: Creativity and Chaos, with Terence McKenna and Ralph Abraham
30 mei 2023 · 41 min
1995, Esalen Institute Lees meer
The idea of an attractor for the entire cosmic evolutionary process. The role of the attractor in chaos dynamics. Motivation and attraction. The value of spoken language. Mathematical modelling. The relationship between mathematical models with chaotic behaviour and the chaos in life. Idolatry and models becoming reality. The feminine aspect of creativity.
Related Book
Chaos, Creativity and Cosmic Consciousness
https://sheldrake.org/books-by-rupert-sheldrake/chaos-creativity-and-cosmic-consciousness -
Ralph Abraham: Form from Chaos, Attractors, Cosmic Expansion, Energetic Flux, World Soul
16 mei 2023 · 45 min
1995, Esalen Institute Lees meer
The chaos revolution, chaotic attractors and indeterminism in nature. The emergence of form from the field of chaos. The formative process in cooling. Is the mathematical realm of the world soul in co-evolution with ordinary reality? The potential of mathematics to aid us in our own evolution by extending our language for dealing with complex systems. Visual intuitions and the Butterfly Effect.
Related Book
Chaos, Creativity and Cosmic Consciousness
https://sheldrake.org/books-by-rupert-sheldrake/chaos-creativity-and-cosmic-consciousness -
Cellular Immortality, a New Theory of Senescence and Rejuvenation
10 mei 2023 · 42 min
The second of a series of six talks on potential scientific breakthroughs:
https://www.sheldrake.org/online-courses Lees meerRupert proposed a new hypothesis of cellular rejuvenation in an article in Nature in 1974, and in 2023 published a review article entitled ‘Cellular Senescence, Rejuvenation and Potential Immortality’ in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B, summarising results of recent research, which support his hypothesis. In this talk he gives an overview of this hypothesis, which applies to cells of all kinds, including bacteria and yeasts as well as plants and animals, and he shows how it sheds new light on the nature of stem cells.
In mammals, embryonic stem cells have a special property that enables them to divide indefinitely without senescing and Rupert suggests that cancerous transformations involve the hijacking of this embryonic stem cell system. He suggests ways in which this hypothesis could be tested, and shows how it could lead to new approaches in cancer therapy – by blocking the rejuvenative system that cancers have acquired. If this system were inhibited, then cancer cells might senesce like most other somatic cells and become less virulent.
References
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Sheldrake, R. (1974). The ageing, growth and death of cells. Nature, 250, 381-385.
https://www.sheldrake.org/ageing
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Sheldrake, R. (2022) Cellular Senescence Rejuvenation and Potential Immortality. Proceeding of the Royal Society B, 289, 20212434
https://www.sheldrake.org/immortality
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Nine open questions suggested by the cellular rejuvenation hypothesis, and ways of answering them empirically (Supplementary to the above paper in Proc. Royal Soc. B)
https://rs.figshare.com/ndownloader/files/34255402 -
How do birds navigate and pigeons home?
25 april 2023 · 51 min
Despite decades of research, no one knows how birds navigate to destinations hundreds of miles away. Rupert suggests that there is a field-mediated sense of direction through which they are attracted towards their goals. This is the first of a series of six talks on potential breakthroughs in the sciences released as an online course here:
https://www.sheldrake.org/online-courses Lees meerRelated book:
Seven Experiments That Could Change the World
https://www.sheldrake.org/books-by-rupert-sheldrake/seven-experiments-that-could-change-the-worldReferences
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Satellite Tracking of Wandering Albatrosses
Jouventin,P. and Weimerskirsch, H. 1990. Nature 343, 745-748.
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Perdeck, Albert C.
Two Types of Orientation in Migrating Starlings, Sturnus yulgaris L., and Chaffinches, Fringilla coelebs L., as Revealed by Displacement Experiments. Ardea, 55(1–2) : 1-2.
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Netherlands Ornithologists' Union
https://doi.org/10.5253/arde.v1i2.p1
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Magnetic Fields 1750-1980
Bloxham, J. and Gubbins, D. 1985. The secular variation of tye earth’s magnetic field. Nature 317, 778-781.
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World War 1 Pigeon Loft Photos
public domain
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Mobile Loft Experiment at Coldham hall, Suffolk, 1989
With Robbie Robson of Bury St. Edmunds Racing Pigeon Club
Photo by: Jill Purce
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Dutch Navel Pigeon Experiment
HNLMS Tydeman
June, 1995
Filmed by: Louis van Gasteren, Gregor Meerman and Jacqueline van Vugt -
Trialogue: Fractal History at the Edge of the Millenium, with Ralph Abraham and Terence McKenna
18 april 2023 · 54 min
1998, UC Santa Cruz Lees meer
The fractal idea of history, and millenia as the plateaus of history. These bifurcation periods as opportunities to influence the creation of the future. What kind of future or change are we trying to create? The need for the enhancement and spread of clarity. Psychic pets and their role in breaking the spell of rationalism. Psychedelics, the World Wide Web and psychic pets as forms of boundary dissolution. The need for change in the educational system. The problem of the rejection of mathematics.
Related Book
Chaos, Creativity and Cosmic Consciousness
https://sheldrake.org/books-by-rupert-sheldrake/chaos-creativity-and-cosmic-consciousness