Navigating Consciousness with Rupert Sheldrake

TEDx Whitechapel, Jan 12, 2013

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

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.

1:07 If you had not been a scientist what would you have been?
2:27 Getting to the island

4:47 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 Choir

Some music was cut for copyright reasons, or poor audio quality.
Here's the playlist on Youtube: 
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLQNvVzO_W4EzTopdM6ZxrrYBQoIvhxNGe

A lecture for the Psychedelic Research Society at the University of Sussex, Nov 6th, 2023.

https://www.facebook.com/sussex.uni.psychesociety/

This was recorded at the Beyond the Brain 2023 conference, by The Scientific and Medical Network: https://scientificandmedical.net/

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.

Episode 4 of the online course How To Transform the Sciences: Six Potential Breakthroughs
https://www.sheldrake.org/online-courses

Around 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.
References


References
____
A Dream, or the Astronomy of the Moon
Johann Kepler, published posthumously in 1634 by his son
https://sheldrake.org/somnium
____
Rupert's essay The Replicability Crisis in Science
https://sheldrake.org/replicability
____
Bad Pharma
Ben GoldacreFourth Estate, 2012
https://sheldrake.org/badpharma
____
Artifacts in Behavioral Research
Robert Rosenthal and Ralph L. Rosnow, Oxford University Press, 2009
https://sheldrake.org/rosenthal
____
Over half of psychology studies fail reproducibility test
https://www.nature.com/articles/nature.2015.18248
____
Differential indoctrination of examiners and Rorschach responses
https://psycnet.apa.org/record/1965-12396-001
____
A longitudinal study of the effects of experimenter bias on the operant learning of laboratory rats
https://psycnet.apa.org/record/1965-01547-001
____
Could Experimenter Effects Occur in the Physical and Biological Sciences?
Skeptical Inquirer 22(3), 57-58 May / June 1998
https://sheldrake.org/skepticalinquirer98
____
Quantum‐Mechanical Random‐Number Generator 
https://aip.scitation.org/doi/abs/10.1063/1.1658698

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Dr Rupert Sheldrake, PhD, is a biologist and author best known for his hypothesis of morphic resonance. At Cambridge University, as a Fellow of Clare College, he was Director of Studies in biochemistry and cell biology. As the Rosenheim Research Fellow of the Royal Society, he carried out research on the development of plants and the ageing of cells, and together with Philip Rubery discovered the mechanism of polar auxin transport. In India, he was Principal Plant Physiologist at the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics, where he helped develop new cropping systems now widely used by farmers. He is the author of more than 100 papers in peer-reviewed journals and his research contributions have been widely recognized by the academic community, earning him a notabl

Esalen, California, 1992.

 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

A seminar at Cambridge University, June 2023

Hazelwood, Devon, England, June 1993

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

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. 

Related Book
The Evolutionary Mind
https://sheldrake.org/books-by-rupert-sheldrake/the-evolutionary-mind

1995, Esalen Institute

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