For many of today’s foremost scientists, the world is a strictly material place, made up of dead matter, with no intrinsic purpose, value or meaning. Consciousness is seen as solely a physical function of the brain. Sheldrake demonstrates that these principles are not incontrovertible truths, but rather assumptions that have become dangerously constrictive to the progress of real scientific discovery. With a skepticism characteristic of true scientific inquiry, he sets his sights on ten fundamental dogmas of the science, dismantling each to make room for startling new possibilities. Sheldrake is pro-science, stating, “I want the sciences to be less dogmatic and more scientific. I believe that the sciences will be regenerated when they are liberated from the dogmas that constrict them."*
Are Memories Stored as Material Traces? Repeated failures to find physical evidence of memories etched on the brain suggest another approach is needed. Seeing memory as a resonant phenomenon, which explains the observed phenomena of collective, cultural, and generational memory, belies the idea that memory decays at death, and has profound implications for both teaching and evolution*
Are the Laws of Nature Fixed? Making universal assumptions on the basis of pre-evolutionary philosophies limits our capacity to understand change and evolution. The “laws” of nature are really more like habits—for example, crystals grow as they do because they have grown that way before.
Is the Total amount of Matter and Energy Always the Same? In the last 30 years the total amount of matter and energy recognized by physics has increased more than 20-fold. Dark matter and dark energy, whose nature is literally obscure, are now believed to make up more than 96 percent of reality. Can any of this newly-discovered energy be tapped, with revolutionary effects on the world economy?
Deepak Chopra, who published this last book of Sheldrake's, speaks warmly of his work in his blog (Deepak Chopra - Science Set Free):
"Sheldrake's essential point is that science needs
setting free from ten blind dogmas. These dogmas embrace a true belief
system as much as Roman Catholicism or any other faith. Behind the daily
activity of gathering data, science assumes certain things about
reality that, according to Sheldrake, are unsupportable. The first
dogma, for example, holds that the universe is mechanical. If that is
so, then everything in the universe is also mechanical, including human
beings - or to use a phrase from the noted atheist Richard Dawkins, we
are "lumbering robots." From a scientist's perspective, to understand
everything that you need to know about human beings, you only have to
tinker with all the mechanical parts of genes and the brain until there
are no more secrets left.
Clearly such a view leaves no room for the soul, which becomes a wispy
illusion that needs to be swept away. But then, so does the self,
because there is no region of the brain that contains "I," a person. As
long as "I" is a hallucination formed by complex neural circuitry, one
can throw out - or reduce to mechanical operations - love, beauty,
truth, compassion, honor, devotion, faith, and so on, the whole
apparatus that makes a person's life feel valuable. A random universe
has no purpose; therefore, giving lumbering robots a purpose is dubious."
Chopra makes a wide swing to the other pole in the above statement. Would it be possible that there lies a paradoxical truth; that is, the universe is consumately automatic in every way AND also has a mostly undisclosed potential for a resonating, full intelligence? The impending possibility that there is no fixed "I", only the potential of one-- and truth, compassion, devotion can be as mechanical as anything else, but again, because of this universal possibility contained in consciousness, it could be otherwise. Perhaps we are coming to: these conflicting truths exist simultaneously in all and everything. We and the universe as "systems", embody both mechanicality and an extremely sensitive organism with a layered consciousness.
Chopra continues, "The second dogma he overturns is the belief that matter is unconscious. The whole universe is filled with atoms and molecules that have no connection to intelligence, creativity, or meaning. The problem here is that nobody can explain how atoms and molecules learned to think. No matter how closely you examine the water, glucose, and electrolyte salts in the human brain, you can't find the point where these molecules became conscious. How come the sugar water in a can of Coke isn't thinking and feeling while the sugar water in your cerebral cortex is? For science to brush this problem aside as mere metaphysics doesn't make it go away.
The third dogma is that the laws of nature are fixed and haven't changed
since the Big Bang. The fourth is that the amount of matter and energy
in the cosmos is always the same. And so the list grows, building toward
a shocking conclusion: Science has been explaining a mirage and calling
it reality. Sheldrake isn't speaking as a mystic or an enemy of science
- far from it. He has kept up with the most current findings in physics
and biology. Among these findings are some shattering discoveries, as
far as rigid dogmas are concerned:
- The universe operates more like a living organism than a machine.
- The existence of dark matter and dark energy topples the conservation of matter and energy. Because the "dark" dimension operates outside the visible universe, the notion of fixed laws of nature suddenly looks wobbly, too.
- Purpose-driven evolution may explain life better than the random mutation of classic Darwinism.
- Genes, far from being fixed and deterministic, are involved in a far more fluid interaction than anyone ever supposed.
Sheldrake works with many more intriguing discoveries; he has a delightfully inquisitive, penetrating mind. He also seems unflappable in the face of the howling protests he has raised for thirty years, beginning when none of the above findings was even suspected. If science weren't a dogmatic belief system, there would be rational responses to his challenges rather than scorn from true believers. But a major shift is occurring. Under its title in the UK, The Science Delusion (playing off Dawkins' best-selling The God Delusion) Sheldrake's new book is getting positive reviews in high places. Even more promising, a new generation of younger scientists, who are trained (unlike Dawkins) in the shifting new realities of physics, biology, and genetics, is actually intrigued by a universe permeated with consciousness, intelligence, and meaning.
Sheldrake is merciless when it comes to
dogmas being preached as if they were truths, but he has a special
gentleness that rises above controversy and ill-tempered arguments.
"Science is more free, more fun, and more interesting," he says, "when
we turn dogmas into questions instead." Can anyone seriously disagree?
The beautiful part of reading Science Set Free is the Aha! moments that
come unexpectedly. All of us are living with dogmas that we accept as
truths. When one of these is overturned, there's an initial gasp, soon
followed by a rush of exhilaration. The point of life, as Sheldrake
shows so well, isn't to set science free but to set humans free, because
we are more precious than any of the false gods we have created."
Chopra continues, "The second dogma he overturns is the belief that matter is unconscious. The whole universe is filled with atoms and molecules that have no connection to intelligence, creativity, or meaning. The problem here is that nobody can explain how atoms and molecules learned to think. No matter how closely you examine the water, glucose, and electrolyte salts in the human brain, you can't find the point where these molecules became conscious. How come the sugar water in a can of Coke isn't thinking and feeling while the sugar water in your cerebral cortex is? For science to brush this problem aside as mere metaphysics doesn't make it go away.
The third dogma is that the laws of nature are fixed and haven't changed
since the Big Bang. The fourth is that the amount of matter and energy
in the cosmos is always the same. And so the list grows, building toward
a shocking conclusion: Science has been explaining a mirage and calling
it reality. Sheldrake isn't speaking as a mystic or an enemy of science
- far from it. He has kept up with the most current findings in physics
and biology. Among these findings are some shattering discoveries, as
far as rigid dogmas are concerned:- The universe operates more like a living organism than a machine.
- The existence of dark matter and dark energy topples the conservation of matter and energy. Because the "dark" dimension operates outside the visible universe, the notion of fixed laws of nature suddenly looks wobbly, too.
- Purpose-driven evolution may explain life better than the random mutation of classic Darwinism.
- Genes, far from being fixed and deterministic, are involved in a far more fluid interaction than anyone ever supposed.
Sheldrake works with many more intriguing discoveries; he has a delightfully inquisitive, penetrating mind. He also seems unflappable in the face of the howling protests he has raised for thirty years, beginning when none of the above findings was even suspected. If science weren't a dogmatic belief system, there would be rational responses to his challenges rather than scorn from true believers. But a major shift is occurring. Under its title in the UK, The Science Delusion (playing off Dawkins' best-selling The God Delusion) Sheldrake's new book is getting positive reviews in high places. Even more promising, a new generation of younger scientists, who are trained (unlike Dawkins) in the shifting new realities of physics, biology, and genetics, is actually intrigued by a universe permeated with consciousness, intelligence, and meaning.
Sheldrake is merciless when it comes to
dogmas being preached as if they were truths, but he has a special
gentleness that rises above controversy and ill-tempered arguments.
"Science is more free, more fun, and more interesting," he says, "when
we turn dogmas into questions instead." Can anyone seriously disagree?
The beautiful part of reading Science Set Free is the Aha! moments that
come unexpectedly. All of us are living with dogmas that we accept as
truths. When one of these is overturned, there's an initial gasp, soon
followed by a rush of exhilaration. The point of life, as Sheldrake
shows so well, isn't to set science free but to set humans free, because
we are more precious than any of the false gods we have created."
Rupert Sheldrake, Ph.D. is a biologist and author of more than 80 scientific papers and 10 books, including Science Set Free (September
2012). He was a Fellow of Clare College, Cambridge University, a
Research Fellow of the Royal Society, Principal Plant Physiologist at
ICRISAT (the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid
Tropics) in Hyderabad, India, and from 2005-2010 the Director of the
Perrott-Warrick Project for research on unexplained human abilities,
funded from Trinity College, Cambridge. His web site is www.sheldrake.org
Much of the above material was gleaned from Science Set Free *book releases. His book can be found:
No comments:
Post a Comment