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mysteries |
Morphogenetic Fields |
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How do organisms seem to 'know' things that are beyond their own experience? Conventional thinking in biology has it that the blueprint for life is locked within our cells, in the double helix of the DNA molecule. This regulates the development and ultimately the use of all our organs, including the most complex of all: the brain. Most biologists see the complexity of the human brain as the product of millennia of evolution, its processes explainable purely in terms of electrical signals and chemistry. Many individuals, though, cannot account for the consciousness they experience without using spiritual terms; they instinctively feel there is more to themselves then merely physical being. Such feelings, and indeed consciousness itself, remain largely unexplained. Out On The Edge. There are, however, still some scientists who understand that challenging and testing accepted beliefs is the true spirit of scientific research, and are prepared to fly in the face of convention. These people provide alternative theories that sometimes become the scientific orthodoxy of the future. Contentious areas in biological theory include the inheritance of behaviour, the site of memory in the brain and the growing body of evidence in favour of the existence of such skills as extra-sensory perception (ESP) and telepathy. All these fields of research are covered by the theory of 'formative causation' discussed by the controversial biologist Dr Rupert Sheldrake in his ground-breaking book A New Science of Life. Conventional thought has it that DNA is made up of individual genes specifically linked to the development of a particular body part. Sheldrake disagrees with this, a illustrates his reasoning by examining the sea urchin. As the creature develops, he observes, its cells divide again and again to create the multi-cellular creature we can all recognise. But if the creature is cut up into parts at an early stage, each part will still give rise to a perfectly formed sea urchin. It is as if the cells were aware both of the outside interference and of their original goal, and this degree of insight, argues Sheldrake, goes way beyond the information encoded into the DNA. There are other challenging instances of regeneration. If, for example, the sea urchin's close relative the sponge is broken down into its constituent cells, and these are then forced through a sieve, they can still reform into a living sponge. The phenomenon also occurs in more complex creatures. Newts that have had the lenses surgically removed from their eyes have been able to regenerate them and see again, and, perhaps most incredibly, muscles, removed from lab mice, put through a mincer and then replaced in their original sites, have regained their previous usefulness. Of course, none of these experimental mutilations would occur in nature, so it is difficult to see how the species could have evolved to anticipate them. It is as if these creatures are unconsciously aware of their ideal shape and structure and act to avoid deviation from them. Sheldrake accounts for this by suggesting the existence of 'morphogenetic [literally "shape-generating"] fields'. Organisms will, he argues, strive to copy these blueprints even if they encounter artificial obstructions that they would not have met outside of the lab. Each morphogenetic field becomes firmly established with the continuing success of the species. It is as if a successful blueprint, once established, ensures the success of future similar organisms. Inherited Behaviour. Another challenge to scientific orthodoxy can be found in the much-observed phenomenon of inherited behaviour. The remarkable case of the European cuckoo is a particular problem. The hen of this species lays its eggs in the nests of other birds, leaving them to raise and care for its young. Though young cuckoos therefore grow up isolated from other members of their species, they all 'know' how and when to migrate for winter. They travel thousands of miles to a particular area of Southern Africa, where they recognise other cuckoos and congregate with them. Such examples of inherited knowledge are fairly common in the animal kingdom; it is as if generations spent repeating certain actions makes them 'second nature'. Of course, this particular example may not be beyond conventional explanation. The cuckoo could be acting under the subtle influence of an interior clock and compass and might recognize its fellow cuckoos through a trigger such as smell. Other behavioural quirks, however, do indeed defy such explanations. Among thee is the ability of a chameleon that has lost its sight to continue to adapt its colouration to match the surrounding environment. Morphic Resonance. Sheldrake suggests that complex behavioural patterns are not necessarily derived from intelligence and experience, but are learned through 'morphic resonance' with other creatures of the same species, both alive and dead. Interestingly, Sheldrake's theory strikes a chord with some recent research into quantum physics, where the notion of 'action at a distance' is beginning to be taken seriously. In Sheldrake's schema, a successful morphogenetic field will affect other like fields by resonating harmoniously with them, regardless of distance across space and time, in much the same way that a tuning fork, when struck, will cause another of the same pitch in the near vicinity to resonate sympathetically. People are, of course, far more complex structures than tuning forks, but we too can be made to resonate to outside factors. If, for example, a bright light is flashed in our eyes at the same frequency as our brainwaves, it will stimulate resonant brain activity and possibly even an epileptic fit. Many biologists have attempted, without success, to isolate the area of the brain responsible for memory. There have been many examples through the ages of people who have lost large areas of their brain to accident or disease but who retain their recollections of the past. Many such cases challenge the common assumption that memory is based in the part of the brain known as the cortex. Rupert Sheldrake's alternative theory is that, in accessing 'our' memories, we also contact past selves and dip into the 'collective unconscious', or racial mind, of our species. There is, surprisingly, quite a large body of evidence to support this thesis. A series of experiments carried out by W. McDougall at Harvard University in 1920, for example, threw up some unexpected results. McDougall put lab rats in a chamber with two exits. One of them was a brightly-lit dead end; any hapless rat that tried to use it received a non-fatal electric shock. The other, unlit, exit was the correct way out. Unsurprisingly, the rats soon learned which exit to take, but the real surprise came when successive generations of rats were put in the chamber. More and more rats chose the correct exit at the first time of asking. Bizarre Results. Later experiments in the Universities of Edinburgh and Melbourne revealed that lab rats all over the world had become more adept at remembering which exit to avoid. Even rats who were wholly unrelated to McDougall's stock were apparently more likely to pick the correct exit first time and then stick with that choice. The only explanations that have ever been advanced for the way this information seemed to spread among rats have been telepathy and morphic resonance. Experiments designed to measure the existence of 'supernatural' mental abilities of the brain usually provide positive, though unspectacular results. No one, using mental power alone, has demonstrated the ability to roll a six on a dice every time, but many people can achieve a statistically significant result over a thousand throws. A few individuals do, however, display exceptional powers. Two men, Nikolaiev and Kamensky, were discovered by the Soviet Union's Bio Information Section to be able to communicate across hundreds of kilometres by synchronizing their brain waves. The Russian scientists also found that other telepaths could eavesdrop on their 'conversations', implying that the messages were being carried in a medium we could all access, a medium that may also play a part in clairvoyance or remote viewing. Solid evidence that something like morphic resonance and the collective mind exists and can account for some of the results of parapsychological experiments is slowly accumulating. On 31st August 1983, for example, a pictorial puzzle was shown to a group of volunteers and then both puzzle and answer were broadcast on national television. Afterwards, once we as a species had become familiarized with the puzzle, a different group of volunteers - who had not been exposed to the TV broadcast or the original test subjects - had a 76% higher success rate at solving the puzzle. Scientific Quandary. This does not apply only to humans. Scientists studying macaque monkeys on an isolated island noted how a new behaviour - washing food provided by experimenters in the sea - spread through the island population, and then occurred, apparently spontaneously, in groups of the same species on different islands. Evolutionary theory has no explanation for such observations and tends, therefore, to ignore them. The scientific community is, however, slowly being forced to deal with some of the more radical theorists, such as Sheldrake, who do offer some kind of explanation. |
Sources: The X Factor By: Rupert Sheldrake |