World of Rupert Sheldrake

John Blanton

The North Texas Skeptics

17 April 2010

Rupert Sheldrake

• Biologist and author of more than 80 scientific papers and ten books.

• Former Research Fellow of the Royal Society

• Ph.D. in biochemistry at Cambridge.

• From 1968 to 1969, based in the Botany Department of the University of Malaya, Kuala Lumpur

• Lived for a year and a half at the ashram of Fr Bede Griffiths in Tamil Nadu, where he wrote his first book, A New Science of Life.

• Fellow of the Institute of Noetic Sciences, near San Francisco, and a Visiting Professor and Academic Director of the Holistic Thinking Program at the Graduate Institute in Connecticut.

• Appeared in many TV programs in Britain and overseas, and was one of the participants in a TV series called A Glorious Accident, shown on PBS channels throughout the US

Books by Rupert Sheldrake

• A New Science of Life: The Hypothesis of Formative Causation (1981)

• The Presence of the Past: Morphic Resonance and the Habits of Nature (1988)

• The Rebirth of Nature: The Greening of Science and God (1992)• Seven Experiments that Could Change the World: A Do-It-

Yourself Guide to Revolutionary Science (1994)• Dogs that Know When Their Owners are Coming Home, and

Other Unexplained Powers of Animals (1999)• The Sense of Being Stared At, And Other Aspects of the

Extended Mind (2003)

Morphogenetic Fields

Monkeys and Tits

Group Learning of Tits

Books by Rupert Sheldrake

From Wikipedia

• The Institute of Noetic Sciences (IONS) was co-founded in 1973 by former astronaut Edgar Mitchell and investor Paul N. Temple to encourage and conduct research on human potentials. Institute programs include "extended human capacities," "integral health and healing," and "emerging worldviews."

• This research includes topics such as spontaneous remission, meditation, consciousness, alternative healing practices, spirituality, human potential, psychic abilities and survival of consciousness after bodily death, among others.[4]

• Headquartered in Petaluma, California, the organization is situated on a 200-acre campus which houses offices, a research laboratory, and a retreat center. The institute does not grant educational degrees

Online Experiments

Take part in research with your friends by doing simple experiments with mobile phones or online.

Can you tell who's calling?

Can you tell when someone is hearing the same music as you?

Can you tell when you are being stared at?

Visit our online Experiments Portal

http://www.sheldrake.org/Onlineexp/portal/

THE AUDIO PRECOGNITION TEST

Can you tell which sound clip will be played to you in advance?This experiment involves only one person, and takes less than ten minutes to complete. You do 12 quick trials, and receive the score at the end. If you have already registered, LOG ON HERE. If not, then please REGISTER

How the experiment worksIn each trial, you will be presented with an audio clip in a random sequence. BEFORE you listen to the audio clip, you will be presented with a list of descriptions of audio clips. You will be asked to guess which audio clip you believe you are about to listen to. After you have made your selection and pressed on the 'Submit' button, you will hear an audio clip for about 30 seconds. There may be a short delay before you hear anything.

The next trial will then begin.

After each 12-trial test, you are told your score. The chance level is 3.

Browser settingPlease note that you will need Flash player installed in order to listen to the audio clips during the experiment.

The Online Staring Test

• Instructions for Conducting the Staring Test

• This experiment involves people working in pairs, one the looker and the other the subject. The subject sits with his or her back to the looker, at least 2 meters away, and wears a blindfold (or if this is not possible keeps his or her eyes closed). I have found it convenient to use blindfolds of the kind used on airlines.

• The looker either looks or does not look at the subject in a series of 20 trials according to a random sequence. The looker sits near the computer screen on which the instruction for each trial will be displayed, and if the instruction says STARE NOW, the looker looks at the back of the subject's neck. If the instructions are DO NOT STARE, the looker looks away and thinks about something else. With some computers, the beginning of the test will be signaled to the subject by means of a sound signal; but if your computer does not make a sound signal you will need to give one by means of a mechanical sound or beep.

Summary of the procedure

1. Fill in the User information (all entries MUST be completed). As part of this registration process there is a sound test. If your computer does not make a sound when you press the test button, you will need to signal the beginning of each trial to the subject by means of a mechanical click or beep. (Note: there may be a delay of several seconds between pressing the sound test button and the beep.)2. Click on the Begin Experiment button .3. Follow the Instructions for Staring and/or Not Staring. If you computer does not give a sound signal, signal the beginning of the trial to the subject by means of a mechanical click or beep 4. Ask the subject to respond 'Looking' or 'Not looking'. It is best to guess quite quickly, within 5-10 seconds.5. If the subject's response is correct, enter Correct, and if it is incorrect, enter Incorrect.6. You can do the experiment with or without feedback. If you decide to give trial-by-trial feedback to the subject, tell him or her if the guess is right or wrong7. When all 20 trials are complete, submit the data for permanent storage8. You can then either log off, do the test again with the same subject and looker, or switch roles.