What gives a plant or a animal his specific form?
From the reductionist point of view of the materialistic science the form derives from the DNA. They believe that the form is coded into the DNA. Till today nobody has found an approach to explain how the form is encoded in the DNA and how the lifeforms can repair for example their tissue by reading the missing part from the DNA.
Self-Similarity of Fields
Let’s consider what physics says about fields. Cutting a magnet into two pieces doesn’t divide the magnet in a north and a south pole. The two pieces are both smaller magnets with a north and a south pole, only the magnetic force is weaker.
The magnetic behavior of a material depends on its structure (particularly its electron configuration), and also on the temperature (at high temperatures, random thermal motion makes it more difficult for the electrons to maintain alignment).
Magnetic fields are self-similar, like fractals. You cannot divide a fractal, because it is not a composition of many parts, but it is a whole like a idea or a so called “configuration“. Changing the configuration of a a fractal changes also the whole as the smaller part. The magnet is therefore a kind of holographic construct. Holograms can also be cut into pieces that results in smaller copies of the whole.
The idea that the whole truth could be found via reductionism, examining the smallest particles, has never been proved. It’s an article of faith.
Rupert Sheldrake
Morphic Fields and Information
“Morphic field” is a term introduced by Rupert Sheldrake. He proposes that there is a field within and around a morphic unit which organizes its characteristic structure and pattern of activity. According to this concept, the morphic field underlies the formation and behaviour of holons and morphic units, and can be set up by the repetition of similar acts or thoughts. The hypothesis is that a particular form belonging to a certain group which has already established its (collective) morphic field, will tune into that morphic field. The particular form will read the collective information through the process of morphic resonance, using it to guide its own development. This development of the particular form will then provide, again through morphic resonance, a feedback to the morphic field of that group, thus strengthening it with its own experience resulting in new information being added (i.e. stored in the database). Sheldrake regards the morphic fields as a universal database for both organic (living) and abstract (mental) forms.
Kirlian Photography proofs the Theory of Morphic Fields
Cutting a leaf before photographing it in a Kirlian photo apparatus will result (sometimes) in a whole picture of the leaf. It seems that the leaf carries with it the blueprint in a field, that becomes visible under certain circumstances, under high voltages like in a Kirlian apparatus.
Kirlian photography is used in some medicine diagnostic techniques. A Kirlian photography of a fingerprint reveals for example problems with inner organs. Many therapists are already aware of the holistic nature and use tongue diagnostics, iridology or ear diagnostic (TCM) to diagnose through a part of the body the whole organism.
A Bridge between Biology and Physics
Morphic Fields creates a bridge between biology and physics, explaining many phenomenas and unsolved questions. For example how is it possible that homeopathic remedies works even if they are diluted over the Loschmidt constant and so there should be no atom of the original substance be present anymore? Because homeopathic remedies transmits their morphic fields from the original substance to the carrier substance, no matter if it is water, sugar or alcohol. With further dilution the morphic field reinforce and the remedy becomes stronger. This is in harmony with the theory of morphic resonance, because Sheldrake explained that a repeating task or thought would reinforce the morphic field.
Sheldrake proposes that the process of morphic resonance leads to stable morphic fields, which are significantly easier to tune into.
Morphic Resonance is especially for homeopathy a good theory, because it brings light into the “law of similars“, the most important concept of homeopathy.
Morphic Resonance is a feedback mechanism between the field and the corresponding forms of morphic units. The greater the degree of similarity, the greater the resonance, leading to habituation or persistence of particular forms. So, the existence of a morphic field makes the existence of a new similar form easier.
Archetypes and the Collective Unconscious
That a mode of transmission of shared informational patterns and archetypes might exist did gain some tacit acceptance, when it was proposed as the theory of collective unconscious by renowned psychiatrist Carl Jung. According to Sheldrake, the theory of morphic fields might provide an explanation for Jung’s concept as well. Also, he agrees that the concept of Akashic Records, term from Vedas representing the “library” of all the experiences and memories of human minds (souls) through their physical lifetime, can be related to morphic fields, since one’s past (an Akashic Record) is a mental form, consisting of thoughts as simpler mental forms (all processed by the same brain), and a group of similar or related mental forms also have their associated (collective) morphic field. (Sheldrake’s view on memory-traces is that they are “non-local”, and not located in the brain.)
Further reading:
- Website of Dr. Rupert Sheldrake
- Answers to Your Most Frequently Asked Questions, by Rupert Sheldrake
Chain Reaction