The Rebirth of Nature: The Greening of Science and God

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Summary: Heuristic value in the theory of morphics fields as memory
Review: As a neuropsychologist I found this book challenging. The theory of memory as morphic fields begins to explain phenomena such as the "100 monkeys rule" and the description of thought as a non-local event. Strongly recommend this book to any inquisitive mind.

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Summary: Inspiring and challenging
Review: I am in a constant search for new and challenging ideas and this is one of the books that offers something truly new. The author tries to reconcile historic and scientific findings from various advanced fields with spiritual ideas for which never will be a scientific proof. The variety of presented angles makes the reading difficult at times. Ideas presented in the book may never be scientifically proofed but intuitively they just make sense.

The idea of morphic fields introduced by the author is extremely powerful. It is very interesting to think how the ultimate force in the Universe often called God can affect our lives and life of our planet through the non-local morphic fields that govern Life we know. It made the concept of God much more acceptable to logic.

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Summary: Mystical new theories on the Earth, Science and Nature
Review: In his book, The Rebirth of Nature: The Greening of Science and God, Rupert Sheldrake proposes some ideas about nature, the planet earth and the universe which at first look, sound interesting, but upon closer examination may seem somewhat far fetched. Many of his ideas are rooted in spiritual concepts, yet he also discusses science, its characteristics and its history. Sheldrake attempts to link scientific concepts to his ideas, while at the same time showing disdain for the scientific way of thinking, which he terms "close minded." His ideas of "morphic fields" and "formative causation" are presented without convincing evidence. At best he offers anecdotes to support his claims, which include: the idea that animals can communicate telepathically across time and space, and that crystals influence each other through "morphic resonance." Reasonable people who have some knowledge of science will likely see there are less magical explanations for the phenomenon he discusses. At the same time Sheldrake scolds the reader as "mystery intolerant" if unwilling to accept the author's assertions. Sheldrake has purposely tried to blend science, which works through well thought out experiments to lead to the development of theories, and mysticism, which allows for leaps of faith to reach beliefs. Some may find this combination refreshing, while others might view the juxtaposition of these two methods of understanding, as intrinsically incompatible. Sheldrake's end goal seems to be to convince the reader of the great value of planet earth, and the importance of living in harmony with our environment. Indeed, this concept is crucial to the future of humanity and all life. Yet many will not need Sheldrake's extraordinary theories to lead to the recognition of this great truth.

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Summary: Very interesting ideas!
Review: In this book Sheldrake proposes that nature and its evolution has purpose and meaning beyond mere random mutations, natural selection, and survival. He contemplates on a deep sense of consciousness beyond what we are familiar with in traditional science, a type of consciousness that exists in all matter. I believe the author is onto something very interesting and worth exploring in the future. Toru Sato in his revolutionary book, "The Ever-Transcending Spirit" discusses this possibility from a very different perspective as well. This is perhaps the future direction of science. These books are well worth a read if you are interested in cutting edge theories on consciousness.

Rating:
Summary: A Cogent and Revealing Look at How We Think
Review: Rupert presents a balanced and logical presentation of how scientific thought began, describing
its progress from the dawn of civilisations through the Renaissance, to modern-day empirical
platitudes. He shows that both sides are manifestly wrong in their attempts at explaining what
is truly observed in terms of behaviour and function. He concurrently presents an alternative
argument based on morphic fields and the fact that everything any living thing does is
recorded into these fields forever, to be called on whenever a resonance with a living member
of that species occurs with these fields. For example, DNA does not explain why, amid the same
protein building blocks, and DNA pattern in each cell, an embryo's arm grows differently to
its leg. Morphic fields, however, remember how the blocks go together and exert an influence to
survival-successful ends.

I cannot recommend this book enough. It is superb and really eye-opening. For example, the
parallelism between marsupial and placental mammals, shows how the same design, but with slight
variations, can come about through universal morphic fields. It also leaves room for
speculation as to how the morphic fields caused by this planet, match those on other life-
supporting planets in the universe, and hence, how similar aliens might be to us. A really
wonderful read, and one of my top books ever.