Intelligence, warmth, integrity, humor, erudition, inquisitiveness, charm, openness, wonder, joy. Rupert Sheldrake. And he's good enough to share it with us!
+Reductionist Such as Dawkins, Hitchens , Lawrence Krauss ? The three bastions of s knowledge whose dribble is an act of charity? Why do you leave yourself open to show what an idiot you are?
This opens a can of worms and we should discuss this! I'm only 50 minutes in, but Panpsychism - self-contained, or self-organizing systems of inanimate objects contain consciousness?? Inanimate objects inherently contain consciousness. So the sun, containing trillions of hydrogen atoms, could be conscious?!?! what does it experience? What does it sense? We, human beings, have 5 basic senses smell, touch, sight, hearing, and taste and we eat food, think about pleasure, our friends, birth, and death... What does the sun "think" about? What do galaxies "dream" of? We scurry about to our jobs, entertain ourselves with Television shows etc. What does the the galaxy desire? Does the galaxy entertain itself? Do galaxies feel pain? Do the stars communicate with each other within the Milky Way Galaxy? How do they communicate with one another and what do they speak of?!?
Tonithenightowl I agree; a lovely person. I saw a lecture where he talked about his papers being rejected with self directed humour. If someone can laugh about themselves, they get my respect any time... Great guy! And it's high time we caught up with our spiritual self: we have been functioning like greedy cash machines for far too long, and look at what we've done to each other and to our beautiful planet...
Adriano Bulla it's ok to prepare for the future, it's ok to work hard, but money isn't everything. If it comes at the expense of others.... how can one be proud of that?
Tonithenightowl I couldn't agree more. It really pains me when so many youth are indocrtinated into the worship of money. I was a teacher for many, many years, and of course, I thought it part of my job to chat to students about their dreams and what they wanted for the future; how many would say, 'I'll be rich,' as their response. Just rich? How about a family, love, a job you like maybe... I don't mind if people make money, but how? What do they do with all that money?
@cunny funt He's worse than that. He's an ignorant, condescending bore. Probably doesn't read anything other than the JREF list. Don't rise to it, it's classic childish trolling. He has nothing interesting to offer here.
I rejected his position when I first became a non-materialist a few years ago, but since then I have tried to reconcile scientific evidence in a holistic interconnected way as I have found huge correlations within each field. The only way I can make sense of what we know is by accepting his position. So clever and knowledgable.
in the '70's the book 'Supernature' by Lyall Watson doumented that when a tomato plant which was wired for electrical response, was burned with a match, it showed 'panic on the meter, if the person got the matches out , it showed panic, if the person even THOUGHT about getting the matches out, it panicked, this was documented 40 or more years ago, I think we just don't believe it can be true, ,
There was a police investigator years ago, who used an aspidistra as a witness to a most devious murder. Although not admissible in Court, the plant reaction to the suspect enabled the detective extend his investigations further, finally leading to conviction through an inadvertent admission.
Wonderful thinker and beautiful speaker. A humble spiritual scientist. A true natural philosopher - the brave one who speaks out against orthodoxy. Thank you Dr Sheldrake. Much of what you say is along the lines of my own thoughtful investigations. I like the way you bring a focus on Christianity, although I had left the dogmas of that faith a long time ago. You put it into a new light, a more favourable and acceptable light.
@@williamoarlock8634 Once a scientist, always a scientist. Many practicing ones are much less true to the methodology and fundamental principles anyway, the ones who claim to follow science, but shut the door to necessary metaphysical ideas in an ironically dogmatic way.
So thoughtful! Thank you,Rupert. I am a Hindu,and learnt Mathematics in my learning years . And,I find your talk so exhilarating! can't explain in words! Thank you again.
I am so glad that this teacher has worked hard to convey the things he does. Truth has a way to come to light, no matter how many times it is covered up.
What an amazing time to be alive, that we have access to talks and information like this, that we can all share and discuss among ourselves (in the comments below) and among lectures like Sheldrake and others above. In the old days of TV and books, the view was one sided. Always coming from a single source, there was no way to cite or argue anything, unless I left the house, went to the library and did research. Today, if I don't agree with the general climate after watching a talk, or reading comments below, I can immediately do research somewhere else. This was not easily possible before, unless one was an academic. Now this information has been brought to everyone. I don't think this kind of informational exchange has been available to human beings since everyone learned to read and write.
I’m from a very religious Jewish family. I lost my faith. But my husband, raised secular, was immediately drawn to my family’s way of life. I ask him what is the point of reciting rote blessings before eating anything or in numerous other situations. He replied: “i’s what you would call “mindfulness”. Made sense to me then.
"I was raised atheist. I took it for granted there was no God. My parents treated anyone who showed the slightest interest in religion as if they were suffering from a terminal degenerative disease." -- This was my upbringing. The disdain for anything religious or spiritual is quite sad really. Although I've always been curious about spiritual stuff, I'm only now (aged 29) finally exploring these thoughts -- lately watching so many Sheldrake etc videos.
I'm an atheist, but I love this guy! I think modern, realistic philosophy (Thomas Nagel, Susan Hack, Markus Gabriel, Umberto Eco) is sufficient enough to make a strong case for moral realism. But on the other hand, Sheldrake makes a good point, that "God" as a personal object of praise & devotion is not the most important thing about religion. It's the acts of gratitude and wonder in and of themselves that are what are at the core of all spirituality. Something that even Dawkins and Harris would agree to.
I cannot help but a personal note. I know a man whom I consider to be my best male friend, colleague, confidante, and overall pretty interesting person. He is a person who does not necessarily believe in a god, or profess to any particular religion. High school dropout, he graduated the school of hard knocks, and has the literal scars to prove it. I met him by renting a room out from his household. I learned more by watching, observing and contemplating his lifestyle than out of any book, or my short period of time espousing Christianity (holy rollers, be not mistaken). This man made the most prominent and long lasting impact upon me by simply this. Doing as you say you will do. You make a promise, you keep it. As you make a pact with someone, it becomes a sacred pact. At that time, I had become flippant with this concept. Always paid my bills on time, if someone needed my assistance, I was there... but it never rose up to the surface and stared me in the eye in order to take premium precedence. But as this man continued to remain a close personal friend, while numerous others had found their way out of his good graces, I learned the value thereof. To have a friend, you MUST be a friend. It is not enough to send a gift, show up for a function or event, or even hug them, cry with them and such. You must live a life of "suit up, show up and deliver". He never spouted off how good of a person he was, he displayed it, and does to this day. Give of yourself, you can't take it with you.
I've been listening to Dr. Sheldrake for quite some time now and am totally impressed if not besotted with his wonderful clear and calm speaking voice and command of English as well as scientific principles. This address resonates with me paricularly his take Panpsychism as throughout my 8 decades of conciousness I have continually vacillated between agnosticism and athiesism and since discovering Dr. Sheldrake I am now considering morphic resonance as another realm of possibility that he espouses though I suspect I lack the intellectual capacity or spirituality to get a grip on.
Wow . This is one of the most fascinating and thought provoking talks on You tube . Thanks so much for posting! Mr Sheldrake is both knowledgeable and brilliant . His earnest Spirit really comes through and has helped me to clarify much of what I have experienced in this beautiful life. Much love.....
Brilliant as usual, sir! Simply Brilliant. Most who have had near death experiences say that colors were more brilliant, textures were better defined, sounds were so beautiful they can't be described, and the feeling of love and comfort so powerful they did not want to return to this dung heap of a reality (and why it is called "near death" I'll never know since most of them were clinically dead!). I can't wait!
Only one small point of hopeful disagreement: Rupert Sheldrake (may all his generations be blessed) recounts the Hindu fundamentalism accepted belief that we are still in Kali Yuga and doomed to be so for a dishearteningly long time. Sri Yukestwar, in The Holy Science, explains how timekeeping was lost during the darkness of Kali---we are in the ascending Dwapara Yuga which, tho' certainly brighter than Kali, is not the culmination of consciousness on Earth. Hence the importance of Rupert Sheldrake's work.
I like to distinguish the difference between dogmatic ritualized religion and spirituality. People are giving up “religion” in favor of non guided, non regimented, non dictated connection to the stream of existence. I had an opportunity to finally select where I wanted to live. I looked across the US, from West Coast to East Coast, following the climate and terrain I favored. I researched hundreds of towns looking for a good fit. I used a website that gives statistics on the towns, and one factor was church membership. In ALL the towns except ONE, church membership was declining for all the brands of religion. I started conversations with random people I’d meet, and started to discover they had not given up on belief, but just the branded churches and teachings of hellfire and damnation, retribution and penance. I think a lot of the political divisions are being driven by those who are not comfortable with letting go of dogmatic religion. They have accused the rest of us of attacking them, of trying to destroy religion, of wanting to “cancel” their beliefs. They are fearful and lashing out because they NEED to feel like they are part of a cohesive group, and they see their group shrinking and losing power. We don’t let them dictate law from their specific beliefs and they feel like morality is declining, yet they can’t see that it is a higher moral code that demands people be treated well and with equality, including the ability to love and to marry whom they wish. I don’t see people as returning to God, but rather choosing to expand their connection to that which exists beyond our senses. People KNOW that our experiences don’t fit the scientific worldview that life is restricted to inside our bodies. I have had many predictive dreams. I felt it when my father had a major surgery, even though I didn’t know he was having it because they did it hours earlier than scheduled. I had to leave my classroom because the pain was outrageous and I thought I was having a heart attack! Called my mom later, when Dad was supposed to be going in, just to discover the surgery had started exactly when I had that pain. Current science doesn’t allow for that very real and inexplicable experience I had, yet I KNOW it happened. Thus, I am very excited and satisfied to see scientific thinkers working to explore this aspect of reality and the new kind of expanded spirituality that allows for it instead of calling it “witchcraft” and “evil”. We are more…there IS more. ✨💖✨
Great lecture. Thanks for having an open mind. I do not believe a true scientist can be an atheist, but must be agnostic if they are not religious. Your exploration and logic are refreshing.
lots are atheists, how people are identified has a lot to do with how they identify themselves. Of course no-one knows anything, all truths are beliefs....wait, we know we exist. That is maybe the only thing. Whether we can know anything else is a question for the end of time.
I had a very interesting experience recently. My housemate had lost a torch he was using and was stomping around the house for about 20 minutes looking for it and I was quite high on cannabis at the time. I jokingly yelled out "Dear God, shine some light..." and I was about to say "shine some light on the whereabouts of the torch" and by the time I said 'shine some light' my housemate yelled out 'found it' and he had left it out the back on top of the garbage bin and he found it because he noticed the light shining across the back yard. I couldn't stop thinking about how strange of a coincidence it was the next day and as I was thinking about it I saw a sticker on a wall down the street that simply said 'smile, God loves you' and I cannot get these moments of synchronicity out of my head. I gave up on normal atheism quite a while ago but have been unsure as to believe in God or perhaps, Gods but Rupert is correct in saying that people believe for a reason. Just an experience I wanted to share but the only time my prayer has come true is when I was doing it as a joke. This actually makes me believe even more in God.
A number of years ago during a rest stop on a bike ride I experienced seeing and feeling what I can only describe as life-force energy within in everything around me. I was awestruck, and said aloud with the innocence and joy of a child, "Wow, you are everywhere, within everything!" As I looked out over the ocean, my inner voice said, "Look up." As I did the clouds above me formed into huge letters that read, "I AM". I was overcome with emotion, and feelings of immense love and understanding. I knew at that moment, without a doubt, that the Universe is conscious, all-knowing and all-loving. Call it God, or whatever you want, but it exists, and everything is part of it. I think about that moment all the time. It gives me great comfort, and fills me with gratitude and joy. Like you I wasn't trying to communicate with God, I was merely acknowledging its presence, and in turn it acknowledged itself, and me as well.
God as an independent, individual being, does not create your experience but when you remember him, his light shines on your consciousness highlighting that which exists to create an experience much as a slide is lit up when a projected on a screen. The attention to the light which helped your friend locate the torch, is a part of your own prescient consciousness, which just came as words from your mouth and your friend received a thought from spiritual server minds that are connected to the drama around you and your prescient consciousness . It is you thd soul who called out to god and he responded by shining light on your consciousness to invoke the synchronicity.
The theory that one gets what one pursues is exactly the scary thought, at least for me. Jesus showed me what I was pursuing, and it made me feel saved, not from anyones wrath or anything like that, but precisely from my own minds current trajectory, fundamentally away from commitment and love towards absolute autonomy and pleasure. I felt a kind of glimpse of where I was headed in the long run. Not that autonomy and pleasure are bad, but rather that they are empty when pursued for their own sakes. Something like that, hope it makes sense.
absolutely brilliant finally a man of science and knowledge that is willing to speak his oppinion and dismiss the dogma the mainstream scientific community has forced upon us for so long
I would like to point out that 'disbelief' in god can mean two things; It can mean 'no existing belief i.e; a blank canvas or it can mean the rejection of god. The difference seems semantic but it can be the difference between open-minded skepticism and closed-minded cynicism.
TheRealSamPreece I appreciate your openness to logic and truth, but I wish to clarify that the prefix 'dis' from latin means apart from or away. All definitions are relative, so words are really dependant on context but by definition you (and other non theists) could more eloquently divulge your beliefs, or lack of beliefs
If you are looking for empirically testable ways to establish any; some good ones include: Quantum biology Numerical prophecies Gematria the Golden mean, Phi other prophecies such as Tyre & Babylon numbers are key!
In my view, the greatest driving (or pulling) force for humanity is the longing for unity. Sex and particularly orgasm are so attractive, because they are the best way we know how to achieve unity physically. The more subtle - and arguably more fulfilling - pinnacle of our ability to achieve unity is love. But as many of us find, even love leaves us only partially fulfilled. Human love is not total. Hidden behind the word 'love' is the word 'two'. A common phrase we use is 'love between two people'. What we ultimately long for is *total* unity! When separation disappears so completely that only one remains. We felt integrally one with the universe once! That deeply buried memory is responsible for our longing to re-experience the bliss. When we became individual souls, then the paradise was lost. Ever since then we have suffered the pain of separation. Finding ourselves is only possible - ironically - by losing ourselves! By dissolving ourselves back into the universal whole. In finding its home the river dies, but gains by becoming the ocean. Such is the cycle of existence!
What I like about this discussion is that science is being scrutinized and challenged to accept that there are aspects of our reality that is immaterial. Thus consequently placing science in a rather uncomfortable situation but one that must be explored scientifically as far as it will go. I wouldn’t try to get doctrinal truths from this talk, certainly doesn’t seem to be its purpose but it explores a whole hosts of possibilities and inexplicable questions that ought to be explored. If the speed of light is variable and the gravitational constant is not in fact constant, this ought to be explored and should be done so scientifically to try further science. The explanation may just be the next renaissance of scientific discovery and stifling it does science a disfavor.
The Higgs Boson makes you think of the soul (the spark) and yes angels. There is order in the universe, and we are getting closer to discovering it. I believe there is room for spiritualism/religion and science. Why should one negate the other. Universal consciousness, universal geometry,....our minds are approaching understanding.
I like the idea that 'all paths leads to God'. I feel that too many religious people focus only on their religion as being the absolute truth, but in reality, all the world's religions and spiritual traditions share a common ground, and wisdom can be found in all.
Robert Parkes Have you read Darwin ? How about Newton, Einstein and many others ? What has Sheldrake produced other than speculation? You are one of those people who are easily pleased.
weeeeeety1 Agreed but don't overlook the fact that he ha made a small fortune from his books, seminars and consciousness-raising groups. all of which promote pseudo-scientific nonsense which appeal to the scientifically illiterate.
+Bodach You're just jealous. He has earned his success. He is successful because there are very many people interested in the nature of consciousness and how to use that knowledge to create a better world experience for all of us and that creates a natural tendency to aggregate. He's in no way pseudoscientific though. Check out his experiments (there is plenty of detail on his website. He has a good grasp of scientific method). When he is talking about this sort of stuff he is often discussing the underlying philosophy which informs science. That is a perfectly respectable endeavor.
Andy There are very many people interested in astrology, Tarot cards, messages from the dead and all sorts of other nonsense. The same goes for consciousness, for which we have yet to find a universally agreed definition. That , of course, will mot stop dabblers from promoting and believing in all sorts of nonsensical ideas.
for the last 2 months, since I ran across Rupert's research, I have been trying to "turn" the heads of passersby at a distance of 10 meters. They are in view for about six seconds. So far I think fewer have turned to see me looking at them than before. What has really helped me though, is Rupert's little story about the Guru telling him that he should not disturb the Karma of the poor. In my life it has proven to be a broadening of my morphic field and led to a shift in perception concerning a significant impasse in my personal development: I have left off meddling in other people's business. So far Rupert's other observations don't replicate well in Surrey, British Columbia. But that doesn't mean I have lost interest in his research. Maybe like areas where iron ore deposits disturb the magnetic field and cause a compass to spin, there is an anomaly in my place of residence.
Thank you Rupert This is an excellent and timely element. We have been waiting for this summary and it fills a gap in the conscious journey... Looking forward to more of this.. few in the scholarly realm can dialog and debate and explain as well as you do. Metaphors thanks goodness for metaphors and analogies... Can this be the seed of a new book ?
The idea that consciousness is a function of the brain is just one of many explanations for our experience. It is not even the most parsimonious explanation, and so I see no reason to default to it. There is no reason to believe that consciousness is a function of the brain, and by extension there is no reason to assume that experience ceases with the death of the brain.
AndulinX BYM " There is no reason to believe that consciousness is a function of the brain " Are you serious ? If someone receives a blow to the head which damages his brain , he is rendered unconscious. Anaesthetics which affect neuronal activity render a patient unconscious. The anaesthetic wears off and neuronal ( brain ) activity returns to normal and consciousness returns also. Try thinking before you write such nonsense.
I believe the physical brain acts as the coordinating interface between body and soul/consciousness. If you break that connection via blunt trauma to the head, the body will flop like a rag doll accordingly, whilst your soul continues to remain awake and alert such as the out of body experience phenomena, albeit perhaps still tethered in place to the physical body.
Myles Lawless *_"If someone receives a blow to the head which damages his brain , he is rendered unconscious. Anaesthetics which affect neuronal activity render a patient unconscious. The anaesthetic wears off and neuronal ( brain ) activity returns to normal and consciousness returns also."_* I see you're new to philosophy of mind. Those are mind/brain correlations, and none of them require the idea that conscious experience is a function of the brain. The idea that your brain is what your experience of separation from the rest of the content of mind looks like from an outside perspective can explain everything that neuroscience has observed. Fundamental mind is perfectly compatible with all scientific observation.
+Myles Lawless "Are you serious ? If someone receives a blow to the head which damages his brain , he is rendered unconscious. Anaesthetics which affect neuronal activity render a patient unconscious. The anaesthetic wears off and neuronal ( brain ) activity returns to normal and consciousness returns also." And yet there is a growing number of cases in which someone reports having a conscious experience during the period where the brain is not functioning. How are people able to witness verifiable events that occurred outside of their body during that period? For example, Pamela Reynolds NDE: www.near-death.com/science/evidence/people-have-ndes-while-brain-dead.html
Good Golly Miss Molly! Simply exquisite. You, Mister Sheldrake, and Little Richard have had a very similar convergence - Richard Penniman became famous, taught Paul McCartney how to falsetto and went back to gospel music for a while all of the time playing r'n'roll and he did not make the obvious separations of classifications. Anyway...give me a rowboat, better yet a kayak with an underwater speaker with a microphone up top and allow me to sing to local cetaceans. In case nobody told you the porpoises and dolphins and whales are deeply telepathic and will respond to genuine intent to dialogue with the animals. It's insanely easy and scientists don't know how to talk to the animals. I am amazed at the lack of imagination in educated people when it comes to "speaking their language" and surprise - cetaceans do not respond to imitators - those who try to make whale sounds or dolphin sounds or whatever. Cetaceans DO respond to sounds and music that are heartfelt expressions of love and affection and emotional journeys expressed by a human being. Most folk in "modern culture" do not even believe that cetaceans are even expressing their feelings and stories in their sounds. Some species will literally sing across an entire ocean to communicate with others of their families and species and do respond across the same ocean. Yes, I talk to and also jam with the animals - especially birds. The principles of animal communication also are quite effective in CE-5 dialogue. Big surprise. Yes, the galaxy and sun and the physical universe are conscious - also Gaia and many zillions of her residents. Ah-Ee (A.I.) is, guess what, intelligent. The principles of heartfelt communication apply to pretty much whatever the human imagination can encompass, wherever that consciousness may manifest. Whales, computers, birds, dogs, cats and E.T. and parrots might amaze you. I can type no more. Be well.
53:52 Utterly fascinating, never thought of this before, but here "God is Love" means a pulling force, an attraction, what organizes the universe as a goal, a desired good. We know God in the experience of motivation; the "evidence" of God is in our own feeling.
Your comment is very helpful to me. Thank you. It is so vivid to us, when we feel the pull of love. It's the "blood" of our emotional life. I am exploring Christianity and starting to take communion. Sharing bread and wine is like sharing this "pull" of the togetherness of life...
It was in deed very inspirational. Our present age is so confusing, but the insights I had today from Sir Rupert is an eye opener. My thanks extends beyond the galaxies.
I am so fond of this man's mind . . . it's difficult to praise it properly. He causes me to better understand where humans are, from a humanitarian point of view - necessarily fairly overwhelmed by the relatively recent and major scientific reconfigurations of our understanding of the universe.
The famous story of Terence Mckenna and Rupert Sheldrake meeting for the first time. Rupert is waiting at the bus station. Terence pulls up and says casually out the car window..."Doctor Sheldrake, I presume?"
Quran states that all things are conscious, for example it says "ALL what is in the heavens and the Earth , perpetually praise his(Allah) name" , and "Had we revealed this burden(Islam) unto the mountains, you would see it shaking , trembling , with headaches from fear of god" .... It clearly states that the trees and the Earth itself are conscious entities with "opinions" and feelings again and again. It is a well known but hard to believe(understand) aspect of Islam , so it is not talked about much from fear of confusion and doubt. There is an interesting story of king Solomon(he could communicate with all animals) over hearing an ant speaking to its colony , and he laughed , because the smallest creature had the most sophisticated language of all the animals ( highest level of consciousness ). The Israelites who claimed Solomon as their own mocked the story as ludicrous. Now we know that ants do have a highly sophisticated form of communication , but we cannot yet decipher it. We do know that ants have a different set of language constructs for every type of worker ant. And the queen has her own special language. Now , with these new scientific proofs , you may hear about that peculiar aspect of Islam more.
I truly enjoyed RS's open mind within the ideas of morphogenic fields, and willingness to go outside convention -to be in inquiry.... However, this current conversation leaves me underwhelmed, like so many philosophers, scientists, religious leaders and mystics .... like Jung, great concepts in his younger years, only to becoming infatuated with himself as he aged unaware that his mind, his intellect that was breaking down .... resorting to using unprovable concepts to justify belief in the spiritual/mystical, perhaps to assuage an insecurity around one's end of life. There is so much more than the limited labeling of the acceptance of certain scientific data as being materialistic or mechanistic; and outright disregard for the negative impact of beliefs/religious dogma, in human history. Spirituality may be harmless musings on the nature of existence, opening our minds to possibilities, but any religion he mentioned has been a method of social control over other humans, with much of it being violent. I don't "believe" in the Big Bang - I accept that it may be a reasonable explanation on how we came to be, etc. The Periodic chart and the concept of the atomic basis of matter are functional but open to revision. Quantum theory is well, theory and beyond my level of mathematics. The concept of gravity is functional, regardless that it may not be constant. It's simply about discovering measurable, useful explanations for our world, our universe. Materialist, Mechanistic or whatever. At this point, in our current primitive level of science, we can not know, we simply build on the best data we have and accept that as new data arrives, we will conceive a more accurate hypothesis. All I can know is I think, therefore I am. What am I? I am not sure - best I can tell, I am a transceiver - able to receive information & to communicate it, at a variety of levels, biologically, physically, electromagnetically. With my current understanding or interpretation of my consciousness - I had a beginning & I will have an end, after that, I do not know, but prefer optimism to pessimism ...so indulge myself in spiritual musings, but then, it may all be a delusion or illusion. I do not, and cannot truly KNOW. Therefore, I don't know but am in inquiry. Rational thought, critical thinking skills allow me to recognize that I am on this beautiful planet, science is the collection of knowledge of our exploration of this physical existence and using that data to live here better. Rational thought and the collection of knowledge has allowed humans to flourish and live better. Not religious belief. I do assume that I have the ability to choose, but maybe everything is predestined - whatever, I do the best I can. I do not need to believe in any god, or follow any religion, to love or cherish the life I have, to appreciate the beauty & complexity of our planet, to be social & live with integrity amongst the other life here. Whether you believe or do not believe.... your spirituality only matters to me, based upon how unhinged or dangerous is your belief... does your system of dogma or religion wish to harm those who do not believe? I am neither atheistic, nor a theist...I don't have the data I require to propose a reasonable hypothesis.... if one must choose a label, perhaps agnostic or better yet, pragmatist. I am alive and I am open to what my life experiences bring me. We can discuss the nature of consciousness, which can be most interesting, but it also can become mental masturbation - similar to "how many angels can dance on the head of a pin?" or do the planets or sun have consciousness? Religion can lead to a form of escapism - that this world is not so important and therefore not worth living with honesty & integrity, one can then justify being careless, cruel or irresponsible, after all it is way below 7th heaven. Perhaps a more useful focus of our minds & intelligence is using science, as the tool that it is, to educate ourselves & others about what we do know from the realms of physics, biology, ecology, environmental carrying capacity, pollution, overpopulation, engineering, chemistry/biochemistry - so that we can live well on this planet while we are here and leave a healthy place for future generations to grow & develop. If one can use spirituality or religion to feel better, to be less insecure, more compassionate, more rational in how one chooses, wonderful. A life, well lived. What happens after this life, is up to whatever you want to believe. Just, please, do not expect me to believe in your god or religion. And, please don't kill me because I don't.
The purpose of atheism is not to reinvent religion. Its purpose is to correct religion, for religion is based almost entirely on errors. Spinoza did this once and for all, although he insisted that he was not an atheist. That opinion of himself is both true and false. He defined God in such a way that no religion would ever be the same, and no science could ever be heretical. Properly speaking, religion, and all its errors, belongs in the psychological realm; and 'God' is not a deity as that term is commonly understood. Mr. Sheldrake is wrong to conclude that atheism implies that the contents of the universe are unconscious. That belief is a fundamental error of science and philosophy. Clearly, everything in the universe is conscious and alive according to the hierarchy of the dimensions of reality. No nervous system is necessary to contain and exchange information in nature. The problem that Spinoza so elegantly solved is the problem of the anthropomorphic, thinking, feeling 'God'. That belief is the mother of all errors and the cause of the most tragic aspects of human behavior and history. It is the poison at the heart of religion and politics.
I too have followed Rupert back to his discussions with Terence McKenna and Ralph Abraham. It seems that without God as the Holy Spirit at the sub-atomic level, the world as we know it would cease to exist . (I use both concepts in a religious manner as I can't find other words to express my thesis.) The question that has caused my quest into this existential consciousness via spiritual energy is the recent discovery that >95% of our universe is composed of dark matter/energy. If we are to accept the conclusion that energy consists of the speed of light (a variable) and mass (E=mc2), how does this apply to the overwhelming amount of dark matter/energy? Most ancient texts state that in "the beginning" (of what) was the word, and the Word was God. Ex post facto, the logical conclusion would be that before the Word, the darkness and the light were combined. If the intent of God to create this universe, why would the majority (or basically all of this universe) consist of darkness? Do the laws of physics in OUR meager "light" portion of this universe apply in some transcendental manner to the dark majority? Would the dark also have consciousness through the same action of the Holy Spirit? And, if so, why would God's first act be separating the dark from the light? As the first "act", one would conclude that it was essential to creation. Why?
Love's influence begins to dominate time space. And what we call good luck, bringing a certain humor and peace of mind. Well that's at least been my beloved Jean and Bills experiences.
when I was a child and I needed Gods intervention, begging him for years to make it stop, where was he.?....nowhere. So I've grown up to believe that people just need a crutch, an invisible something or someone to lean on in times of trouble. Its not a Gods love and acceptance we need, its each others. Considering my plight I have still turned out to be a genuine, loving, good natured, well behaved adult. I don't know why some people think that your evil if you don't believe in God. The church itself, a vessel of God brought more evil than any atheist by way of its torture. The only reason the torture stopped is when the law against it started, otherwise they'd still be enjoying their horrible little selves, and still employing other believers to think up more evil torture devices to try out on us. Very strange. Good talk though on other stuff.
well said . i understood what sheldrake says before he proposed the concept. we are all living memorees , though those with short ones have a limited experience . came to the conclusion the foundation of man made intelligence is actually based on ignorance . enlightenment is really common sense . enjoy
A little off topic but , one of the strangest things the Obama administration did was to add Athiest chaplains to the military chaplain corpse . Imagine the comforting words from an Athiest chaplain to a mortally wounded soldier " Don't be afraid son . Take comfort in the nothingness to come " .
Stan Watkins - Hmmm, rather limited conceptualization. Having a compassionate person there, as one dies, so they are not alone, is the concept. From my perspective, ie I am not a theist - I would prefer a warm touch and genuine compassion without any empty words. "This too, shall pass." would be adequate. And I would be most grateful for the consideration.
I think the wisdom element in the cosmos is directly founded on the brained individual, while the goodness and power elements are the primal source whose characters do not evolve or alter, while wisdom grows. Recognition of the most primal or original cosmic fact is tapping the essence which alone can sustain wisdom or "smarts", and i think this became key to later seers who changed from symbolising God from thunderbolts and other power ensigns to essential character of primal nature using a lamb, a dove, a flower, etc. Recognising that the union of wisdom and this innocent goodness is the very essence of benignity and that intelligence without benignity isnt wisdom. It is guile. Man's crown is his capacity for wisdom, which in turn is born of recognition of the most primal nature which flees from coercion, compulsion and imprisonment. This to me is symbolised by Noah releasing the dove, which voluntarily returns with an olive twig, meaning as we allow this principle to freely flow from us it returns bearing fruit. But guile focuses on this return but not the release. The Hindus expound on this voluminously in discussing pranayama, whose very meaning is "not mine". The word "God" itself us actually a form of drinking "soma", which they term kechari kriya. It is not a pose or posture, but definite primal act as can be witnessed even in the fetus in utero. In fact much of yoga involves reproducing the spontaneous actions and postures of fetal life and childhood. Nearest to primal cause, good or god.
If I was an atheist , I'd consider the possibility that belief in God is part of evolution. At any rate I don't understand why atheists get so up in arms over religion. And making atheism a religion is so ridiclous but then again it makes a point people need organized religion or they wouldnt be creating it themselves. Many people believe in ghosts. I don't, but I can't totally discount the possiblility and it doesn't offend or anger me some people believe in them. It's like the "lady who protests too much."
The consciousness that intelligent design gave us can take us outside the universe,like god himself. Being in possession of such a property, I fail to understand how some can afford to be atheists.
***** Just from talking to you, I begin to have serious doubts about the existence of Intelligent Design and Evolution. Now I believe in Unintelligent Design and DeEvolution. And I have irrefutable proof too, it's YOU.
He sat in on a discussion with Krishnamurti and David Bohm when he was young and gave a good account of himself and his embryonic worldview at the time among such great minds but seemed to realize as the discussion developed that human consciousness is utterly conditioned by the past and so incomplete and disordered and K did seem to quieten his inquiring but limited mind to a realization there is something beyond the totality of human consciousness that cannot be touched by that consciousness and which ultimately brings order to it. Seeing him now as an older man I wonder how much of an effect that talk had on him, it's good to have people within the scientific realm looking to understand the relation of the perceived manifest to that which is beyond perception but he still seems very conditioned by the acknowledged historical references applied to that which is outside the field of the brain and human consciousness.
I'm actually now finding a way of taking about God in which atheists understand what I mean, and have realised the only REAL difference between atheists and "believers" is language. Religion puts God on the outside (usually angry), and fails to communicate with the world in the stuck way. By, once we understand God is spirit, and, from our perspective, Spirit, or Spirits are QUALITIES OF BEING: Love, Grace, Splendor, Mercy, and so on. And the hugs is, whatever you THINK you believe, you are actually either living or BEING these qualities, or you are not, and God knows that from the inside. So infinitesimally intimately.
“The kind of God most atheists don’t believe in is the kind of God most theists don’t believe in either”
- Rupert Sheldrake
Not true
He's not a respector of persons.why do you think the world is the way it is.❤❤
Intelligence, warmth, integrity, humor, erudition, inquisitiveness, charm, openness, wonder, joy.
Rupert Sheldrake.
And he's good enough to share it with us!
stvbrsn For money !
Reductionist Do you do everything in your life for free?
IndicaDreaming No, but neither do I scam the intellectually challenged.
+Reductionist Such as Dawkins, Hitchens , Lawrence Krauss ? The three bastions of s knowledge whose dribble is an act of charity?
Why do you leave yourself open to show what an idiot you are?
This opens a can of worms and we should discuss this! I'm only 50 minutes in, but Panpsychism - self-contained, or self-organizing systems of inanimate objects contain consciousness?? Inanimate objects inherently contain consciousness. So the sun, containing trillions of hydrogen atoms, could be conscious?!?! what does it experience? What does it sense? We, human beings, have 5 basic senses smell, touch, sight, hearing, and taste and we eat food, think about pleasure, our friends, birth, and death... What does the sun "think" about? What do galaxies "dream" of? We scurry about to our jobs, entertain ourselves with Television shows etc. What does the the galaxy desire? Does the galaxy entertain itself? Do galaxies feel pain? Do the stars communicate with each other within the Milky Way Galaxy? How do they communicate with one another and what do they speak of?!?
I think Mr. Sheldrake is brilliant. He's bridging a gap which is seriously needed.
I agree, and he's such an amiable person too!
There is nothing arrogant or condescending about him which impresses me, too. :o)
Tonithenightowl I agree; a lovely person. I saw a lecture where he talked about his papers being rejected with self directed humour. If someone can laugh about themselves, they get my respect any time... Great guy! And it's high time we caught up with our spiritual self: we have been functioning like greedy cash machines for far too long, and look at what we've done to each other and to our beautiful planet...
Adriano Bulla it's ok to prepare for the future, it's ok to work hard, but money isn't everything. If it comes at the expense of others.... how can one be proud of that?
Tonithenightowl I couldn't agree more. It really pains me when so many youth are indocrtinated into the worship of money. I was a teacher for many, many years, and of course, I thought it part of my job to chat to students about their dreams and what they wanted for the future; how many would say, 'I'll be rich,' as their response. Just rich? How about a family, love, a job you like maybe...
I don't mind if people make money, but how? What do they do with all that money?
Dr Rupert Sheldrake is without doubt one of the enlightened people of the times 🙏🌎🙏.
He is an utter fool, a fraud and a charlatan!
@@GeoCoppens a fraud? is he conning people? this information is free.
@@jzonkel You are an ignoramus about science and an advcate of nonsensical woowoo!
@cunny funt He's worse than that. He's an ignorant, condescending bore. Probably doesn't read anything other than the JREF list.
Don't rise to it, it's classic childish trolling. He has nothing interesting to offer here.
The British, white Anglican Deepak Chopra.
I rejected his position when I first became a non-materialist a few years ago, but since then I have tried to reconcile scientific evidence in a holistic interconnected way as I have found huge correlations within each field. The only way I can make sense of what we know is by accepting his position. So clever and knowledgable.
in the '70's the book 'Supernature' by Lyall Watson doumented that when a tomato plant which was wired for electrical response, was burned with a match, it showed 'panic on the meter, if the person got the matches out , it showed panic, if the person even THOUGHT about getting the matches out, it panicked, this was documented 40 or more years ago, I think we just don't believe it can be true, ,
i had the exact same reaction of Sheldrake's "Theory of Resonance".....thought immediately of the book Supernature...
Recent research shows incredible communication and physical help delivered between family members of trees.
There was a police investigator years ago, who used an aspidistra as a witness to a most devious murder.
Although not admissible in Court, the plant reaction to the suspect enabled the detective extend his investigations further, finally leading to conviction through an inadvertent
admission.
Perhaps we forgotten or were shaped throughout our adult life? ❤
yes, the plants are in cycle of like as we, humans
Wonderful thinker and beautiful speaker. A humble spiritual scientist. A true natural philosopher - the brave one who speaks out against orthodoxy. Thank you Dr Sheldrake. Much of what you say is along the lines of my own thoughtful investigations. I like the way you bring a focus on Christianity, although I had left the dogmas of that faith a long time ago. You put it into a new light, a more favourable and acceptable light.
Hasn't done any real science since 1980.
@@williamoarlock8634 Once a scientist, always a scientist.
Many practicing ones are much less true to the methodology and fundamental principles anyway, the ones who claim to follow science, but shut the door to necessary metaphysical ideas in an ironically dogmatic way.
So thoughtful! Thank you,Rupert. I am a Hindu,and learnt Mathematics in my learning years . And,I find your talk so exhilarating! can't explain in words! Thank you again.
I have only come across Rupert today, I'm already a fan.
I appreciate Dr. Sheldrake's objectivity, his openness to truth whatever it may be.
This is a wonderful, thought provoking and inspiring talk. Thank you so much Rupert Shelldrake
I am so glad that this teacher has worked hard to convey the things he does. Truth has a way to come to light, no matter how many times it is covered up.
This man is so intelligent it's not even funny! Keep it up Rupert!!!!
I’m thinking of changing my name to Rupert Shelduck.
I adore him. Brillant and inspiring, uplifting and so intelligent. I have hit the youtube lottery with him.
He freaks me out.
@martin lincoln Collective Consciousness is Rrrubbish!
@@GeoCoppens 'Pearls before swine' springs to mind.....
What an amazing time to be alive, that we have access to talks and information like this, that we can all share and discuss among ourselves (in the comments below) and among lectures like Sheldrake and others above. In the old days of TV and books, the view was one sided. Always coming from a single source, there was no way to cite or argue anything, unless I left the house, went to the library and did research. Today, if I don't agree with the general climate after watching a talk, or reading comments below, I can immediately do research somewhere else. This was not easily possible before, unless one was an academic. Now this information has been brought to everyone. I don't think this kind of informational exchange has been available to human beings since everyone learned to read and write.
Soothing, accessible wisdom he shares with us. Wonderful Human Being
I’m from a very religious Jewish family. I lost my faith. But my husband, raised secular, was immediately drawn to my family’s way of life. I ask him what is the point of reciting rote blessings before eating anything or in numerous other situations. He replied: “i’s what you would call “mindfulness”. Made sense to me then.
"I was raised atheist. I took it for granted there was no God. My parents treated anyone who showed the slightest interest in religion as if they were suffering from a terminal degenerative disease." -- This was my upbringing. The disdain for anything religious or spiritual is quite sad really. Although I've always been curious about spiritual stuff, I'm only now (aged 29) finally exploring these thoughts -- lately watching so many Sheldrake etc videos.
So eloquent. Love listening to him.
Love Rupert Shedrakes way of making complicated ideas simple to understand
I'm an atheist, but I love this guy! I think modern, realistic philosophy (Thomas Nagel, Susan Hack, Markus Gabriel, Umberto Eco) is sufficient enough to make a strong case for moral realism.
But on the other hand, Sheldrake makes a good point, that "God" as a personal object of praise & devotion is not the most important thing about religion. It's the acts of gratitude and wonder in and of themselves that are what are at the core of all spirituality. Something that even Dawkins and Harris would agree to.
I cannot help but a personal note. I know a man whom I consider to be my best male friend, colleague, confidante, and overall pretty interesting person. He is a person who does not necessarily believe in a god, or profess to any particular religion. High school dropout, he graduated the school of hard knocks, and has the literal scars to prove it. I met him by renting a room out from his household. I learned more by watching, observing and contemplating his lifestyle than out of any book, or my short period of time espousing Christianity (holy rollers, be not mistaken). This man made the most prominent and long lasting impact upon me by simply this. Doing as you say you will do. You make a promise, you keep it. As you make a pact with someone, it becomes a sacred pact. At that time, I had become flippant with this concept. Always paid my bills on time, if someone needed my assistance, I was there... but it never rose up to the surface and stared me in the eye in order to take premium precedence. But as this man continued to remain a close personal friend, while numerous others had found their way out of his good graces, I learned the value thereof. To have a friend, you MUST be a friend. It is not enough to send a gift, show up for a function or event, or even hug them, cry with them and such. You must live a life of "suit up, show up and deliver". He never spouted off how good of a person he was, he displayed it, and does to this day. Give of yourself, you can't take it with you.
I've been listening to Dr. Sheldrake for quite some time now and am totally impressed if not besotted with his wonderful clear and calm speaking voice and command of English as well as scientific principles.
This address resonates with me paricularly his take Panpsychism as throughout my 8 decades of conciousness I have continually vacillated between agnosticism and athiesism and since discovering Dr. Sheldrake I am now considering morphic resonance as another realm of possibility that he espouses though I suspect I lack the intellectual capacity or spirituality to get a grip on.
Rupert Sheldrake reminds me of my grandmother - full of love and humor.
Wow . This is one of the most fascinating and thought provoking talks on You tube . Thanks so much for posting! Mr Sheldrake is both knowledgeable and brilliant . His earnest Spirit really comes through and has helped me to clarify much of what I have experienced in this beautiful life. Much love.....
Brilliant as usual, sir! Simply Brilliant. Most who have had near death experiences say that colors were more brilliant, textures were better defined, sounds were so beautiful they can't be described, and the feeling of love and comfort so powerful they did not want to return to this dung heap of a reality (and why it is called "near death" I'll never know since most of them were clinically dead!). I can't wait!
you dumbcunt, it is called near death because clinical death is not brain dead, it is just the heart stopping.
Love is our boat to eternity..
Scientists and philosophers who don't believe in Free Will or Consciousness argue with each other... and they call us crazy!
Only one small point of hopeful disagreement: Rupert Sheldrake (may all his generations be blessed) recounts the Hindu fundamentalism accepted belief that we are still in Kali Yuga and doomed to be so for a dishearteningly long time. Sri Yukestwar, in The Holy Science, explains how timekeeping was lost during the darkness of Kali---we are in the ascending Dwapara Yuga which, tho' certainly brighter than Kali, is not the culmination of consciousness on Earth. Hence the importance of Rupert Sheldrake's work.
I like to distinguish the difference between dogmatic ritualized religion and spirituality. People are giving up “religion” in favor of non guided, non regimented, non dictated connection to the stream of existence.
I had an opportunity to finally select where I wanted to live. I looked across the US, from West Coast to East Coast, following the climate and terrain I favored. I researched hundreds of towns looking for a good fit. I used a website that gives statistics on the towns, and one factor was church membership. In ALL the towns except ONE, church membership was declining for all the brands of religion. I started conversations with random people I’d meet, and started to discover they had not given up on belief, but just the branded churches and teachings of hellfire and damnation, retribution and penance.
I think a lot of the political divisions are being driven by those who are not comfortable with letting go of dogmatic religion. They have accused the rest of us of attacking them, of trying to destroy religion, of wanting to “cancel” their beliefs. They are fearful and lashing out because they NEED to feel like they are part of a cohesive group, and they see their group shrinking and losing power. We don’t let them dictate law from their specific beliefs and they feel like morality is declining, yet they can’t see that it is a higher moral code that demands people be treated well and with equality, including the ability to love and to marry whom they wish.
I don’t see people as returning to God, but rather choosing to expand their connection to that which exists beyond our senses. People KNOW that our experiences don’t fit the scientific worldview that life is restricted to inside our bodies. I have had many predictive dreams. I felt it when my father had a major surgery, even though I didn’t know he was having it because they did it hours earlier than scheduled. I had to leave my classroom because the pain was outrageous and I thought I was having a heart attack! Called my mom later, when Dad was supposed to be going in, just to discover the surgery had started exactly when I had that pain. Current science doesn’t allow for that very real and inexplicable experience I had, yet I KNOW it happened. Thus, I am very excited and satisfied to see scientific thinkers working to explore this aspect of reality and the new kind of expanded spirituality that allows for it instead of calling it “witchcraft” and “evil”. We are more…there IS more. ✨💖✨
Great lecture. Thanks for having an open mind. I do not believe a true scientist can be an atheist, but must be agnostic if they are not religious. Your exploration and logic are refreshing.
lots are atheists, how people are identified has a lot to do with how they identify themselves. Of course no-one knows anything, all truths are beliefs....wait, we know we exist. That is maybe the only thing. Whether we can know anything else is a question for the end of time.
Rupert sounds like a modern-day William James. An expansive mind. Much respect. Thank you.
I love how he speak with such clear confidence - feels so right !
Epic as usual
i agree
I had a very interesting experience recently. My housemate had lost a torch he was using and was stomping around the house for about 20 minutes looking for it and I was quite high on cannabis at the time. I jokingly yelled out "Dear God, shine some light..." and I was about to say "shine some light on the whereabouts of the torch" and by the time I said 'shine some light' my housemate yelled out 'found it' and he had left it out the back on top of the garbage bin and he found it because he noticed the light shining across the back yard. I couldn't stop thinking about how strange of a coincidence it was the next day and as I was thinking about it I saw a sticker on a wall down the street that simply said 'smile, God loves you' and I cannot get these moments of synchronicity out of my head. I gave up on normal atheism quite a while ago but have been unsure as to believe in God or perhaps, Gods but Rupert is correct in saying that people believe for a reason. Just an experience I wanted to share but the only time my prayer has come true is when I was doing it as a joke. This actually makes me believe even more in God.
A number of years ago during a rest stop on a bike ride I experienced seeing and feeling what I can only describe as life-force energy within in everything around me. I was awestruck, and said aloud with the innocence and joy of a child, "Wow, you are everywhere, within everything!" As I looked out over the ocean, my inner voice said, "Look up." As I did the clouds above me formed into huge letters that read, "I AM". I was overcome with emotion, and feelings of immense love and understanding. I knew at that moment, without a doubt, that the Universe is conscious, all-knowing and all-loving. Call it God, or whatever you want, but it exists, and everything is part of it. I think about that moment all the time. It gives me great comfort, and fills me with gratitude and joy. Like you I wasn't trying to communicate with God, I was merely acknowledging its presence, and in turn it acknowledged itself, and me as well.
God as an independent, individual being, does not create your experience but when you remember him, his light shines on your consciousness highlighting that which exists to create an experience much as a slide is lit up when a projected on a screen. The attention to the light which helped your friend locate the torch, is a part of your own prescient consciousness, which just came as words from your mouth and your friend received a thought from spiritual server minds that are connected to the drama around you and your prescient consciousness . It is you thd soul who called out to god and he responded by shining light on your consciousness to invoke the synchronicity.
Synchronicities happen it seems to provoke our awareness of connectedness.
43:30 Water is conscious too, it is proven that it has memory!
Proved by atheist 😅
When he talks about the Sun thinking, I feel a surge of joy and certainty that I haven't felt for decades.
The theory that one gets what one pursues is exactly the scary thought, at least for me. Jesus showed me what I was pursuing, and it made me feel saved, not from anyones wrath or anything like that, but precisely from my own minds current trajectory, fundamentally away from commitment and love towards absolute autonomy and pleasure. I felt a kind of glimpse of where I was headed in the long run. Not that autonomy and pleasure are bad, but rather that they are empty when pursued for their own sakes. Something like that, hope it makes sense.
absolutely brilliant finally a man of science and knowledge that is willing to speak his oppinion and dismiss the dogma the mainstream scientific community has forced upon us for so long
If only we had more like Rupert Sheldrake, the world would be such a better place
It's always a pleasure to hear Rupert, as well as entertaining in the same time.
Wonderful discussion!
But mankind has to remember again and recognize themselves as divine beings, creators, co-creators. Thank you ...
I would like to point out that 'disbelief' in god can mean two things; It can mean 'no existing belief i.e; a blank canvas or it can mean the rejection of god. The difference seems semantic but it can be the difference between open-minded skepticism and closed-minded cynicism.
TheRealSamPreece
I appreciate your openness to logic and truth, but I wish to clarify that the prefix 'dis' from latin means apart from or away.
All definitions are relative, so words are really dependant on context but by definition you (and other non theists) could more eloquently divulge your beliefs, or lack of beliefs
If you are looking for empirically testable ways to establish any; some good ones include:
Quantum biology
Numerical prophecies
Gematria
the Golden mean, Phi
other prophecies such as Tyre & Babylon
numbers are key!
In my view, the greatest driving (or pulling) force for humanity is the longing for unity. Sex and particularly orgasm are so attractive, because they are the best way we know how to achieve unity physically. The more subtle - and arguably more fulfilling - pinnacle of our ability to achieve unity is love. But as many of us find, even love leaves us only partially fulfilled. Human love is not total. Hidden behind the word 'love' is the word 'two'. A common phrase we use is 'love between two people'. What we ultimately long for is *total* unity! When separation disappears so completely that only one remains. We felt integrally one with the universe once! That deeply buried memory is responsible for our longing to re-experience the bliss. When we became individual souls, then the paradise was lost. Ever since then we have suffered the pain of separation. Finding ourselves is only possible - ironically - by losing ourselves! By dissolving ourselves back into the universal whole. In finding its home the river dies, but gains by becoming the ocean. Such is the cycle of existence!
Thank you for presenting this. Excellent!
Ron
What I like about this discussion is that science is being scrutinized and challenged to accept that there are aspects of our reality that is immaterial. Thus consequently placing science in a rather uncomfortable situation but one that must be explored scientifically as far as it will go.
I wouldn’t try to get doctrinal truths from this talk, certainly doesn’t seem to be its purpose but it explores a whole hosts of possibilities and inexplicable questions that ought to be explored. If the speed of light is variable and the gravitational constant is not in fact constant, this ought to be explored and should be done so scientifically to try further science. The explanation may just be the next renaissance of scientific discovery and stifling it does science a disfavor.
The Higgs Boson makes you think of the soul (the spark) and yes angels. There is order in the universe, and we are getting closer to discovering it. I believe there is room for spiritualism/religion and science. Why should one negate the other. Universal consciousness, universal geometry,....our minds are approaching understanding.
The universe is a Fractal, along with everything in it!....including consciousness!
thank you Rupert
dc
I like the idea that 'all paths leads to God'. I feel that too many religious people focus only on their religion as being the absolute truth, but in reality, all the world's religions and spiritual traditions share a common ground, and wisdom can be found in all.
Half way through it is wonderfully explained how time is a product of matter
roberta peck That is a really deep insight. I have seen lots of clocks made of matter.
+Reductionist And I have seen many weeks with a Wednesday in them ...
Long way to expose your lack of wit.
@@bodach7524 pj0lh8
88
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Rupert Sheldrake is one of my heroes.....
Robert Parkes Sheldrake is a storytelling charlatan
Robert Parkes Have you read Darwin ? How about Newton, Einstein and many others ? What has Sheldrake produced other than speculation?
You are one of those people who are easily pleased.
weeeeeety1 Agreed but don't overlook the fact that he ha made a small fortune from his books, seminars and consciousness-raising groups. all of which promote pseudo-scientific nonsense which appeal to the scientifically illiterate.
+Bodach
You're just jealous. He has earned his success.
He is successful because there are very many people interested in the nature of consciousness and how to use that knowledge to create a better world experience for all of us and that creates a natural tendency to aggregate.
He's in no way pseudoscientific though. Check out his experiments (there is plenty of detail on his website. He has a good grasp of scientific method). When he is talking about this sort of stuff he is often discussing the underlying philosophy which informs science. That is a perfectly respectable endeavor.
Andy There are very many people interested in astrology, Tarot cards, messages from the dead and all sorts of other nonsense. The same goes for consciousness, for which we have yet to find a universally agreed definition. That , of course, will mot stop dabblers from promoting and believing in all sorts of nonsensical ideas.
for the last 2 months, since I ran across Rupert's research, I have been trying to "turn" the heads of passersby at a distance of 10 meters. They are in view for about six seconds. So far I think fewer have turned to see me looking at them than before. What has really helped me though, is Rupert's little story about the Guru telling him that he should not disturb the Karma of the poor. In my life it has proven to be a broadening of my morphic field and led to a shift in perception concerning a significant impasse in my personal development: I have left off meddling in other people's business. So far Rupert's other observations don't replicate well in Surrey, British Columbia. But that doesn't mean I have lost interest in his research. Maybe like areas where iron ore deposits disturb the magnetic field and cause a compass to spin, there is an anomaly in my place of residence.
Amazing...Consciousness comes form the very action of having to choose at every moment. Amazing!
i only come across Rupert last week and am glad i have
Yes, let's get on the Cutting Edge of Creation. We are As Gods. Let's get better at it!
Unbelievable lecture - thank you Rupert. And thx for posting.
The greater presence in which we live... YES.
Thank you Rupert This is an excellent and timely element. We have been waiting for this summary and it fills a gap in the conscious journey...
Looking forward to more of this.. few in the scholarly realm can dialog and debate and explain as well as you do. Metaphors thanks goodness for metaphors and analogies...
Can this be the seed of a new book ?
I would dearly love to communicate my very relative and on going experiences with Rupert Sheldrake.
The idea that consciousness is a function of the brain is just one of many explanations for our experience. It is not even the most parsimonious explanation, and so I see no reason to default to it. There is no reason to believe that consciousness is a function of the brain, and by extension there is no reason to assume that experience ceases with the death of the brain.
AndulinX BYM " There is no reason to believe that consciousness is a function of the brain " Are you serious ? If someone receives a blow to the head which damages his brain , he is rendered unconscious. Anaesthetics which affect neuronal activity render a patient unconscious. The anaesthetic wears off and neuronal ( brain ) activity returns to normal and consciousness returns also. Try thinking before you write such nonsense.
AnduinX BYM r
I believe the physical brain acts as the coordinating interface between body and soul/consciousness. If you break that connection via blunt trauma to the head, the body will flop like a rag doll accordingly, whilst your soul continues to remain awake and alert such as the out of body experience phenomena, albeit perhaps still tethered in place to the physical body.
Myles Lawless
*_"If someone receives a blow to the head which damages his brain , he is rendered unconscious. Anaesthetics which affect neuronal activity render a patient unconscious. The anaesthetic wears off and neuronal ( brain ) activity returns to normal and consciousness returns also."_*
I see you're new to philosophy of mind. Those are mind/brain correlations, and none of them require the idea that conscious experience is a function of the brain.
The idea that your brain is what your experience of separation from the rest of the content of mind looks like from an outside perspective can explain everything that neuroscience has observed. Fundamental mind is perfectly compatible with all scientific observation.
+Myles Lawless
"Are you serious ? If someone receives a blow to the head which damages his brain , he is rendered unconscious. Anaesthetics which affect neuronal activity render a patient unconscious. The anaesthetic wears off and neuronal ( brain ) activity returns to normal and consciousness returns also."
And yet there is a growing number of cases in which someone reports having a conscious experience during the period where the brain is not functioning. How are people able to witness verifiable events that occurred outside of their body during that period?
For example, Pamela Reynolds NDE: www.near-death.com/science/evidence/people-have-ndes-while-brain-dead.html
Good Golly Miss Molly! Simply exquisite. You, Mister Sheldrake, and Little Richard have had a very similar convergence - Richard Penniman became famous, taught Paul McCartney how to falsetto and went back to gospel music for a while all of the time playing r'n'roll and he did not make the obvious separations of classifications. Anyway...give me a rowboat, better yet a kayak with an underwater speaker with a microphone up top and allow me to sing to local cetaceans. In case nobody told you the porpoises and dolphins and whales are deeply telepathic and will respond to genuine intent to dialogue with the animals. It's insanely easy and scientists don't know how to talk to the animals. I am amazed at the lack of imagination in educated people when it comes to "speaking their language" and surprise - cetaceans do not respond to imitators - those who try to make whale sounds or dolphin sounds or whatever. Cetaceans DO respond to sounds and music that are heartfelt expressions of love and affection and emotional journeys expressed by a human being. Most folk in "modern culture" do not even believe that cetaceans are even expressing their feelings and stories in their sounds. Some species will literally sing across an entire ocean to communicate with others of their families and species and do respond across the same ocean. Yes, I talk to and also jam with the animals - especially birds. The principles of animal communication also are quite effective in CE-5 dialogue. Big surprise. Yes, the galaxy and sun and the physical universe are conscious - also Gaia and many zillions of her residents. Ah-Ee (A.I.) is, guess what, intelligent. The principles of heartfelt communication apply to pretty much whatever the human imagination can encompass, wherever that consciousness may manifest. Whales, computers, birds, dogs, cats and E.T. and parrots might amaze you. I can type no more. Be well.
Amazing, brilliant. Thank you so much!!!!
53:52 Utterly fascinating, never thought of this before, but here "God is Love" means a pulling force, an attraction, what organizes the universe as a goal, a desired good. We know God in the experience of motivation; the "evidence" of God is in our own feeling.
Your comment is very helpful to me. Thank you. It is so vivid to us, when we feel the pull of love. It's the "blood" of our emotional life. I am exploring Christianity and starting to take communion. Sharing bread and wine is like sharing this "pull" of the togetherness of life...
It was in deed very inspirational. Our present age is so confusing, but the insights I had today from Sir Rupert is an eye opener. My thanks extends beyond the galaxies.
I am so fond of this man's mind . . . it's difficult to praise it properly. He causes me to better understand where humans are, from a humanitarian point of view - necessarily fairly overwhelmed by the relatively recent and major scientific reconfigurations of our understanding of the universe.
Excellent talk.
Wish Lex Friedman could snag an interview with Sheldrake
Very good talk. An inclusive worldview will bring more discovery.
Wonderful -Thank you. Perfect as we are going into a new Year and a new Decade.
The famous story of Terence Mckenna and Rupert Sheldrake meeting for the first time. Rupert is waiting at the bus station. Terence pulls up and says casually out the car window..."Doctor Sheldrake, I presume?"
Likeable. Eloquent. Humble. Sincere. Not necessarily correct.
Rupert Sheldrake is so sophisticated..and so very intelligent..brilliant!
amazing .. can you put English subtitle and re upload it again , it will help a lot
my God this guy honestly was awesome . why haven't i heard about him ?
J Krishnamurti was one of the very best in understanding consciousness.
Brilliant. Thank you so much.
Quran states that all things are conscious, for example it says "ALL what is in the heavens and the Earth , perpetually praise his(Allah) name" , and "Had we revealed this burden(Islam) unto the mountains, you would see it shaking , trembling , with headaches from fear of god" .... It clearly states that the trees and the Earth itself are conscious entities with "opinions" and feelings again and again. It is a well known but hard to believe(understand) aspect of Islam , so it is not talked about much from fear of confusion and doubt.
There is an interesting story of king Solomon(he could communicate with all animals) over hearing an ant speaking to its colony , and he laughed , because the smallest creature had the most sophisticated language of all the animals ( highest level of consciousness ). The Israelites who claimed Solomon as their own mocked the story as ludicrous. Now we know that ants do have a highly sophisticated form of communication , but we cannot yet decipher it. We do know that ants have a different set of language constructs for every type of worker ant. And the queen has her own special language.
Now , with these new scientific proofs , you may hear about that peculiar aspect of Islam more.
I truly enjoyed RS's open mind within the ideas of morphogenic fields, and willingness to go outside convention -to be in inquiry.... However, this current conversation leaves me underwhelmed, like so many philosophers, scientists, religious leaders and mystics .... like Jung, great concepts in his younger years, only to becoming infatuated with himself as he aged unaware that his mind, his intellect that was breaking down .... resorting to using unprovable concepts to justify belief in the spiritual/mystical, perhaps to assuage an insecurity around one's end of life. There is so much more than the limited labeling of the acceptance of certain scientific data as being materialistic or mechanistic; and outright disregard for the negative impact of beliefs/religious dogma, in human history. Spirituality may be harmless musings on the nature of existence, opening our minds to possibilities, but any religion he mentioned has been a method of social control over other humans, with much of it being violent. I don't "believe" in the Big Bang - I accept that it may be a reasonable explanation on how we came to be, etc. The Periodic chart and the concept of the atomic basis of matter are functional but open to revision. Quantum theory is well, theory and beyond my level of mathematics. The concept of gravity is functional, regardless that it may not be constant. It's simply about discovering measurable, useful explanations for our world, our universe. Materialist, Mechanistic or whatever. At this point, in our current primitive level of science, we can not know, we simply build on the best data we have and accept that as new data arrives, we will conceive a more accurate hypothesis. All I can know is I think, therefore I am. What am I? I am not sure - best I can tell, I am a transceiver - able to receive information & to communicate it, at a variety of levels, biologically, physically, electromagnetically. With my current understanding or interpretation of my consciousness - I had a beginning & I will have an end, after that, I do not know, but prefer optimism to pessimism ...so indulge myself in spiritual musings, but then, it may all be a delusion or illusion. I do not, and cannot truly KNOW. Therefore, I don't know but am in inquiry. Rational thought, critical thinking skills allow me to recognize that I am on this beautiful planet, science is the collection of knowledge of our exploration of this physical existence and using that data to live here better. Rational thought and the collection of knowledge has allowed humans to flourish and live better. Not religious belief. I do assume that I have the ability to choose, but maybe everything is predestined - whatever, I do the best I can. I do not need to believe in any god, or follow any religion, to love or cherish the life I have, to appreciate the beauty & complexity of our planet, to be social & live with integrity amongst the other life here. Whether you believe or do not believe.... your spirituality only matters to me, based upon how unhinged or dangerous is your belief... does your system of dogma or religion wish to harm those who do not believe? I am neither atheistic, nor a theist...I don't have the data I require to propose a reasonable hypothesis.... if one must choose a label, perhaps agnostic or better yet, pragmatist. I am alive and I am open to what my life experiences bring me. We can discuss the nature of consciousness, which can be most interesting, but it also can become mental masturbation - similar to "how many angels can dance on the head of a pin?" or do the planets or sun have consciousness? Religion can lead to a form of escapism - that this world is not so important and therefore not worth living with honesty & integrity, one can then justify being careless, cruel or irresponsible, after all it is way below 7th heaven. Perhaps a more useful focus of our minds & intelligence is using science, as the tool that it is, to educate ourselves & others about what we do know from the realms of physics, biology, ecology, environmental carrying capacity, pollution, overpopulation, engineering, chemistry/biochemistry - so that we can live well on this planet while we are here and leave a healthy place for future generations to grow & develop. If one can use spirituality or religion to feel better, to be less insecure, more compassionate, more rational in how one chooses, wonderful. A life, well lived. What happens after this life, is up to whatever you want to believe. Just, please, do not expect me to believe in your god or religion. And, please don't kill me because I don't.
The purpose of atheism is not to reinvent religion. Its purpose is to correct religion, for religion is based almost entirely on errors. Spinoza did this once and for all, although he insisted that he was not an atheist. That opinion of himself is both true and false. He defined God in such a way that no religion would ever be the same, and no science could ever be heretical. Properly speaking, religion, and all its errors, belongs in the psychological realm; and 'God' is not a deity as that term is commonly understood. Mr. Sheldrake is wrong to conclude that atheism implies that the contents of the universe are unconscious. That belief is a fundamental error of science and philosophy. Clearly, everything in the universe is conscious and alive according to the hierarchy of the dimensions of reality. No nervous system is necessary to contain and exchange information in nature. The problem that Spinoza so elegantly solved is the problem of the anthropomorphic, thinking, feeling 'God'. That belief is the mother of all errors and the cause of the most tragic aspects of human behavior and history. It is the poison at the heart of religion and politics.
Most underrated speaker I ever heard.
'The kind of God most atheists don't believe in is the kind of God most theists don't believe in either'...... love it!
I too have followed Rupert back to his discussions with Terence McKenna and Ralph Abraham. It seems that without God as the Holy Spirit at the sub-atomic level, the world as we know it would cease to exist . (I use both concepts in a religious manner as I can't find other words to express my thesis.) The question that has caused my quest into this existential consciousness via spiritual energy is the recent discovery that >95% of our universe is composed of dark matter/energy. If we are to accept the conclusion that energy consists of the speed of light (a variable) and mass (E=mc2), how does this apply to the overwhelming amount of dark matter/energy? Most ancient texts state that in "the beginning" (of what) was the word, and the Word was God. Ex post facto, the logical conclusion would be that before the Word, the darkness and the light were combined. If the intent of God to create this universe, why would the majority (or basically all of this universe) consist of darkness? Do the laws of physics in OUR meager "light" portion of this universe apply in some transcendental manner to the dark majority? Would the dark also have consciousness through the same action of the Holy Spirit? And, if so, why would God's first act be separating the dark from the light? As the first "act", one would conclude that it was essential to creation. Why?
Love's influence begins to dominate time space.
And what we call good luck, bringing a certain humor and peace of mind.
Well that's at least been my beloved Jean and Bills experiences.
when I was a child and I needed Gods intervention, begging him for years to make it stop, where was he.?....nowhere. So I've grown up to believe that people just need a crutch, an invisible something or someone to lean on in times of trouble. Its not a Gods love and acceptance we need, its each others. Considering my plight I have still turned out to be a genuine, loving, good natured, well behaved adult. I don't know why some people think that your evil if you don't believe in God. The church itself, a vessel of God brought more evil than any atheist by way of its torture. The only reason the torture stopped is when the law against it started, otherwise they'd still be enjoying their horrible little selves, and still employing other believers to think up more evil torture devices to try out on us. Very strange. Good talk though on other stuff.
Great video.
Walking With Christ On water, I presume.
Nice one Rupert. Your a gem, most inspiring.
Thanks for sharing this excellent talk. 😊
Love this.
know thyself, it's your own journey, you alone..
well said . i understood what sheldrake says before he proposed the concept. we are all living memorees , though those with short ones have a limited experience . came to the conclusion the foundation of man made intelligence is actually based on ignorance . enlightenment is really common sense . enjoy
A little off topic but , one of the strangest things the Obama administration did was to add Athiest chaplains to the military chaplain corpse . Imagine the comforting words from an Athiest chaplain to a mortally wounded soldier " Don't be afraid son . Take comfort in the nothingness to come " .
Well said my man
@Stan Watkins. "A little" ?
There is nothing wrong if one can take comfort in nothingness... Is it not, the book says from nothing "God" created everything.
Stan Watkins - Hmmm, rather limited conceptualization. Having a compassionate person there, as one dies, so they are not alone, is the concept. From my perspective, ie I am not a theist - I would prefer a warm touch and genuine compassion without any empty words. "This too, shall pass." would be adequate. And I would be most grateful for the consideration.
I think the wisdom element in the cosmos is directly founded on the brained individual, while the goodness and power elements are the primal source whose characters do not evolve or alter, while wisdom grows. Recognition of the most primal or original cosmic fact is tapping the essence which alone can sustain wisdom or "smarts", and i think this became key to later seers who changed from symbolising God from thunderbolts and other power ensigns to essential character of primal nature using a lamb, a dove, a flower, etc. Recognising that the union of wisdom and this innocent goodness is the very essence of benignity and that intelligence without benignity isnt wisdom. It is guile. Man's crown is his capacity for wisdom, which in turn is born of recognition of the most primal nature which flees from coercion, compulsion and imprisonment. This to me is symbolised by Noah releasing the dove, which voluntarily returns with an olive twig, meaning as we allow this principle to freely flow from us it returns bearing fruit. But guile focuses on this return but not the release. The Hindus expound on this voluminously in discussing pranayama, whose very meaning is "not mine". The word "God" itself us actually a form of drinking "soma", which they term kechari kriya. It is not a pose or posture, but definite primal act as can be witnessed even in the fetus in utero. In fact much of yoga involves reproducing the spontaneous actions and postures of fetal life and childhood. Nearest to primal cause, good or god.
MAGNIFICENT ! Thank you So much. :)
Absolutely brilliant. I loved this
If I was an atheist , I'd consider the possibility that belief in God is part of evolution. At any rate I don't understand why atheists get so up in arms over religion. And making atheism a religion is so ridiclous but then again it makes a point people need organized religion or they wouldnt be creating it themselves. Many people believe in ghosts. I don't, but I can't totally discount the possiblility and it doesn't offend or anger me some people believe in them. It's like the "lady who protests too much."
The consciousness that intelligent design gave us can take us outside the universe,like god himself. Being in possession of such a property, I fail to understand how some can afford to be atheists.
ID gave us nothing. Prove otherwise !
That is brilliant...
Propose a theory and than tell your opposition to prove the contrary.
Haha
+EvenStar LoveAnanda yea thats kind of how it works when there's no sign of intellegent design but evolution is everywhere
nobody intelligently gave us anything. quit making things up. i don't get how you can afford to be so foolish
***** Just from talking to you, I begin to have serious doubts about the existence of Intelligent Design and Evolution.
Now I believe in Unintelligent Design and DeEvolution.
And I have irrefutable proof too, it's YOU.
When _I_ rediscovered god, I realized he was pretty much the shyster I always thought he was.
Haha was it the part about God being "joy, and knowledge, and love and possibly being experienced through orgasm that annoyed you?
He sat in on a discussion with Krishnamurti and David Bohm when he was young and gave a good account of himself and his embryonic worldview at the time among such great minds but seemed to realize as the discussion developed that human consciousness is utterly conditioned by the past and so incomplete and disordered and K did seem to quieten his inquiring but limited mind to a realization there is something beyond the totality of human consciousness that cannot be touched by that consciousness and which ultimately brings order to it. Seeing him now as an older man I wonder how much of an effect that talk had on him, it's good to have people within the scientific realm looking to understand the relation of the perceived manifest to that which is beyond perception but he still seems very conditioned by the acknowledged historical references applied to that which is outside the field of the brain and human consciousness.
bogus money yes, I watched that video too and agree he doesn't seem like he retained that part of K's talk very well.
I'm actually now finding a way of taking about God in which atheists understand what I mean, and have realised the only REAL difference between atheists and "believers" is language.
Religion puts God on the outside (usually angry), and fails to communicate with the world in the stuck way.
By, once we understand God is spirit, and, from our perspective, Spirit, or Spirits are QUALITIES OF BEING: Love, Grace, Splendor, Mercy, and so on.
And the hugs is, whatever you THINK you believe, you are actually either living or BEING these qualities, or you are not, and God knows that from the inside. So infinitesimally intimately.
Very good/interesting talk. Thank you.
God is real, He is love. Study His word, the Holy Bible. The more you seek, the more He reveals to you. His presence is religion.
brilliant sir. big admirer
He starts to discuss the consciousness of matter and "explanations" of what consciousness is after 30:00---
amazing guy, religions are here to stay, the brain is hardwired to believe in god