Rupert Sheldrake’s Experiments And Scientific Criticism

Rupert Sheldrake’s experiments have generated strong controversies, mainly because they have not been able to be replicated and this prevents the truth or falsity of his hypotheses from being tested. Even so, his theories have given much to talk about and are, without a doubt, a very interesting proposal on the human mind.

Rupert Sheldrake studied Natural Sciences at the University of Cambridge; finishing his studies he received the award for University Botany in 1963. Later he studied philosophy and history of science at Harvard University and later obtained a doctorate in biochemistry, also at Cambridge.

Later he would occupy important positions. One of them as a consultant at the International Crop Research Institute for the Semi-arid Tropics (ICRISAT) in Hyderabad, India. During his stay in that country, he came into contact with the monk  Bede Griffiths in Tamil Nadu and this turned his work around. Thus, in 1981 Rupert Sheldrake’s experiments began.

The basis of Rupert Sheldrake’s experiments

Definitely, Rupert Sheldrake’s experiments are not easy for the most orthodox science to assimilate, since they approach concepts that have traditionally been rejected by the most positivist sectors. Ideas such as telepathy, ESP, and the like are present in his work. Still, scientists, such as physicist David Bohm, have supported his work.

All of Rupert Sheldrake’s experiments are detailed in a thesis at the University of Granada. There the details of the studies are shown, including the biological postulates from which it starts and the way in which its hypotheses take shape.

The basis for Rupert Sheldrake’s experiments emerged in the 1920s, at Harvard. The researchers did a series of tests on a group of rats. They basically taught them to escape the mazes faster and faster. What is striking is that subsequent generations of rats seemed to have inherited that memory and from the beginning were faster to get out of similar mazes.

So far the subject is interesting, but perhaps for many nothing more than that. The truly surprising thing happened when laboratories identical to those at Harvard in Australia and Scotland were made with rats that had nothing to do with those used in the United States.

These, too, were found to have learned to solve the maze as quickly as those in the initial experiment. The data is shared by the renowned writer Rosa Montero.

Sheldrake’s Findings

Rupert Sheldrake began to experiment with animals and achieved results that were also not looked upon favorably by the more orthodox science. He pointed out that there were forms of telepathic communication between specimens of the same species and that this could explain the case of the Harvard rats. Later, the biologist pointed out that this could also happen in humans.

At this point one of Rupert Sheldrake’s most famous experiments took place: it is known as the “telephone telepathy experiment. ” It basically consisted of gathering a group of people and asking them to guess who was calling them when their phone rang. People who could receive only four calls, to have limited results.

During the first round of the experiment, the average hit success rate was 40%. However, during the following rounds it was found that the presumed telepathy was most effective when the volunteer felt more confident and when he had a strong emotional connection with the caller. Under these conditions, the hits increased up to 85%.

Truth or quackery?

Rupert Sheldrake did many other experiments in which, for example, it was apparent that pets read their owners’ minds. In fact, he continues to experiment with the subject and anyone who wishes to participate in them can join them through his personal page.

From his experiments, Sheldrake has concluded that there is a reality that he calls “morphic fields.” These are present and operate in all matter, from minerals to humans. The basic idea is that an apprenticeship, or a change, is transmitted between the members of that species, by a mechanism that would become telepathic, without the mediation of the will.

Sheldrake has been highly questioned by various scientists who, for the most part, define his theory as pseudoscience. However, Lee Smolin, a quantum physicist, has recently put forward ideas similar to those of the British, under a postulate he calls The Provenance Principle . This will be the subject of another article.

Editing note : what is exposed in this article is in what we could consider the limit of science. The experiments that appear in the article have been widely criticized. In any case, there is a debate and we encourage the reader to do their research and draw their own conclusions.