Morphogenetic field: Encyclopedia II - Morphogenetic field - Research background

Morphogenetic field - Research background

British biologist Rupert Sheldrake posited a theory of morphogenetic fields that has become well-known for the criticism and skepticism directed towards it by prominent members of the scientific community.

Sheldrake trained as a plant physiologist and became interested in the way that living things took on their form. In particular, he was interested in how what began as a single cell that split into identical copies eventually changed to take on specific characteristics such as leaves or stems in a plant.

At the time of his research in the late 1960s and 1970s, the mechanisms for such development were unclear. In the 1920s, embryo regeneration and the ability of willow shoots to grow whole new trees implied to some researchers the possibility of some influencing field. The later discovery of DNA appeared at first to offer a clearer explanation, but since the DNA remains largely identical throughout an organism, it was not alone able to explain form.

Sheldrake observed:

Sheldrake then became interested in "holistic" ideas after reading Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's works on the topic. He developed a theory to explain this problem of morphology, with its basic concept relying on a universal field encoding the "basic pattern" of an object. He termed it the "morphogenetic field".

The morphogenetic field would provide a force that guided the development of an organism as it grew, making it take on a form similar to that of others in its species. DNA was not the source of structure itself, but rather a "receiver" that translated instructions in the field into physical form.

A feedback mechanism, morphic resonance, would lead to changes in this pattern, as well as explain why humans did not "pick up" the pattern of plants during development. In Sheldrake's theory, the existence of a form is itself sufficient to make it easier for that form to come to exist somewhere else.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Research background", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki