Morphic Resonance

Morphic resonance is the central claim of Rupert Sheldrake's hypothesis of formative causation, as presented on the source archive page devoted to his work. It is the proposed mechanism by which the forms and behaviors of past systems are said to influence subsequent similar systems.

The claim

Under the hypothesis, similarity of form or behavior between successive similar systems is transmitted by a process described as non-energetic. A system's form is shaped by the accumulated influence of past similar systems, transmitted through Morphic Resonance: The Nature of Formative Causation — Memory, Instinct and the McDougall Controversy rather than through genes or known physical forces. Sheldrake frames the broader causal picture as Formative Causation: causation by the repetition of form rather than by energetic mechanism.

The hypothesis is presented as general, applying to biological form, to behavior, and to the habits of physical systems such as crystals.

Claimed evidence

The domains of claimed evidence associated with the hypothesis are:

The source is a bibliography page listing Sheldrake's books and co-authored works, including A New Science of Life, The Presence of the Past, The Sense of Being Stared At, Dogs That Know When Their Owners Are Coming Home, and Seven Experiments That Could Change the World. The source does not itself describe specific experiments or evidence domains; those are contained in the linked books.

Criticisms and limitations

The source is a bibliography page and does not supply experimental evidence or controlled replications. The claims associated with the hypothesis are contested in mainstream science, but the source itself provides no experimental detail to evaluate.

Two tensions remain unresolved in the source:

• Internal. The hypothesis claims a non-energetic mechanism while invoking results — learning rates, melting points, staring detection — that would ordinarily require energetic measurement. The source does not explain how a non-energetic influence produces measurable energetic effects.
• External. The proposal conflicts with mainstream genetics and developmental biology, which explain inheritance and form through genetic and mechanistic processes.

Disambiguation

Morphic resonance is not the same claim as Form Emissions (Emissions Due to Shapes) (the Ravatin/Sprink lineage). Form emissions concern emissions attributed to the shape of physical objects and their effect on matter and fluids; morphic resonance concerns the influence of past similar systems on present ones. The shared vocabulary of "form" is superficial.

See Morphic Resonance: Formative Causation, Behavioral Fields and the Proposed Tests for the claims-versus-evidence treatment.