The Force of Habit: New Tests for Morphic Resonance

Part of an online course on potential scientific breakthroughs:https://www.sheldrake.org/online-coursesIn this talk Rupert discusses new ways in which the hypothesis of morphic resonance can be tested, including with holistic quantum systems like Bose-Einstein condensates, with new materials like high-temperature superconductors, through experiments on cellular adaptation to toxins and heat stress, in experiments on learning in non-human animals, including nematode worms and fruit flies, and with popular online puzzles like Wordle.The implications of these tests, if successful, would be very far reaching, and could lead to new understandings of physical phenomena like the melting points of crystals, which would depend on influences from previous similar crystals, rather than on timeless laws. In biology, morphic resonance from past organisms would play an essential role in heredity, in addition to genes and epigenetic modifications of gene expression. In humans, collective memory would facilitate learning and problem-solving, and morphic resonance would underlie what the psychologist Jung called ‘the collective unconscious’._References_Mind, Memory, and Archetype: Morphic Resonance and the Collective Unconscioushttps://sheldrake.org/memoryRat Learning and Morphic Resonancehttps://sheldrake.org/ratsThe Flynn effecthttps://james-flynn.net/The Sound of a Hidden Orderhttps://www.nature.com/articles/498041aA reprogrammable mechanical metamaterial with stable memoryhttps://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-020-03123-5Evidence for unconventional superconductivity in twisted trilayer graphenehttps://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-022-04715-zAntiferromagnetic half-skyrmions and bimerons at room temperaturehttps://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-021-03219-6Conditioned aversionhttps://dictionary.apa.org/conditioned-aversionAn Experimental Test of the Hypothesis of Formative Causationhttps://sheldrake.org/roseSteven Rose's 'A hypothesis disconfirmed' refuted by Ruperthttps://sheldrake.org/rose-refutedThe Hill Effect as a Test for Morphic Resonancehttps://sheldrake.org/essays/the-hill-effect-as-a-test-for-morphic-resonance