Hypothesis of Formative Causation (Morphic Resonance)

By Scott Jeffrey

The Theory in a Nutshell

In the 1920s, an idea developed in contradiction to the mechanistic approach to biological development called morphogenesis. In this concept, all organisms have morphogenetic (form-shaping) fields surrounding and vibrating through them. For example, the tiny acorn contains the field of an entire oak tree, the field being responsible for organizing its structure and development. Also, if you cut a plant into many pieces, each piece can be repotted and grown into its own plant—from a tiny fragment, you can get a whole. (Sound familiar? See the Holographic Paradigm.) Cut a salamanders tail off, and it grows back as if the structure of the tail is encoded in the field of the salamander.

Theoretical biologist Rupert Sheldrake used the concept of morphogenesis to develop an exciting alternative model to explain the habits of nature. According to Sheldrake’s Hypothesis of Formative Causation, each species has its own field, and within each organism is a composite of many fields. Within the human body, for example, there’s a field for the entire body, plus fields for each limb, muscle, organ, cell, etc., all the way down to the sub-cellular and molecular level. Each of these fields contains their own memory,” derived from past, similar forms. For example, in a ten-year experiment started at Harvard University, rats were trained to escape from a water maze. Each new generation of rats learned to escape quicker. After ten years, the latest generation of rats could escape ten times faster than the original rats. Interestingly, rats of the same lineage in other areas of the world also escaped ten times faster, a phenomenon which cannot be explained by any localized instruments (unless the rats figured out how to communicate via email or instant messenger and we just haven’t found out .

Similarly, the stomach lining’s field is patterned after the forms of previous stomach linings, like the oak tree’s field is patterned by previous oak trees. Through the fields, by a process Sheldrake calls Morphic Resonance, similar fields are connected and in resonance with each other.

Morphic Fields can be applied to both form and behavior, including areas like beliefs, cultures, traditions, etc. In this context, Morphic Fields can be used to explain a kind of “collective memory” or patterned behavior exhibited in groups of animals, like flocks of birds and schools of fish, or various cultures sharing similar characteristics in different parts of the world.

Sheldrake’s concept of collective memory parallels Carl Jung’s postulation of a Collective Unconscious.

Collective Unconscious

Carl Jung’s postulated the existence of a Collective Unconscious—a communal pool to which everything is connected that exists beyond the physical dimension of time and space. He drew this conclusion from a number of unexplainable coincidences he experienced with his patients, like young children recalling events and information that they did not have access to.

The Collective Unconscious explains how numerous people, unrelated and in different parts of the planet, can independently arrive at the same idea simultaneously. A collective pool of consciousness where all thoughts emanate helps explain how:

Charles Darwin and Alfred Russel Wallace independently postulated the theory of evolution at the same time
Sir Isaac Newton and Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz independently invented calculus in two different parts of the world
Physicists Erwin Shrodinger and Werner Heisenberg simultaneously wrote the wave equation which formed the basis for quantum mechanics
Neurosurgeon Karl Pribram and physicist David Bohm formulated a holographic framework for the brain and universe, respectively

Significance to Consciousness and Spirituality

As Dr. Hawkins explains: “Something similar to [Morphic Fields] also exists in the energy fields of consciousness, underlying thought patterns and images.” The same or similar thoughts and ideas arise in various parts of the world simultaneously, demonstrating a non-local phenomenon. A Morphic Field is an everywhere-present standing energy field, universally available via the unobservable universe.

We are all part of an infinite field of consciousness. Everything is recorded in this infinite field. Nothing goes unnoticed. Every smile, kind gesture, and loving thought impacts all of humanity. “In turn, every advance that we make in our awareness benefits unseen multitudes and strengthens the next step for others to follow. Every act of kindness is noticed by the universe and is preserved forever.” (Hawkins, Eye of the I, 118)