Seven Experiments That Could Change the World: A Do-It-Yourself Guide to Revolutionary Science

by Rupert Sheldrake

How do pets know when you're coming home? How do pigeons home? Do people really feel phantom limbs? Such questions form the basis of Sheldrake's look at contemporary science as he tests some of its cherished assumptions. He discovers that certain beliefs are so widely taken for granted that they're no longer regarded as theories but are seen as common sense. In a true scientific spirit, he examines seven of these beliefs. Refusing to let intellectual dogmatism influence searching for the truth, he presents simple experiments that allow the curious & the skeptical to join a journey of discovery. His experiments look at how scientific research is often biased against unexpected patterns that emerge & how researchers' expectations influence results. He also examines the taboo of taking pets seriously & explores the ESP question. He questions the notion that science must be expensive to achieve important results, showing that inexpensive methods can shake the very foundations of science as we know it. This intelligent book offers no preconceived wisdom or easy answers--just an open invitation to explore the unknown, create new science & perhaps change the world. Sheldrake was a research fellow of the Royal Society.

Genres: Science, Nonfiction, Philosophy

Hardcover

First published March 28, 1994

About the author

Rupert Sheldrake is a biologist and author of more than 80 scientific papers and ten books. A former Research Fellow of the Royal Society, he studied natural sciences at Cambridge University, where he was a Scholar of Clare College, took a double first class honours degree and was awarded the University Botany Prize. He then studied philosophy and history of science at Harvard University, where he was a Frank Knox Fellow, before returning to Cambridge, where he took a Ph.D. in biochemistry. He was a Fellow of Clare College, Cambridge, where he was Director of Studies in biochemistry and cell biology. As the Rosenheim Research Fellow of the Royal Society, he carried out research on the development of plants and the ageing of cells in the Department of Biochemistry at Cambridge University.

Recently, drawing on the work of French philosopher Henri Bergson, he developed the theory of morphic resonance, which makes use of the older notion of morphogenetic fields. He has researched and written on topics such as animal and plant development and behaviour, telepathy, perception and metaphysics.

Reviews

[Satyajeet · Rating 4 out of 5]

Quantum non-locality is the most romantic thing!

[Asli · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this book at a time when I learned about a major fraud case (Diederek Stapel) that shook up the scientific community recently. Behavioral science, more apt to admit false, gave away a scapegoat revealing that research findings that receive acclaim may be revolving around charismatic figures and established prestige. In the scientific publishing sector, only the research that is decorated with novel ideas and a proven hypothesis receive acceptance. Because that's what sells. The papers that are reviewed and published skew towards research that did not fail - which inherently does not reflect how the world works. Things fail, all the time.

So I wasn't surprised that not only behavioral science but also physics show a precedent of massaging raw data to fit research results into Platonic ideals. Going all the way back to Newton, and Millikan. It is daring of Sheldrake to talk about the "intellectual phase-locking" that's been paralyzing true objectivity in modern science, since its dawn. It suggests that empirical science has been establishing "constants" based on faith, not unlike religion. Sheldrake's perspective is vital to level the playground. Cleansing orthodoxy out of scientific practice will create opportunities to tackle tough questions that have been exiled from empirical research. Unexplained phenomena that don’t cease to exist by being ignored may be studied.

A few concepts that Sheldrake mentions are for me to dig deeper into:
- Vitalism as opposed to mechanism.
- Habits as opposed to laws of natural phenomena.
- The collective memory of the universe.

I will revisit this book for:
- its rich bibliography
- suggested experiments, particularly those with pets and experimenter expectation effect.

[Graham Bear · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book. As with all of Mr Sheldrake's books I found this one engaging and persuasive. Most of all it was fascinating.

[Fernando Moreira · Rating 4 out of 5]

Trata-se de um livro que explora o verdadeiro espirito da ciência. Sheldrake decide neste ensaio estudar os fenómenos que outros desprezam. Não se trata de um livro de ideias preconcebidas ou respostas fáceis. Acredito que assim se cria uma nova ciência.

[Erik Graff · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm on my virtually annual visit to the Miley brothers and other old friends in the Bay area. In preparation for seeing them again I read a number of books they recommended, bringing this one along for the plane ride to give as a gift for Tom, the more skeptical of the two siblings. Although I watched and listened to interviews with Sheldrake before, this is the first of his books I've actually read.

"Seven experiments" are indeed proffered herein. Well, actually he recommends seven areas wherein almost anyone might make valuable contributions to science, suggesting a whole host of possible projects. Of course, he's got an agenda. Sheldrake is no mechanistic materialist and he aims to challenge some of their assumptions.

In addition to the suggested experiments, Sheldrake digresses into various essays, not all of them related to inexpensively falsifiable propositions. In this regard I particularly liked his overview of some of the laws of physics. Here he treats such things as the supposed speed of light, Planck's Constant, the Gravitational Constant and so on, demonstrating how such laws and limits have actually been determined and in so doing showing how much of scientific research actually operates. Here he is reminiscent of Kuhn's The Structure of Scientific Revolutions and his book may be seen as an addendum to such critiques.

[Greg McFarlane · Rating 2 out of 5]

The chapter on how pigeons home was great. For example, I did not know that pigeons can home to mobile lofts, even on moving ships. This is good evidence of some special (ie: not one of the known forces of science) attachment between the birds and their home and could easily be tested. some of the rest of the book felt like he had already made up his mind that "weird" things were happening and his put down of skeptics was too much.

[Pam Baddeley · Rating 3 out of 5]

Bit like the Curate's egg - good in places. I enjoyed the more 'down to earth' chapters on pigeon homing for example. Not so keen on the mathematical discourses into Plank's Constant and the like though I appreciate that he talks frankly about open minded detachment not really being how things are done in science.

[Lee Barry · Rating 3 out of 5]

Sheldrake is a brilliant man, but I think he's had a hard time selling his folk experiment ideas to the scientific community. But he does shed light on negative bias towards such ideas, and perhaps won over some detractors in the process.

[Graham Bear · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another excellent book from one of my favourite authors. Rupert Sheldrake is a brilliant Biologist and Natural Philosopher . A truly great intellectual whose books are always fascinating . You should read this book.

[Patrick\ · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well, is anybody doing it? The being watched is ongoing. What else? And what about the seven major constants that hold the material world together? Have we actually got numbers that stick yet? Hmmmm.

[Denise Schlachtaub · Rating 4 out of 5]

Practical suggestions for experiments that anyone can do at home, and that just might change the way we view the world.