Sheldrake. Gd is Consciousness

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Excellent — bringing Rupert Sheldrake into this discussion is very natural. He was, in fact, a direct intellectual heir to Alister Hardy, and his work extends Hardy’s vision of linking science and spiritual experience through a deeper understanding of consciousness, life, and the nature of reality.

Here’s a detailed, clear overview of how Sheldrake connects to Hardy and the idea that “God is consciousness.”

🧬 1. Who Rupert Sheldrake Is

• Full name: Rupert Sheldrake (b. 1942)
• Background: British biologist; studied at Cambridge and Harvard; former Research Fellow of Clare College, Cambridge.
• Connection to Hardy:
  
• Sheldrake was deeply influenced by Alister Hardy’s attempts to integrate biology with spirituality.
• He even served as Director of the Perrott-Warrick Project at Trinity College, Cambridge, which continued research into psychic and spiritual experiences (a field Hardy helped pioneer).
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🌊 2. Sheldrake’s Core Idea: 

Morphic Resonance

In Sheldrake’s theory, the universe is inherently alive and conscious, at least to some degree.

The main points:

• Morphic fields: Every system — a cell, a body, a society, even a galaxy — is organized by a “field” that carries patterns of memory and form.
• These fields evolve through morphic resonance, meaning that once a pattern is established, it becomes easier for similar forms or behaviors to occur again — as if nature learns.
• This makes evolution creative and conscious, not just mechanical or random.

So in contrast to the reductionist view (life and mind as by-products of matter), Sheldrake argues that mind and matter are intertwined at every level — pointing toward a living, conscious universe.

🧠 3. Consciousness and God in Sheldrake’s View

Sheldrake often says that the universe is not a machine but an organism — and organisms are conscious.

He doesn’t claim that “God = consciousness” in a simple identity, but his thinking is compatible with that idea:

Concept	Sheldrake’s perspective
Consciousness	Not confined to brains; it may extend through fields, connecting minds and nature.
God	The mind of nature itself — a living presence within and beyond the world, not separate from it.
Mystical experience	A direct experience of unity with this greater field of consciousness — echoing Hardy’s findings.
Prayer, ritual, telepathy	Possible expressions of resonance within this larger field of mind.

🔄 4. Connection to Hardy’s Oxford Project

Both Hardy and Sheldrake:

• Saw spiritual experience as a natural part of human life, not a pathology or illusion.
• Wanted to bridge science and spirituality through open-minded, empirical study.
• Were grounded in biology, not theology — they spoke about consciousness as a natural force, not a supernatural entity.

Hardy studied mystical experiences empirically (through testimonies).

Sheldrake developed a theory that could explain how such experiences might be real — through fields of consciousness connecting all living things.

In essence:

Hardy collected the data; Sheldrake built the metaphysics.

🪶 5. In Relation to “God is Consciousness”

Sheldrake’s view fits perfectly with that statement, reinterpreted scientifically:

• God → the living consciousness of the universe
• Creation → a process of evolution through memory and creativity
• Mystical experience → direct participation in that cosmic consciousness

He often cites the panentheistic idea (God in all things, and all things in God) — found in Christian mysticism, Vedanta, and process philosophy.

📚 Key Works

1. A New Science of Life (1981) – introduces morphic resonance.
2. The Presence of the Past (1988) – explores memory in nature.
3. The Science Delusion / Science Set Free (2012) – challenges scientific materialism.
4. Ways to Go Beyond and Why They Work (2019) – examines spiritual practices (prayer, meditation, ritual, sports, psychedelics) as ways of connecting to consciousness.

🌌 6. Summary Insight

Alister Hardy opened the scientific study of mystical experience.

Rupert Sheldrake extended it to a theory of mind and nature.

Both point toward a vision where:

Consciousness is not produced by the brain, but rather the ground of being itself — what religions call God.

Would you like me to show how Hardy’s empirical findings (from Oxford) can be seen as early evidence for Sheldrake’s morphic field hypothesis — e.g., how collective patterns in mystical experience might illustrate “resonance” across people and time?