Seven Experiments That Could Change the World

Biologist Rupert Sheldrake here proposes seven fascinating experiments that could transform our view of reality. They would take us far beyond the current frontiers of research and reveal much more of the world than science has yet dared to conceive. Any one of them, if successful, would open up bewildering new vistas. Taken together they could revolutionise our understanding of nature and ourselves. This research could help to explain many hitherto mysterious natural phenomena, such as the migration of birds across thousands of miles to countries they’ve never seen, the baroque complexity of the termites’ nest, or the intuition our pets seem to have when we’re on our way home. It could also shed light on some of our own unexplained capacities, for example the sense we have of being stared at, or the phantom limb of the amputee. Now Rupert Sheldrake has developed simple experiments through which such phenomena can be rigorously tested. Though fully scientific in conception and method, each of these experiments costs little or nothing to conduct, and has been carefully designed to be carried out by non-professionals. This intriguing book is not only about a more open kind of science, but about a more open way of doing science: more public, more participatory, less the monopoly of a scientific priesthood. It focuses attention on areas of research neglected as a result of conventional habits of thought with extraordinary opportunities for breakthroughs worthy of the name. Readers of this book will find themselves on a journey of discovery that will continue long after they put it down. This is not just a book, but is also a broad-based research programme with an open invitation to participate. It is in itself an ambitious and unprecedented experiment in scientific enquiry.