Formative Causation & Morphic Fields Rebooted
Sound Domains, Time-space and Subtle Bodies
Introduction
In this essay we look at the concepts of formative causation and “morphic fields,” and relate them not only to a reciprocal model of space-time, but also to occult concepts based on information obtained “paranormally,” that is, through senses extending beyond those of the minimum five physical senses - a subject I investigated in detail in The Grand Illusion - Book 1.
Formative Causation and Morphic Fields
The hypothesis of formative causation sees the inheritance of not just genetics, but physical form and mental and behavioural patterns in terms of the inheritance of organizing (informational) fields possessing a form of in-built “memory.”
Thus a living human inherits not just genetic elements from his/her parents, but also habits of development and behaviour from past members of their own species, as well as the ancestral species from which theirs has arisen.
These organizing fields biologist Rupert Sheldrake refers to as morphic fields—a more general and inclusive term than the more specialized “morphogenetic field” (relating more specifically to fields modulating genetic expression).
The process by which the “past” influences the present via morphic fields is referred to as morphic resonance. This process involves the transmission of formative causal influences in a spatially and temporally nonlocal fashion, such that morphic fields possess a cumulative “memory.”
In other words, morphic fields can influence themselves and each other over any spatial distance or any “length of time,” suggesting that the past does not merely recede into our memories, but informationally remains present in some causal capacity, where it can influence present activity.
This suggests a three-dimensional (holographic) view of time, rather than a one-dimensional “flow” or “arrow” of time in which the past fades into nothingness and the future likewise has no real existence. Instead, there is only the eternal now in which all moments are nested.
A Link to the Etheric
While Sheldrake’s model undermines the very foundations of the mechano-materialist worldview from which all traces of teleology have been banished, it is certainly not without support. In fact, the mechano-materialist view of the universe as a closed system has been thoroughly discredited (as I prove in Book 1).
In short, observable facts demand a worldview similar to that postulated by Sheldrake.
Retired theoretical physicist and self-styled “quantum activist” Dr. Amit Goswami has also observed that “living organisms display ‘program-like’ behaviour giving away their secret—that they have another body that consists of the feels behind the programs that living organisms are capable of running.” This other “body” Goswami believes is the “vital” or etheric body written about for centuries by seers and occultists.
Russian author, scientist, and developer of the Gas Discharge Visualisation (GDV) diagnostic technique Dr. Konstantin Korotkov agrees, stating that the existence of this hidden “program” makes an organism on the verge of embryogenesis “run through” all previous stages of development of the species to which the organism belongs. For instance, we all pass through a stage of embryonic development in the womb in which we have gill slits.
Sheldrake has carefully articulated the need to postulate invisible programs guiding morphogenesis or form-making based partly on the fact that our genes do not have the instructions for morphogenesis built into them. The Human Genome Project found our genome to consist of a mere 23,688 genes: almost 100,000 short of the expected number.
In sum, DNA does not contain the assembly plan for arranging proteins into an ordered physical form. It does not contain all the information required to build an organism, let alone maintain it!
Thus, DNA primacy is revealed as another materialist illusion. Something else, some kind of purposive formative influence must be present—a field of influence that just may be observable given the correct apparatus—an “etheric body” perhaps.
The etheric body constitutes one particular kind of morphic field occupying its own particular frequency domain close to the physical realm (it is actually a part of the physical dimension, according to occultists and seers).
According to independent researcher and writer Tom Montalk (who has a background in physics), processes that seem mechanical and predictable on the large scale have their origins in quantum jumps that are neither predictable by physical science nor controllable by purely physical means.
The etheric body is, he states, the “extra factor…that biases these quantum jumps at the small scale to offset the forces of entropy at the large scale.” Thus, the etheric body is “an energy template that biases the probability of acausal biological events to produce ordered and intelligent life.”
This formative field is made of what the Hindus have known for millennia as prana (Sanskrit), and what the Chinese call Chi/Qi. In much occult literature, particularly that of theosophy, the etheric body is referred to as the etheric double, a duplicate of the physical body in every way, though existing in a higher frequency domain invisible to “normal” human vision.
Like Sheldrake’s morphic fields, the etheric body operates probabilistically rather than deterministically and mechanically. If the etheric realm can be thought of as an inverted/reciprocal or “mirror” counterpart of ours, where time in fact “runs backwards” in some sense, then it would act as another influence biasing probability by “pulling” on the physical from what we think of as the future.
Likewise, Sheldrake grants the possibility of this “backwards through time” dynamic for morphic fields, even though they simultaneously become increasingly “conditioned” by the “past” with each moment, becoming temporally self-similar (nonlocally through time).
Paradoxically, morphic fields behave as if goal-directed, seemingly being pulled on from the “future” to achieve a specific end, simultaneously being influenced by the accumulated “momentum” of their own species’ history, along with their own individual history.
The habitual operations of morphic fields for physical organisms have an etheric basis because repeated behaviours set up a type of momentum in the etheric plane/density that biases probability towards continuation of that behaviour. In Sheldrake’s model,
“[m]orphic fields are shaped and stabilized by morphic resonance from previous similar morphic units, which were under the influence of fields of the same kind. They consequently contain a kind of cumulative memory and tend to become increasingly habitual.”
Through the Eyes of a Seer
As noted, the notion that etheric fields lie behind the morphogenesis of physical organisms is gaining popularity and scientific plausibility, not least of all because of the modern technology that allows us to photograph electromagnetic effects created by these fields.
Author and researcher Jay Alfred has written of the role played by the etheric body or “bioplasma” field in this context:
There is mutual affinity between the bioplasma and physical-biomolecular bodies…[T]he bioplasma fetus wraps around the physical-biomolecular embryo while undergoing an accelerated morphogenesis (relative to the physical-biomolecular embryo). The physical-biomolecular body therefore is cued by the [etheric] bioplasma body which acts [as] an electronic matrix and a time-resolved hologram that guides its development. (emphasis added)
To Alfred, biological evolution could not have occurred on Earth without the aid of subtle bioplasma bodies interacting with biochemical fields via weak electromagnetic (EM) fields. It is their interaction with (and/or creation of) EM fields that allows us to partially photograph “subtle bioplasma bodies” with specially designed equipment, as detailed in my first book.
Having identified the importance of the plasma-like etheric morphic field in morphogenesis, we have solved only a part of the mystery.
Obviously this scenario begs the question of the origins of etheric fields—and this is where we are forced to dive deep into the proverbial rabbit hole in search of answers. Occultists and seers have brought a great deal of insight to us over the years regarding the multidimensional nature of man and his universe—insight that has been overwhelmingly shunned by a somnambulant scientific community addicted to a thoroughly reductionist epistemology, and an ontology vigorously opposed to seeing a conscious and living (holographic) universe for what it is.
Put simply, these fields could be seen as derivative of the one nonlocal unified holographic field, or as Bohm called it, the holomovement. In the holomovement, morphogenesis would “result” from a simultaneous arising or emergence dynamic.
That is to say this dynamic is atemporal and nonlocal, each “part” of the hologram informed by the whole cosmic hologram. Reality, in this sense could be seen as synchronistic as a whole, and the idea of linear causality either becomes invalid or valid only under special conditions.
The work of Barbara Brennan, a former atmospheric physicist who now writes, speaks, and works as a clairvoyant healer (and is the founder of the Barbara Brennan School of Healing), is of particular relevance to the concept of morphic fields, and takes the theoretical work done by scientists like Sheldrake deep into realms obscure to almost all other scientists (who lack the necessary psi faculties to access them).
Based on her direct clairvoyant observations, Brennan offers a map of the human being that includes (in ascending order) a physical body, etheric body, emotional body, mental body, etheric template body, astral body, celestial body, and causal body (plus two more beyond this that we need not concern ourselves with here).
Notice the presence of an “etheric template body” (third from the right) which is “higher” in the scheme of things than the etheric double (far left) which we have spoken of thus far. This “body” is a higher-dimensional template for the lower-dimensional etheric body which, in truth, appears to be part of our space-time reference frame, and is generally considered to be “physical” in nature, though of a subtler, harder to perceive physicality than ordinary matter.
What is the nature of this higher etheric template body then?
Brennan states this is the blueprint of the perfect form for the better known etheric field to take. She compares its appearance to the negative of a photograph; this toroidal field consists of a matrix of clear or transparent lines (in the 3D form of a human body) on a cobalt-blue background of “solid space,” similar to an architect’s blueprint.
Brennan describes the process that creates this form as being the result of an infinite number of planes coming from all directions and filling in all space except for a spherical area which is left empty. This empty sphere is a “negative space” in which the etheric field/double can exist and which then forms the grid structure that guides physical morphogenesis.
This scenario of (morphic) fields nested within fields is exactly what Sheldrake’s theory of formative causation predicts, and is exactly what we would expect to see if manifest reality emerged from an underlying field of potential that is in some way “holographic” (with information distributed throughout in a nonlocal fashion).
Every single “body” listed by Brennan (and other clairvoyants) could be viewed as a particular kind of morphic field which facilitates and influences particular aspects of human expression (physical, emotional, mental, etc.), though the dynamic at play is likely that of psychophysical parallelism, as Amit Goswami suggests, instead of direct interaction between physical and subtle bodies.
In the philosophy of mind, psychophysical parallelism (or simply parallelism) is the theory that mental and bodily events are perfectly coordinated, without any causal interaction between them. (Wikipedia)
Austrian philosopher, architect and esotericist, Rudolf Steiner (1861–1925)—a man gifted with his own considerable powers of clairvoyance—explained in his book An Outline of Occult Science (1909) that to “supersensible” (psychic) perception, the presence of, for example, a stone in the “spirit world,” would be indicated by a kind of cavity, an apparent absence of form or “negative space,” much as described by Brennan: “Around this cavity, however, the force is visible that gives form to the stone.”
It appears that Steiner may also have been tuning in to what Brennan refers to as the etheric template level, a reciprocal reality that is a kind of inversion of our own. Objects Steiner viewed here appeared as the antithesis of the form they possessed in the physical world —not unlike the negative of a photograph as compared to the developed image (the analogy Brennan employs).
Sounds Like Time-Space
The “inverted” plane of reality occupied by the etheric template body, as described by Brennan and Steiner, sounds like what systems theorist Dewey Larson called time-space (as opposed to space-time).
In his Reciprocal System theory, which he began enunciating in 1959, our three-dimensional space-time is accompanied by a three-dimensional time-space realm (an “implicate order”), giving a six-dimensional reality system in which there is a flow of movement, force and energy between each realm.
Here, time-space can be seen as more fundamental than our space-time, and as actually “giving birth” to it. In this reciprocal time-space realm any movement translates not as movement through space, but movement in a temporal frame (i.e., through time). Theoretically, if you can access this inverted realm you could simply use your consciousness to “time-travel,” viewing past and future with ease (for more on these phenomena and concepts please consult The Grand Illusion - Book 1).
It is apt that Steiner referred to the other-dimensional “cavity” around objects as existing in the “spirit world,” because Brennan’s clairvoyant investigations have revealed to her that, beyond the plane of the mental body, analysis of the upper four auric layers and their respective planes/dimensions also reveals the presence of beings without physical bodies, i.e., “spirits.”
She states that these higher realms are experienced during sleep, but not remembered upon awakening, consonant with the findings of out-of-body research pioneer Robert Monroe.
Luckman views Larson’s model in the light of torsion physics, and adapts it to account for forms of sound-based healing such as his own technique (RM) which uses a combination of chanted and mentally intoned vowel sounds as well as “solfeggio frequencies” to stimulate mobile DNA elements into initiating healing processes in the physical body and upgrading the whole bio-field and energy system.
The reason for tying Luckman’s sound-based healing method and accompanying theoretical model into this discussion is this: Brennan explicitly states in her book Hands of Light that the etheric template plane of reality—in which reside all etheric template bodies (morphic fields) for all forms in our universe—is the realm in which sound creates matter.
She states that it is working at this level that using sound in healing is most effective (though in this realm, “sound” is not the same as we experience it here in space-time). Disruptions in the lower auric field must be corrected in the etheric template body in what we are referring to as time-space, in order for the physical body in space-time to resume normal functioning.
Similarly to Brennan, Luckman—who also refers to time-space as the sound domain—writes that a “tried and true way to pursue genuine [healing and transformation] is to work with sound because sound is capable of accessing and changing the sound domain,” the realm in which the morphic/“torsion field” known as the etheric template body resides.
To learn more about this work, watch my free masterclass here.
In Luckman’s modified Larsonian model, time-space/sound domain is where “sonic torsion fields” weave the templates for our bioenergetic tapestry. Brennan’s visual renderings of the etheric template body existing in its own sound domain reveal a fundamentally toroidal morphology; it is a rotating and self-perpetuating standing wave in other words, essentially a vortex. (More detail on this in Book 2.)
The biological mechanism through which Luckman discovered that sound could apparently initiate transformational activity at what we are speculatively identifying as the etheric template level in time-space/sound domain is our very DNA (though we might note that ordinary sound in space-time can likely harmonically affect the auric layers).
Specific vowel sequences plus sound frequencies from the solfeggio scale can literally initialise a transformational action at the most fundamental microbiological level. It seems that DNA is an “interdimensional doorway” which can modulate sound here in our space-time into its time-space “sonic” equivalent to modify the etheric template body along with the etheric double and physical body in our space-time.
Brennan also reveals that she has clairvoyantly observed that specific diatonic tones have a direct and immediate impact on the chakras, and can quickly correct dysfunction in them. (And no, these vortices of implosion are not evil alien implants.)
Please note that since the etheric template body is itself derivative of and contained within the “higher” causal body template (which retains past-life thematic information, including, for instance, energetic remnants of major wounds previously acquired in other lives), to permanently heal specific maladies stemming from injury in a past life most likely requires accessing the causal body.
The fourth and final stage in the Regenetics Method—Transcension—appears to affect this level of our being (Luckman refers to it as the “spiritual subtle body,” as do some clairvoyants).
Tripartite Truth
Sheldrake, as a biologist in search of ultimate causal beginnings, turned to the eminent physicist David Bohm’s concepts of the implicate order, explicate order, and the fundamental ground “behind” them both—a sort of dynamic hologram from which they both emerge, which he termed the “holomovement.”
The implicate order may be equivalent to Larson’s time-space from which the explicate order (our space-time) unfolds or emerges as it self-organizes into being. It is characterized by a “nonlocal flavour,” an unbroken wholeness.
The concept of spatial orientation or distance here is more or less meaningless, since Larson’s thesis has it that you now exist in a temporal reference frame, not dissimilarly to Bohm’s model. Occultists tell us that here you can travel anywhere instantly simply by using intention, which is exactly what thousands of near-death experiencers without backgrounds in esotericism also tell us. (For a detailed study of the NDE phenomenon unlike any other, see my forthcoming Book 2.)
The “holomovement,” the unitive ground underlying both of these reciprocal realities, is known by Yogis and other mystics as Brahman, the Absolute, “God,” and so on.
In this model, any event or entity from our relative world of form in space-time (explicate order) is “an abstraction from an unknown and undefinable totality of flowing movement”—the universal flux which Bohm dubs the “holomovement.” This fundamental ground is primary, self-existent, eternal, infinite, beginningless, and changeless (at least insofar as we think of change), and it “carries” within it both relative realities of time-space (implicate order) and manifest space-time (explicate order).
It is possible to experience this infinite “holographic” consciousness, and my own major non-dualistic mystical experiences seem to match reasonably well with Bohm’s concept of the holomovement (for the most part they don’t match the time-space idea, wherein sense reception and therefore subject-object awareness—duality—can still exist, albeit in modified form).
Thus, we now have a trinitarian holistic view of ourselves and reality at large. Luckman provides a useful schema for visualising this thesis (Figure 1 - below).
In the top tier we have primary non-dualistic consciousness/the Absolute/Brahman/God/the Infinite; in the second tier is Larson’s time-space or Bohm’s implicate order, where spin-spin dynamics operate in the “sound domain” (or “sonic torsion domain”) to then create known EM light and matter in the explicate order/light domain of our space-time (third tier).
The interface between these two domains, as Luckman’s diagram suggests, is our very own DNA, which is responsive to sound, light, and heart-based intention (as well as other emotions).
Figure 1. Note the DNA spiral representing the bio-energetic bridge between space-time and time-space. Courtesy: Sol Luckman, POTENTIATE YOUR DNA, Crow Rising, 2011, p 79.
The time-space “quantum wave domain” is the more fundamental reality (it “codes” for the particle reality). This is why physicists say that before observation a quantum can be in two (or many) places at once—its informational “quantum wave/wave function” in time-space is smeared out across multiple (infinite) possibilities in time rather than being sharply focalized in one place/spatial location like its particulate counterpart is when we try to observe/measure it in space-time. (This is somewhat misleadingly referred to as “wave collapse.”)
For simplicity, it can be useful to group etheric, emotional/astral, etheric template (and so forth) levels all under the time-space banner. Even though technically the etheric double is part of our space-time reference frame, it creates time-reversed effects in physical systems, acting as a negentropic/syntropic force, organizing information and energy to do intelligent work in morphogenesis and form maintenance for living systems.
Our DNA seemingly provides a two-way street between space-time and time-space, allowing alterations made in one domain to affect operations in the other.
Is it the bio-mechanism or antenna through which our “morphic fields” interface with our physical bodies? We already know DNA provides a biological mechanism for “engineering” time-space/aether/vacuum/zero point field (as demonstrated by the “DNA Phantom effect” discovered in 1984 by Dr. Peter Gariaev in Russia - see Book 1).
It is only logical then to expect the various forms of mind-matter interactions which have been documented in parapsychology and psychical research thousands of times over (again, tangents we lack space for here, but which are heavily documented in TGI 1), since both mind and matter emerge from a common ground of holographic nonlocal consciousness and are both expressed by non-linear “scalar” forces at fundamental levels.
Conclusions
Sheldrake’s theory of formative causation seems readily subsumed by—or at least reconciled with—both Dewey Larson’s Reciprocal System theory as well as theosophical perspectives and/or the Perennial Philosophy. In discussion with Sheldrake, David Bohm was able to harmoniously work morphic fields into his own tripartite model paralleling Larson’s, the latter of which Luckman has built on and adapted to elucidate on his Regenetics Method.
What we have done here in this article is link these ideas with sound-based healing and credible clairvoyant data to identify one particular morphic field’s role in morphogenesis, form maintenance, and perhaps a role in Luckman’s revolutionary healing and transformation modality.
That morphic field is what Brennan identifies as the etheric template body occupying its own inverted “sound”-based time-space realm or “sonic torsion domain.”
My speculation is that this particular morphic field—which admittedly does not feature in Luckman’s compelling model—aside from being crucial for morphogenesis and form maintenance, is intimately involved in the sound-based healing techniques employed in the Regenetics Method, and perhaps any other sound-based modality.
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As per your usual, Very thought provoking. Thanks!
One thing that Sheldrake banked on was the 100 monkey theory.
I was fascinated that somehow monkeys on other islands learned around the same time what happened on one island!
But then, I later found out that Sheldrake ignored Occam's razor. Turns out the monkeys there do swim between islands. Since they're a social species, they share information.
As for the other stuff, I'd love to see double blind experiments in order to factor out the placebo/nocebo effect. We should give it the same scrutiny as germ theory.