Rupert Sheldrake on the limitations of the materialistic and mechanistic view of genetics and potential place for morphic resonance:
“… So heredity includes both the genetic inheritance of proteins and morphic resonance from similar past forms.
Consider the following analogy. The music that comes out of the loudspeaker of a radio set depends both on the material structures of the set and the energy which powers it and on the transmission to which the set is tuned … Someone who knew nothing about the transmission of invisible, intangible and inaudible vibrations through the electromagnetic field might conclude that it could be explained entirely in terms of the components of the radio, the way in which they were arranged, and the energy on which their functioning depended. If he ever considered the possibility that anything entered from outside, he would dismiss it when he discovered that the set weighed the same switched on and switched off. He would therefore have to suppose that the rhythmic and harmonic patterns of the music arose within the set as a result of immensely complicated interactions among its parts. After careful study and analysis of the set, he might even be able to make a replica of it that produced exactly the same sounds as the original, and would probably regard this result as a striking proof of his theory. But in spite of his achievement, he would remain completely unaware that in reality the music originated in a broadcasting studio hundreds of miles away.”