Rupert SheldrakeScience and Spiritual Practices
Reconnecting through direct experience
Dr Rupert Sheldrake is a biologist and author of more than eighty technical papers and ten books, including A New Science of Life. He was a Fellow of Clare College, Cambridge, where he was Director of Studies in cell biology, and was also a Research Fellow of the Royal Society. From 2005-2010 he was the Director of the Perrott-Warrick Project for research on unexplained human abilities, funded from Trinity College, Cambridge. He is currently a Fellow of the Institute of Noetic Sciences in California, and a Visiting Professor at the Graduate Institute in Connecticut. He is married, has two sons and lives in London. Follow Rupert on Twitter @RupertSheldrake. His web site is www.sheldrake.org
Contents
Preface 1
Introduction 13
1. Meditation and the Nature of Minds 23
2. The Flow of Gratitude 50
3. Reconnecting with the More-Than-Human World 64
4. Relating to Plants 93
5. Rituals and the Presence of the Past 111
6. Singing, Chanting and the Power of Music 136
7. Pilgrimages and Holy Places 162
8. Conclusions: Spiritual Practices in a Secular Age 191
Acknowledgements 209
Notes 211
Bibliography 225
Index 237
