Chaos, Creativity and Cosmic Consciousness

by Rupert Sheldrake, Terence McKenna, Ralph H. Abraham

Three of the most original thinkers of our time explore issues that call into question our current views of reality, morality, and the nature of life.

• A wide-ranging investigation of the ecology of inner and outer space, the role of chaos theory in the dynamics of human creation, and the rediscovery of traditional wisdom.

In this book of "trialogues," the late psychedelic visionary and shamanologist Terence McKenna, acclaimed biologist and originator of the morphogenetic fields theory Rupert Sheldrake, and mathematician and chaos theory scientist Ralph Abraham explore the relationships between chaos and creativity and their connection to cosmic consciousness. Their observations call into question our current views of reality, morality, and the nature of life in the universe. The authors challenge the reader to the deepest levels of thought with wide-ranging investigations of the ecology of inner and outer space, the role of chaos in the dynamics of human creation, and the resacralization of the world. Among the provocative questions the authors raise are: Is Armageddon a self-fulfilling prophecy? Are we humans the imaginers or the imagined? Are the eternal laws of nature still evolving? What is the connection between physical light and the light of consciousness?

Part ceremony, part old-fashioned intellectual discussion, these trialogues are an invitation to a new understanding of what Jean Houston calls "the dreamscapes of our everyday waking life."

Genres: Philosophy, Science, Nonfiction, Spirituality, Psychology, Metaphysics, Religion

208 pages, Paperback

First published July 1, 1992

About the author

Rupert Sheldrake is a biologist and author of more than 80 scientific papers and ten books. A former Research Fellow of the Royal Society, he studied natural sciences at Cambridge University, where he was a Scholar of Clare College, took a double first class honours degree and was awarded the University Botany Prize. He then studied philosophy and history of science at Harvard University, where he was a Frank Knox Fellow, before returning to Cambridge, where he took a Ph.D. in biochemistry. He was a Fellow of Clare College, Cambridge, where he was Director of Studies in biochemistry and cell biology. As the Rosenheim Research Fellow of the Royal Society, he carried out research on the development of plants and the ageing of cells in the Department of Biochemistry at Cambridge University.

Recently, drawing on the work of French philosopher Henri Bergson, he developed the theory of morphic resonance, which makes use of the older notion of morphogenetic fields. He has researched and written on topics such as animal and plant development and behaviour, telepathy, perception and metaphysics.

Reviews

[Mel · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was an interesting conversation between Rupert Sheldrake, Ralph Abraham and Terence McKenna about chaos theory, physics, psychedelics, creativity, the earth, mythology etc. Some of it was super "out there" but I enjoyed it. They seemed to sort go in to la la land towards the end, which was why I gave it 3 stars.(which means "I liked it" so really not a bad rating) Some interesting ideas were presented in a smart way and I enjoyed being the fly on the wall for the conversation.

[Chris · Rating 2 out of 5]

Given that three such brilliant thinkers, one of whom (McKenna) is my personal intellectual hero, contributed to a single book, I assumed that it was a guaranteed good read. What I failed to consider is the format that such a book requires, and the reason such a format is rarely employed. The trialogue is digressive, unpatterned, and remains relatively surface-level on the issues in question. While there are genuine insights in this book on many subjects, only very few of these felt 'new'. I found that just as things got interesting the subject would change or take a new unsubtle path. The discussion is also unrepentantly speculative. So often do assertions of ideas go by unattended that it is likely that a great number of them would fail under scrutiny. In fairness, I am also certain that many would succeed, and their implications (once someone takes up their ideas and follows the threads to the limit of their applicability) could be phenomenal.

That said, I do highly recommend this book for anyone who does little thinking on these subjects, for whom it could prove an important initiation. Its topics meander between the nature of consciousness, the role of humans in the world, the nature of the 'other' and of ethereal entities, education, spirituality, and so on. I am sure that most would succumb to a spark of interest that would inspire further study into many of these subjects, for which purpose there is both a bibliography and a list of 'books of related interest.'

[Pantelis · Rating 1 out of 5]

Ίσως να το εκτιμούσα πολύ περισσότερο σε άλλη φάση της ζωής μου, αλλά στην παρούσα ο "τριάλογος" αυτός ανάμεσα σε Sheldrake (βιολόγος), Abraham (μαθηματικός) και McKenna (σαμανολόγος) περί μορφογενετικών πεδίων, χάους και συνειδητότητας αντίστοιχα, κι από εκεί σε οποιαδήποτε τζιριμάντζουλο αλατοπιπεριασμένο με φλικιφλόκα και αραχνοΰφαντο πλούτσκακα μου προκαλεί ανία εις την ΘΑΠΑΡΩΤΟΠΡΙΟΝΙ.

Δεν είναι πως δεν προσπάθησα -- προσπάθησα. Το έπαιρνα μαζί μου και στο χέσιμο και σε μακρινά δρομολόγια με τον ΟΑΣΘ, σε χώρους που συνήθως πετυχαίνω την ιδανική συγκέντρωση για τέτοια βαριά, non-fiction θέματα. Αλλά είναι αδύνατον να το συμπαθήσω!

Πρώτα απ' όλα είναι η φόρμα: οι τριάλογοι αυτοί κάθε άλλο παρά βατοί είναι, θυμίζουν περισσότερο την παρέα μου μεθυσμένη στην Ανδρομέδα, να διακόπτει ο Α τον Γ για να επεκταθεί επάνω σε κάτι που ο Β πέταξε αστειευόμενος πριν μισή ώρα -- μόνο που εδώ λείπουν η ρακή, το κέφι και η παρεϊστική ατμόσφαιρα και περισσεύουν οι αναφορές σε αλλόκοτες ιδέες που ποτέ δεν επεκτείνονται, ποτέ δεν εξηγούνται, ποτέ δεν καταλήγουν.

Μετά είναι οι προσωπικότητες οι ίδιες και ο τρόπος που εξετάζουν τα θέματα που καταπιάνονται: ενώ φαίνεται πως έχουν πολλά και ενδιαφέροντα πράγματα να πουν, προτιμούν να αφήνουν τα θέματα να πέσουν σε απλό namedropping ή να αερολογούν πάνω στο τι είπε ο προηγούμενος -- επεκτείνοντας την προηγούμενη αναλογία, μου έρχεται ένα session με MDMA κατά νου. Θεραπευτικό για τους συμμετέχοντες, ίσως ακόμα και λαμπερό, αλλά αδιάφορο για το ευρύ κοινό.

Δεν έμαθα κάτι. Δεν έφυγα με μια αίσθηση μαγείας που μου αποκαλύφθηκε μόλις το βαρύ πέπλο της πεζής πραγματικότητας διαλύθηκε έπειτα από τις χίλιες και μία τομές που του προκάλεσαν οι ρηξικέλευθες ιδέες του Τρίο Χαοτίστα Ντελ Ντιμιούργκικο. Το τελείωσα βιαστικά, για να μην πάρω το γαμημένο το πριόνι.

[Napoleon Brousseau · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loose free thinking incredible read with three of the most exceptional minds of the late twentieth. Learn about time wave zero, though we are now on the other side of the wave point and history still has not collapsed and the time machines are late.. but between the grand schemes lurk some very formidable ideas about our planet and how we can explore the universe without leaving home.

[Dvine · Rating 3 out of 5]

Conversations about large concepts in a rather small book, the part where Terence brings up the whole 2012 apocalypse thing sounds a bit dated nowadays of course.

[Pat Rolston · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is my first book by Sheldrake, but won’t be my last. He explores our inner space expertly weaving in shamanic traditions to quantum theory. His broad ranging work theorizes as to the origins of consciousness to the ultimate fate of mankind. I appreciate his treatment of these subjects with scientific rigor while incorporating the boundary defying thoughts of Terence McKenna. An entertaining and educational book for all seekers of wisdom.

[Friday Gladheart · Rating 4 out of 5]

An amazing and thought-provoking book. One of my favorites!

[Andrew Scott · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you love Terrence McKenna and his diverse bardic discussions then you’ll love this “trialogue” with two other fascinating and erudite individuals. I do and I did.

[AJ · Rating 4 out of 5]

An interesting series of conversations among three intellectual bedfellows (only one of which I think is unlikely). Most of the earlier conversation is driven by Sheldrake while the later few chapters are driven by McKenna and digress a bit into endless droning on about the amazingness of psychedelics. Ignoring these parts, the conversations had a few salient and interesting points concerning philosophical interpretations of attractors, the concept of creode, creativity, and evolution which have been touched upon by older philosophers like Popper and Bergson.

[Dave · Rating 1 out of 5]

Revised title: Sophistry, Bullshit and Cosmic Nonsense.

If you are looking for baseless assertion after baseless assertion followed by rampaging masturbatory speculation, you are in the right place.

This books makes a better case against taking psychedelics than any war on drugs propaganda.
The ultimate risk being ending up like these clowns.

I did laugh at the lip service paid to the "dissolution of the ego" being uttered in a book that is entirely in service of the author's ego. But, isn't that always how it goes.

[Jann · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked certain chapters that were more suited to my right brain. It appeared that the authors were speaking in "new science" (adopting scientific terminology to form a methodology for "non-scientific" conscious, which really needs to be done, however their use of scientific vocabulary wasn't suited to my mindset. Still looking for a more right brained, "science-like" explanation (lay-talk), that I can connect with.

[S Suzanne · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lively conversation with 3 fascinating thinkers. I have read other work by Terence M and Rupert Sheldrake, and I find their ideas inspirational. Even if I don't always agree, and I don't think they follow some things down, I just think I wish I were there, too, speculating with them.

[Patrick\ · Rating 3 out of 5]

What a zany bunch! I will go along with morphic fields, but, Rupert, you are stretching my loyalty here.

[Ms. Peach · Rating 5 out of 5]

An amazing and mind blowing book. Anyone who is creative, interested in neuroscience, and/or all things cosmic would dig this one. Just finished it and started it up again. Read this fucker!

[Felix Delong · Rating 3 out of 5]

Was interesting until they all went on the tangent about their vision for the future that will never come about.

[Mahipal Lunia · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wonderful trialoge between three genius' of our time

[Chris Hall · Rating 4 out of 5]

The main issue I have with McKenna, Sheldrake and Abraham is that they *never* had / have their ideas put forward for serious academic review and *never* shared / share a platform with others where any critical debate can take place. [The past tense is of course for McKenna ...]

(One possible exception to this was when McKenna had Matthew Watkins - a mathematician - review his Timewave Theory. Watkins was critical. While you would expect someone's integrity to compel them to either abandon or refine their theory, McKenna instead chose to have Watkins criticism exist in parallel under the name of 'The Watkins Objection' while leaving his theory unchanged ...

Another thing that lowered my opinion of McKenna was once listening to him give a talk that was - almost word-for-word - *identical* to another talk he had given previously. McKenna was a genuinely excellent speaker and one of the reasons was his ability to give the impression that he's almost channeling the words from elsewhere ... Listening to him repeat a previous talk almost verbatim leads only to the conclusion that he had a good memory of his script and a good delivery of it ...)

There's no criticism or genuine challenging of any ideas here - if there had been then I suspect the conversations would probably go nowhere. Don't get me wrong - I *do* think *some* parts of their supporting arguments are useful - it's just that I think the conclusions they draw are either wrong or exaggerated. (I don't really want to go into it here as this is just a book review ...)

This lack of opposition means that at times you get the impression that maybe the purpose of these trialogues was to give the three of them an opportunity to promote their own ideas rather than have any sort of dialectical thinking emerge. (McKenna seems at times to be promoting his Timewave Theory and Sheldrake seems to be promoting Morphic Resonance) That's not really a criticism but it does mean that if you aren't familiar with their ideas the book will have more value than if you are.

[Brian · Rating 4 out of 5]

"We have lost touch with chaos because it is feared by the dominant archetype of our world, the ego. The ego’s existence is defined in terms of control. The endless modeling process that the ego carries out is an effort to fight the absence of closure. The ego wants closure. It wants a complete explanation. The beginning of wisdom, I believe, is our ability to accept an inherent messiness in our explanation of what's going on. Nowhere is it written that human minds should be able to give a full accounting of creation in all dimensions and on all levels."

Filled with fascinating concepts that sometimes either got a little too wacky or a little too hard to grasp. These authors are all fantastic minds, but I think I enjoyed their points in this order: those of Ralph, then those of Terence, then those of Rupert. The first half of this book was a lot more mathematical and thus naturally a bit more confusing for me, but I loved keeping an open mind and exploring these ideas.

4/5 Stars

[Sean · Rating 4 out of 5]

Highs and lows. Some sections were full of illuminating ideas and the sorts of thought snippets that re-frame the way you think about things, or put form to ways of thinking you already have (the "Chaos and the Imagination" section was particularly good IMO). Open-mindedness and not being bound to the dogma of materialist, rigid ways of seeing the world is a major theme & personally well-taken. I enjoyed Sheldrake's Science Set Free and was glad to see this idea explored a bit more here, but there is a lot of eyeroll-inducing, surface-level, navel-gazing going on. McKenna in particular seemed to come in with these bizarre pet theories like his idea - which he seemed to be fairly convinced of - that humanity was undergoing some sort of consciousness shift that would culminate in 2012 (based on investigations into the I Ching and also the Mayan calendar). The format doesn't do the topic(s) any favors.

[Alex · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an excellent book to read around The Archetype of Information and Secret Cipher of the UFOnauts if you are looking for a good well rounded month or so of reading. These three books glue themselves together through a current of archetypes of consciousness, the unknown void, hidden knowledge of the universe, and what we can do to enrich the lives of those around us. The conversations in this book are deep and multi leveled, begging for repeat readings. My only regrets about it are that i wasnt alive to witness any of the meetings that take place in it. It really is a conversation of gods amongst men, and one of the most profound experiences i have ever had reading a book and watching it blow my brains out every page or so. Cant recommend enough!

[Deepu Shibu · Rating 4 out of 5]

The three authors that came together to talk and discuss and express and explore resulted in this book. Their conversations got documented and surely these are some conversations we should all ponder upon and if possible be a part of. The thoughts expressed in this book range from chaos, creativity, consciousness, history, nature of humans and what not. Every topic is something that can have a deep discussion of itself and is surely to rack your brains and also implant ideas that probably you would never have imagined about.
A great book to read and try to understand. The book does an incredible job to make you ponder and think and explore.

[Alexandra Matinez · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting point of view. Chaos as a concept, was very nicely explained, however everything regarding creativity was related to psychedelic experiences. Did not appreciate the bashing on science in chapter 9, nor do I believe the world needs more religious rituals with psychedelics. Interesting points on education and a new education system

[Apoorv Gupta · Rating 5 out of 5]

For the purpose I went into the book, which was to amplify the thoughts that are deep or far in the field of societal experiential knowledge, I felt satisfied.
I have enjoyed some of the best thinking sessions along with reading parts of their conversations. Maybe their intent to include the fourth person in the ride was easy to come for me.
Terence's mind still a mystery to me though!

[James · Rating 5 out of 5]

Partly responsible and inspiration for my Masters degree in Fine art, helping to inform my esoteric physical drawings and visual experiments. In addition to inspiring my dissertation, and even had correspondence from Rupert Sheldrake too! Cannot rate it enough!

[Brendan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Informative, thought-provoking conversations documented here. Three of the most brilliant minds of our times throwing around ideas.

[being Cristina · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fascinating, poetic and noetic.

[Kurt · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good But Naive

I have an image of people transported to their churches in buses like a drunken group to wine tastings. Drugs should not be the future.

[Bodhi · Rating 5 out of 5]

another one for the Contextualising Epics shelf, for revolutionising my worldview

[Ollie Jenkins · Rating 5 out of 5]

Conversations between a doctor of mathematics, a doctor of philosophy and a dude educated in shamanism and psychedelics. Super super rewarding read.

[ضحى ♡ · Rating 1 out of 5]

محادثات ٣ من الهيبيز يرتدون عباءة الفلسفة و المنطق لم يعجبني اي طرح