Morphogenetic resonance is a proposed procedure in which self-organizing systems inherit a memory from previous systems that are similar. The theory of morphogenetic resonance additionally results in a new interpretation of memory storage in the mind/brain and of biological inheritance.

In this view, memory no longer needs to be saved in inside brains, which are more like television receivers than VCR’s. And biological inheritance need not be coded in epigenetic alterations of the genes, or in the genes themselves; much of it is instead inherited via morphogenetic resonance from past members of the species, with each species having its own non-physical, informational memory bank (or field) that is built up over time through habit and resonance.

Every member of the species inherits the collective morphogenetic field from which the species draws its memory. In turn, each member of the species also informs, through habit, this inherited morphogenetic field from which future generations of the species will draw and by which they will also be influenced.

In this lecture from the Biology of Transformation Conference in London, September 22, 2007, Cambridge-educated biologist Rupert Sheldrake discusses the implications of a morphogenetic universe.