by Nanda Kumar, IMU Student

This is an article written by Nanda Kumar, a student at the International Metaphysical University. He wrote this amazing article as the final paper for his course, “Principles of Metaphysics.” In this paper he discusses the nature of consciousness from the perspective of the essential metaphysical principles of the universe as set forth in The Kybalion. He references the work of Rupert Sheldrake and Machalle Small Wright in his assertions. The writing was so exquisite and the information so well-presented that I asked him if I could share it with all of you. I hope that you enjoy it as much as I did.

Ashok RajGuru is one of my friends who lives in Muscat, Sultanate of Oman in the Middle East. He is a senior fixed-wing Avionics Engineer, a Fellow & Teaching Faculty Member of the British Institute of Homeopathy International, USA, a certified Yoga teacher, a Vedic astrologer and an Ayurveda practitioner – all rolled in one. It is no wonder that he wrote what he wrote in an email to me, the other day.

He was writing to me about ‘ Forms’. Why is it that his hand, my hand and the hands of billions others on planet earth have the same general form and shape? What determines it’s shape? Conventional genetics does not answer this. But Rupert Sheldrake did. Machaelle Small Wright did.

Ashok wrote in his e-mail, the following

…I was introduced to Rupert Sheldrake in one of Deepak Chopra’s books. Sheldrake is a biologist. His quest was to find out what governs form? Even though at the molecular, genetic and cellular level an arm and a leg are similar, what determines their shape as they are formed? Surprisingly, genetics has little to offer as an answer. Genetics and biology explains cellular replication, but does not explain morphology….

….He (Sheldrake) proposes that forms are determined by an underlying field that he calls morphogenetic fields. Such fields govern shapes of virtually everything – snowflakes, cells, neural pathways, everything in nature, by imposing a kind of memory or habit. To stretch the theory to a ridiculous extreme would be to say that apples fall towards the earth out of sheer habit or memory. But on a more practical plane, our thoughts can have tremendous influence over healing, disease, attitude, whatever, merely by invoking our thought because every thought will influence the morphogenetic field. Thus memory is not stored physically in a container like the brain – it pervades the universe. You only need to connect or tune in. That explains a lot of observations in telepathy and birds homing to their habitat alone even if they were born in a different place. Instinct is a poor definition and besides, not a measurable entity. …”

Rupert Sheldrake is a renowned Cambridge and Harvard-educated post-doctoral scientist, who has authored about ten books and several scientific papers ranging from his theory of morphic resonance to animal and plant development, behavior, memory, telepathy, perception, cognition etc. Here is a YouTube link to Rupert Sheldrake’s talk on “ Extended Mind,”  where he convincingly explains that our individual minds are not residing with in the confines of our head but they do extend into the universe.

Was it a coincidence that I was reading Machaelle Small Wright’s work on “Co-creative Science” where she was explaining exactly the same thing? Amazon book review introduces Machaelle Small Wright as follows:

“Machaelle Small Wright is a nature researcher, teacher, essence practitioner and developer, writer and co-founder of Perelandra, a nature research center in the Virginia countryside. Since 1976, she has been working directly with the overlighting intelligences in nature, widely known as devas and nature spirits, in a co-creative relationship. Co-creative gardening, co-creative health programs and co-creative science are three of her major developments. Machaelle Small Wright is a spiritual pioneer with the profound ability to “see” and “hear” the invisible forces of nature. Her personal story is one of triumph, from a childhood of torment and isolation to discovery of her ability to communicate with the world of nature spirits and devas.”

Sheldrake’s morphogenetic field that Ashok talked to me about is the same as Machaelle’s ‘ matter/means/action’ or ‘order, organization and life-vitality “ which she collectively referred to as the Involution dynamics in Nature. It is the Devic level of nature intelligence that gives out the ‘blueprint’ for manifestations including all forms.

Sheldrake called it ‘morphogenetic field’. Machaelle Small Wright called it Involutionary dynamics in Nature. The Greeks called it “logos” . The ancient Indian sages called it “ adi parasakthi.“ They are all different words and different terminologies but all uniquely referring to the same design principles that is operating in the background of all manifestations in the Universe.

“As below, So Above”

The best way to understand this is to think of how we create things in our own life.

If we want to build a house for us, for example, a thought first arises in us, doesn’t it? When the thought becomes so intensive, we swing into various process stages like defining the house, it’s size, shape, features; we give it a direction when to build it, how to build it, where to build it etc; we give a purpose for the house so that it can be designed as appropriate for the purpose we have defined. This is the phase one of our project in building our house. Machaelle calls all these process steps collectively as “evolutionary dynamics”.

At the phase two stage, we appoint a designer/contractor to design and build the house, who designs it and organizes the construction by supplying matter, means and mobilizing action. Machaelle calls it collectively “involutionary dynamics” in Nature. Sheldrake called it ‘morphogenetic’ field. Machaelle simply used another terminology for what Sheldrake called ‘morphogenetic field’ in general. She also called it Nature Spirits or Devas.

This evolution and involution is constantly happening at our individual levels. It is happening in the world at the global level. It is happening in the universe at the universal level. There is a giver who decides the definition, direction and purpose for the creation. There is a receiver who executes it faithfully by giving matter, means and action.

For the house-building project, the relationship between the client and the designer/contractor should ideally be a deep-rooted partnership for the best results to be achieved.

In other words, a perfect balance between the giver and the receiver or between the father and the mother or between the evolutionary and involutionary dynamics produces the most healthy and harmonious product. This is also the principle of co-creating anything in our life.

Concept of Gender in Creation

The giver is the male principle and the receiver is the female principle. The giver is the father and the receiver is the mother, in terms of gender distinction.

Evolution is the realm of the God Principle in the context of Universe. The God principle gives Definition, Direction and Purpose , who is the giver and hence the male principle or the father principle.

Evolution is the realm of the human at our earthly context too; We humans are souls housed in our physicality. We are not this physical body, we are the souls, which is the spark of divinity within the physicality . It is the soul’s Definition, Direction and Purpose that Nature receives and creates. It is the Soul who wants to build the house, for example. The soul is the giver in human context just as the God principle is the giver in the Universal context. Hence in both contexts it is the male principle or father principle.

Involution is in the realm of Nature that receives the Definition, Direction and Purpose from the male principle and gives out the design and materials to create, both in the Universal context at Godly level as well as in our earthly context at human level. Hence it is the female principle or the concept of Mother Nature. She is the architect and she is the material supplier. She is the enabling mechanism. She is the creator. She receives Definition , Direction and Purpose from Soul/God principle based on which she designs and creates. She is the receiver.

Nature and Ethical Co-creation

The word “ Nature” provides some scope for confusion. By nature, we generally mean the mountains, rivers, clouds, trees, animals, lightning etc. This is not the Nature that Machaelle meant. By the word nature, she meant the nature-spirit or Devas. Sheldrake used the word morphogenetic field. It is the nature-intelligence or in other words the causative factors or design principles at work behind the mountains, rivers, clouds, apple trees, animals, lightning, humans, monkeys, dogs, corporations, countries, etc.

Hence God is our father and Nature-spirit/morphogentic field is our mother. We are their children. What do parents want for their children? The best, of course ! ( As below, So above). If we humans can develop enduring and flourishing partnership and communication with Nature-spirit (our mother), Nature-spirit will provide everything for which we aspire. This is the principle of co-creation. The key factor is maintaining the balance of this relationship.

Because, we humans have ‘free will’ in our human incarnation on planet earth, it is not necessary that we would always want to keep the balance. We can indeed develop our own separate agenda, separate definition, separate direction and separate purpose different from that of our father – the God principle, whose creation we are. Like all mothers, Mother Nature-spirit too will honor our free will, whatever that be. This is the power of human free will. But the trouble starts there, for our deviated definition, deviated direction and deviated purpose are to be run on the physicality designed for some other higher purpose. The result is disharmony, suffering, diseases and eventual destruction if not corrected before it gets out of hand.

The moral of the story is that we can indeed co-create anything we wish if we develop a partnership with our mother nature-spirit. But it can bring no peace, no happiness, and no joy if it is not aligned with the creative principles of our own creation in the first place.

We should develop wisdom before we begin to co-create. This is what both Rupert Sheldrake and Machaelle Small Wright trying to tell us in unison.