The Extension of Mind Through Space and the Sense of Being Stared At. With Rupert Sheldrake

Do our minds reside solely inside our heads, or perhaps bodies? Or do they extend into the wider world, perhaps even reaching to the stars?
In this episode of the Sheldrake-Vernon Dialogues, Rupert Sheldrake and Mark Vernon discuss the extended mind theory, taking a lead from recent work of Rupert’s on the sense of being stared at, and also the problems that contemporary science has with understanding vision.
The discussion considers new research carried out by Rupert and others, as well as the theories of A.N. Whitehead. The way in which science since Maxwell has considered light as moving backwards as well as forwards in time is explored, alongside the way that William Blake described how we see, which itself fits the ancient understanding, that seeing is an active process of engagement, not a passive mode of reception.
Rupert references two published papers.
One is on the nature of visual perception, co-written with Alex Gomez-Marin, online here - www.sheldrake.org/files/pdfs/....
The other is on directional scopaesthesia, co-written with Pamela Smart, online here - www.sheldrake.org/files/pdfs/....
For more dialogues between Rupert and Mark see www.sheldrake.org/audios/shel... and www.markvernon.com/talks

[@cuddywifter8386]

Ask not what's inside your head, but what your head is inside of? ~William Mace

[@yoeyyoey8937]

Yee 😎

[@blackbird365]

Emily Bronte: 'Thought followed thought, star followed star, Through boundless regions, on; While one sweet influence, near and far, Thrilled through, and proved us one!'

[@exquofonte]

Mark, do you consider writing a book on Blake, especially in regards to his theory of imagination? Been really enjoying all your videos on the subject. Cheers

[@jessev2197]

What about staring at a sleeping person and it makes them wake up? They say they felt the stare. The more familiar between the two people, the better it works.

[@denniswinters3096]

I'm short-sighted and I've always been puzzled why when I look in a mirror the things I see at a distance are still blurred. An optician tried to explain it to me once, but without much success !

[@ifyougrewupinbrightsgrove4840]

You are thinking of a mirror, as if it were a still picture. What you see is a reflection, so distance is still an issue for you seeing clearly. A mirror does not remove this simple fact from your puzzlement, al

[@undefined7222]

reminds me of a talk Arnold Mindell gave about this idea which he called "flirts" that "flirting" goes both ways, they attract each other. He was not speaking of people flirting, per se, but this idea that things flirt with us and we them which is how we perceive. We perceive because we are perceived by that which we perceive. This reflects the idea of a dynamic living universe.

[@MrHwaynefair]

❤️ Loved this provocative discussion- thank you both!

[@kristijohansen5874]

This was a sublime synchronistic experience for me having been reading on this topic from two very different sources . I find it very exciting. And what if our senses are limited by our compartmentalisation of them? What if like some who experience synethesis they merge one with the other?

[@kokolanza7543]

Uh oh, I'm going to have to watch this one at least one more time.

[@smde1]

This leads inexorably to the statement: You precede yourself spiritually. If you are uncomfortable sitting alone in your home or apartment...... are you, yet, unaware THAT THE SILENCE IS LISTENING AND WATCHING.

[@marcusOreallyUs1]

Extraordinary conversation. Thank you.

[@ognjenkabogdan8787]

💜💜💜 i send you milion kisses from Serbia!!! ... and thank you bouth 💜☀🌟⭐ all the way to the stars and back!!! 💛

[@antonart2.0]

Another example of extension can be use of any tool or instrument. Particularly easy to illustrate the extension effect with something requiring delicate motor skills, something like pencil or a scalpel, although it spans across anything. Once learned to a certain level ones perception extends outside to a tip of a tool being used

[@anyakukureka3595]

I've always equated Light with Mind / Consciousness Itself ... or rather, Amself. Decades ago, I was fascinated & hugely influenced by Arthur Zajonc's book: 'Catching the Light: an entwined history of Light & Mind.'

[@danieljenson2346]

Thank you for saying "Amself"

[@anyakukureka3595]

@@danieljenson2346 Thank you for understanding this!

[@danieljenson2346]

@@anyakukureka3595 "In him was life; and The Life was The Light of the Men. And The Light shines in the darkness; and The Darkness comprehended him not." John1:4,5 Anya, this is from the Greek.

[@geegee3318]

This was very interesting to listen to, you've got a new sub

[@blackhole77]

I love this :)

[@glenrobinson916]

Wow, very profound! But how little does humankind, our leaders and thinkers get any of this, limitless mind, our true self? If the senses are controlled hallucinations then knowing this is waking up but most see our perceptions as an external and absolute reality which is ignorance and a dream. But this discussion gives hope that humanity will eventually wake up.

[@TheExceptionalState]

Great conversation. Just to add a complementary perspective: „The next sense is the sense of sight. Here it is that what now works the etheric body and pours into it is the sentient soul. What happens here is of a thought-like nature. A thought principle is at work here. The sentient soul already has within itself what becomes conscious in the consciousness soul; however, the thought is still subconscious in it. It is thought in the sentient soul that flows out through the eyes. Here, then, real thought-substance flows out. It has a far greater elasticity than the other two substances which flow out through the senses of smell and taste, and it therefore reaches much further. It is so that astral matter really flows out of the human being and flows towards things. It is not etheric waves of light that enter the eye and then project the received image outwards!

[@the_artisan]

Is Rupert aware of Marsilio Ficino's theory of vision? It sounds very similar to what he is describing.

[@user-if1ly5sn5f]

5:13 he said something on projecting the image but idk if that’s it. I think quantum entanglement might occur through the light bouncing off someone and our eyes ride sense the difference which subconsciously we could detect minute changes but not really notice and we right it as if it was nothing but it’s like a trained muscle and needs to be trained the right way which isn’t even found but the cia has tried and got great results. The quantum fluctuations with the data we connect to may send signals the other direction since it’s sharing energy. Just a thought. Like this, our body is bathed in light bouncing off in all directions and when something looks at us it makes a small change since our sensors are taking in some that’s reflected off and that reflected energy that is now not emitting a force back on the body or it’s been changed through looking. Kinda like if a bathtub was full and the drain was the eye and when the eye syncs then the flow is altered. Not the same as a bath but a small analogy to help think about it. It’s like a field put off the body by the reflected energy and if that energy is altered by something then it’s detected subconsciously.

[@simeonbanner6204]

Top men!! Excellent point about the perception, say a stick at night on a road. I've often thought the same with the escalators, when I lived in London, using the tube. My legs, feet would anticipate or feel that the track was moving, even when it wasn't. The feeling had become habitual that would happen.

[@jorgesoto-andrade1796]

Yes, it is a most awkward somatic feeling you have when going down on a frozen escalator. We commented on that at Berthoz seminar, on anticipation, in Paris...

[@susanfay2213]

Wonderful, mind stretching talk! These two are so great together! I found a second listen from start to finish as fruitful as the first, and I may venture a third one!

[@sheilaeisele8490]

This was remarkably interesting. How might you explain the experiments in which people are able to read books and navigate obstacle courses whilst blindfolded since no light is involved in that act of seeing?

[@johnhale1466]

The medium that we instinctively use is “ Chi “ energy that is projected and received by the person of interest ..

[@ZeroManO3]

What you water in your garden will grow What you look at will show What you see Is what you get

[@NGC-catseye]

An alternative for the bigbang or gravity could be a spiral 🌀 just a continuous roll on a donut 🍩 we ride the electric field round and round 😵‍💫 Great chat guys💖 So much to think about 👍

[@bendrover]

Were looking at eachother with our minds eye when that happens.

[@user-if1ly5sn5f]

18:26 time can flow backwards but it’s not time it’s things that make up time that flow in all directions and not just backwards. Like light being reflected off the body and a field of difference coming forth like little lasers that sense disruptions because the energy pushback when going into the field or when a disturbance occurs. The small things we don’t actively sense could signal the rest of the body and we aren’t trained in our body so it’s subconscious.

[@cosmicman621]

...a sceptic and Deepak Chopra walked into a bar

[@FrogmortonHotchkiss]

How do predators ever manage to stalk and catch prey if their quarry can sense them looking at them? Not dead against the idea, but it raises questions for me.

[@Michaeldiamondmd]

Sheepherders know that there are hard-eyed versus soft-eyed dogs. The soft-eyed dogs have to nip at the heels of sheep to herd them. The hard-eyed merely have to stare meaningfully and the sheep move where they're supposed to.

[@rajkapoor490]

Hope you extend your mind on israel aggression and British colonial mistakes

[@alexwelts2553]

"the Stars are shining like rebel diamonds cut out from the sun, can you read my mind"🤔😉🤯🤷🏻‍♀️🥯

[@bendrover]

Im a inner space man

[@j-psavoie8173]

There was in fact a word for bleu in Ancient Greek : κύανος. I like these talks, but they sometimes are poorly thought out (the one about the speed of gravity comes to mind).

[@jami8884]

❤❤❤💯💯💢💢

[@thegeneralist7527]

The real question should be when are you not being looked at.

[@wildwoodskimberlynewworldd5282]

Thank you interesting podcast but I still don't get it🎉

[@thombales1299]

I believe process philosophers speak of the lure of God.

[@dadsonworldwide3238]

Its even easier if you don't treat time as the fingertips of God but rather as a man made notion of time inspired by God as a finger print. Then in the image of a feild or membrane its a layered connection. We definitely graph things naturally in this way as far as brains way of rationalizing things. The prescription ancient chaldeans had is more like actual God woven into and maths are treated this way by metarialist even most athiest are physical lawism oneness this way.

[@dadsonworldwide3238]

Distance still is there but if its dementionally moving you can thought experiment this to be faster than light. Imagine a slice of toast circling clockwise you drop off data outside then the opposite side of toast moves into it not across the toast. So as a continuous Higgs feild like layer you could hypothetically transfer data very uniquely. Bryan greene tells it much better more complex analogy of sending a signal and receiving it but his class found it would never return faster than you sent it but could be seconds after mathematically.

[@stoppernz229]

this guy sounds like a flat earther trying to prove the earth is flat but in this case not with canals but with mirrors

[@TokyoShemp]

scripted cowards