[The formative causation].

The hypothesis of formative causation proposed by Rupert Sheldrake in 1981, affirms that morphogenetic fields play a causal role in the development and maintenance of the forms of systems at all levels of complexity and that nature is governed by habits. All animals and plants draw upon and contribute to the collective memory of their species. The author suggested that memory is inherent in nature and it is transmitted by a process called morphic resonance and works through fields called morphic fields. The hypothesis of formative causation accounts for the repetition of forms but does not explain how the first example of any given form originally came into being. Despite the advances in molecular biology, morphogenesis continues to elude a molecular explanation and seems to depend on morphogenetic fields. The hypothesis of formative causation interprets many physical and biological phenomena in a way radically different than those proposed by existing theories. According to this hypothesis the conscious self can be thought of as interacting with morphic fields in order to be connected with the external environment and with the state of the body in consciously controlled activity.