The Unconventional Upbringing of Merlin Sheldrake: Exploring Nature and Consciousness in British Columbia
Merlin Sheldrake is a mycologist and author described as “a scientist who has a way with words” by The New York Times. He grew up in a household with unconventional parents who deeply embraced the power of singing as a form of healing, believed in telepathy and morphic fields, and spent hours exploring the natural world. In this article, we explore Merlin’s fascinating childhood and the influences that shaped his love of nature and curiosity about the world.
A Mother’s Healing Power
Merlin’s mother, Jill Purce, is a skilled singer who has studied the power of singing as a means of healing emotional and physical wounds. She incorporates Mongolian overtones and shamanistic chants into her workshops and believes deeply in the power of voice and vibration to heal and restore balance.
A Father’s Curiosity
Merlin’s father, Rupert, studied biology at Cambridge and philosophy and history of science at Harvard. He worked in agricultural development and later came to believe that memories can be inherited and intentions can be transmitted telepathically, attributes he attributed to “morphic fields.” His fascination with the natural world and the interconnectedness of all things inspired him to set up a laboratory in the family’s small kitchen on the second floor.
Natural Explorers
Merlin and his father spent many hours wandering the moor, studying plants and observing the natural world. Rupert’s constant curiosity prompted him to ask questions and point things out to his son which helped to cultivate Merlin’s inquisitive mind about the workings of the natural world. Merlin accompanied his father to the Crufts dog show and the Luton rabbit show as they undertook an experiment to determine whether dog owners look like their pets. Rupert also conducted telepathy experiments with Merlin and his sister Cosmo as they tried to explore the unknown world of thoughts and communication.
A Semi-Wild Existence
The family spent summers on an island in British Columbia, where they participated in a retreat center similar to Esalen. The children enjoyed a semi-wild existence as they explored their surroundings and scavenged on the beach. As a teenager, Merlin became interested in symbiosis and the interconnectedness of living organisms through his studies with a mushroom evangelist named Paul Stamets.
The Power of Animal Architecture
Merlin’s interest in the interconnectedness of living organisms led him to read a book by biologist Karl von Frisch, who won the Nobel Prize for deciphering the wiggle dance of bees. Von Frisch described how potter wasps made jug-shaped nests and how another wasp species made papery nests. He suggested that humans may have learned these techniques from observing the insects. This idea intrigued Merlin and contributed to his lifelong passion for observing animals and their architectural creations.
Summary:
Merlin Sheldrake grew up in a household with unconventional parents who explored the natural world through their unique perspectives. His mother, Jill Purce, believed deeply in the power of voice and vibration as a means of healing emotional and physical wounds. His father, Rupert, studied biology and worked in agricultural development before turning his attention to exploring morphic fields and telepathy. Together, father and son spent many hours exploring the natural world and conducting experiments in their makeshift laboratory. They spent summers on an island in British Columbia, where Merlin was first introduced to the fascinating world of symbiosis and the interconnectedness of living organisms. His interest in this topic led him to the works of biologist Karl von Frisch, whose description of animal architecture became a life-long inspiration to Merlin.
Additional Piece:
The unconventional upbringing of Merlin Sheldrake offers a unique perspective on the intersection of nature, consciousness, and healing. His parents’ deep belief in the power of voice and vibration to restore balance and promote healing demonstrates the connection between our physical and emotional states.
Similarly, Rupert Sheldrake’s belief in morphic fields and telepathy illustrates the potential connections between living organisms and the ways we communicate and interact with each other. These ideas challenge conventional scientific views and encourage us to explore new ways of understanding the world around us.
Merlin’s passion for exploring symbiosis and animal architecture provides insights into the natural world that expands our understanding of the ways in which living organisms cooperate and occasionally prey on each other. His observations about the interconnectedness of living organisms, as suggested by Karl von Frisch, offer us the opportunity to explore new methods of studying biology and developing sustainable ecological practices.
Currently, Merlin is deeply engaged in his research on the world of fungi and how they interact with other living organisms, sometimes in ways that promote healing and better health outcomes for humans. This research offers promise in the areas of plant-based medicine, sustainable agriculture, and environmental remediation, and its potential for changing the way we live our lives is immense.
In conclusion, Merlin’s unconventional upbringing and unique perspective on the world offers us an opportunity to explore new ideas, principles, and practices that can promote health, healing, and ecological sustainability. His exploration of the natural world invites us to view the world in new ways and encourages us to venture beyond the tried-and-true traditions of scientific inquiry. As we continue to grapple with the challenges of climate change, environmental degradation, and the search for new forms of healing, Merlin’s insights and perspectives offer important clues about the direction we should follow.
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Both parents are unconventional and see the world deeply connected in mysterious ways. Merlin’s mother, Jill Purce, a skilled singer, has long embraced the power of singing as a way to heal emotional and physical wounds, and still leads workshops incorporating Mongolian overtones and shamanistic chants. (During my visit, she noted that Merlin’s astrological reading at birth indicated that one of her strengths would be “revealing what lies underground.”) His father, Rupert, is more reserved, but easily delighted. He studied biology at Cambridge and philosophy and history of science at Harvard and later worked in agricultural development, but eventually settled on the idea that memories can be inherited and that intentions (planning to call a particular friend, for example) can be transmitted telepathically. a phenomenon that he attributed to “morphic fields”. These fields, he believed, explained both the poignant awareness of being watched by another person and the uncanny ability of dogs to know when their owners are coming home. (He’s written books on the subject, including “Dogs Who Know When Their Owners Are Coming Home” and “The Feeling of Being Stared At.”)
When Merlin was a boy, he and his father would spend hours wandering the moor in all weathers, looking at plants and following each other through the woods. Merlin describes his father as incessantly curious: “He was always pointing things out like, ‘Guys, check this out! Do you know what this is? What do you think that does? Or we’d stay with a friend and he’d say, ‘Do you remember we planted this willow cutting when you were 3 years old? Isn’t it amazing that willows can regenerate like this? It’s like taking one of your fingers and growing a new you out of it.’”
Back home, they would do experiments in a laboratory that his father set up in a small kitchen on the second floor. One year, they decided to test the hypothesis that dog owners look like their dogs by going to the Crufts dog show (and later the Luton rabbit show, Merlin recalled, to see if the same thing happened to them). Rupert also regularly recruited Merlin and Cosmo for his own telepathy experiments. “We were the first guinea pigs,” said Merlin. “He was like, ‘Guys, I have another experiment. Do you mind? Can we try this? Please?'”
Merlin absorbed his father’s interest in the natural world and his sense of wonder. In “Tangled Life,” he fondly describes how his father used to lead him “from flower to flower, like a bee,” though when we spoke, he described the experience less romantically: “Look! Look at the smell! Put your face in the flower! Isn’t that nice? Here’s another one. And other!'”
Over the summer, the family would move to an island in British Columbia that was home to a retreat center similar to Esalen, where adults made music and art and discussed consciousness expansion. The children enjoyed a semi-wild existence, scavenging on the beach or investigating the nearby forest. As a teenager, Merlin began spending time with one of the island’s regulars, a self-taught “mushroom evangelist” named Paul Stamets, who encouraged his interest in symbiosis—the way fungi, plants, and other creatures can join cooperatively. Not long after, he read a book by Karl von Frisch, an award-winning biologist. Nobel Prize for deciphering the wiggle dance in bees, called “Animal Architecture”. Among other things, von Frisch described how potter wasps make jug-shaped nests that they fill with food, how another wasp species makes papery nests by chewing wood and laying down thin layers of pulp, and how humans may have learned these techniques by observing to the insects.
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