In the 1970s, an English plant physiologist, Rupert Sheldrake, PhD, offered his Hypothesis of Formative Causation" (described in a book by the same name). It proposes that all entities - living organisms as well as inert substances - are each part of a "field" that connects them in some way with every other member of their species or type. He calls these fields morphogenetic, which literally means "giving rise to structure or form." Morphogenetic fields do not obey the laws of thermodynamics, and they operate irrespective of distances. Here's how they work: Suppose a mouse in England learns to run a maze. This mouse, in effect, creates a morphogenetic field for the solution of the maze, and therefore sets up a "form or structure" that allows mice all over the world to run the same maze with greater ease. The field becomes stronger with each mouse that completes the maze. This phenomenon and others like it had been observed for years and were the basis of Sheldrake's proposal. This model explains the existence of instincts and habits, which have never been adequately understood, and once again reinforces the appreciation of our connectedness with everything in creation. His hypothesis has withstood many tests, and in time it probably will be considered as important as Darwin's theory of evolution.

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