A Scientific and Spiritual Pilgrimage

Rupert Sheldrake 80th Birthday Celebration

Friday July 8th
St Bride’s Centre, London EC4Y 8EQ

Dr Rupert Sheldrake has been a major creative presence in science since the publication of his initial book ‘A New Science of Life’ in 1981, the year he joined the Scientific and Medical Network and is one of our distinguished honorary members. We were therefore delighted to be able to celebrate his 80th birthday with a special live programme including evensong at St Paul’s Cathedral, and music by Jill, Cosmo and Merlin Sheldrake. It was a heart-warming day full of humour and personal recollections, all permeated by Rupert’s never-ending stream of ingenious schemes and experiments to test his new ideas. Below you will find some photos taken by his Cambridge colleague Prof Keith Roberts, whom he had met at Harvard in 1963 while studying history and philosophy of science. A report will appear in the next issue of Paradigm Explorer.

A few impressions from the event

A tribute from Honorary Member Dr Iain McGilchrist

“I just wanted to add my tribute to an exemplary life in the service of science.  You are a towering giant in the unfolding history of science, and I feel very honoured to count you as a friend and colleague.  I hope you will live to see your ideas adopted by the mainstream – I think it will be not long at all – but in any case, and whether they are or not, you are aware of things that lesser minds find harder to grasp: the mainstream is often the last to come round.  What really counts are the visionaries: and you are amongst the best of them.”