- ISBN13: 9780609805336
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Product Description
How do cats know when it’s time to go to the vet, even before the cat carrier comes out? How do dogs know when their owners are returning home at unexpected times? How can horses find their way back to the stable over completely unfamiliar terrain?
With a scientist’s mind and an animal lover’s compassion, world-renowned biologist Rupert Sheldrake presents a groundbreaking exploration of animal behavior that will profoundly change the way we think about animals — and ourselves. After five years of extensive research involving thousands of people who have pets and work with animals, Dr. Sheldrake proves conclusively what many pet owners already know: there is a strong connection between humans and animals that defies present-day scientific understanding. This remarkable book deserves a place next to the most beloved and valuable books on animals, including When Elephants Weep, Dogs Never Lie About Love, and The Hidden Life of Dogs.Amazon.com Review
It’s rare for a book’s title to say so clearly what the book is about. In the case of Rupert Sheldrake’s latest work, the controversial content is right on the front cover. Pet owners will see it and smile in recognition; skeptical scientists will shake their heads and mutter about “maverick scholars.” We all know of cases of dogs (and cats) who know when their owners are coming home, who go to wait at the door or window 10 minutes or more before their human arrives. Conditioned by the tight rigor of contemporary scientific thinking, we either look for rational explanations or we file the phenomenon away in our minds as “unexplained” and are careful not to talk about it with our scientist friends.
Sheldrake has shown in the past that he is not afraid to be labeled a rebel, thanks to his theory of morphic resonance, which suggests the following:
Natural systems, or morphic units, at all levels of complexity are animated, organized, and coordinated by morphic fields, which contain an inherent memory. Natural systems inherit this collective memory from all previous things of their kind by a process called morphic resonance, with the result that patterns of development and behavior become increasingly habitual through repetition.
Sheldrake believes that the “telepathy” between pets and humans, or between flocks of birds or schools of fish that move as a single organism, can be explained this theory. Sheldrake is less persuaded by anecdotes that suggest animal clairvoyance–warning of something in the near future–but refuses to disallow the possibility.
He accepts that the case histories he details so thoroughly in this book are anecdotal, but that makes them no less real; and as a scientist himself he sets up experimental conditions for studying this previously ignored phenomenon that show beyond any doubt that the phenomenon exists. He castigates traditional scientists for their refusal to countenance anything that doesn’t fit in with their existing paradigms (or prejudices) and challenges them to come up with some more “acceptable” explanation–but none is forthcoming.
This fascinating book is a first attempt at a scientific investigation into a puzzling but quite common occurrence. One hopes that other scientists will follow Sheldrake’s brave lead. –David V. Barrett
Click Dogs That Know When Their Owners Are Coming Home: And Other Unexplained Powers of Animals to Order
I recently saw the 20/20 episode concerning this book. While doctors agree that animals have some senses about their owners, a test they aired proved that most dogs do not know when they’re owners are coming home. The episode showed one camera on a pet, and the other camera with the pet’s owners. This particular dog waited by the window for hours, so , of course, when the owner got home, the dog was already by the window. I will agree that dogs have certain senses about things, but the “super human” abilities, come on! That is ridiculous. Until my dog saves me from a car accident or saves me from a life-threatening situation, I say this book has no merit.
Rating: 1 / 5
This book is written in a non-entertaining, clinical format (reads like a medical journal). Wasn’t the heartwarming, feel-good book I thought it would be. Also has a lot of repetition, after the first few chapters, you’ve basically read the whole book…
Rating: 2 / 5
The fact is that he’s dealing with interesting material. We all want to believe in something like this. I know I do. But will a book like this convince me? It won’t.
I think I was turned off to the message of the book primarily by the writing style. Granted, this shouldn’t sway me from the facts, but his words are the only means by which he communicates the message, and if he is a subpar writer, I see a person of subpar intelligence. And I simply can’t respect that. I don’t know if he is intelligent enough to thoroughly research his facts, or to tell the difference between stories that are true or otherwise. And a lot of what he does here is tell over individual stories.
Furthermore: I’m an actuary, and I deal with statistics. When I read this book, I also ask myself, for every animal mentioned that has telepathic powers, how many don’t? Perhaps, if you take into account the millions of dogs that are owned, it is statistically fortold that whether or not any dogs have these powers, stories will nevertheless crop up. The research here is NOT done scientifically, and there is NO mention of any sort of statistics. I don’t believe any were done. And while I read stories that seemed true, I take it with a grain of salt because I simply don’t know what I’m not being told.
I apologize to those of you who came here to see all the good reviews, and to those of you who want to believe and wanted this book to be great. I read all the other great reveiws of the book. I’m baffled, to be frank.
Rating: 2 / 5
No one is claiming that all members of all species of animals have “super human” abilities, including the animal species that we say is ‘human’. All of us, plants and animals, have special abilities. Those of us who call ourselves humans just do not know very much about our own abilities and know even less about the abilities of the other living things with which we share this universe.
We are a species that is naturally inquisitive and some of us will always challenge the currently accepted propaganda and will climb to the top to see what is on the other side. That is not something to fear, it is something to celebrate!
Rating: 5 / 5
What a disappointment. Some of the “science” here wouldn’t pass muster in a high school science fair. The main problem is that he fails to adequately control for other variables, so that his results may easily be tainted by other factors. For instance, he has the owners themselves record the observations of their pets. What proud owner, consciously or subconsciously, wouldn’t want their Fido or Fluffy to be a star performer?
The sampling size is small and, he admits, skewed towards those whose pets show positive results. Some incidents seem to be the result of sheer coincidence (Ruggles, pg. 106-7), or the result of the dog’s actions triggering thoughts in the owner (pg. 124). There is also association by innuendo, where Sheldrake discusses cases where other factors cannot be ruled out, then presents a case or two which “proves” psychic ability. He also doesn’t deal with instances where pets had a reaction not associated with any definitive behavior by the owner. Not only that, he presents cases where the pet responds to when the owner starts home, cases where the pet responds to when the owner *thinks* of going home, and cases where the pet responds to when the owner is approaching home. With so many choices, it’s no wonder he gets quite a few hits.
Mitchell and Rickard’s LIVING WONDERS demolishes the myth of canine loyalty after death, and Budiansky’s THE TRUTH ABOUT DOGS states that other researchers were unable to replicate Sheldrake’s amazing results. I like pets just as much as anyone else, though I don’t feel the need to glorify them with powers that their small brains are incapable of possessing.
Rating: 1 / 5