I agree, but he does articulate some of the Techster's ideas quite cleverly and he does have the added cachet of conventional scientific training. I read his book (don't recall the title, but one critic described it as a "prime candidate for burning") and found it as fascinating as I did infuriating.

Other authors who have been able to pull this off, such as Carlos Castanedas and Julian Jaynes, should not be dismissed entirely, it may be pseudoscience, but without the usual identifying baggage generally brought along by anomalists (sinister corporate villains, government conspiracies, closed-minded scientific orthodoxy, etc) they can be quite entertaining if not totally convincing. And if not a total cynical lie, then they just might contain a germ of truth. Some, like Halton Arp, with impeccable credentials and professional reputation might even be right. Now THAT is a disturbing thought, and one which can't be summarily dismissed. After all, every major paradigm shift started off just like this.

Sheldrake seems lately (I read the Wikipedia article to refresh my memory, its been years since I read him) to have gone somewhat "New Age" in his opinions, which has severely diluted his credibility. Too bad, the idea of morphic resonance or morphological fields is intrinsically no more unbelievable than what the physicists are speculating these days. Perhaps a concept like this might be useful somewhere, just as magnetic, electric and gravitational fields are useful mathematical fictions to substitute for action-at-a-distance.

It pays to keep an open mind, it makes identifying and slamming flaming anomalists easier and more satisfying. BTW, I'm glad to hear Sheldrake is familiar to another zoner. Raoul has also read Jaynes. This group never fails to amaze me.