Acknowledgements

In the continued development and testing of the hypothesis of formative causation since the first edition of this book was published, many people have helped me through discussions, comments, suggestions and criticisms. In particular I would like to thank Ralph Abraham, David Abram, Patrick Bateson, Marc Bekoff, Dick Bierman, Stephen Braude, John Brockman, David Jay Brown, Bernard Carr, Christopher Clarke, Stephen Cohen, Paul Davies, Hans-Peter Dürr, Lindy Dufferin and Ava, Ted Dace, Larry Dossey, Suitbert Ertel, Susan Fassberg, Addison Fischer, David Fontana, Matthew Fox, Adele Getty, the late Edward Goldsmith, Jane Goodall, the late Brian Goodwin, Franz-Theo Gottwald, the late Stephen Jay Gould, David R. Griffin, the late Bede Griffiths, Stephan Harding, the late Willis Harman, Donald D. Hoffman, Kurt Hoffman, Nicholas Humphrey, Francis Huxley, Rick Ingrasci, Jürgen Krönig, Satish Kumar, David Lambert, David Lorimer, Katinka Matson, the late Terence McKenna, the late John Michell, the late Brendan O’Reagan, Jill Purce, Dean Radin, Anthony Ramsay, Martin Rees, Keith Roberts, Steve Rooke, Steven Rose, Janis Rozé, Alexander Shulgin, Edward St Aubyn, Gary Schwartz, Martin Schwartz, Merlin Sheldrake, the late Ian Stevenson, E. Harris Stone, James Trifone, Patrice van Eersel, the late Francisco Varela, Ian Watson and Götz Wittneben.

I am grateful to Matthew Clapp, who started my web site, www.sheldrake.org, in 1997 and served as webmaster until 2002; to my current webmaster, John Caton, who has looked after my site since 2002; and to Helmut Lasarcyk, my German webmaster, who has also kindly translated many letters, articles and manuscripts for me. I also thank my research assistant, Pam Smart, who has worked with me since 1994 and has helped in many ways.

I gratefully acknowledge organizational and financial support for research from the Institute of Noetic Sciences, California; the International Center for Integral Studies, New York; the Schweisfurth Foundation, Germany; the Lifebridge Foundation, New York; the Bial Foundation, Portugal; the Fred Foundation, Holland; the Perrott-Warrick Fund, administered by Trinity College, Cambridge; and the Watson Family Foundation. I am also grateful to the following benefactors for their generous support: the late Laurance Rockefeller; Robert L. Schwartz, of New York; the late C.W. (‘Ben’) Webster, of Toronto; Evelyn Hancock, of Old Greenwich, Connecticut; Bokhara Legendre, of Medway, South Carolina; Fred Matser, of Hilversum, Holland; Ben Finn, of London; and Addison Fischer, of Naples, Florida.

I thank Keith Roberts, Jeni Fox and Craig Robson for doing the diagrams and drawings.

The writing and rewriting of this book has involved a long journey of exploration. My companion throughout has been my wife, Jill Purce, and I am deeply thankful to her for her unfailing inspiration and encouragement, for countless conversations in which ideas in this book took shape, and for the help she has given me in so many ways.