Advertise on podcast: Navigating Consciousness with Rupert Sheldrake

Watch on YouTube: https://youtu.be/0_Lkku3QH-c What if gratitude isn't just good manners, but measurably changes your wellbeing? What if the medieval Christians were right about nature being alive, and we've spent the last 400 years getting it fundamentally wrong? And why are half a million people now walking ancient pilgrimage routes across Europe when rationalist materialism promised to free us from such "superstitions"? In this wide-ranging conversation at Hampstead Parish Church, I explore these questions with Dr. Jessica Harland, touching on everything from my early crisis of conscience in a vivisection lab to discovering LSD at Cambridge, from the Protestant Reformation's assault on pilgrimage to why your GP should probably be prescribing forest walks. We go into the scientific evidence behind spiritual practices—yes, there are thousands of peer-reviewed studies—and discuss why saying grace before meals, walking to holy places, and reconnecting with the living world aren't quaint relics of the past, but practices our secular age desperately needs to rediscover. Whether you consider yourself religious, spiritual-but-not-religious, or simply curious about why these ancient practices refuse to die, I hope you'll find something here that sparks your imagination—and perhaps your own spiritual journey. Recorded at The Parish Church of St John-at-Hampstead, October 2025. If you're in London, I highly recommend coming by to experience choral evensong. https://www.choralevensong.org/uk/the-parish-church-of-st-john-at-hampstead-27.php

For more see Rupert’s Substack article on this topic 👉 https://rupertsheldrake.substack.com/p/animal-warnings-of-earthquakes Recorded on November 4, 2017 at the Society for Psychical Research in London.  When disasters strike, it is often animals who seem to know first. Long before seismographs were invented, people noticed that snakes, rats, dogs, and birds behaved strangely in the days leading up to earthquakes. Similar reports come before tsunamis, avalanches, air raids, and even medical crises like seizures. Are these simply heightened senses—an ability to detect tremors, gases, or subtle vibrations—or do they point to something deeper, an anticipatory awareness we do not yet understand? In this talk, I share some of the evidence I’ve gathered over the years: from ancient Greek accounts to modern field studies, from the Chinese earthquake networks under Mao to the toads of central Italy abandoning their mating grounds days before a quake. The pattern repeats across cultures and circumstances, yet mainstream science has largely dismissed it as superstition. Why is that? What are we overlooking when we ignore such a consistent body of observations? Could systematic study of animal behavior, especially with today’s global communications, provide early warnings and even save lives? I don’t claim to have the answers. But I invite you to explore these questions with me, and to consider what they reveal not only about animals, but about our shared sensitivity to the unseen.

What if the “weird” feelings we shrug off—being watched, knowing who’s calling, waking seconds before an alarm—aren’t glitches but signals? In this talk, given at the How The Light Gets In festival, September 21st, 2025, Rupert Sheldrake argues that these everyday hunches point to mind-to-world reach (projective vision), mind-to-mind links (telepathy), and mind-to-future sensitivity (presentiment). How do we decide what counts as evidence, who gets to ask taboo questions, and how science should treat common human experiences? Beyond anecdotes, Rupert shares simple experiments, huge natural-history datasets, and a working picture of mind as something that reaches, bonds, and anticipates—often strengthened with emotional closeness. He flags practical paths forward: citizen science, the Eyesense Training app to sharpen sensitivity, and real-world applications from caregiving to early-warning via animal behavior. Try the Eyesense Training app 👉 https://eyesense.training See Rupert’s Substack for the Latest  articles and early access to videos 👉 https://rupertsheldrake.substack.com

A dialogue on praying for ancestors and on pilgrimage: Hollyhock, Cortes Island, BC; August, 2016.  See Rupert’s Substack for the Latest  articles and early access to videos 👉 https://rupertsheldrake.substack.com

For many people, Christianity is like a toxic brand. Why is this so and what can be done about it? A dialogue with Marc Andrus, the Bishop of California, at Grace Cathedral, San Francisco; September, 2015. See Rupert’s Substack for the Latest  articles and early access to videos 👉 https://rupertsheldrake.substack.com

A dialogue with Marc Andrus, former Bishop of California, at Grace Cathedral, San Francisco, in August of 2016. See Rupert’s Substack for the Latest  articles and early access to videos 👉 https://rupertsheldrake.substack.com

Watch on Substack https://open.substack.com/pub/rupertsheldrake/p/psychedelic-experiences-what-insights This is a talk I gave recently to the Drug Science and Bioscience Societies at the University of York. I first became interested in psychedelics when I was at school in the 1950s and a young doctor friend was involved in some of the early research on the effects of LSD. When I was 17, before going to Cambridge, I worked in a pharmacology research lab on the effects of LSD and mescaline on chicks. However, it was not until 1970, when I was 28, that I experienced the mind-opening effects of LSD for myself. In the 1980s, I became friends with Terence McKenna, an expert on the shamanic use of psychedelics, and Ralph Abraham, a chaos mathematician at the University of California, Santa Cruz. We had many discussions about the effects of these substances, including their influence on the growth of computer graphics. I also attended a series of conferences on psychedelics at the Esalen Institute in California and have been in continual contact with recent researchers on the subject. In this talk, I discuss the nature of psychedelic visions, their possible relationship to dreams and near-death experiences, and the ‘entities’ that many people encounter through them, including machine elves and angels. I look at the cultural history of their use, the emergence of new psychedelic religions such as Santo Daime in Brazil, and suggest that the current psychedelic renaissance is part of a major cultural shift—away from materialism towards a more interconnected worldview.

A talk delivered to the Conference of the International Network for the Study of Spirituality, University of Northampton, UK in June 2025. The INSS is a unique international network for people interested in bringing the study of spirituality to life through research, scholarship, education and practice. https://spiritualitystudiesnetwork.wildapricot.org/conference-2025

In this talk, Rupert Sheldrake explores panentheism—the idea that the divine is not separate from the world but present throughout it, while also transcending it. With the grip of mechanistic materialism loosening, Rupert invites us to reconsider how we see nature, mind, and spirit. Tracing a broad arc from ancient philosophies and Christian mysticism to AI-generated worldviews, panpsychism, and psychedelics, he reflects on how the sacred presence in nature—-long affirmed by spiritual traditions-—is re-emerging through science, experience, and renewed practices of attention.  Recorded at St James Church, Piccadilly, a longstanding hub for open spiritual inquiry and progressive theology in the heart of London. Rupert’s Substack Latest  articles, early access to videos, exclusive talks  👉 https://rupertsheldrake.substack.com

A dialogue with Marc Andrus, former Bishop of California, at Grace Cathedral, San Francisco. Our ancestors’ lives from birth to death were shaped and structured by spiritual traditions but today many people are no longer connected to religious festivals or practices.  This loss of religious faith in unprecedented, and in 2016 in the UK a survey showed that for the first time in history a majority of the population say they have no religion.  In this dialogue Rupert and Marc discuss the possibility of reconnecting through festivals, pilgrimages and sacred places. 

A dialogue with Marc Andrus, former Bishop of California, at Grace Cathedral, San Francisco.  Many people who keep pets have experienced their ability to comfort and heal.  There is now a pet therapy movement where people take dogs and cats into hospices and children’s hospitals, and the human animal bond can help many physical and mental issues.  In this dialogue Rupert and Marc discuss the many powers of animals and explore to what extent animals themselves live spiritual lives.

A dialogue with Marc Andrus, former Bishop of California, at Grace Cathedral, San Francisco. European civilisation has been shaped in many ways by its Christian heritage. In the Middle Ages the Church started schools, universities and hospitals, and set up systems for caring for the sick and the poor. In the twentieth century, the hospice movement was started by Christians. Even the principles of democracy and human rights are rooted in the Christian doctrine that all people are equal before God. Yet these achievements are now widely seen as a triumph of secularism. What is going on?

Many traditions include holy days or ‘holidays’ as days of festivity to celebrate and many traditional festivals revolve around the cycles of creation including solar and lunar cycles, harvests, death and rebirth.  Festivals help connect individuals and the community to the pulse of nature. Rupert and Marc explore the on-going relevance of festivals and holy days in the modern secular world.

A dialogue with Marc Andrus, former Bishop of California, at Grace Cathedral, San Francisco. All Souls Day — the day of the dead — falls on November 2, and is particularly spectacular in Mexico. Hallowe'en, or All Hallows' Eve, is the eve of the festival of the dead, which starts with All Saints' Day on November 1.