# Why the sun is conscious (and the scientific revolution made a mistake) | Rupert Sheldrake

Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L-VP0gGJw9M
Recap page: https://rapidrecap.app/video/L-VP0gGJw9M
Generated: 2025-11-16T15:35:21.533+00:00

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## Quick Overview

Rupert Sheldrake argues that the modern scientific dismissal of consciousness in nature, exemplified by viewing celestial bodies as inanimate, is an eccentric cultural error rooted in the 17th-century scientific revolution; he advocates for panpsychism, which suggests consciousness is widespread, even in fundamental particles like electrons and atoms, liberating imagination from the constraint that consciousness is only located in brains.

**Key Points:**
- The idea that celestial bodies like the Sun and stars are conscious, or are gods/goddesses, was common in traditional cultures (e.g., Japan, Latin cultures, India with Surya) but is now largely dismissed in modern Western thought.
- Ancient philosophers like Plato called the planets the "visible gods," reflecting a worldview where the heavens were animate and conscious beings, sometimes associated with angelic intelligences.
- The shift away from this view occurred around the beginning of the 17th-century Scientific Revolution, when the heavens and Earth were declared inanimate, unconscious, and machine-like.
- Sheldrake cites his 1990 book, "The Rebirth of Nature," as an early argument for reanimating the world and challenging the materialist view that consciousness is solely generated by brains.
- Panpsychism, which Sheldrake is predisposed towards, liberates imagination by suggesting consciousness does not have to be located only in brains, opening the possibility that even electrons and atoms could be conscious.
- In the Hindu tradition, the Gayatri Mantra asks for the blessings of the Sun to illuminate meditation, illustrating a cultural context where celestial bodies are actively revered as conscious entities.
- The modern neuroscientific view, which posits consciousness is generated only in brains like ours, is what Sheldrake finds absurd and dismisses with contempt.

![Screenshot at 0:03: The speaker, Rupert Sheldrake, introduces the historical perspective that celestial bodies like the sun were commonly taken for granted as conscious entities or gods in traditional cultures.](https://ss.rapidrecap.app/screens/L-VP0gGJw9M/00-00-03.png)

**Context:** The video features philosopher Rupert Sheldrake discussing the historical and philosophical perspective on consciousness, specifically challenging the modern scientific consensus that consciousness is exclusive to complex biological structures like human brains. He contrasts this view with ancient and traditional worldviews where natural elements, especially celestial bodies, were widely regarded as conscious, animate beings, a concept he links to panpsychism.

## Detailed Analysis

Rupert Sheldrake asserts that the modern scientific dismissal of consciousness in the natural world is an eccentric cultural deviation, tracing this shift back to the 17th-century Scientific Revolution. Historically, many cultures, including Japanese, Latin, and Indian (referencing the god Surya), viewed heavenly bodies as conscious entities, with Plato referring to planets as "visible gods." Sheldrake explains that the post-17th-century scientific framework declared the heavens and Earth inanimate, unconscious, and purely mechanical. He advocates for panpsychism as a necessary philosophical corrective because it liberates the imagination by proposing that consciousness is not confined to brains but is a fundamental property that could extend to basic particles like electrons and atoms. He notes that the Gayatri Mantra in Hinduism, which asks the Sun for illumination in meditation, exemplifies this older, animistic view. Sheldrake concludes that the prevailing neuroscientific view—that consciousness is exclusively generated by brains like ours—is absurd and treated with undue contempt by contemporary thought.

### Historical Views of Celestial Consciousness

- Traditional cultures assumed the sun and stars were conscious, sometimes gods or goddesses
- Plato called planets the "visible gods"
- This contrasts sharply with modern views.

### The Scientific Revolution Shift

- The 17th-century Scientific Revolution declared the heavens and Earth inanimate, unconscious, and machine-like
- This shift is deemed an eccentric cultural viewpoint by Sheldrake.

### Panpsychism as an Alternative

- Sheldrake favors panpsychism, which posits that consciousness is widespread, potentially even in electrons and atoms
- This view liberates imagination from the brain-centric model of consciousness.

### Cultural Examples of Animism

- The Indian Gayatri Mantra seeks the sun's blessing to illuminate meditation, showing reverence for a conscious Sun
- This contrasts with the modern dismissal of such ideas.

### Critique of Modern Materialism

- Sheldrake argues that the standard view, where consciousness is only generated by brains, is absurd and should not be dismissed with contempt.

![Screenshot at 0:03: Speaker introducing the historical belief that the Sun is conscious, contrasting it with modern views.](https://ss.rapidrecap.app/screens/L-VP0gGJw9M/00-00-03.png)
![Screenshot at 0:10: A second speaker briefly appears while the main speaker discusses Hindu traditions involving Surya.](https://ss.rapidrecap.app/screens/L-VP0gGJw9M/00-00-10.png)
![Screenshot at 0:25: Sheldrake references historical philosophers like St. Thomas Aquinas who considered celestial bodies conscious.](https://ss.rapidrecap.app/screens/L-VP0gGJw9M/00-00-25.png)
![Screenshot at 0:45: Sheldrake describing the modern view as "pretty well universal" in its dismissal of cosmic consciousness.](https://ss.rapidrecap.app/screens/L-VP0gGJw9M/00-00-45.png)
![Screenshot at 1:13: Sheldrake calling the question of non-brain consciousness a "stupid question" only to dismissive modern thought.](https://ss.rapidrecap.app/screens/L-VP0gGJw9M/00-01-13.png)
![Screenshot at 1:51: Sheldrake citing the Gayatri Mantra as an example of seeking the Sun's conscious blessing for meditation.](https://ss.rapidrecap.app/screens/L-VP0gGJw9M/00-01-51.png)
![Screenshot at 2:12: Sheldrake contrasting the panpsychist view \(consciousness not only in brains\) with the normal neuroscience view.](https://ss.rapidrecap.app/screens/L-VP0gGJw9M/00-02-12.png)
![Screenshot at 2:38: The second speaker interjecting to agree that the stars are likely conscious under the panpsychist framework.](https://ss.rapidrecap.app/screens/L-VP0gGJw9M/00-02-38.png)