The Meaning of Rituals

Human life is full of rituals, from shaking hands to venerating
relics. But how do rituals work, how do they convey meaning? In
this Science Set Free discussion, Rupert Sheldrake and Mark
Vernon discuss how rituals connect us with people who have done
them before, using Rupert's concept of morphic resonance. Rituals
build up the collective memory and, be they religious or secular,
are one means by which we can access an aspect of life that lasts
over time. The conversation explores how rituals bring the sense
of the past into the present, touch us in embodied as well as
imaginative ways, and convert spaces into sacred places. They
explore examples from the foundational rituals of social groups
to the rituals of psychotherapy which can bring back memories of
the past.