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Rupert Sheldrake stabbed at conference
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 UNITED STATES. English biologist Rupert Sheldrake was stabbed in the leg during a break in his lecture on thought transference at the 10th International Conference on Science and Consciousness at La Fonda Hotel, Santa Fe, California, on Wednesday, 2 April.
His left calf muscle was badly damaged and he underwent two hours of surgery at St Vincent Regional Medical Centre.
His wife, Jill Purce, tells www.ParanormaReview.com that he can expect a prolonged period of physiotherapy to overcome the injury. “He’s in good spirits and good hands, and is now out of hospital,” she added.
Sheldrake has remained in the US to fulfill another lecture engagement at the Towards a Science of Consciousness 2008 conference in Tucson, Arizona (8-12 April), which is organised by the Centre for Consciousness Studies. He will be talking on “The Evolution of Telepathy”. He will then return to his home in London.
One eye-witness to the attack, David Edwards, a physician, described seeing Sheldrake lying on his back with a two- to three-inch cut just above the left kneecap, with blood spurting some eight inches into the air. He stemmed the blood loss until ambulancemen and police arrived.
Later, as the behavioural scientist and parapsychologist was carried away on a stretcher by paramedics, he was reported to be sitting up and alert. Asked if he was OK, he smiled and replied, “I hope so.”
His attacker, named as Hirano Kazuki, 33, of Yokohama, Japan, spent Wednesday night in jail after being arrested on charges of aggravated battery and assault with intent to commit a violent felony. He is being held on $200,000 bail.
Some delegates said he had been acting strangely before the incident and reported that he had approached Sheldrake earlier in the week, telling him he heard voices and saw demons.
Sheldrake’s keynote speech was titled “Memory and Morphic Resonance” and he also held a workshop, “Fields of the Mind: Experimental Research and Practical Intuition.”
Observers reported seeing an Asian man leave the conference hall during Sheldrake’s talk and, when he returned, standing close to the podium with his eyes closed as if meditating. The attack occurred when Sheldrake called for a break around 3pm and delegates began to leave the room.
Hearing a commotion, David Edwards looked back and saw four people holding an Asian man on the ground and a fifth holding a knife in a napkin. Sheldrake was bleeding profusely close by.
One version of the attack suggests that Kazuki tripped as he went to stab Sheldrake in the chest, plunging the knife into his leg instead.
Larry Dossey, author and physician, with whom Sheldrake was staying in Santa Fe, rushed to the medical centre on hearing of the attack. He comments: “In Vietnam, wounds to the femoral artery were the major cause of hemorrhagic death in the field. When I walked into the emergency room at the local hospital and saw a deep laceration in his left thigh and his entire left leg soaked in blood, for a split second I felt I was back on the killing fields of Vietnam. But, luckily, the dagger missed the big vessels.”
Sheldrake discussed with Dossey whether or not to have an operation. He took the physican's advice and did so. “It was the right choice,” Larry Dossy comments. “His thigh was a mess inside: huge blood loss and massive tissue damage and very large hematoma. Long story short, it looks like a rather perfect surgical result: almost no pain, just stiffness and weakness after having the biggest muscle in his body sliced open. I doubt he’ll ever really comprehend how close this came to being one big fucked-up lethal mess.”
Dossy describes Sheldrake as “an international treasure” who has “put so much on the line for all of us, and has done it with grace, consummate skill and courage”.
For more information about Dr Rupert Sheldrake’s research and theories, check out his website.
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Posted on Tuesday, April 08, 2008
Category: Parapsychology
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