 Condemning the scientific community's view of the development of the Earth and humanity, he embraced Richard Milton's claim that the Earth was only 20,000 years old, as well as Rupert Sheldrake's idea regarding "morphogenetic fields", believing that it was these – and not biological evolution – that resulted in changes occurring within species.Mitchell's conception of the physical and spiritual worlds was strongly influenced by the ancient Greek philosopher Plato.He believed that sacred geometry revealed a universal scheme in the landscape which reflected the structure of the heavens.