[8] The Holographic Universe Introduction Despite its apparent materiality the universe may be a kind of 3-D projection, and no more real than a hologram. This astonishing idea was pioneered by two of the world's most eminent thinkers, physicist David Bohm, a former protege` of Albert Einstien, and the quantum physicist Karl Pribram. The holographic theory of the world encompasses not only reality as we know it, including hitherto unexplained phenomena, but is capable of explaining such occurrences as telepathy, paranormal and out-of-body experiences, synchronicity, 'lucid' dreaming and even mystical and religious traditions such as cosmic unity and miraculous healing's. In The Holographic Universe , Michael Talbot reveals the extraordinary depth and power of this radical theory. He explains the theory behind a holograph and how it provides a model for aspects of brain function and for whole areas of quantum physics. Illustrating the paranormic way in which the holographic model makes sense of the entire range of mystical, spiritual and psychic experiences, Talbot pushes the barriers to explore the implications for other universes beyond our own. Holographic Universe 101 Sit down before fact like a little child, and be prepared to give up every preconceived notion, follow humbly wherever and whatever abyss Nature leads, or you shall learn nothing. We human beings consider ourselves to be made up of "solid matter". Actually the physical body is the end product, so to speak, of the subtle information fields which mold our physical body as well as all physical matter. These fields are holograms which change in time [and are] outside the reach of our normal senses. This is what clairvoyants perceive as colourful egg-shaped halos or auras surrounding our physical bodies. Only human beings have come to a point where they no longer know why they exist. They don't use their brains and they have forgotten the secret knowledge of their bodies, their senses, or their dreams. They don't use the knowledge the 'cosmos' has put into every one of them ; they are not even aware of this, and so they stumble along blindly on the road to nowhere - a paved highway which they themselves bulldoze and make smooth so that they can get faster to the big empty hole which they'll find at the end, waiting to swallow them up. It's a quick comfortable superhighway, but I know where it leads to. I've seen it. I've been there in my vision and it makes me shudder to think about it. The tangible reality of our every day lives is really a kind of illusion, like a holographic image. Underlying it is a deeper order of existence, a vast and more primary level of reality that gives birth to all objects and appearances of the physical world. This deeper level of reality is the implicate [which means 'enfolded'] order. Our own level of existence is the 'explicate', or unfolded order. The void and the non-void The non-void is the reality of visible objects. The void, like the implicate order, is the birthplace of all things in the universe, which pour out of it in a 'boundless flux'. However, only the void is real and all forms in the objective world are illusory, existing merely because of the unceasing flux between the two orders. Shamanism and similar mysterious areas of research have gained in significance because they postulate new ideas about mind and spirit. They speak of things like vastly expanding the realm of consciousness...the belief, the knowledge, and even the experience that our physical world of the senses is mere illusion, a world of shadows, and that the three-dimensional tool that we call our body serves only as a container or dwelling place for Something infinitely greater than that body and which constitutes the matrix of real life. If we were to look closely at an individual human being, we would immediately notice that it is a unique hologram unto itself ; self-contained, self-generating, and self-knowledgeable. Yet if we were to remove this being from its planetary context we would quickly realise that the human form is not unlike a mandala, or symbolic poem, for within its form and flow lives comprehensive information about various physical, social, psychological, and evolutionary contexts within which it was created. Holographic Reality Access to holographic reality becomes experientially available when one's consciousness is freed from its dependence of the physical body. So long as one remains tied to the physical body and its sensory modalities, holographic reality at best can only be an intellectual construct. When one [is freed from the body] one experiences it directly. That is why mystics speak about their visions with such certitude and conviction, while those who haven't experienced this realm for themselves are left feeling skeptical or even indifferent. Contact with the unconscious is the key to accessing the reality-structuring portions of the psyche. The idea that we can psychokinetically alter events that have already occurred is an unsettling notion, for we are so deeply programmed to believe the past is frozen as if it were a butterfly in a glass, it is difficult for us to imagine otherwise. But in a holographic universe, a universe in which time is an illusion and reality is no more than a mind created image, it is a possibility to which we may have to become accustomed. Is the boundary between the present and the past so flimsy that we can, under the right circumstances, stroll back into the past with the same ease that we can stroll through a garden ? At present we simply don't know [?] , but in a world that is comprised less of solid objects traveling in space and time, and more of ghostly holograms of energy sustained by processes that are at least partially connected to human consciousness, such events may not be as impossible as they appear. And if this sounds disturbing - this idea that our minds and even our bodies are far less bound by the strictures of time than we have previously imagined - we should remember that the idea that the Earth is round once proved equally frightening to a humanity convinced it was flat. The evidence presented suggests that we are still children when it comes to understanding the true nature of time. And, like all children poised on the threshold of adulthood, we should put aside our fears and come to terms with the way the world really is. > * from The Holographic Universe ; by Michael Talbot [1996, HarperCollinsPublishers ISBN : 0-586-09171-8]
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