The Holographic Universe
by Michael Talbot
(338 pages, pb, $10.00)
HarperPerennial, 1992
ISBN 0-06-092258-3
A fascinating journey through the latest models of mind and reality. Michael
Talbot makes a strong case that reality is akin to a holographic projection.
If one takes the information in this book and combines it with an understanding
of the harmonic/vibrational basis of reality, one may get a glimpse of the
fundamental mechanisms of reality structure, as alluded to in the Lambdoma of Pythagoras.
Introduction
PART 1: A REMARKABLE NEW VIEW OF REALITY
1. The Brain as Hologram
2. The Cosmos as Hologram
PART II: MIND AND BODY
3. The Holographic Model and Psychology
4. I Sing the Body Holographic
5. A Pocketful of Miracles
6. Seeing Holographically
PART III: SPACE AND TIME
7. Tlme Out of Mind
8 .Traveling in the Superhologram
9. Return to the Dreamtime
Notes
Index
Considered together, Bohm and Pribram's theories provide a profound new
way of looking at the world: Our brains mathematically construct objective
reality by interpreting frequencies that are ultimately projections from
another dimension, a deeper order of existence that is beyond both space
and time: The brain is a hologram folded in a holographic universe.
For Pribram, this synthesis made him realize that the objective world does
not exist, at least not in the way we am accustomed to believing. What is
"out there" is a vast ocean of waves and frequencies, and reality
looks concrete to us only because our brains are able to take this holographic
blur and convert it into the sticks and stones and other familiar objects
that make up our world. How is the brain (which itself is composed of frequencies
of matter) able to take something as insubstantial as a blur of frequencies
and make it seem solid to the touch? "The kind of mathematical process
that Bekesy simulated with his vibrators is basic to how our brains construct
our image of a world out there," Pribram states. In other words, the
smoothness of a piece of fine china and the feel of beach sand beneath our
feet are really just elaborate versions of the phantom limb syndrome.
According to Pribram this does not mean there aren't china cups and grains
of beach sand out there. It simply means that a china cup has two very different
aspects to its reality. When it is filtered through the lens of our brain
it manifests as a cup. But if we could get rid of our lenses, we'd experience
it as an interference pattern. Which one is real and which is illusion?
"Both are real to me," says Pribram, "or, if you want to
say, neither of them are real."
This state of affairs is not limited to china cups. We, too, have two very
different aspects to our reality. We can view ourselves as physical bodies
moving through space. Or we can view ourselves an a blur of interference
patterns enfolded throughout the cosmic hologram. Bohm believes this second
point of view might even be the more correct, for to think of ourselves
as a holographic mind/brain looking at a holographic universe is
again an abstraction, an attempt to separate two things that ultimately
cannot be separated.
Do not be troubled if this is difficult to grasp. It is relatively easy
to understand the idea of holism in something that is external to us, like
an apple in a hologram. What makes it difficult is that in this case we
an not looking at the hologram. We are part of the hologram.
The difficulty is also another indication of how radical a revision Bohm
and Pribram are trying to make in our way of thinking. But it is not the
only radical revision. Pribram's assertion that our brains construct objects
pales beside another of Bohm's conclusions: that we even construct space
and time. The implications of this view are just one of the subjects
that will be examined as we explore the effect Bohm and Pribram's ideas
have had on the work of other fields.