Islam on the holographic theory

SCIENCE|RELIGION: The Holographic Principle and Loh-e-Mehfooz

http://structureofentropy.wordpress.com/2009/04/12/sciencereligion-the-holographic-principle-and-loh-e-mehfooz/ 

In Islam, Quran, universe on April 12, 2009 at 8:41 am Scientists are wondering if our world is a three-dimensional projection from a two-dimensional source of information. The basic assertion in what is called the holographic principle was put forth first by Gerard t’ Hooft: All the information contained in some region of space is encoded on the boundary of that region.
The name of the principle derives from holography. Holography is a technique which records light rays reflected in all directions from an object. When the image is projected from a holographic film in space, the image appears three-dimensional just as the object looked originally – a 3D figure from a 2D source.
This principle had its first known application to black holes. However, applied to the universe at large, the principle asserts that “the entire universe can be seen as a two-dimensional information structure “painted” on the cosmological horizon.”
To those interested in physics….
A paradox about black holes was puzzling scientists back in the 1970s. If any object entered a black hole, all information in the object was lost. This included information about entropy (in other words, ‘information describing its microscopic parts). This, however, violated the second law of thermodynamics, which states that the entropy of an isolated system will increase over time if the system is not in equilibrium.

At the same time, there was another fact known about the black holes: that the surface area of a black hole’s boundary always grew when objects fell into it. t’ Hooft showed that the information ‘lost’ by an object falling into the black hole was actually stored by a corresponding alteration on the boundary of the black hole.
During the 1990s, scientists finally applied the same principle to the whole universe. The idea gained credibility among the scientific community because it was in line with the string theory, the wacky explains-all theory which integrates all known ideas about particles, energy and gravity.
To those interested in religion….
In Qur’an there is repeated mention of a kitaab – a book – that has everything recorded in it. The literal meaning of the word kitaab in Arabic is ‘anything that is written’. Everything that’s in the universe and everything that has happened or will happen is recorded in this book. This includes Qur’an, with respect to which, this master register of everything has been called as Loh-e-Mehfooz, where loh means a page or a paper and mehfooz means safe. The strict conceptual meaning of loh-e-mehfooz would be ‘a two-dimensional, permanent and secure record of information’.

Do you not know that Allah knows all that occurs in heaven as well as on earth? All this, behold, is in a record: verily, this is easy for Allah. [Sura Al-Haj, ayah 70]

He has the keys to the things that are beyond the reach of a created being’s perception: none knows them but He. And He knows all that is on land and in the sea; and not a leaf falls but He knows it; and neither is there a grain in the earth’s deep darkness, nor anything living or dead, but is recorded in [His] clear decree. [Sura Al-An'am, ayah 59]

Nay, but this [divine writ they reject] is a discourse sublime (ayah 21), Upon an imperishable tablet [inscribed] (ayah 22). [Sura Al-Buruj]

A few pinches of salt
1. Discussions on some of the websites  examples  sound as if the ‘hologram’ analogy is being applied to literally by the readers. But such thinking is incorrect. The holographic principle does not actually imply that the three dimensional observable world is an illusion, just as a holographic image literally is. Raphael Bousso helps clarify: The world doesn’t appear to us like a hologram, but in terms of the information needed to describe it, it is one.
The holographic principle, hence, really asserts that information describing everything that is in the world is recorded on it’s 2D boundary. It may be of interest here that Allah has actually described the world as la’ib and lahw:

And nothing is the life of this world but a play and a passing delight; [in Sura Al-An'am, ayah 32]

However, it doesn’t necessarily follow from this interpretation of ‘life in this world’ that everything we see is literally an illusion.
2. The scientific status of the holographic principle, and the larger string theory in which it is grounded, is THEORY. Theoretical physics is (and has always been) way ahead of experimental physics (the one which provides evidence for the theories). Theoretical physics relies on mathematics and the holographic principle is the outcome of a series of elaborate math equations which help explain the known oddities about black holes and fit in with string theory – another (rather a set of  several) series of equations… There’s simply not enough technology available to test any of this. For a long time to come, any ‘evidence’ that supports the principle is likely to be circumstantial. That is, it will be a piece of observation that could be related to the theory – it will still be far from a conclusive piece of evidence.
3. Even if the holographic principle was true, it does not necessarily mean that this is REALLY WHAT Allah means by umm-ul-kitaab.  Only Allah has the full knowledge and only He possesses the true knowledge of such concepts which can never by ascertained to a 100% gaurantuee by the most advanced of sciences.

**~~**

INTERFACE WITH ISLAM http://www.reasoned.org/artic_2.htm

“Oh Mankind! We created you from a Single Soul, male and female, and made you into nations and tribes, so that you may come to know one and another. Truly, the most honored in God's sight is the greatest of you in piety. God is all knowing All Aware.” (Quran 49:13 ). This statement implies that the entire mankind created from a Single Soul and surely as discussed above indicates that it must be holographic in nature. Each soul being a "whole within a whole" and thus being connected to every soul that has ever existed or exists. Further more we are informed about the meaning of paradise as follows: "The paradise is as wide as the heavens and the earth" 3 (133), 57 (21)
If Soul is actually a part of continuum and is connected to every soul that exists or has existed, but to every atom, organism, in the region of the vastness of space and time itself. Indeed the next stage of "reality" is like a live internet connected to the every atom on the earth to that of every atom to the edges of this universe. This could only be the case if this universe is constructed on holographic principles. Now considering that this message was first given to sixth century Arabs and without confusing them with concepts like "hologram" this is as best as it could have been described. In a universe where every thing is interconnected "time" has no meaning and has stated at various places in Quran as follows: "in thy Sustainer's sight a day is like a thousand years of your reckoning” 22:47 "in a day the length whereof is {like} fifty thousand years" 70:4. The very concept of "time" is meaningless in relation to God, who is timeless and infinite, and in the hereafter time will cease to have a meaning for man as well as the above verses clearly indicate.
PHYSICAL OR MATERIAL EXISTENCE IS AN ILLUSION
Our physical or material existence is an illusion in spite of our solidity and the fact that we can see, feel and touch. We see the way we do as to what is "there" or "not there" because what we call consensus reality is formulated and ratified at the level of the human unconscious at which all minds are infinitely interconnected. Furthermore our mind converts from the blur of frequencies into our world of perception and gives these a coherent image when lit up in the light (Nur) of Creator. However this veil of physical or material illusion will be removed from our eyes at the next stage when we discover our true form of existence. "thou wast indeed heedless of this, but now We have removed from thee thy (material) veil, and so thy sight is sharp this day" 50:22. Sharp vision implies that one discovers one’s life preserved within it to its minutest detail.
CONSCIOUSNESS IS NOT A PRODUCT OF PHYSICAL BRAIN BUT OF SOUL
Since it is the human physical organism, which is bestowed with Self or Soul, it implies that the human organism was the only species, which first of all accomplished universality of the perceptions. Accordingly the next higher creative stage took its start in the Self or Soul of Man (a non-material entity) simultaneously on completion of sense organs during the development of human foetus. The creation of the new stage of life simultaneously the sense organs of the human foetus are fashioned is thus revealed in the Holy Quran: "Verily We created man from a product of wet earth. Then placed him as a drop (of seed) in a safe lodging. Then fashioned We the drop a clot, then fashioned We the clot a little lump, then clothed the bones with flesh and then produced it as another creation. So blessed be Allah, the best of the Creators." 23 (12-14).
The revelation that after a drop is safely lodged in the womb and then after going through the creative process of lump and bones, the bones are clothed with flesh establishes that at this phase of development, the foetus is almost complete, that is, its sense organs are fully fashioned. It is only on completion of sense organs that the Creator bestows on it His Soul and thus a new Creative Order emerges. It also reveals that Souls are distinct from human body. In other words, death comes to the physical body which is raised under physical laws and not to the Soul which lives in its mental state - the state of an illumination - and already exists as a non-material entity or personality outside the physical body. Soul is thus an illumination - the highest form of life - which appears as a distinct entity apart from all the rest of the universe. By virtue of its enlightenment as being, every Soul comes with intellectual enlightenment and moral exaltation and hence consciousness is not a product of our physical brain but of Soul.
If our physical existence is but an illusion and consciousness creates an appearance of physical body and every thing around us that we interpret as physical and we are merely "receivers" passing through a "sea of frequency" - than this blur of frequency when lit up in the Light (Nur) of the Creator gives its a physical shape as we know it. "Allah is the light of the heavens and the earth. A likeness of His light is as a pillar on which is a lamp - the lamp is in a glass. the glass is as it were a brightly shining star - lit from blessed olive tree, neither eastern or western, the oil whereof gives light, though fire touch it not - light upon light. Allah guides to His light whom He pleases. And Allah sets forth parables for men, and Allah is Knower of all things.” (The Quran 24: 35). Nur is the Arabic word for light but it also means conscious light or spiritual light or guiding light. And so Allah is the Nur (light) of the heavens and the earth because of HIS light all comes into existence.
GIVEN THE RIGHT TOOLS EVENTS CAN BE PLUCKED OUT FOR LONG LOST PAST:
Human Self has the capability for true mental representation of images of objects and their properties without sense stimulus establishes memory, thoughts, reason and concepts which are non-material stand outside the domain of perceptual brain which simply serves the Analytic Faculty (Conscious mind or what Freud called it is Ego) of the Human Self as an instrument or yardstick for analysing the values and properties of the material universe as well as the physical body under its higher conscious enlightenment. It shows that the physical body and its sense perceptions are duly represented in the Self, as the Human Self is capable of keeping in it a sense of objects and their properties even if they do not provide a sensory stimulus. If a germ cell when delivered out of the physical body and planted in the womb could act in the form of a "physical brain" to construct it to the system of DNA chemicals, we can be sure that the Human Self which remains attached through its mental processes (Conscious mind) with the physical body and its perceptual brain would also construct its whole physical life which already lives fully preserved in it.
Memory is not a physical phenomenon; it is directly related with the understanding. It can operate only if it exists out of the spatial time-matter and motion. As against it, the perceptual mind being material in nature cannot hold nonmaterial characters in it. Hence it can neither retrace the events nor can it jump into the future. Even DNA system - a sort of "physical memory" laid in chemicals strictly follows the process through physical motion in spatial time. These scientific facts establish that it is not the perceptual mind which perceives psychic life lived by the Human Self as an independent entity outside it; these are the mental processes of the Self or Soul which keep in it the whole psychic life and are capable of reproducing the same sense without stimulus of the physical body or brain. "Allah takes (mans) souls at the time of their death, and those that die not during their sleep. Than He withholds those on whom He has passed the decree of death, and sends the other back till an appointed term. Surely there are signs in this for a people who reflect." (The Quran 39:42). If our Soul joins the "Super-Hologram" during our sleep and is able to construct "reality" in our dreams and we experience all the sensations - be they be fear or joy or pain or whatever and yet we have not physically experienced them. It’s a reminder that our Soul is capable of reproducing all our emotions without the physical body or brain.
SOULS BETWEEN DEATH AND START OF NEXT STAGE
Human Souls live out of the spatial times of the material universe as non -material entities in the state of Self-enlightenment. The great gulf exists between the material universe and the universe laid on the mental states of the Human Souls is bridged by the analytic faculty of the Human Soul, we call it the faculty of Reason or simply "Ego" as named by Freud. On death of the physical body, the link bridged by the "Ego" between the material universe and the Human Self is cut off. Since Human Soul as a non material entity living in its mental states cannot live or revert to the spatial times and physical forms wrought by the material universe, it is apt to remain suspended until the whole present Self-conscious Stage is wound up. As to the time gap between the suspension of the Souls and their Resurrection, the following verse of the Holy Quran sheds light on it: "And they say: When we are bones and fragments, shall we, forsooth, be raised up as a new creation? Say: Be ye stones or Iron or some created thing that is yet greater in your thought! Then they will say: Who shall bring us back (to life)? Say: He Who created you at first. Then will they shake their heads at thee, and say; When will it be. Say: it will be perhaps be soon." 17 (49-51). The words "it will perhaps be soon" reveal that the time interval between the departure of the Souls on death of the bodies and their resurrection has no significance for the souls held in suspension as they already live beyond the material times. The revelation also establishes that Souls live as independent entities and do not die with the death of the physical bodies. What is really significant and differentiates the individual Souls is the level and the grade of psychic development attained by them while living attached with the material universe through the perceptual system of their physical bodies.
WHAT MAKES THE HUMAN SELF (SOUL) GROW
There is a significant difference between the way the physical body develops and the manner the Human Self develops. The body grows by receiving substances from outside and incorporating them, that is, by taking in. The Self grows stronger by sharing its knowledge, wisdom and possessions with others. Its happiness lies in helping others. It is cramped when it keeps its riches to itself. Generosity of any kind enriches it and niggardliness impoverishes it. Therefore, if we want real happiness and spiritual bliss in this world and get out of all kinds of depression, we must give out and refrain from taking in. "And the soul and its perfection! - So He reveals to its way of evil and its way of good; He is indeed successful who causes it to grow, And he indeed fails who buries it." (The Noble Quran 91:7-10)
Within Islam Halal and Haram (lawful and unlawful) play a great part in making man conscious of his physical life on this earth, for these two have some connection with his every action and thought, and it is for man to decide which of them to choose in his everyday activities. Even though we may think that at times of doing wrong, no-one is any wiser or hurt by our actions, misdeeds, or even bad thoughts - however in an holographic universe even thoughts have a meaning and a significance and are as real as an action.
“Oh Mankind! We created you from a Single Soul, male and female, and made you into nations and tribes, so that you may come to know one and another. Truly, the most honored in God's sight is the greatest of you in piety. God is all knowing All Aware.” (Quran 49:13 ). This statement implies that the entire mankind created from a Single Soul and surely as discussed above indicates that it must be holographic in nature. Each soul being a "whole within a whole" and thus being connected to every soul that has ever existed or exists. Further more we are informed about the meaning of paradise as follows: "The paradise is as wide as the heavens and the earth" 3 (133), 57 (21)
If Soul is actually a part of continuum and is connected to every soul that exists or has existed, but to every atom, organism, in the region of the vastness of space and time itself. Indeed the next stage of "reality" is like a live internet connected to the every atom on the earth to that of every atom to the edges of this universe. This could only be the case if this universe is constructed on holographic principles. Now considering that this message was first given to sixth century Arabs and without confusing them with concepts like "hologram" this is as best as it could have been described. In a universe where every thing is interconnected "time" has no meaning and has stated at various places in Quran as follows: "in thy Sustainer's sight a day is like a thousand years of your reckoning” 22:47 "in a day the length whereof is {like} fifty thousand years" 70:4. The very concept of "time" is meaningless in relation to God, who is timeless and infinite, and in the hereafter time will cease to have a meaning for man as well as the above verses clearly indicate.
PHYSICAL OR MATERIAL EXISTENCE IS AN ILLUSION
Our physical or material existence is an illusion in spite of our solidity and the fact that we can see, feel and touch. We see the way we do as to what is "there" or "not there" because what we call consensus reality is formulated and ratified at the level of the human unconscious at which all minds are infinitely interconnected. Furthermore our mind converts from the blur of frequencies into our world of perception and gives these a coherent image when lit up in the light (Nur) of Creator. However this veil of physical or material illusion will be removed from our eyes at the next stage when we discover our true form of existence. "thou wast indeed heedless of this, but now We have removed from thee thy (material) veil, and so thy sight is sharp this day" 50:22. Sharp vision implies that one discovers one’s life preserved within it to its minutest detail.
CONSCIOUSNESS IS NOT A PRODUCT OF PHYSICAL BRAIN BUT OF SOUL
Since it is the human physical organism, which is bestowed with Self or Soul, it implies that the human organism was the only species, which first of all accomplished universality of the perceptions. Accordingly the next higher creative stage took its start in the Self or Soul of Man (a non-material entity) simultaneously on completion of sense organs during the development of human foetus. The creation of the new stage of life simultaneously the sense organs of the human foetus are fashioned is thus revealed in the Holy Quran: "Verily We created man from a product of wet earth. Then placed him as a drop (of seed) in a safe lodging. Then fashioned We the drop a clot, then fashioned We the clot a little lump, then clothed the bones with flesh and then produced it as another creation. So blessed be Allah, the best of the Creators." 23 (12-14).
The revelation that after a drop is safely lodged in the womb and then after going through the creative process of lump and bones, the bones are clothed with flesh establishes that at this phase of development, the foetus is almost complete, that is, its sense organs are fully fashioned. It is only on completion of sense organs that the Creator bestows on it His Soul and thus a new Creative Order emerges. It also reveals that Souls are distinct from human body. In other words, death comes to the physical body which is raised under physical laws and not to the Soul which lives in its mental state - the state of an illumination - and already exists as a non-material entity or personality outside the physical body. Soul is thus an illumination - the highest form of life - which appears as a distinct entity apart from all the rest of the universe. By virtue of its enlightenment as being, every Soul comes with intellectual enlightenment and moral exaltation and hence consciousness is not a product of our physical brain but of Soul.
If our physical existence is but an illusion and consciousness creates an appearance of physical body and every thing around us that we interpret as physical and we are merely "receivers" passing through a "sea of frequency" - than this blur of frequency when lit up in the Light (Nur) of the Creator gives its a physical shape as we know it. "Allah is the light of the heavens and the earth. A likeness of His light is as a pillar on which is a lamp - the lamp is in a glass. the glass is as it were a brightly shining star - lit from blessed olive tree, neither eastern or western, the oil whereof gives light, though fire touch it not - light upon light. Allah guides to His light whom He pleases. And Allah sets forth parables for men, and Allah is Knower of all things.” (The Quran 24: 35). Nur is the Arabic word for light but it also means conscious light or spiritual light or guiding light. And so Allah is the Nur (light) of the heavens and the earth because of HIS light all comes into existence.
GIVEN THE RIGHT TOOLS EVENTS CAN BE PLUCKED OUT FOR LONG LOST PAST:
Human Self has the capability for true mental representation of images of objects and their properties without sense stimulus establishes memory, thoughts, reason and concepts which are non-material stand outside the domain of perceptual brain which simply serves the Analytic Faculty (Conscious mind or what Freud called it is Ego) of the Human Self as an instrument or yardstick for analysing the values and properties of the material universe as well as the physical body under its higher conscious enlightenment. It shows that the physical body and its sense perceptions are duly represented in the Self, as the Human Self is capable of keeping in it a sense of objects and their properties even if they do not provide a sensory stimulus. If a germ cell when delivered out of the physical body and planted in the womb could act in the form of a "physical brain" to construct it to the system of DNA chemicals, we can be sure that the Human Self which remains attached through its mental processes (Conscious mind) with the physical body and its perceptual brain would also construct its whole physical life which already lives fully preserved in it.
Memory is not a physical phenomenon; it is directly related with the understanding. It can operate only if it exists out of the spatial time-matter and motion. As against it, the perceptual mind being material in nature cannot hold nonmaterial characters in it. Hence it can neither retrace the events nor can it jump into the future. Even DNA system - a sort of "physical memory" laid in chemicals strictly follows the process through physical motion in spatial time. These scientific facts establish that it is not the perceptual mind which perceives psychic life lived by the Human Self as an independent entity outside it; these are the mental processes of the Self or Soul which keep in it the whole psychic life and are capable of reproducing the same sense without stimulus of the physical body or brain. "Allah takes (mans) souls at the time of their death, and those that die not during their sleep. Than He withholds those on whom He has passed the decree of death, and sends the other back till an appointed term. Surely there are signs in this for a people who reflect." (The Quran 39:42). If our Soul joins the "Super-Hologram" during our sleep and is able to construct "reality" in our dreams and we experience all the sensations - be they be fear or joy or pain or whatever and yet we have not physically experienced them. It’s a reminder that our Soul is capable of reproducing all our emotions without the physical body or brain.
SOULS BETWEEN DEATH AND START OF NEXT STAGE
Human Souls live out of the spatial times of the material universe as non -material entities in the state of Self-enlightenment. The great gulf exists between the material universe and the universe laid on the mental states of the Human Souls is bridged by the analytic faculty of the Human Soul, we call it the faculty of Reason or simply "Ego" as named by Freud. On death of the physical body, the link bridged by the "Ego" between the material universe and the Human Self is cut off. Since Human Soul as a non material entity living in its mental states cannot live or revert to the spatial times and physical forms wrought by the material universe, it is apt to remain suspended until the whole present Self-conscious Stage is wound up. As to the time gap between the suspension of the Souls and their Resurrection, the following verse of the Holy Quran sheds light on it: "And they say: When we are bones and fragments, shall we, forsooth, be raised up as a new creation? Say: Be ye stones or Iron or some created thing that is yet greater in your thought! Then they will say: Who shall bring us back (to life)? Say: He Who created you at first. Then will they shake their heads at thee, and say; When will it be. Say: it will be perhaps be soon." 17 (49-51). The words "it will perhaps be soon" reveal that the time interval between the departure of the Souls on death of the bodies and their resurrection has no significance for the souls held in suspension as they already live beyond the material times. The revelation also establishes that Souls live as independent entities and do not die with the death of the physical bodies. What is really significant and differentiates the individual Souls is the level and the grade of psychic development attained by them while living attached with the material universe through the perceptual system of their physical bodies.
WHAT MAKES THE HUMAN SELF (SOUL) GROW
There is a significant difference between the way the physical body develops and the manner the Human Self develops. The body grows by receiving substances from outside and incorporating them, that is, by taking in. The Self grows stronger by sharing its knowledge, wisdom and possessions with others. Its happiness lies in helping others. It is cramped when it keeps its riches to itself. Generosity of any kind enriches it and niggardliness impoverishes it. Therefore, if we want real happiness and spiritual bliss in this world and get out of all kinds of depression, we must give out and refrain from taking in. "And the soul and its perfection! - So He reveals to its way of evil and its way of good; He is indeed successful who causes it to grow, And he indeed fails who buries it." (The Noble Quran 91:7-10)
Within Islam Halal and Haram (lawful and unlawful) play a great part in making man conscious of his physical life on this earth, for these two have some connection with his every action and thought, and it is for man to decide which of them to choose in his everyday activities. Even though we may think that at times of doing wrong, no-one is any wiser or hurt by our actions, misdeeds, or even bad thoughts - however in an holographic universe even thoughts have a meaning and a significance and are as real as an action.

Universal time

Quantum Crystalizations of the Non-local Universal Mind

http://www.gaianxaos.com/holographic_reality_of_being.htm

         

  Let us begin with the classical misconception by addressing the fundamental assumptions of Newtonian physics.  In a very general sense, it was thought that science could be used to lift the veil of man’s ignorance to reveal the ultimate reality that existed out there.  It was assumed that physical objects existed separate from each other.  They were also seen as existing separate from space.  The classical conception of the relationship between physical reality and space is analogous to the relationship of billiard balls to a pool table.  The behavior of physical reality was described as the interactions of the billiard balls.  The table itself was seen as completely separate from what occurred on it.  In this way, classical physics viewed space as nothing more than an arena where the interactions of physical objects took place. 

            With the advent of Einstein’s theory of relativity, new relationships were taken into account.  Specifically, it was observed that physical reality was inseparable from the spatial structure.  In relativistic physics, material reality was still described as separately existent objects interacting like billiard balls.  However, the connection was made between the structure of the billiard balls and the structure of the pool table on which the game was played.  Ultimately, time and space, which were previously considered independent of each other, were now seen to be relative or related to each other through the underlying spatial structure of space-time.

            It wasn’t long after Einstein’s insight into the interconnectedness of space and time that a new science began to emerge which we call quantum physics.  This strange new science, which physicists encountered as they peered deeper and deeper in the structure of the atom, revealed a reality that was everything but consistent with common sense.  By this I mean that the predictions the theory makes about the nature of reality do not correspond to our usual sensory perception of physical reality.  However, quantum theory is the most accurate method physicists have for predicting the behavior of physical reality.

            One startling feature of the quantum model is that electrons, as well as other subatomic particles, are not really objects at all.  In addition, an electron can manifest as either a wave or a particle.  An electron can be fired at a screen to reveal a tiny point of light, thus clearly revealing the particle-like side of its nature.  However, the electron can also behave as a blurry cloud of energy.  If fired at a barrier, in which two slits have been cut, the electron can go through both slits simultaneously. 1

            A popular interpretation of the evidence suggests that the electron manifests as a particle only when it is being observed.  For example, when an electron isn’t being looked at, experimental findings suggest that it is always a wave.  In another slightly different interpretation, it is the method of observation that determines which aspect of the electrons nature will manifest.  Conceptually, we could say that what we experience as physical reality does not exist in a defined or definite state prior to the act of observation.  Similarly, it is the act of observation itself which somehow defines the state of physical reality.  This line of thought represents a radical break from classical physics in that there is no longer any reality out there which we are struggling to uncover.  For indeed, any interaction we make somehow effects that which we are trying to observe. 

            Quantum theory also predicts another fascinating phenomena which is known as non-locality.  It is quite obvious to our sensory perception of physical reality that things have specific locations.  However, David Bohm, a protégé of Einstein and one of the world’s most respected quantum physicists, held the view that at the quantum level, location ceased to exist.  In other words, all points in space became equal to all other points in space, and it was meaningless to speak of anything as being separate from anything else.  A non-local interaction links up one location with another without crossing space, without decay, and without delay.  Simply put, a non-local interaction is unmediated, unmitigated, and immediate. 2

            Bohm’s conception of non-locality enabled him to give an explanation for what is known as the Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen paradox, or EPR paradox.  In short, the paradox describes the problem of how two twin particles can seemingly communicate instantaneously which each other.  The problem is that, according to Einstein’s theory of relativity, nothing can travel faster than the speed of light, let alone instantaneously.  Bohm’s interpretation of the EPR paradox is that the twin particles are not separate, but non-locally connected. 3

            In 1964, a theoretical physicist named John Stewart Bell devised a simple and elegant mathematical proof which demonstrated how non-locality could be experimentally verified.  This proof is known as Bell’s theorem.  The only problem was that the testing of his theorem required a level of technological precision that was not yet available. 4  It wasn’t until 1982 that physicists Alain Aspect, Jean Dalibard and Gerard Roger of the Institute of Optics at the University of Paris succeeded in verifying the twin particle test that had been outlined by Bell.

            In what is now known as the Aspect experiments, the non-local effect was demonstrated by producing a series of twin particles, allowing them to travel in opposite directions, and then measuring certain characteristics of the particles.  Quantum particles, when observed, display what is known as a spin state.  In general, this characteristic comes in complementary pairs, such as an up or down spin state.  In order to understand the type of experiments performed by Aspect and his team, let’s consider the following simple variation.  Imagine two particles which together have a zero net spin state.   That is they each have opposite spin states relative the other, thus cancelling when they are combined.  However, according to quantum theory, the precise state of each particle’s spin charactistic is undefined until it is observed.  Since the two particles must have opposite spin states, determining the spin state of one of the particles through observation determines the spin state of the other particle. 5      

            In quantum theory, the spin states do not just exist to be revealed by observation.  The spin states are in some way the product of observation.  So, the observation and determination of one spin state then gives the other particle a spin state.  Prior to the initial observation, each particle has only a potential spin state, which when determined, has to be the opposite of the other.  In the experiments led by Aspect, the particles fly away from eachother at the speed of light and are allowed to travel a relatively great distance.   Then, a primary measurement is made to determine the spin of one of the particles.  After this measurement has been made, the spin state of the second particle is measured and is always observed to be in the opposite spin state relative to the first.  For a more rigorous explaination of the actual way this experiment would be conducted, please refer to the text of Quantum Dynamics of Morphing Psy ~ Trance ~ Formations.

            The amazing thing is that the observation of one particle instantaneously determines the spin state of the other particle regardless of the distance separating them.   It doesn’t matter if they’re ten feet apart or ten billion miles apart.  The question could be stated, how is information transferred between two apparently separate particles faster than the speed of light?  A number of theories have arisen which attempt to account for hidden variables that somehow facilitate the unseen cause and effect relationship whereby one particle affects the other.  However, these theories avoid the most obvious conclusion, which is that the apparent separateness of the particles is itself an illusion.  The separateness is not ultimately real.  Non-locality is simply a manifestation of the ultimate unity underlying what we experience as separate physical objects.

Holographic Mental Interference

            As we shall see, these ideas are very consistent with concepts which describe the universe in terms of holographic principles.  Before we proceed further into our exploration of unity, it is necessary to understand some of the basic ideas of holograms.  A hologram is produced when a single laser beam is split into two separate beams.  The first beam is bounced off the object whose image is to be recorded.  The second beam is reflected off a mirror and allowed to collide with the reflected light of the first.  When this happens, the two parts of the beam create an interference pattern that is recorded on a piece of film called a holographic plate. 6

            It is this phenomena of interference which makes holography possible.  Interference is simply a pattern that is created when waves move through each other.  Consider what happens when if you drop two pebbles in a pond.  Each pebble will produce a set of waves that form concentric circles which radiate outward from the point of impact.  As the waves from each pebble expand, they will at some point collide, and the pattern that results is known as the interference pattern.

            The pattern that is recorded on the holographic plate looks absolutely nothing like the object which was used to make the recording.  Basically, it looks like a bunch of chaotic swirl’s and concentric rings.  However, once another laser beam is used to illuminate the film, a three-dimensional image of the original object reappears.  You can walk around the image and view it from different angles, but if you attempt to grab it, you’ll find that there is really nothing there.

            The most striking property of holograms is that the whole image is contained in each part of the film.  If you take the original film, on which the interference pattern is recorded, and cut it in half, you will find that the entire image can be projected by illuminating only half of the whole.  In fact, you can cut the holographic plate into as many pieces as you want and you’ll find that each piece, when illuminated, produces smaller versions of the whole image. 7

            At this point, we can easily begin to draw some very interesting connections between the concepts we’ve addressed.  In the holographic model, we say that the information of the whole is contained in each part.  This is the same thing as saying that the information is distributed non-locally. We have also found that, at the quantum level, all particles are also waves.  Thus, all of physical reality is essentially nothing but interference patterns.

            It might be a good idea for us to contemplate the meaning of this last statement for a moment.  Imagine an endless web of energy patterns.  Science has discovered that, at the quantum level, these waves of energy are connected non-locally.  This means that every portion of the pattern is infinitely interconnected with every other portion.  It is essential to remember that we are not objective observers to this field of crisscrossing frequency patterns.  We are it.

            David Bohm suggests the possibility that this underlying unity of existence produces the physical world in the same way as a holographic plate produces a hologram.  Could it be that our experiential perception of separateness is nothing more than a holographic illusion?  Bohm describes the deeper level of reality as the “implicate”, or enfolded, order.  He refers to the level of reality of our everyday experience, as the “explicate”, or unfolded, order. 8 This is not to say that our physical existence is unreal.  However, it is helpful to understand it simply as a secondary reality.

            Let us consider what we are really observing when we perceive a physical object.  Consider the paper you are reading and words on the page.  What you see out there is not what exists directly where it seems to be.  You are perceiving a holographic blur of frequency patterns that are translated into a pattern of neural stimulation, which in turn is experienced as the object out there.  In fact, the process of determining that the object exists out there occurs only in your mind’s interpretation of the neural stimulation.  When you look up at the stars, you are seeing light that left the stars millions and perhaps billions of years ago.  Again, we are not seeing what is there directly; we are seeing a pattern of neural stimulation created by our interpretation of the light.  “The same holds true for all the physical senses. 

            What you see, hear, taste, touch, and smell are all ultimately patterns of neuronal stimulation that in some way correlates with what is out there, but still are not really that.” 9  The frequencies that are translated into neural stimulation are, in and of themselves, colorless, textureless, and tasteless.  The qualities we experience through sensory perception are created by the mind and represent an “explicate” order or secondary reality.

            Our material reality is but a filtered version of the ultimate unity which connects everything.  This filtered version creates separateness because it only perceives bits and pieces of the whole at a time.  If we could remove the filter, we would experience reality directly as an interference pattern where all information is distributed non-locally.  Again, let’s not forget that we are this pattern.  Your hands, this paper, the trees outside the window, our solar system, the entire universe; it’s all a seamless, unbroken extension of everything else.  It is one thing.  If this is true, then there can be no objective reality because the observer, the process of observing, and the observed become one thing.

Morphogenesis & Dynamic Relativity

            Let us contemplate and consider how the uncut fundamental wholeness of all reality became the differentiated reality of our experience.  Firstly, we’ll begin by introducing the concept of absolute existence.  Absolute existence is the uncut whole from which the pieces of reality emerge.  Conceptually, absolute existence is undefined and unbordered existence.  As we will see, absolute existence is equivalent to existent nothingness.  Nothing does not mean non-existence.  It simply means that what does exist is not definable as this or that, and therefore, no-thing.  Absolute existence has no structure, and thus, contains no boundaries that could be used to define here in relation to there.  “Physical reality is the reality of objects, the reality of things. 

            We hear things, we see things, we feel things, we tast things, we smell things. Throughout life we have assumed that all those things exist as defined things independent of our experience of them as those things.” 10  However, as noted in our discussion of quantum theory, science has found that this may not be the case.  The defined thing-ness of those things we experience cannot exist except in relation to our experience of them.

            In fact, any thing that can be experienced only exists in relation to something else.  We may experience up and think that up is independently up; however, up can only be up in relation to down.  Likewise, we experience hot and think that hot is independently hot, not aware that hot can only be hot in relation to cold.  “The same is true for everything that we experience, in that whatever we experience something to be, it can only be that in relation to some other aspect of existence that is not-that.” 11 This form of existence can be termed relational existence: existence that is what it is in relationship to some other aspect of existence.   

            While absolute existence is structureless, relational existence has structure.  In order to get from the uncut boundless non-structure of absolute existence to the structure of relational existence, the system must undergo some transformation or process.  In order for the one thing to become two things, the one thing must polarize itself.  It is this process of dualization whereby absolute existence forms a relationship with itself.  Thus, some relational existence is defined in terms of some other relational existence.  “Once relative realities exist, there exists a level of structure within existence.  The existence of this relational structure allows existence to form other relationships with itself.” 12  In other words, absolute existence does not dualize just once, but does so over and over again, repeatedly and progressively.  What this means is that the relational realities produced by each level of dualization themselves undergo the process of dualization, resulting in the creation of two new relational realities within each preceding level of relational existence.  This process of repeated and progressive dualization creates an interconnected structure of relational realities which we can call a relational matrix. 

            Regardless of how many times existence dualizes, the underlying reality will always be that of unity and interconnectedness.  Although we experience reality as seemingly separate pieces, the fundamental reality form which that perception arises is that of oneness, whereby nothing is separable from anything else.  Each part of the structure, each reality cell, contains some of the existence of all the other reality cells.  Thus, each part of the structure is a reflection of the whole.

            Since any localized area of existence has the quality of a-where-ness, then a non-localized area of existence, which would be everywhere, would not have a-where-ness, but would have the quality of every-where-ness or no-where-ness.  This unbordered every-where-ness is consciousness.  Consciousness exists everywhere, and thus no-where.  Absolute existence, as we’ve defined it, can be considered as existent nothingness, because it exists without the borders which define a thing.  It is no-thing and no-where, because it is everywhere.  Absolute existence is consciousness. 

            Any attempt to transcend the duality of existence inherent to our experience can seem hopeless until one realizes that they are an inseparable part of whatever it is that exists.  Therefore, we have access to whatever it is that exists directly because of the inescapable fact that we are that. 13  At the deeper “implicate” level of reality, you are infinitely connected to everything else that is.  You are connected to every other person, organism, and atom in the universe; thus, you are all these things.  Similarly, your thoughts are infinitely connected to all thoughts.  Being that the image of the whole is contained within each part, the whole universe is within you.  The information of the whole is distributed non-locally, and therefore you have access to all of it.  Your mind is the Universal Mind.

            All relative realities are created by consciousness existing in relation to itself.  “We are that consciousness.  We are that consciousness existing in relation to itself and interacting with itself.”  There is nothing else.  None of the things we perceive as separate have an independent existence, as all are in actuality relational extensions of the underlying unity of consciousness.  “Physical reality is a product of consciousness.  Consciousness is not a product of physical reality. Physical reality does not interact with itself in some unknown fashion to cause consciousness to come into existence. Consciousness in the process of repeated and progressive self-relation becomes the awareness of experience, and thus creates physical reality.” 14

            We have seen that we cannot directly experience the true texture of quantum reality because everything we look at crystallizes into matter.  For the same reason, we can never experience consciousness as consciousness.  When the unbordered, structureless-ness of consciousness attempts to look at itself, it creates a relational structure or frame of reference, experienced as a relative state of awareness.  Consciousness can only experience itself through its creation.  This a wonderful thing because here we are, armed with the understanding that nothing is truly separable from anything else, and experiencing ourselves as all that is.  Separateness is an illusion.  Fundamentally, your true self is not other than the indestructible, unbordered, structruless-ness of consciousness.  To put it another way, you are God.  The Universe is your body.  The understanding of this truth gives rise to the experience of unconditional LOVE for all frequencies because they all exist within you.

Birth of a cell

What is light

Light - What is Light? http://www.andor.com/learning/light/

Light is part of the electromagnetic spectrum, which ranges from radio waves to gamma rays. Electromagnetic radiation waves, as their names suggest are fluctuations of electric and magnetic fields, which can transport energy from one location to another. Visible light is not inherently different from the other parts of the electromagnetic spectrum with the exception that the human eye can detect visible waves. Electromagnetic radiation can also be described in terms of a stream of photons which are massless particles each travelling with wavelike properties at the speed of light. A photon is the smallest quantity (quantum) of energy which can be transported and it was the realization that light travelled in discrete quanta that was the origins of Quantum Theory.

It is no accident that humans can ‘see’ light. The detection of light is a very powerful tool for probing the universe around us. As light interacts with matter it can be become altered and by studying light that has originated or interacted with matter, many of the properties of that matter can be determined. It is through the study of light that for example we can understand the composition of the stars light years away or watch the processes that occur in the living cell as they happen.
Matter is composed of atoms, ions or molecules and it is light’s interaction with matter which gives rise to the various phenomena which can help us understand the nature of matter. The atoms, ions or molecules have defined energy levels usually associated with energy levels that electrons in the matter can hold. Light can be generated by the matter or a photon of light can interact with the energy levels in a number of ways.
We can represent the energy levels in a diagram known as a Jablonski diagram. An example of one is shown in the diagram above. An atom or molecule in the lowest energy state possible known as the ground state can absorb a photon which will allow the atom or molecule to be raised to a higher energy level state or become excited. Hence the matter can absorb light of characteristic wavelengths such as the blue light in the example on the left or the violet light in the example on the right. The atom or molecule won't stay in an excited state so it relaxes back to the ground state by several ways. In the example on the left, the atom or molecule emits two photons both of lower energy that the absorbed photon. The photons emitted will be a characteristic energy appropriate for a particular atom or compound and so by studying the light emission the matter under investigation can be determined. In the example on the right the excited atom or molecule initially loses energy by not emitting a photon and instead relaxes to the lower energy state by internal processes which typically heat up the matter. The intermediate energy level then relaxes to the ground state by the emission of a photon of orange light.

What is consciousness?

The Dimensional Structure of Consciousness:
A Physical Basis for Immaterialism

By Samuel Avery


Reviewed by Toby Johnson

    The Dimensional Structure of Consciousness is a relatively succinct presentation of the proposition that instead of consciousness as an artifact in the material universe, rather the opposite is so: the material universe is a creation of consciousness.

    Beginning with the "experience" of a single-celled microorganism in the primal oceans, Avery shows how sensory experience generates dimensional representations of patterns as consciousness sorts its experience of itself. Those single-celled organisms, for instance, have only one experience and one sort of choice. The sense is taste; when a new chemical enters the cell it will be "experienced" as a good taste, i.e., food, or a bad taste, a chemical the cell can't use (or perhaps that kills it). The choice is whether to let new molecules through the cell wall. The cell executes this by controlling the charge along the wall, keeping the molecules that comprise the wall tight packed together or relaxing and opening up space for outside molecules to come in. That charge, mediated by potassium and sodium ions, is the basis of consciousness. When a new molecule comes inside, it is tasted. The sensation happens inside the cell wall.

    The physical senses correlate with the dimensions of the experienced world. That first dimension is taste; it's opening or closing the cell wall. So a series of patterns of open and closed--which in modern math is the binary pattern of 1s and 0s which can be represented along a line of one dimension.

    The second sense is smell. The cell learns to sniff around looking for good tastes by picking up chemical clues to its environment outside the cell wall. Not only does the cell experience being open or closed, it experiences being here or there in relation to the other molecules around it. It moves around seeking good tastes by sensing good smells. And thereby generates the second dimension.

    Five senses would generate five dimensions. Sound is the third dimension, light the fourth, and touch the fifth.

    Avery observes that our normal model of the material universe actually is of five dimensions: three spatial and two temporal. The second temporal dimension is a novel concept in this book. The clue to the second dimension of time is the squared unit of time in the formula for acceleration: A = d/t2. We say, for instance, that the acceleration of a falling body is 32 ft per second per second.

    The second dimension of time is mass. It is experienced as inertia. The reason you have to push hard on a massive object to get it to move is because it is moving at a slower rate of time than you. What seems like resistance to motion is drag in relation to the second dimension of time.

   The whole book is a series of arguments, thought experiments, and discussions of how to see that materiality arises from consciousness rather than the other way around. It never gets "spiritual"--in the sense of talking about meaning or of the content of religious myths (like God). Though the argument does hypothesize an "observational realm" by which consciousness is conscious of itself within its dimensional projection of space.

    Along the way, Avery offers explanations for what matter and light are that solves the various paradoxes of quantum mechanics. He explains mass in a way that physics has never been able to, leaving it simply as one of the undefined elements of space, like distance or time. He even explains the speed of light.

You should read this book!  (For more about the nature of reality, look at Michael Talbot and the Holographic Universe and "Experiencing experiencing experiencing.")

Why is the sky blue?

There are lots of tiny particles/molecules in the atmosphere. Light scatters off these in all directions. Energetic blue light scatters more than lazy red. So in the daytime, more blue light scatters to our eyes and we see the sky as blue.
At sunset, the sun is far away and light must go through a LOT more atmosphere to get to us. The blue light is busy scattering off to make the sky in California blue, leaving only long wavelengths (red) to pass through. That’s why the sunset is red.

A Holographic View of Reality

© 1993, David S. Walonick, Ph.D.

source:http://www.statpac.org/walonick/reality.htm

For thousands of years, philosophers have pondered our role in the universe. The study of social structures began as the study of our souls. Only by turning inward could we unravel the mysteries of our institutions. Society was viewed as a reflection and extension of our inner-selves.
A few hundred years ago, Descartes introduced the scientific method of inquiry and dramatically changed the way that we searched for answers. The scientific method stressed the individuality and separateness of things. Institutions could be understood by dissecting and analyzing the individual components. The inquirer was simply a passive observer of external phenomena. This paradigm went unchallenged for over three hundred years.
The twentieth century began with Einstein's theory of relativity. The observer was no longer external to the phenomena being studied. In fact, all patterns could be described only relative to the observer. At first, Einstein's theory was confined to the physical world, however, twenty years later, von Bertalanffy extended the idea of relativity to the social sciences. General systems theory could be used to examine both the physical and social sciences. The role of the mind in the construction of reality became an issue of concern. In fact, for some scientists, it had now become a central theme.
In the 1920's Wilder Penfield presented convincing evidence that memories were stored in specific locations in the brain. Penfield performed surgery on epileptic patients and found that when he stimulated the temporal lobes, the patients relived experiences from the past. He found that whenever he stimulated a specific region of the brain, it evoked the same memory. In his book The Mystery of the Mind (1975), Penfield described the patients experience as a "flashback", where the patient actually re-lived the experience. Penfield concluded that this meant that all experiences were stored in specific locations of the brain in memory engrams.
In an effort to verify Penfield's experiments, biologist Karl Lashley (1950) began searching for the elusive engrams. He had trained rats in maze-running abilities and then attempted to surgically remove the portion of the rat's brains that contained the maze-running knowledge. Lashley found that no matter what portion of the brain he removed, the rats retained their maze-running knowledge. Even when massive portions of the brain were removed, the rats were still able to navigate through the maze.
Karl Pribram (1969), a student of Penfield, was astonished by Lashley's research. Pribram noticed that when brain-injured patients had large sections of their brain removed, they did not suffer a loss of any specific memories. Instead, the patient's memory became increasingly hazy as greater portions of the brain were removed. Further research indicated that Penfield's experiments could be only duplicated on epileptic patients. Pribram (1977) came to the conclusion that memories are not localized in any specific brain cells, but rather, memory seemed to be distribution throughout the whole brain. The problem was that there was simply no known mechanism that would explain how this was possible.
Pribram remained puzzled until the mid 1960's, when he ran across an article in Scientific American describing the construction of laser hologram. He immediately synthesized the information and hypothesized that the mind itself was operating in a holographic manner.
Anatomist Paul Pietsch (1981) simply could not believe Pribram's theory, and he set out to disprove the holographic theory of the brain. After performing thousands of operations on salamanders, he became convinced that the mind perceives and stores information by encoding and decoding complex interference patterns.
A hologram is created by splitting a laser beam into two separate beams. One beam is bounced off an object, and the other serves as a reference beam. An interference pattern is created that bears little resemblance to the object, however, it contains all the information necessary to recreate the image of the object. The most remarkable feature to Pribram was the idea that a photographic plate containing a laser image could be broken in two, and each half would contain the complete image of the object, but with less resolution. This was identical to the way that memory in the brain seemed to be operating. Regardless of how many times the photographic plate was broken, each piece contained the information necessary to reconstruct the entire image.
Pribram hypothesized that the neurons, axions, and dendrites of the brain create wave-like patterns that cause an interference pattern. In 1966 he published his findings and during the next few years he refined his theory. According to Pribram, a holographic theory explains many of the mysteries of the brain, including the enormous capacity of the brain for the storage and retrieval of information.
By the 1970's several other researchers had expanded Pribram's theory. British physicist Pieter van Heerden (1970) proposed that our ability to recognize familiar objects is similar to recognition holography. A similar technique known as interference holography could explain our ability to perceive differences in a object that has changed. Harvard researchers Daniel Pollen and Michael Tractenberg (1972) studied individuals with eidetic (photographic) memories and proposed the idea that memory is related to an individual's ability to create holographic images in the brain. People with outstanding memories are better able to access larger portions of their brains.
One distinguishing characteristic of a hologram is the ability to create a virtual image. A virtual image is a three-dimensional extension in space that appears to exist, yet contains no substance. We generally believe that we are able to clearly distinguish between external and internal events, however, considerable research has shown that the division is not as well-defined as we perceive. The "world-out-there" and the "world-in-here" are not always clearly delineated.
In the late 1960's Georg von Bekesy demonstrated that blindfolded subjects could be induced to experience sensations in areas outside of the body. By attaching vibrators to their knees, von Bekesy was able to alter subject's perceptions of the location of the vibrators so they believed that they were experiencing sensations in the space between their knees. This artificially created phenomena is similar to the phantom limb pain experienced by amputees. (Talbot, 1991, p.25)
Research in the 1960's had shown that each brain cell in the visual cortex responds to a specific pattern. Some brain cells fired when horizontal lines were perceived, while others responded to vertical lines. Berkeley neurophysiologists Russel and Karen DeValois (1979) demonstrated that the brain was using Fourier mathematics to decode visual images. Recently, Fourier analysis has been used to explain our perception of hearing and smell. The brain operates as a complex frequency analyzer.
The problem with the holographic model comes when we try to understand what the brain is actually perceiving. The holographic model implies that our perceptions are merely an illusion. If we are perceiving an interference pattern, what is the true nature of thing we are perceiving? The hologram consists of both a reflected and reference beam. What is the nature of the thing being reflected? Or equally illusive, what is the brain's equivalent of a reference beam?
Quantum physics has presented us with a puzzling picture of the nature of reality. Physicists have demonstrated that quanta can manifest themselves as either particles or waves. When scientists are not looking at electrons, they always exist as a wave, and whenever they design an experiment to observe the elections, they always appear as particles. Danish physicist Niels Bohr pointed out that it is meaningless to talk about the properties and characteristics of a particle that is not being observed. Einstein did not accept Bohr's argument. He believed that Bohr had to be wrong because the implications of quantum theory were simply too astounding (Talbot, 1991, p.35-38).
At the heart of the controversy was the idea of instantaneous communication between particles. When two complimentary particles were allowed to travel apart, their polarizations could be simultaneously measured. Quantum theory predicted that regardless of the distance between the particles, their polarizations would always be the same. The act of measuring one would force the polarization of the other. Einstein (1935) interpreted this to mean that quantum theory was incorrect because nothing could travel faster than the speed of light. Bohr argued that Einstein was incorrect in thinking of the particles as separate. He maintained that they were part of an indivisible system. Quantum theory proved to be incredible successful and became the accepted theory even though the technology did not exist to actually perform the experiment.
Princeton physicist David Bohm (1980) became a believer in holographic systems during his study of plasma systems. He found that when a gas became a plasma, the individual electrons began behaving as a unified whole. The electrons became engaged in a process of self-organization. Bohm became disillusioned with quantum theory because it attempted to isolate cause-and-effect relationships from the universe as a whole. He maintained that only a holistic view would explain the electron co-ordination in high energy plasma systems. Furthermore, Bohm argued that space itself was an illusion, and that it was meaningless to discuss the separateness of things at the quantum level. Physicists began describing the quantum potential in terms of nonlocal connections.
By the 1960's Bohm began to view chaos as a misnomer. He believed that "randomness" contains a hidden order, and that we perceive disorder only because of our limited understanding of the complexity of the processes involved. In 1980, Bohm published his first book on the holographic nature of the universe entitled Wholeness and the Implicate Order. In it, he referred to our level of existence as the explicate (unfolded) order. He maintained that there was a deeper level of order in the universe which he called the implicate order. The constant flow of energy between the explicate and implicate levels of reality offered an explanation of nonlocal phenomena. Bohm referred to the universe as a dynamic holomovement.
Our Cartesian view of the world makes it difficult to comprehend the implications of Bohm's theory. We have a tendency to divide things into parts and give them unique names. "If we think of reality as constituted of independent fragments, we will think in fragmented ways." (Ferguson, 1992) According to Bohm's theory, the separateness of things is but an illusion, and all things are actually part of the same unbroken continuum. Holographic theory is an extension of general system theory because it recognizes that the boundaries of a system are an artificial construct. System theory stresses the relationships between the components of the system, however, the boundaries of the system are defined to suit the researcher's purpose. In holographic theory, the fragmentation created by the boundary definitions does not exist. Each component is part of an unbroken whole. Systems theory stresses the individuality of the system components. Holographic theory stresses the oneness of its components. Component A is not simply related to component B--A is B.
In 1982, Alain Aspect and a team of physicists were able to actually carry-out the polarization experiment that Einstein had proposed nearly fifty years before (Talbot, 1991, p.52-53). Photon pairs were created by heating calcium atoms with a laser, and then allowed to travel in opposite directions. Aspect discovered that the polarization of one photon immediately polarized the other--just as quantum theory had predicted. The photons were somehow communicating with each other at speeds exceeding the speed of light, or nonlocal connections existed between the electrons, or the separateness of the particles themselves was an illusion.
Bohm (1987) concluded that the implications of nonlocal connections are that objective reality itself is entirely a construct of the human brain. The true nature of reality remains hidden from us. Our brains operate as a holographic frequency analyzer, decoding projections from a more fundamental dimension. Bohm concludes that even space and time are constructs of the human brain, and they may not exist as we perceive them.
We normally perceive things as existing in the four dimensions of space-time. Holographic theory, however, presumes that there is at least a fifth dimension that represents a more fundamental aspect of reality. Normally, we do not possess the sensory skills to perceive this dimension, and it remains hidden from our awareness. The holographic model of reality stresses the role of beat frequencies in our construction of reality. Suppose the fifth dimension consists of extremely high frequency energy far outside our range of normal perception. When two or more wave fronts interact, a third frequency is created that consists of the difference in frequencies between the two waves. Since the beat frequency is all we can perceive, we construct reality based on these illusory waves without any awareness of their true source.
A problem with holographic theory is that we have little understanding of why some energy fields appear as stationary matter, while others are manifested as electromagnetic waves. Einstein spent the latter part of his life looking for the unified theory that would link matter, energy, and gravity. How does energy become matter and visa versa?
Bohm (1978) came to the conclusion that the black hole provides an answer. The black hole is an area of collapsed matter where the density and gravity become so great that nothing (not even light) can escape. The escape velocity from a black hole is greater than the speed of light itself. Within the black hole, space and time become distorted and merge into a singularity. While we generally refer to black holes as an astronomical phenomena, there is no reason to believe that these are the only black holes. Stephen Hawking has demonstrated that mini black holes are equally feasible (Milton, 1979).
Suppose that the center of every atom contained a mini black hole. Space and time would merge into a singularity and would become indistinguishable. This would explain how instantaneous travel is possible below Plank's distance. It may be that the atom itself is a wave form that has collapsed into a mini black hole. The apparent solidity and permanence of matter may be the singularity of the black hole. Matter itself may be gravitationally trapped light. (Toben, 1975)
One exciting prospect of quantum theory is the construct of zero-point energy (Boyer, 1975). According to this theory, the fabric of space itself contains enormous energy. "Zero-point" refers to the idea that this energy exists even at a temperature of zero degrees Kelvin (absolute zero). Quantum theory predicts this energy, and some researchers have suggested that it may be possible to tap this energy. Ilya Prigogine's work with dissipative systems led physicist Moray King (1989) to believe that under certain conditions, nonlinear systems could be induced into coherence. The two critical conditions are that the system is far away from equilibrium, and dissipative (i.e., there is a constant flow of energy through the system). King has suggested that bucking magnetic fields through a caduceus coil may be one method to tap this energy.
Holograms are not necessarily created by light, but can be formed in the presence of any wave action. To view the brain as a hologram, we must develop an understanding of the mechanisms that create an interference pattern. The holographic process involves both a reflection and reference beam. In the brain, past experience might serve as the reference beam. New incoming information is combined with the experiences (memories) of the past to create an interference pattern. Almost immediately, the new information becomes part of the "reference beam" and learning has occurred. As each new piece of information arrives at the brain, a new interference pattern is created and again becomes part of the reference background. A constantly shifting interference pattern provides the mind with a continually changing model of reality.
One of the most central themes of modern physics is to be able to describe the mechanics of our perceived universe. In the 18th century, Leibniz first maintained that space, time, matter, and energy were merely intellectual constructs (Talbot, 1991, p. 291). Modern quantum theory supports this proposition, where matter exists only as a probability on a continuum. For example, when we attempt to observe an electron, it becomes impossible to pinpoint its exact location. Bohm remarked that "what appears to be a stable, tangible, visible, audible world is an illusion. It is dynamic and kaleidoscopic--not really there". Bentov (1982, p. 56) describes reality as a vast empty space filled with oscillating fields.
If matter is a set of interacting fields, then we must make a distinction between our perceived universe and the actual universe that lies beyond our normal perception. Quantum theory states that when individual particles move over distances less than Plank's distance (10-33 cm), they can do so instantaneously. In order for this to be possible, the particle must either be traveling at infinite velocity, or the distance itself is but an illusion. Furthermore, it would seem possible that a particle could make an infinite number of these tiny jumps without time passage. If each change of location happens instantaneously, then an infinite number of location changes can also happen instantaneously. A particle could exist in all places simultaneously.
The holographic model of the universe views matter as the constructive and destructive interference patterns created by interacting energy waves. Standing waves occur when a wavefront takes on a stationary appearance. Energy continues to pass through the system, however, because each successive wave takes exactly the same position of the one before, there is an illusion of stability. Holograms depend on standing waves for their existence.
Physicists have confirmed that atoms are in a constant state of vibration. Each atom is a micro-oscillator with its own characteristic frequency. When similar atoms begin to vibrate in unison they form a "tuned resonant system", where all atoms are oscillating in phase with each other. Furthermore, the system becomes increasingly stable as more oscillators are added to the system, and it becomes increasingly difficult to disturb. The situation is analogous to plucking a tuning fork and observing how a second tuning fork begins to oscillate in phase with the first. At the atomic level, harmonic resonance may be responsible for stable particle behavior.
The atoms of our bodies are very high frequency oscillators that vibrate at a rate of about 1015 Hertz. It is quite possible that our bodies blink on and off at this frequency. We currently have no technology to measure such rapid phenomena. (Unterseher, et al., 1982, p. 364)
Carl Jung's theory of the collective unconscious is compatible with holographic
theory . Jung observed that certain dreams, myths, hallucinations and religious symbols are shared by many people and cultures. According to Jung, these archetypes represent part of the collective unconscious derived from our two-million-year-old collective history (Jung and Pauli, 1955). Only a limited glimpse of the implicate order is available to us because we lack the knowledge to perceive or decode the frequency interference patterns. Dreams may be one way that we counteract our tendency to fragment the world. Bohm has noted that dreams often reflect a hidden wisdom that exceeds our waking consciousness.
New York psychologist Edgar Levenson (1977) believes that the psychoanalytic process is best represented by the holographic model. He points out that the therapeutic process is "capricious and unreliable." When therapy is going well, the therapist is not really saying anything new to the patient, but rather, the therapist somehow resonates with something that the patient already knows. "The change results as a consequence of the expansion of configurational patterns over time." (Ferguson, 1992) The patient's insights (or revelation) can be viewed as a holographic process.
Synchronicities are coincidences that are so meaningful that it is unlikely that they can be attributed to chance alone. Jung was the first to perceive these events as more than simple coincidence. He proposed that some unknown mechanism buried deep within the psyche was responsible for these events, and that they were controlled by some kind of acausal mechanism. Physicist Paul Davies (1988) agrees that "non-local quantum effects are indeed a form of synchronicity in the sense that they establish a connection--more precisely a correlation--between events for which any form of causal linkage is forbidden." (Talbot, 1991, p. 79)
Another physicist, F. David Peat (1987), believes that synchronicities represent "flaws" in the fabric of reality. These fissures give us a momentary connection to the underlying nature of the implicate order. They demonstrate the possibility of connecting with the true nature of the universe. Peat believes that the scarcity of synchronicity demonstrates the degree to which we have cut ourselves off from the deeper orders of mind and reality.
Pribram (1977) believes that our brains have learned to edit out many of the frequency patterns in the implicate order, leaving only a selective subset of information available to our conscious awareness. By perceiving only a fraction of the information, we often believe that we are observing chaos without any underlying pattern. It may be that seemingly random phenomena only appear chaotic because we are have filtered out a portion of the information necessary to discern the true underlying pattern. Bohm asserts that there is no such thing as disorder, only orders of infinitely higher degree. (Talbot, 1991)
Valerie Hunt, a professor of kinesiology at UCLA, became interested in human energy fields (Miller, 1983). While using an electromyograph (EMG) to measure muscle activity, she discovered that the energy radiating from the body was far more complex than originally believed. The highest frequency for muscle activity was believed to be around 250 Hertz. Hunt found that there were also very low amplitude fields emanating from the areas of the body associated with the chakras. These fields were of a much higher frequency, often averaging as high as 1600 Hertz. Furthermore, Hunt found that the frequency of these energy fields depended upon the psychological state of the person. When a person's consciousness was directed towards the material world, the fields were near 250 Hertz. Psychic healers emanated fields in the 400 to 800 Hertz range, and people who claim to channel information from a higher source emanate frequencies in the 800 to 900 Hertz range. Hunt's most extraordinary finding came when she used a Poincaré map to examine these frequencies. Instead of randomness, she found a dynamic pattern typical of a strange attractor (Talbot, 1991, p. 177).
Life itself may be based on a holographic system consisting of coherence and interference. Order and patterns are the cornerstone of holography. Evolution itself might not be based on the Darwinian concept of random mutations, but rather, environmental stress and disequilibrium might have given rise to higher orders of organization.
Many scientists now believe the brain and body operate on holographic principles on the cellular, molecular, and neural levels. In Space-Time and Beyond, Bob Toben (1975, p. 130) describes how DNA contains the coding for orderly growth. "Nonlinearity in electrochemical reaction pathways of biological processes provides feedback patterns that are responsible for self-organization. On a deeper level, there may be self-organizing biogravitational fields whose structure determines the shape of biological molecules, cellular differentiation, and the overall shape of living systems".
Dissipative structures may provide a clue to the nature of Bohm's implicate order. Nobel prize winning chemist Ilya Prigogine (1980) discovered that some chemical systems develop into a more ordered arrangement, not a more disordered one. But how do these systems come into being? How can anything just suddenly pop into existence? Prigogine, like Bohm and Pribram, believes that dissipative structures are evidence of a deeper, more fundamental aspect of reality. "The increased limitation of deterministic laws means that we go from a universe that is closed, in which all is given, to a new one that is open to fluctuations, to innovations."
Prigogine's theory of dissipative structures applies to open systems that exchange energy with the environment. As systems become increasingly complex, they require more and more energy to maintain their structure. Complex systems are highly unstable and this gives rise to internal fluctuations within the system. A slight perturbation can drive the system into a sudden nonlinear change, where the new stability is even more coherent. This higher order is even more sensitive to perturbations. Internal fluctuations can force the system to even greater complexity. At each level of complexity, there is greater potential for new organization and change.
Israeli researcher Aharon Katchalsky (1972) first learned of Prigogine's work with dissipative structures in 1971. He organized a workshop at MIT to discuss Prigogine's theory's and how the brain might be viewed as a dissipative structure. The brain displays characteristics of non-linearity, sudden shifts, oscillations, and self-organization... the same features that Prigogine had discovered in chemical systems.
The key characteristic of Prigogine's (1977) findings was that dissipative structures can shift into higher levels of organization when perturbed. Society can be viewed as an open system exchanging energy with the environment. Fluctuations can be created by a small group of people, and this in turn has the potential to change society as a whole. If the perturbations exceed society's ability to "dampen" the fluctuations, then a new level of social order can evolve. As social organization becomes increasingly complex, it becomes more likely that small perturbations can lead to higher orders of complexity. Social change and evolution will happen at an ever increasing pace.
Holographic theory helps social scientists to understand organizational and social systems by stressing the wholeness of the systems. Individual components of a system cannot be manipulated without affecting all other components in the system. Prigogine's work with dissipative structures has revealed a new way of looking at planned change, whereby the conditions of self-organization and nonlinearity can be used advantageously. It suggests that we might be able to solve many organizational and social problems through the use of strategies that apply these concepts.
Prigogine is currently working on a way to link deterministic processes and probability theory. He now believes that it is not possible to know with complete certainty the initial starting conditions for a system. If this turns out to be true, then many of our current theories will need revision. Science has been under the belief that the initial conditions of deterministic processes are knowable, and therefore, in order to predict the future of a system, all we need to do is discovery the laws under which the system operates.
Many physicists have begun to describe the universe in words that resemble Eastern philosophy. Bohm talks about the "dimension of consciousness beyond the concrete world of our ordinary experience". Capra discusses the "web of connectedness which cannot be described in words". Beauregard quotes from ancient Indian scriptures about the "illusionary nature of separateness". John Wheeler summarized the holographic view of the universe when he said, "There may be no such thing as the 'glittering central mechanism of the universe.'... Not machinery but magic may be the better description of the treasure that is waiting." (Toben, 1975)

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