The Holographic Universe

[Merlyn]

"The Holographic Universe" by Michael Talbot

This is an excellent book good combination of fact and metephysical
and quantum physics. It also gives you some ideas if you think about
it. You cab get it used for $4-$8 and it is worth much more.

Here is a comment from Amazon:

This is one of the most provocative books I have read in years. In the first few chapters Mr. Talbot describes the emerging holographic paradigm in science, drawing on David Bohm's work in quantum physics and Karl Pribam's work in neuroscience. I found both descriptions to be fascinating, and especially enjoyed the historical context for the work of these two seminal thinkers. As a person with a master's degree in neuroscience and chaos/complexity theory, I found a couple of his simplifications misleading, but would give him high marks for his overall comprehension of the conclusions of Pribam and his followers.

The remaining 2/3 of the book is a discussion of how the holographic paradigm may provide a rational basis for interpreting a wide variety of phenomenon located around the fringes of established science. He looks at everything from strange historical "miracles" like stigmata and appearances of the Virgin Mary to modern psychic abilities and LSD experiences, from out-of-body and near-death-experiences to UFO abductions. In addition, he compares language used in the modern scientific discussion of holography with the language used by ancient mystical traditions.

Mr. Talbot's writing style is unusually clear and lucid. All of this makes for a highly engaging book. It kept me up late every night for more than a week. I am a person who has had an OBE/NDE (out-of-body, near-death-experience), and can tell you that his description of such events is an astoundingly accurate portrayal of what I experienced.

I am also a scientist, and know that most of my highly rational, empirical colleages would have trouble accepting a majority of Mr. Talbot's conclusions. This work addresses something so completely out of the realm of everyday experience for most people, and probes a world that is normally invisible to the five senses. Hence, objective, empirical science -- as defined by a conventional theorist or practicing technician -- simply cannot address these experiences. They are outside the range of focus of the tool that Western minds currently rely on.

The service that Mr. Talbot provides is a challenge to rethink the conventional definition of science so that it can take into account a much wider range of human experience. What he argues for is the acceptance, as valid scientific data, of the experiences of individual humans, across cultures and throughout history, that are remarkably consistent with one another. These experiences address aspects of reality that are invisible to the skeptical eye, but become obvious to the person who chooses to develop other forms of perception.

As a person who was unwittingly thrown into an OBE/NDE experience, I am naturally inclined to read a book like this one with an open mind, and felt immensely rewarded for doing so. However, if I had reviewed the same book before having my own personal experience of some of the phenomena it describes, I would have reviewed it as a new-age excursion into a realm of fantasy. I am completely sympathetic to some of the reviewers who see it that way, and respectfully disagree.

I believe there is an extraordinary synthesis happening among the realms of human experience, one that can validate each individual's story, however unusual, and also one that honors all the different ways of knowing. I see Mr. Talbot's work as one of the more important bridges yet constructed between traditional science and spirituality, between rational discourse about repeatable, empirically verifiable phenomenon and the quirky, esoteric or mythological elements of personal experience that actually define most people's experience of reality. This book is a "must read" for any passionate seeker of truth.

[christo]

yeah i just finished reading that!!! excellent book, covers a lot of ground, and seems to be very well researched. i read that and divine matrix (gregg braden) over the past fortnight and they slot together quite nicely. was interested in the stories of "superhuman" abilities, and the stigmata section is also interesting. I liked the NDE and OBE section towards the end, things seem to pick up pace a little during that part, i found the beginning a little slow going because there are some tricky scientific principles to get your head around, but talbot does extremely well in explaining the fundamentals. now i'm reading DMT spirit molecule by rick strassman to follow on from where talbot left of with NDE, hopefully the information in that will slot as neatly into the other stuff ive read has seemed to recently. like a jigsaw

but yeah, great book, especially as it was written about 12 years ago? one thing that disturbed me though, was the guy who mass hypnotised people and did regressions, then tried progressions, and all hypnotised subjects said they saw a world where the population had been massively decreased, and the 4 scenarios the descriptions fall into do actually sound like a possible outcome of the suggested scenarios that could be on their way. the hope is, however, to change the future holographically whilst its still fluid through attitude and prayer. on the other hand, i personally believe we never truly die, so even if we fail in the material world, all is not lost

also, did you catch the bit about a Near Death Experiencer (NDEer) who was supposedly shown an alternate timeline of our history which would result in us all living in peace and harmony, had an event that happened in ancient greece not taken place? its not specified in the book what exactly happened, i wonder if perhaps this is because the force behind said event is still active today...? just a thought

[indakaz]

very interesting, you guys should check out soundlessdawn on youtube, he makes great videos about the holographic universe that are very entertaining.

[Fredkc]

The Universe as a Hologram

Author Unknown; from around 1990
some snippets. rest at: http://fredsitelive.com/fun/hologram.htm

In 1982 a remarkable event took place. At the University of Paris a research team led by physicist Alain Aspect performed what may turn out to be one of the most important experiments of the 20th century. You did not hear about it on the evening news. In fact, unless you are in the habit of reading scientific journals you probably have never even heard Aspect's name, though there are some who believe his discovery may change the face of science.


Aspect and his team discovered that under certain circumstances subatomic particles such as electrons are able to instantaneously communicate with each other regardless of the distance separating them. It doesn't matter whether they are 10 feet or 10 billion miles apart.
Somehow each particle always seems to know what the other is doing. The problem with this feat is that it violates Einstein's long-held tenet that no communication can travel faster than the speed of light. Since traveling faster than the speed of light is tantamount to breaking the time barrier, this daunting prospect has caused some physicists to try to come up with elaborate ways to explain away Aspect's findings. But it has inspired others to offer even more radical explanations.


University of London physicist David Bohm, for example, believes Aspect's findings imply that objective reality does not exist, that despite its apparent solidity the universe is at heart a phantasm, a gigantic and splendidly detailed hologram.


[...]


This insight suggested to Bohm another way of understanding Aspect's discovery. Bohm believes the reason subatomic particles are able to remain in contact with one another regardless of the distance separating them is not because they are sending some sort of mysterious signal back and forth, but because their separateness is an illusion. He argues that at some deeper level of reality such particles are not individual entities, but are actually extensions of the same fundamental something.

[whitecrow]

Originally Posted by Fredkc

In 1982 a remarkable event took place. At the University of Paris a research team led by physicist Alain Aspect performed what may turn out to be one of the most important experiments of the 20th century. You did not hear about it on the evening news. In fact, unless you are in the habit of reading scientific journals you probably have never even heard Aspect's name

I posted elsewhere (I forget where) regarding Aspect's work...interesting name, don't you think?

What really really got my attention was that at roughly the same time I ran across Aspect's work regarding the holographic universe, I was reading the "Enneads" of Plotinus where he says exactly the same thing - that the whole is embodied in every one of its parts. Talk about synchronicity! The way Plotinus explains it, you just know if he'd had the word holographic he'd have used it (check out the 4th Ennead).

Many things are to be explained this way!

exellent book.