I always believed humans were too limited to completely comprehend reality. This book opens horizons to new point of views about things not even the most evoluted minds haven't noticed. It shows how human sensorial limitations prevents us from looking further and closer. It explains how we all are part of this whole we call “universe”. Comparing a hologram film to our dna or even individuals as small part of a bigger conscience. This way, you can realize how so many different things are connected to eachother.
That's a must read for whoever cares about what the bleep should we know about this “big reality”.
This book links science and spirituality in a very meaningful way (even though the language is scientific yet simple). “…every portion of a piece of holographic film contains all of the information of the whole.” pg. 18
It teaches that if you cut a photograph in half you're left with two halves, but if you cut a holographic film in half - you're left with two whole images!
Even though the part-in-the-whole/whole-in-the-part idea is explored from a scientific point of view, the spirituality of this Wholeness perspective exists between the lines. And thus makes an abstract concept (Wholeness) tangible, personal, global, and universal.
Written in 1992, scientifically this book explores the work of
* Carl Pribram in his study of how the brain stores memory, which leads to how a holographic image is actually made
* the Cosmology of David Bolm, his Wholeness ideas, his implicate/enfolded/unseen and explicate/unfolded/seen orders
* and how these two men with their separate theories discovered the similar nature of their own ideas - the brain as a hologram and the universe as a hologram.
With its non-local, the center is everywhere, expanded possibilities and potentials, “The Holographic Universe” in many ways is a precursor to “What The Bleep Do We Know.” Acknowledging that writing is a collaborative effort, Michael Talbot lists a plethora of contributors, some of which include Fred Alan Wolf, William Tiller, Larry Dossey, Bernie Siegel, Kenneth Ring, Marilyn Ferguson, Barbara Brennan, Brenda Dunn, Stanislav Grof,…in addition to David Bolm and Karl Pribram.
“Pribram realized that if the holographic brain model was taken to its logical conclusions, it opened up the door on the possibility that objective reality - the world of coffee cups, mountain vistas, elm trees, and table lamps - might not even exist, or at least not exist in the way we believe it exists.” pg. 31
I’ve read The Holographic Universe often, and have gained new insights into the nature of consciousness and reality from its riches every time. I consider it to be author Michael Talbot’s most important work, as well as one of the best books ever written on the subject of so-called paranormal phenomenon.
Talbot’s fascination for finding scientific explanations for psychic and paranormal activity began when he noticed objects moving inexplicably around him, regardless where he lived. He would sometimes awaken to find socks draped on his houseplants, and occasionally found objects in his apartment that he knew for a fact had been hundreds of miles away. His real-life experiences with such shifts in reality combined with his training in physics led him to explore possible reasons for these and other mysterious happenings.
Talbot begins his book with an excellent introduction to physicist David Bohm’s concept of the holographic model of the universe, and combines the physics model with Karl Pribram’s work on the holographic model of the brain. The result is a marvelous description of a non-local, interconnected and alive universe that moves in response to our every thought and feeling.
I am very impressed with the clarity with which Talbot presents the concept of a holographic universe and how various paranormal phenomenon can be explained within that model. Talbot’s discussion is comprehensive, fascinating, clear, and packed with relevant and intriguing stories of paranormal phenomenon. Out of body experiences (OBEs), near death experiences (NDEs), auric readings, psychokinesis, acupuncture, X-ray vision, healing, and psychic readings are all described and considered for placement into the holographic model.
Talbot presents a wealth of relevant research studies and scientific theories from David Bohm, Helmut Schmidt, Marilyn Schlitz, Robert Monroe, Charles Tart, Larry Dossey, Paul Davies, PMH Atwater, Ian Stevenson, Fred Alan Wolf, Harold Puthoff, Russell Targ, Lyall Watson, Stanislav Grof, and many others.
moving on from the mainstream opinions on what life is about, this book opens up a whole new world of understanding. For possibly the first time, a totally comprehensive case for this paradigm has been made. A paradigm which is based on the notion that we live in an illusion which is formed by consciousness. The amount of scientific evidence and cross-referencing is amazing, and the ideas startling. If you read only one book on the nature of reality, then you may just want to make it this one.