IS CHANGING THE PARADIGM EASY
IS CHANGING THE PARADIGM EASY?
© Bella Rozenblat, 2006
Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Beer-Sheva, Israel, bella@cs.bgu.ac.il
Illustrations by Elena Sappa, E-mail: info@
“It will turn out after all that the human organism is
a hologram, and each part of it reflects the whole.”
Vladimir Victorovich Rosenblat,
Professor, Doctor of Medicine,
member of the Russian Academy
for medico-technical sciences.
From his conversation with his daughter about
diagnostics by the iris, palm, sole and earlobe.
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Fig. 1. The Universe.
Introduction
A virtual model of the Universe proposed in the paper includes the basic features of the paradigm arising at the junction between contemporary science and esoteric knowledge. These are the features:
1. The Universe is a Superintelligent Organism, of which humans and all other objects and subjects of reality are parts.
2. All religions have been called upon to teach humans altruism and unconditional love, which is essentially the way to educate a human as a healthy intelligent part of the healthy Superintelligent Whole.
3. Mankind’s geniuses, great prophets and extrasensory individuals are regarded in this model as playing the role of “nerves” and even “parts of the brain” of the Whole.
4. There are several levels in the Universe. What we observe at each point in time is the “temporal cross-section” “displayed” at that moment of the external, “tangible” levels of the Universe constituting a multidimensional hologram.
5. Diverse parts of the multidimensional Universe, seemingly remote from one another in space and time, in fact interact, interpenetrate one another like holograms, since a holographic image with no clear-cut borders is formed by interfering waves, which can in principle spread unbounded within the Universe.
6. Although a definite “temporal cross-section” of the Universe is “displayed” at any moment in time, both the past and the future of the Superintelligent Organism exist at that moment as well, without, however, being revealed to the five human senses. Successively displayed “temporal cross-sections” of the Universe are comparable to computerized tomography of a body organ – the tomograph moves across the organ that exists objectively in its entirety and “photographs” a planar section at each moment.
7. Conscious efforts by humans can stimulate the Superintelligent Organism to change His existing structure within certain limits. They may affect not only the temporal cross-section “displayed” at the present moment, but also temporal cross-sections belonging to the “future” or even to the “past” (from the human standpoint)... It is for the purpose of inducing humans to make such conscious efforts that Sacred Books contain bad prophecies describing the yet undisplayed future picture awaiting humans with the existing structure of the Superintelligent Organism.
Acknowledgments
I am deeply grateful to Dr. Victor Okhonin, Dr. Paul (Pesach) Amnuel, Dr. Wenjamin Aszkenazy and Dr. Thomas Hansen for most stimulating discussions and their attention to my work.
I am deeply grateful to Elena Sappa for her superb illustrations to this paper.
My family’s contribution to the paper is inestimable. My father’s (blessed be his memory) insight cited as an epigraph above provided the initial incentive for my deliberations. My mother, a professional musician, pored over the first version of the paper and offered a wealth of most useful advice and remarks. My brother, also a musician, suggested the above-mentioned analogy with a tomogram. I am grateful to my daughter, my primary advisor and a big friend. She always comes to my aid at difficult moments - like whether to interpret a document or to solve a life's riddle. She generously takes care of our household, thereby enabling me to have my head in the clouds. My heartfelt thanks to all of them!
The structure of the paper
The main chapter titled “Virtual model of the Universe” expounds the essence of the proposed model with the help of two explanatory examples, where for the sake of convenience a plane is considered instead of three-dimensional space. One example with conditional presentation of holograms is shown in Fig. 1 – 4b. The other example describing a three-dimensional “optico-mechanical” model is given at the end of that chapter.
In the chapter “Sources” the cultural events, papers, books and pictures are cited and discussed which helped me form the vision of the Universe depicted in this paper.
The chapter “Supplementary materials” need not be read to understand the paper, but I hope that its first section will please those who like the books by my favorite authors, the Strugatsky brothers. The second section of that chapter offers a description of three mental experiments with film, which offer a “tangible”, “engineering” insight into some peculiarities of the proposed virtual model.
The three “Appendices” contain what I believe to be very useful information linked to some of the publications cited in the “Sources”.
Good luck!
Virtual model of the Universe
Let us view all reality (visible and invisible to humans, belonging to the realms of the past, the present and the future, and comprising each human as its component part) as a single highly complex Superintelligent Organism O, which is an intertwinement, interference of multidimensional holograms (Fig. 1 – 2). One of the dimensions is the axis of time T. For each object of the usual three-dimensional physical space, we consider a set of all this object’s states during all the time of its existence. More precisely, in our virtual model we consider a multidimensional hologram for each object of the reality, which corresponds to that object and has at least 4 dimensions – three spatial and one temporal (for support of this viewpoint see Appendices 1 – 3).
In our virtual model the flow of time can be presented as the gliding of a hyperplane of “materialization or visualization” M (which “displays” all the reality embraced by this hyperplane), along the axis of time, to which it is perpendicular. The term “hyperplane in a multidimensional world” designates a subspace whose dimensionality is 1 less than that of the world. In our four-dimensional virtual model hyperplane M has three dimensions, and at each moment in time it “displays” the material world of the three-dimensional space in its state at that very moment.
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Fig. 2. One of the multidimensional holograms from Fig. 1.
In the figures multidimensional holograms are presented as three-dimensional objects for transparency, where one dimension (“height”) corresponds to the dimension of time, while the two other dimensions (“left – right” and “forefront – background”) correspond to the physical space. That means that for each moment in time the three-dimensional physical space is conditionally presented in the figures by a two-dimensional plane. For each moment the state and spatial disposition of humans and other animate or inanimate objects in the three-dimensional material world are conditionally depicted by plane figures. Hyperplane M is shown as a two-dimensional plane “displaying” the planar two-dimensional material world.
M will be referred to below as a “plane”, and the reader can correlate it with either the three-dimensional space from the four-dimensional virtual model or with the presentation of M as a two-dimensional plane in all our figures.
A concrete multidimensional hologram (denoted below as H) corresponds to a particular human in our virtual model. A human’s conscience can move along axis T only together with plane M, while his/her subjectively perceptible existence at each point in time is a section of hologram H by plane M. Let us denote this section as S. As plane M crosses section S, it is filled with light (energy) – solid matter – life; as plane M moves to the next position, the preceding section S is “discolored” and reverses from a moment of real life into a translucent sketch.
“The objective reality given in perception” to a definite human at a definite point in time is an interferential picture formed within the framework of section S by the intersection of our hologram H with other holograms (as in Fig. 1).
A human’s memory is comparable to a mirror MP placed at section S and directed “backwards” along the axis of time. It reflects the preceding sections of this hologram – generally speaking, the farther back, the less distinctly (Fig. 3a, 3b).
Epigraph to Fig. 3a and b:
“There is only an instant
between the past and the future,
and life is its name”
(from a song)
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Fig. 3a. A mirror of the past (MP). This is a “corpuscular” image where “quantum leaps” are visible between instants of life.
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Fig. 3b. A mirror of the past (MP). This is a “wavelike” image where the continuity of life is accentuated, although it consists of instants.
Depending on the position of hologram H as an intelligent organ within Organism O, which is universal in the framework of the given reality and superintelligent with respect to H (in monotheistic religions O is designated as the Omnipresent), H has certain capabilities for influencing other holograms, as well as – both directly and indirectly – one’s own structure. The vehicles for such influence are thoughts, words, physical action. Of peculiar significance in the world religions is such a form of influence as direct address to the Omnipresent with a prayer coming from the heart (a genuine appeal for help can be compared to a signal of pain dispatched to the brain from a suffering organ). If granting the request is to benefit the entire Organism О, it is granted. But if the damaged part cannot be restored in its former state without injury to the Whole, the problem is solved otherwise...
All religions have ultimately been called upon to teach humans
Altruism and Unconditional Love – Love for people and for all existence.
After all, this is the way to educate a human as a healthy intelligent part of the universal Superintelligent Whole!
The first stage in man’s development along this path was the inculcation of wholesome norms for social life. For each stage of society’s development these norms embraced everything – from the methods of killing animals for food (stunning them so that they feel no pain) to the ethical heights in relations among people.
Humans who have consciously (perhaps also unconsciously, for there are pure souls that do good unthinkingly, this being their way of life) become intelligent organs most useful to the Whole are endowed by the Whole with greater capabilities for influence. These capabilities probably include changing the position of the respective hologram H in the overall structure; this may affect not only the given section S and the patterns within it (the existence of H at the given point in time), but the entire hologram H, including both its future (the part of H “ahead” of S along the axis of time T) and its part “behind” S (i.e. the “past” of this individual and of all the beings, objects, fields etc. with which he/she was in both perceptible and imperceptible contact – in the final analysis, the “past”, from the human viewpoint, of the entire reality of O). Of course, this change involves a change of the “reflection” in mirror MP placed in section S – from the viewpoint of an “external observer” (outside of organism O), human H now has a different memory of the past, and his/her existence (at the same moment corresponding to section S) is also different. In other words, our model involves the consideration of the “strong” impact produced by human H at a definite point in time or resulting from the corresponding temporal sequence of “weak impacts” generated by this individual. More precisely, the energy brought to section S by plane M can be used by human H at that moment for a “light of conscience flash”, which (or a sequence of several flashes) in its turn produces additional impacts on other hologram objects. Such impacts can cause certain “shifts” in the structure of O (if this is expedient for the Whole) and can sometimes even – “reactively” – change the position of the impacting object H within O, thereby changing both the “memory of the past” (i.e. the reflection in mirror MP) and the future awaiting this individual. This is the conceptual distinction of the proposed model of human life from the “fatalistic” models, in particular Kurt Vonnegut’s model cited in Appendix 2 below.
There is also room for clairvoyance (at a distance, into the past and the future) in the framework of the given model – let us assume, for instance, that an intelligent hologram H of sufficiently “high standing” within the general hierarchy of the Superintelligent Whole O has in section S, besides mirror MP (turned towards the past), also a mirror of the future MF directed “forward” with respect to the axis of time T (Fig. 4a, 4b). This model presumes the “supernatural” powers of some humans to influence other humans as well as the development of global events. Such individuals – geniuses, prophets, extrasensory persons, great leaders – are comparable to nerves of Organism O conveying signals from its brain to the heart or to another important organ, and some of these humans can be likened to various centers inside the brain of the Whole...
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[pic]
A mirror of the future (MF)
Fig. 4a ( top ) – “corpuscular” image; Fig. 4b ( bottom ) – “wavelike” image
In order to illustrate the image of “Multidimensional human” H within the Universal Superintelligent Organism O with the axis of time T and materialization plane M, section S, mirrors of the past MP and of the future MF, a description is presented of a possible volumetric three-dimensional “optico-mechanical” model with light sources and real horizontal mirrors as MP and MF. Note that here holograms are modeled with the help of “solid” bodies. But then the interaction between holograms, their interference require a “solid” analog. We will therefore use additional mirrors (not shown in the pictures). To wit, human conscience is modeled by the “Mirror of Conscience” MC positioned at section S of the corresponding object H. A human’s perception of reality is the reflection in the Mirror of Conscience, while the impact produced by a human is emission of light from MC.
Superintelligent Organism O could be visualized as shaped like a tall, widening upwards, transparent or translucent vase containing its translucent component “organs”, which are developments of diverse objects of reality in time. The axis of time T is the vertical axis of the vase. The flow of time can be depicted by the thin luminous plane M, “transverse” to the vase, gliding along the axis of time, to which it is perpendicular. The cross-section of the vase by this luminous plane is the “momentary state” of all reality at the given point in time. In particular, the cross-section of object H by this plane is section S. The materialization-visualization plane M gliding along the axis of time T inside O enables H to generate “light of conscience flashes” (light reflected from the mirror of conscience MC positioned at section S). These flashes in their turn affect the entire Organism O to some degree and can sometimes – if this is expedient for the Whole – change the position and shape of the entire object H, which is the history of the development in time – physical and spiritual – of the given concrete individual.
The entire Superintelligent Organism O could also be presented more accurately as such an all-embracing human figure in the process of movement and development, rather than simply a vase – the Cabbala maintains, for instance, that the entire content of the Universe forms a human figure...
Sources
I believe that I benefited in forming the above-presented image from:
• the idea of my father (blessed be his memory) cited as the epigraph to this paper;
• acquaintance with the Torah and the Cabbala;
• acquaintance with the “New Age” literature, in particular the books by Vitaly and Tatiana Tikhoplav;
• Wenjamin Aszkenazy's paper "The Cradle of Reason and the Living Brain" – Russian Science on the Web, 1998 ,
• P. Amnuel’s story “The ultimate measure” – “Znaniye – Sila”, 1990
• Victor Okhonin’s paper “On the possibility of changing the physically reconstructed past” – The World Astrology Review, 2003
• “Trying to remember” by Tom Hansen – Freedom Press Associates, 1995
• “Slaughterhouse Five, or The Children’s Crusade: A Duty-Dance with Death” by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. – Delacorte Press/Seymour Lawrence , 1969 (see Appendix 2);
• the unique environment at my workplace – my room is on the premises of the Museum of Art and Science at Ben-Gurion University, where holograms are exhibited as well as works by prominent artists demonstrating the ties between art and science
• Marcel Duchamp’s painting “Nu descendant un Escalier No.2”, 1912 (see Appendix 3), the reproduction of which is on exhibit at our museum.
• Special note is due to the seminal book “The Holographic Universe” by Michael Talbot – Harper-Collins publishers, 1991 (see Appendix 1). I discovered this book after I “envisioned” the above-depicted image, but I think that it was the most significant source of ideas for the “New Age” literature, which exerted an inestimable influence on the formation of my paradigm. A friend of mine, an expert astrophysicist and a well-known sci-fi writer, declared after studying M. Talbot’s book that it contains many of the ideas of the present paper and much more (although it does not contain anything resembling a plane of materialization).
• A brief biographical reference with a list of publications by Michael Talbot – a wonderful person untimely deceased in 1992
• a photo with information on one of Michael Talbot’s last interviews
• Michael Talbot’s paper “The Universe as a Hologram”
• the Russian translation of the above paper (by Irina Mirzuitova)
Supplementary materials
Dear readers, the following section 1 of “Supplementary materials” is specially intended for lovers of books by the Strugatsky brothers (the present author is among their ardent admirers!), and all other readers are invited to skip this section without prejudice for understanding my paper and to pass on to the next section.
1. The life of Janus Poluectovich from “Monday starts on Saturday” by A. and B. Strugatsky as viewed in our model
The axis of time passing inside the Universal Organism O is viewed as a straight line in our model, the movement of materialization plane M along it is unidirectional and constant in velocity. “The GIVEN MOMENT IN TIME” means a point on the time axis together with the materialization plane M passing through it.
Suppose that object H is Janus Poluectovich in all his spatial and temporal positions, with all his thoughts and impressions during his life span. Let us consider H as a “pipe” in Fig. 2 or 3b bent like a loop (not like the letter O, but like C turned 90° clockwise, i.e. open from below). Its lowest point on the left is the moment of his birth, the lowest point on the right is his death. Generally speaking, the left and right arcs in this figure may differ in length. This model resembles the life of Janus Poluectovich as described in the book, the difference being that in the Strugatskys’ book the life of U-Janus consisted of continuous segments each 24 hours long, within which “subjective time” moved in the same direction as objective time, but every midnight leaped “back” to the midnight 48 hours before. In our model, however, the materialization plane, which also determines the movement of conscience, moves constantly upwards over the entire loop (including its right arc as well), so that U-Janus’s conscience flows continuously from his old age till the point where he was “transformed” from A-Janus into U-Janus. Above that point (i.e. after his A to U transformation) none of them is present at sections S, meaning that neither of the two Januses exists for the people around.
More precisely, let us assume for transparency that both arcs of the translucent bent pipe H are of equal length, i.e. the human under consideration (A-Janus in the left arc) was born and grew up, then exactly in the middle of his life span switched over to “reverse time flow” with regard to the ambient reality (i.e. became U-Janus in the right arc). U-Janus died a very old man at the same objective moment when A-Janus was born.
Materialization plane M starts its movement from below, parallel to the plane upon which both ends of the translucent bent pipe H rest. At the cross-section S of pipe H by that plane light emerges – solid matter – life, but as plane M moves to the next position, the preceding section S is “discolored” and reverses from a moment of real life to a translucent “sketch”.
Thus the objective flow of time coincides with the course of conscience from youth to old age for the left arc of bent pipe H, but is opposite for the right arc.
The question is what will be reflected in the mirror of the past MP positioned at section S in the right arc – what is below it on the axis of time (old age and death) or what precedes it by the laws of nature (i.e. birth and youth).
According to the Strugatskys U-Janus remembered what was HIGHER on the axis of time for him and those around him. For the latter this is the future, but for whoever moves WITHIN PIPE H from its bend to the end of the right arc this is the past. Consequently, U-Janus’s MP mirror was turned towards the bend in the pipe (and if “fiber optics” were available inside the tube, the mirror could reach the end of the left arc as well, at which Janus was born – then as A-Janus).
The sector of the right arc in the pipe which was already in the past for those around U-Janus (and BELOW the given position of plane M on the axis of time) was for him the future, which he did not know. That is why he constantly asked everybody: “Did I talk with you yesterday?” Therefore, according to the Strugatskys, U-Janus remembered what preceded by the laws of nature, i.e. at any given moment of time T he remembered all his youth, though part of it was displayed in the material world later (for an outside observer) than moment T.
Dear readers, the following section 2 of “Supplementary materials” is specially intended for those who prefer tangible technical models. All other readers are invited to skip this section without prejudice to understanding the paper and pass on to “Appendices”.
2. “Engineering” imitation of some peculiarities of our model:
Mental experiments with film
Mental experiment: model 1
Let us take a “tangible” example of an explanatory model for axis T, object H, plane M and section S. True, this is one of the “crudest” models, it explains how the axis of time can be presented visually, but does not show the human’s conscience, let alone the way a human can at some point in time change his/her predestined future, and sometimes even his past (more on this in my subsequent publications, I hope). As can be seen from what follows below, this model can be designated as “reverse film projector” (with the film motionless and the light beam moving). But the film will not be a continuous reel...
Thus, a piece of film is taken where the same person is photographed half face by a motionless camera in the course of some action (e.g. going downstairs). Let the man wear a tight red suit, his head and face are painted red; the staircase is painted yellow.
The film is then cut into frames, which are threaded on a vertical wire (representing time axis T) passing through the centers of the frames in temporal order (what comes before is below). The resulting high stack of frames comprises two objects that are “organs” of the Superintelligent Organism – the red object H is formed by the images of the red man in all the frames, while the unnamed yellow object is formed by the pictures of the yellow staircase in all the frames.
Also assume that a light beam is trained from aside on the wire with the frames. It is vertically flattened like the minus sign, but is wide enough horizontally to fully illuminate precisely one frame (although the beam falls on the edge of the frame, the light is assumed to penetrate the entire area of the frame). The beam moves along the stack from bottom to top, lighting up one frame momentarily and immediately passing on to the next one. This beam represents plane M.
Each point on the wire corresponds to some moment in time, and the frame at that point is a “sketch” to be brought to life for a moment when the beam falls on it, but will soon lose light and life, fading into the past. The image of the red man in the frame illuminated by the beam at the given moment in time is (in the proposed crude model) section S, which will be considered below in more detail (see the paragraph before Note 3).
Note 1. If the stack of frames is viewed from above, all the pictures of the staircase will coincide, since it is motionless in space and the camera is also static. But the man’s images will shift with respect to one another and to the staircase, because he is going down and the camera does not move. Thus, looking at the stack from above will show what is depicted in Duchamp’s painting – see (on condition that his “Nude” is painted red and the staircase remains yellow).
Note 2. From the conventional viewpoint it is presumed in considering both the film frames and Duchamp’s painting that we deal with a totality of flat photographs (or paintings on canvas) of a Three-dimensional Spatial Object (human or staircase) taken at successive moments in time. In our model, however, the flat half-face image of the man in any given frame is in fact not an image, but THE MAN HIMSELF at the given moment in time. The same refers to the staircase as well. Speaking otherwise, for the convenient interpretation of the axis of time (taking into account that both the author and the readers of the present paper exist in the real spatial three-dimensional world) in considering our model we agree to replace three-dimensional spatial objects with their two-dimensional analogs, like in Flatland depicted in Tom Hansen’s “Trying to remember” (). The vertical axis of our real three-dimensional space is identified with the axis of time inside the model.
Mental experiment: model 2
This is a clarification of the preceding model illustrating the notion of the Mirror of the Past MP and Mirror of the Future MF. The man in the model can see the past and the future, but he has not even rudimentary conscience (as the ability to reflect the reality given to him in perceptions at the present moment).
Consider frame K, one of those threaded on the wire, and let us glue a thin mirror to its lower surface inside the image of the flat red man’s head, which reflects all the frames positioned below K in the stack. This is the mirror of the past MP (as in Fig. 3a). Let us attach similar mirrors to the lower surfaces of all the other frames in the stack. The red man has now got a memory!
Let us also predetermine that on the man’s 50th birthday he will be endowed with the gift of envisioning the future. For that purpose let us attach another thin mirror inside the image of the man’s head, this time to the upper surface of every frame starting with the one corresponding to the morning of his 50th birthday. This is the mirror of the future MF (as in Fig. 4a). For every given frame K this mirror will reflect all the frames positioned above K in the stack.
Mental experiment: model 3
This is a clarification of the preceding model illustrating the notion of rudimentary conscience as the ability to reflect the reality given in perceptions at the present moment. Animal also have such conscience.
Consider frame K, one of those threaded on the wire. It is not a rectangle, but a very thin (low) parallelepiped, for the film has thickness! Consider a thin annular mirror shaped as a cylinder as high as (or lower than) the thickness of the film. In the horizontal section the mirror looks roughly like (). Note that both arcs must join at the ends, but differ in curvature. All the outer surface of the ring is reflecting, while the inner surface is matted.
Let us cut out a piece of film from frame K (inside the image of the head) shaped exactly like the mirror and replace the piece by the latter. Recall that the head in all the frames is shown half face, not full face. Since most information from outside comes through the senses, the organs of which are in the face and not at the back of the head, for the sake of transparency the mirror should be positioned inside the head so as to have the arc with the larger diameter turned to the face.
This mirror will reflect the part of frame K which is within the reach of the mirror; in particular, it will reflect the reduced view of the part of the two-dimensional staircase (i.e. part of the sideview of the three-dimensional staircase habitual for the author and the readers) at which the red man in the frame is looking at the given moment. The mirror will also reflect the man’s inner structure as presented in that frame, for humans sense not only the outside world, but themselves as well!
This mirror models human conscience and will be designated MC (Mirror of Conscience).
Let us perform a similar operation of implanting mirror MC on all the frames in the stack. Thus the red man acquires the ability to perceive (reflect) the ambient reality at any given moment and even to reflect his own state at the moment!
Now recall the sentence from the last paragraph (before the Notes) in the description of Model 1: “The image of the red man in the frame illuminated by the beam at the given moment in time is (in the proposed crude model) section S.” In the clarified model 3 section S remains “the image of the red man in the frame illuminated by the beam at the given moment in time”, but now (as distinct from Model 1) this image comprises the Mirror of the Past MP (with whatever is reflected in it) and the Mirror of the Future MF (with whatever is reflected in it), as well as the Mirror of Conscience MC, where everything present at section S is reflected (except MC itself); in particular, MC reflects mirrors MP and MF with all the images from the past and the future reflected in them...
Note 3. It can now be clarified precisely what is reflected in the mirror of the past for the considered Model 3. For an ordinary (not extrasensory) human not all the preceding frames in the stack are reflected, but only the states of the Mirror of Conscience from all the preceding frames in the stack, because an ordinary, not clairvoyant human recalls only that from his past which he had seen and experienced in that past.
Note 4. It is presumed in Model 3 that a human’s Mirror of Conscience does not necessarily reflect whatever gets into the frame (humans do not see the entire ambient reality at the given moment). However, the Mirror of Conscience can presumably reflect only:
• what was initially present (with no account taken of all the three mirrors) in this frame (possibly even not all of it), as well as
• full or partial contents of the Mirror of the Past positioned in this frame, as well as
• full or partial contents of the Mirror of the Future (if MF is at all present in the given frame).
Appendix 1. On “The Holographic Universe” by Michael Talbot
Editorial reviews
From “Library Journal”
Author Talbot writes that “. . . there is evidence to suggest that our world and everything in it. . . are also only ghostly images, projections from a level of reality so beyond our own it is literally beyond both space and time.” Hence, the title of his book. Beginning with the work of physicist David Bohm and neurophysiologist Karl Pribram, both of whom independently arrived at holographic theories or models of the universe, Talbot explains in clear terms the theory and physics of holography and its application, both in science and in explanation of the paranormal and psychic. His theory of reality accommodates this latest thinking in physics as well as many unresolved mind-body questions. This well-written and fascinating study is recommended for science collections.
- Hilary D. Burton, Lawrence Livermore National Lab., Livermore, Cal.
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Larry Dossey, M.D., author of “Space, Time & Medicine”
“A wake-up call to wonder, an adventure in ideas.”
Book Description
Today nearly everyone is familiar with holograms, three-dimensional images projected into space with the aid of a laser. Now, two of the world’s most eminent thinkers – University of London physicists David Bohm, a former protege of Einstein’s and one of the world’s most respected quantum physicists, and Stanford neurophysiologist Karl Pribram, one of the architects of our modern understanding of the brain – believe that the universe itself may be a giant hologram, quite literally a kind of image or construct created, at least in part, by the human mind. This remarkable new way of looking at the universe explains now only many of the unsolved puzzles of physics, but also such mysterious occurrences as telepathy, out-of-body and near death experiences, “lucid” dreams, and even religious and mystical experiences such as feelings of cosmic unity and miraculous healings.
Appendix 2. Excerpts from the sci-fi novel “Slaughterhouse Five, or the Children’s Crusade” by Kurt Vonnegut
…The creatures were friendly, and they could see in four dimensions. They pitied Earthlings for being able to see only three. They had many wonderful things to teach Earthlings, especially about time.
“The most important thing I learned on Tralfamadore was that when a person dies he only appears to die. He is still very much alive in the past, so it is very silly for people to cry at his funeral. All moments, past, present and future, always have existed, always will exist. The Tralfamadorians can look at all the different moments just that way we can look at a stretch of the Rocky Mountains, for instance. They can see how permanent all the moments are, and they can look at any moment that interests them. It is just an illusion we have here on Earth that one moment follows another one, like beads on a string, and that once a moment is gone it is gone forever.”
***
Billy Pilgrim says that the Universe does not look like a lot of bright little dots to the creatures from Tralfamadore. The creatures can see where each star has been and where it is going, so that the heavens are filled with rarefied, luminous spaghetti. And Tralfamadorians do not see human beings as two-legged creatures, either. They see them as great millipedes — “with babies’ legs at one end and old people’s legs at the other,” says Billy Pilgrim.
***
There was a lot that Billy said that was gibberish to the Tralfamadorians, too. They couldn't imagine what time looked like to him. Billy had given up on explaining that. The guide outside had to explain as best he could.
The guide invited the crowd to imagine that they were looking across a desert at a mountain range on a day that was twinkling bright and clear. They could look at a peak or a bird or a cloud, at a stone right in front of them, or even down into a canyon behind them. But among them was this poor Earthling, and his head was encased in a steel sphere which he could never take off. There was only one eyehole through which he could look, and welded to that eyehole were six feet of pipe.
This was only the beginning of Billy’s miseries in the metaphor. He was also strapped to a steel lattice which was bolted to a flatcar on rails, and there was no way he could turn his head or touch the pipe. The far end of the pipe rested on a bi-pod which was also bolted to the flatcar. All Billy could see was the dot at the end of the pipe. He didn't know he was on a flatcar, didn't even know there was anything peculiar about his situation.
The flatcar sometimes crept, sometimes went extremely fast, often stopped – went uphill, downhill, around curves, along straight ways. Whatever poor Billy saw through the pipe, he had no choice but to say to himself, “That's life.”
Note: In our model Billy could have emitted “rays of conscience” through this pipe, which – in exceptional cases – could have even moved the mountain range itself and changed the position of the rails, if that were expedient to the Whole. – B. R.
Appendix 3. Marcel Duchamp, “Nu descendant un Escalier”
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