A Perspective in the Grid
An explanation of the Holographic Universe Model
By: Zac Layman
What is this place? What am I doing here? What am I? Many of us find ourselves asking these questions. These questions give us drive and for a long time they have served as a catalyst to further our collective evolution — going well beyond simply finding the next food source. Everywhere you look, people peddle their answers to these questions with the label of being absolute truth. “My truth is better than your truth!” they proclaim. Well they may not be too far off, excepting the exclusivity and condescension. Your truth may not be truth in my ‘reality tunnel’1, but it is most certainly true in yours. And who am I to devalue that truth?
As far back as we have recorded human history we have been struggling to comprehend ‘everything’ in this ‘reality’ (I say ‘we’, but how much have ‘I’ really done?). The latest form of this exploration is what we call ‘science’. It is certainly a good method for looking at this reality we live in, but the fact is, all of these systems are based upon one extremely shaky foundation. This foundation is the way in which we perceive the world; our senses, or as scientists have more recently labeled it; our Central Nervous System.
Because of this shaky foundation, the most promising fields of science have become Neuroscience, which studies the brain and nervous system, and Quantum Theory, which aims to study the smallest particles that make up our reality.
It is no surprise then that the concept this article seeks to expound was birthed from these two fields. This idea is among the best that seek to describe the nature of reality. The theory, The Holographic Universe theory, was born into human consciousness simultaneously through two scientists studying in separate fields2. This is one of the latest in at long string of simultaneous discoveries discussed in the ‘Multiple Discoveries’ Theory3’. The holographic universe theory is one that attempts to explain such synchronicities4 alongside others among the most enduring questions.
This, amid other contemporary scientific research, is a breath of fresh air to be arriving in a mainstream scientific forum. Since the Romans, science and spirituality have become split from one another in the mainstream, especially in the West. At this point in time materialist scientists either attempt to explain away the paranormal or metaphysical, or they simply ignore it. On the contrary, institutionalized religion seeks to explain away science, or simply ignore it.
The synthesis, and topic for another article entirely, is illuminism. The point is that the holographic universe theory addresses these questions about metaphysics and is a welcome step in mainstream science towards this synthesis. So, you might be scratching your chin asking what is the holographic universe theory exactly?
This is indeed an interesting question to begin to answer, but it’s wise to at least give another perspective on the matter. The best way to start thinking of it is by taking a look at how human vision works. ‘Sight’ happens when photons of light bounce off of an object, travel through the lens of the eye and onto the retina. From there, photons are converted to electrical signals, which travel via neurons to the back of the brain where the visual cortex is located5. You don’t ‘see’ anything in the ‘outside’ of your mind. Everything you ‘see’ resides within a small few cubic centimeters in your brain6. All matter existing outside the body is an illusion created by electrical signals in the brain. It is also worthy to note, that the pineal gland is wired to the visual cortex in the same way as your eyes, and is often called your
‘third eye’ which is likely where vivid memories, and dreams are created. Everything resides within the mind. Mind over matter. Now let’s look at how a hologram works. A laser creates a waveform of light. This waveform gets split and directs one beam to a hologram plate to be reflected to a point in space where it intersects with the other waveform from the split7. These create an ‘interference pattern’ which is then photographed. This film is then projected using white light and it creates a seemingly three-‐dimensional object floating in space. To describe reality as a holographic ‘movie’ taking place within our brains can then begin to make more sense. The Matrix has you. Bohm and Pribram certainly wound up with this conclusion. Michael Talbot further expanded and explained this idea within his book The Holographic Universe. Many respectable quantum physicists and neuroscientists have also arrived at the same conclusions. Dr. Amit Goswami says “Science Quantum Mathematics … shows us clearly that the movements of objects are describable only in terms of possibilities – not the actual events that happen in our experience8.” Dr. Jeffrey Satinover expands to say that all matter is conceived of “concentrated bits of information9.” And Dr. Andrew Newberg echoes this in saying, “consciousness itself could even be the fundamental stuff of the universe10.”
So is consciousness another crucial ‘element’ to the cosmos? Perhaps the fifth element, æther of yore, is consciousness. Or perhaps the ‘source field’, or the ‘unified field’, or any one of the other ‘fields’ are also describing consciousness. Held together by consciousness. Philip K. Dick equates of the theory of tachyons to this idea; he equates it with the holy spirit of christianity11. All religions have tried to teach this knowledge (or tried to keep it hidden and only for those with ‘eyes to see’). They have used allegory and metaphor to describe the esoteric world that truly IS reality.
Much like allegory has been used to describe collective consciousness and consciousness, the hologram is another example of humans trying to make sense of reality, and using the appropriate symbols for that time/space to relate the information to other humans. A hologram picture is a great example of a new allegory for these ideas. If a portion of a hologram is cut off, or blocked, the whole picture still remains. The interference pattern that produces the hologram contains all parts of the whole within all parts of the pattern. This is the same as every atom in the universe containing the entire universe. As above, so below. On earth as it is in heaven. The microcosm is within the macrocosm and the macrocosm is within the microcosm. Artist Walter Russell Says, “All things are involved in all things.” Everything is a fractal of everything. The Holographic Universe model is one that has been used to explain many paranormal and mystical experiences. “In 1980 University of Connecticut psychologist Dr. Kenneth Ring proposed that near death experiences, as well as death itself, are nothing more than the shifting of a persons consciousness from one level of the hologram to another.” Michael Talbot’s book2 also tells us “Stanislav Grof concluded that only a holographic model can explain such things as archetypal experience, encounters with the collective unconscious, and other unusual phenomena experienced during altered states of consciousness.” And, “Fred Alan Wolf asserted the holographic model explains lucid dreams. The holographic model will ultimately allow us to develop a ‘physics of consciousness’ which will enable us to begin to explore more fully these other dimensional levels of existence.”
So now lets try to get a clearer picture, err hologram, of what this all means. We experience ‘reality’ as ‘individuals’ with our own
separate consciousness’. “I think therefore I Am.,”
explained Descartes12. This reality is contained in electrical
signals in our brains as interpretations of the source field,
like a TV receiving information and converting it into
electrical signals to be displayed on the screen. A type of calculus discovered by Jean B.J. Fourier is capable of converting any pattern regardless of complexity into a simple language of waves, and back again. This is the same mathematics that governs the television’s signal and your brain signals, one being slightly more complex than the other.
So, if we are TV sets, than what is the station that sends those signals, and ultimately ‘programs’ our life? If the theory seems controversial so far, this is where it gets to be even more so. This question has been the most controversial anyways: What controls our ‘fate’? The holographic model is fairly clear on this. Karl Pribram says, “Our brains are designed as holographic receivers and translators and have no capacity or ability to access or process any information on the other side of the field6.” The field is the huge cloud of information from which the ‘higher consciousness’ chooses our holographic realities.
Another man, Darryl Anka, has recently reached these conclusions from a more metaphysical path by channeling an entity named Bashar. He says “It is in that template level, just beyond the physical threshold, that the ‘higher self’ exists. So the higher self is like a guiding principle, a governing principle so to speak6.” Many have spoken of this ‘higher self’ through allegory, such as ‘the holy spirit’, ‘tachyons’,
‘collective conscience’, or whatever symbol you so choose to associate it with. An analogy that seems to be suitable is that your spirit/monad/driving force is a neuron within ‘god’s brain’ and that god’s spirit/monad/driving force is a neuron in a ‘larger’ fractal brain.
This gives new perspective to Bruce Lee when he says “be water13” and other concepts of the Tao. The monad is directed in space/time by the ‘holy spirit’ choosing it’s hologram movie experience and all the monad can do is react within the constraints of the side of the field it is on. The reactions we choose inevitably change the next series of holographic sensational experience we are given. “We human beings consider ourselves to be made up of “solid matter.” Actually, the physical body is the end product, so to speak, of the subtle information fields, which mold our physical body as well as all physical matter. These fields are holograms which change in time (and are) outside the reach of our normal senses.” Was penned by Itzhak Bentov in Striking the Wild Pendulum2.
According to Bashar, you cannot conceive, only perceive, and then react. William Shakespeare said it too in a poem: “All the world is a stage/ and all the men and women merely players…14” So, you are free to react to this article however you choose, but it was the hologram who placed it in front of you. The hope is to springboard on to continue researching these topics. Remember, you are like a TV, and this model is only one channel, perhaps only one program on that channel. Now to leave you with the words of the great Bill Hicks, “It’s only a ride.15”
Sources
- Robert Anton Wilson, Cosmic Trigger
- Michael Talbot, Holographic Universe
- Multiple Discovery: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multiple_discovery
- Synchronicities: www.carl-‐jung.net/synchronicity
- Vision: http://www.aoa.org/optometrists/education-‐and-‐
training/clinical-‐care/vision-‐a-‐collaboration-‐of-‐eyes-‐and-‐brain - Holographic Universe Youtube by Stephen Davis: butterfliesfree.com
- Holograph: http://holocenter.org/what-‐is-‐holography
- Amit Goswami:
- Dr. Jeffrey Satinover:
- Dr. Andrew Newberg:
- Philip K. Dick, The Exegesis of Philip K. Dick
- Descartes:
http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/124443/cogito-‐ergo-‐sum - Bruce Lee:
- Shakespeare: http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/all-‐the-‐world-‐s-‐a-‐stage/
- Bill Hicks:
