A hologram is produced when a single beam of light is split into two. One beam is then reflected off an object to be photographed, while the other beam is reflected off mirrors until it re-collides with the first beam. This collision causes an interference pattern, like two sets of ripples meeting in a pond. The interference pattern, which actually looks like multiple ripples on waters surface, is then recorded on a piece of film. When a beam of light is then shined through this piece of film, a three-dimensional, yet intangible image is displayed. Michael Talbot, along with many distinguished scientists, is convinced that the physical world we experience is holographic in nature.
In the 1940’s, a few remarkable properties of holograms sparked immense interest in two specific scientists in two very different fields of study: Karl Pribram, a neurophysiologist from Stanford University, and David Bohm a quantum physicist and protégé of Einstein. These two men came to the conclusion that the physicial universe around us is a holograph, and they did so independently and from different directions. The holographic nature of the universe explained for Bohm many phenomena of quantum physics and for Pribram many neurological conditions, which until then could not be explained by current theories or mechanisms.
Michael Talbot beautifully simplifies complex scientific theories in order to explain a growing branch of quantum physics, which bases theories on the fact that the universe is a holograph. While the holographic model, as it is called, is highly controversial, Talbot presents an unbiased report including relevant dissention through all the branches of science the holographic model touches on.
Although it is cliché, and often hyperbolic to say that a book changed yourlife, The Holographic Unioverse did just that. No current, widely-accepted quantum theory is anywhere close to as encompassing as the holographic model to explain the world around us. Throughout history accounts have been repeatedly authenticated and scientific studies done that disprove our prevalent explanations of reality. Current scientific theories practically ignore phenomena they can not explain, from religious miracles, to paranormal activities, to the simple power of thought. In 1987, physicists at Princeton exhausted studies until they had to reluctantly admit, “Through mental concentration alone, human beings are able to affect the way certain kinds of machines operate.” This would have been a monumental discovery, if the scientific community had not ignored it like so many similar findings in the past.
This books is a must read for anyone who has ever had even the slightest thought that there must be more to this world than meets the eye — for anyone who has even considered for a moment the possibility of the paranormal: of mind reading, of synchronicity, of premonitions and gut feelings, of the power of thought or prayer, of the metaphysical, of life after death, of parallel universes. Talbot takes you through the world of the seemingly unexplainable, and presents a theory of quantum physics that serves to explain it all, and he does so with no air of arrogance or intellectualism and with a beautiful and articulate simplicity that never intimidates and never confuses.
