The Holographic Universe
Chapter One
The Brain as Hologram
It isn't that the world of appearances is wrong; it isn't that there
aren't
objects out there, at one level of reality. It's that if you penetrate
through and look at the universe with a holographic system, you arrive
at a
different view, a different reality. And that other reality can explain
things that have hitherto remained inexplicable scientifically:
paranormal
phenomena, synchronicities, the apparently meaningful coincidence of
events.
--Karl Pribram in an interview in Psychology Today
The puzzle that first started Pribram on the road to formulating his
holographic model was the question of how and where memories are stored
in
the brain. In the early 1940s, when he first became interested in this
mystery, it was generally believed that memories were localized in the
brain. Each memory a person had, such as the memory of the last time
you
saw your grandmother, or the memory of the fragrance of a gardenia you
sniffed when you were sixteen, was believed to have a specific location
somewhere in the brain cells. Such memory traces were called engrams,
and
although no one knew what an engram was made of -- whether it was a
neuron
or perhaps even a special kind of molecule -- most scientists were
confident it was only a matter of time before one would be found.
There were reasons for this confidence. Research conducted by Canadian
neurosurgeon Wilder Penfield in the 1920s had offered convincing
evidence
that specific memories did have specific locations in the brain. One of
the
most unusual features of the brain is that the object itself doesn't
sense
pain directly. As long as the scalp and skull have been deadened with a
local anesthetic, surgery can be performed on the brain of a fully
conscious person without causing any pain.
In a series of landmark experiments, Penfield used this fact to his
advantage. While operating on the brains of epileptics, he would
electrically stimulate various areas of their brain cells. To his
amazement
he found that when he stimulated the temporal lobes (the region of the
brain behind the temples) of one of his fully conscious patients, they
reexperienced memories of past episodes from their lives in vivid
detail.
One man suddenly relived a conversation he had had with friends in
South
Africa; a boy heard his mother talking on the telephone and after
several
touches from Penfield's electrode was able to repeat her entire
conversation; a woman found herself in her kitchen and could hear her
son
playing outside. Even when Penfield tried to mislead his patients by
telling them he was stimulating a different area when he was not, he
found
that when he touched the same spot it always evoked the same memory.
In his book The Mystery of the Mind, published in 1975, just shortly
before
his death, he wrote, "It was evident at once that these were not
dreams.
They were electrical activations of the sequential record of
consciousness,
a record that had been laid down during the patient's earlier
experience.
The patient 're-lived' all that he had been aware of in that earlier
period
of time as in a moving-picture 'flashback.'"
From his research Penfield concluded that everything we have ever
experienced is recorded in our brain, from every stranger's face we
have
glanced at in a crowd to every spider web we gazed at as a child. He
reasoned that this was why memories of so many insignificant events
kept
cropping up in his sampling. If our memory is a complete record of even
the
most mundane of our day-to-day experiences, it is reasonable to assume
that
dipping randomly into such a massive chronicle would produce a good
deal of
trifling information.
As a young neurosurgery resident, Pribram had no reason to doubt
Penfield's
engram theory. But then something happened that was to change his
thinking
forever. In 1946 he went to work with the great neuropsychologist Karl
Lashley at the Yerkes Laboratory of Primate Biology, then in Orange
Park,
Florida. For over thirty years Lashley had been involved in his own
ongoing
search for the elusive mechanisms responsible for memory, and there
Pribram
was able to witness the fruits of Lashley's labors firsthand. What was
startling was that not only had Lashley failed to produce any evidence
of
the engram, but his research actually seemed to pull the rug out from
under
all of Penfield's findings.
What Lashley had done was to train rats to perform a variety of tasks,
such
as run a maze. Then he surgically removed various portions of their
brains
and retested them. His aim was literally to cut out the area of the
rats'
brains containing the memory of their mazerunning ability. To his
surprise
he found that no matter what portion of their brains he cut out, he
could
not eradicate their memories. Often the rats' motor skills were
impaired
and they stumbled clumsily through the mazes, but even with massive
portions of their brains removed, their memories remained stubbornly
intact.
For Pribram these were incredible findings. If memories possessed
specific
locations in the brain in the same way that books possess specific
locations on library shelves, why didn't Lashley's surgical plunderings
have any effect on them? For Pribram the only answer seemed to be that
memories were not localized at specific brain sites, but were somehow
spread out or distributed throughout the brain as a whole. The problem
was
that he knew of no mechanism or process that could account for such a
state
of affairs.
Lashley was even less certain and later wrote, "I sometimes feel, in
reviewing the evidence on the localization of the memory trace, that
the
necessary conclusion is that learning just is not possible at all.
Nevertheless, in spite of such evidence against it, learning does
sometimes
occur." In 1948 Pribram was offered a position at Yale, and before
leaving
he helped write up thirty years of Lashley's monumental research.
Holographic Universe. Copyright © by Michael Talbot. Reprinted by
permission of HarperCollins Publishers, Inc. All rights reserved.
Available
now wherever books are sold.
Book Reviews
Are individual experiences valid scientific data?, January 8, 2001
Reviewer: blisscoach (see more about me) from Moab, UT
USA 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.
~~~~~~~~~~
Excellent and makes you rethink your view of reality!, September 10,
2000
Reviewer: Winston from Washington state
This is definitely a must read
for
anyone who ever pondered the meaning of reality or the universe. It
puts
together a big picture of all kinds of phenomenon and how they exist.
So
many things about our mind, our world, and our universe are explained
if we
adopt a holographic paradigm. There is convincing scientific evidence
to
support this too, such as the 1982 Alan Aspect experiment that showed
that
there was no locality between the twin particles. This book is not some
wacky theory, because it contains quotes and studies from credible
people
and sources. In addition, the holographic theory is consistent with the
view of reality by mystics and the idea that we are all connected and
one,
which is why love is so important because it brings unity.
The only unanswered question I have that this book didn't seem to
answer is
this: If the universe is a hologram, then how is it that matter is
solid to
the touch? Why does my hand not pass through this table in front of me
if
it is a hologram? Upon reading the first 2 chapters closely, it appears
that the answer to my question is that since our hands and our bodies
are
PART of the hologram of the universe, it would "feel" that other
objects
are solid too. I am not sure of this though, but that is my
interpretation
of it. If anyone else who has read the book knows the answer to my
question, feel free to let me know. My email address is WWu777@aol.com
Thanks, Winston
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Our Universe Is Not What It Seems....., May 23, 2002 Reviewer: chad
steingraber (see more about me) from Lake Dallas, TX
Only one word can
describe this book...., WOW. Nothing in this book is an actual
recognised
theory, but it makes sense. It makes so much sense that it's hard to
understand why it isn't a full blown theory yet, or that many
progressive
scientists haven't caught on to it yet. For instance, the brain works
like
a hologram. All memories are stored in the brain at every single point
in
the brain. 98% of the brain can be removed (any given 98%) and NO
MEMORY
loss will occur. Any part of the brain can recall every single memory
you've every had...and what works like this? A hologram. Every piece of
the
original object contains the entire stucture of the whole.
This book coroborates modern science with ancient knowledge that our 3D
universe is just an illusion, that none of this physicalness is real.
And,
maybe that's the "danger-zone" that nobody wants to cross into yet.
Because, then, what does this elude to? It would mean our higher
dimensional selves are our true selves and this physical 3D version is
just
a reflection.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Editorial Reviews From Book News, Inc. Talbot explains the theory
advanced
by U. of London physicist David Bohm and Stanford U. neurophysiologist
Karl
Pribram
that despite its apparent tangible reality, the universe is
actually a kind of three- dimensional projection and is ultimately no
more
real than a hologram, a three-dimensional image projected into space.
Annotation copyright Book News, Inc. Portland, Or An interesting and
thought provoking book, May 12, 2002 Reviewer: A reader from Toronto A
friend recommended this book and I bought & read it blindly not knowing
what it was about or what to expect.
It started out very scientific; with facts & experiments. For example
it
talks about how holograms are stored and projected, then it goes on to
discuss how holographic type of storage may be used by our brains. This
was
just an amazing read.
Then a little past half way, the book started to take on a more
spiritual
aspect ... this kind of caught me off guard, but I kept reading anyway.
As
it turns out, it presented to me alot of alternate thoughts about the
world. I didn't agree with everything it put forth, but it really
presented
something to think about.
This is definitely one of the most important books I've ever read. Even
now, years later, I think about the concepts in this book regularly.