Michael Talbot
1996

A  long-time favorite of mine, The Holographic Universe details dozens of very well-documented and otherwise inexplicable events—the kind of strange, coincidental, or even unbelievable experiences we can almost forget are even possible if we only pay attention to “consensus reality.” It’s easy to dismiss these things because they seem so implausible, unless we have regularly had similar experiences. Even one or two personal experiences are likely to be drowned out by the roar of the left brain censor. 

Talbot’s intention is to explain all these occurrences based on Pribram’s model of a holographic reality and Bohm’s theories of implicate and explicate orders. The first chapters provide a very clear summary of quantum physics and the implications that support his holographic theory.

Talbot says:

Considered together, Bohm and Pribram’s theories provide a profound new way of looking at the world: Our brain waves mathematically construct objective reality by interpreting frequencies that are ultimately projections from another dimension, a deeper order of existence that is beyond both space and time:  the brain is a hologram enfolded in a holographic universe.

For Pribam, this synthesis made him realize that the objective world does not exist, at least not in the way we are accustomed to believing. What is “out there” is a vast ocean of waves and frequencies, and reality looks concrete to us only because our brains are able to take this holographic blur and convert it into the sticks and stones and other familiar objects that make up our world. (p54).

This idea of a deeper order of existence of which our reality is a reflection is of course familiar from Eastern religious and philosophical thought as well as from indigenous cultures the world over. Now that more  physicists and mathematicians, as they explore the heart of quantum reality, are coming full circle back to this understanding, the question becomes how to integrate these decidedly “non-consensus reality” experiences into our normal, daily view of how things work. Talbot’s writing is lucid and organized, and this is an excellent introduction to these ideas, or a good review if you are familiar with the concepts.