The Holographic Universe  (English, Paperback, Talbot Michael Professor)

The Holographic Universe explores the idea that the universe and perceived reality are just illusions and that they are 3-dimensional projections of a deeper reality.

Summary Of The Book

In 1982, a team of research scientists at the University of Paris made a startling discovery. They found that under certain conditions, subatomic particles seemed to be able to communicate with each other irrespective of distances. One of the theories that tried to explain this phenomenon was put forward by physicist David Bohm. He proposed the idea that the whole universe is just a holographic projection. The Holographic Universe explores this concept.

A holographic image is created by focusing a laser beam on the object to be captured on film. Then another beam of laser is bounced off this. The film then captures the region where the two lights merge. The resultant image on the film just looks like a fuzzy swirl of light. When a beam of laser is focused on the developed image, it creates a 3-dimensional image of the original object. The vital point is that, even if the hologram is cut into tiny pieces, each piece will still create a whole 3-D projection of the original image, though it might be smaller. This challenges the conventional scientific view that an object, if it is dissected, it will reveal its component parts. This would not work with a hologram, for if it is cut, it will just reveal smaller versions of the whole.

The holographic theory attempts to explain the strange process of subatomic particle communication by suggesting that the two particles are actually not two separate entities at all. They are part of a whole. It is just the perception of the observer that sees it as two separate objects. The holographic theory has also been used by some scientists to define the functioning of the brain. Experiments suggest that memory is not stored in one specific region of the brain, but is scattered over a large part of it. When a person recalls something from their memory, they are actually creating cross references and creating a whole out of interlinked pieces of information.

It is suggested that the brain is a holographic device that processes the information it receives into what the observer perceives as hard reality. In reality, this objective reality does not exist. So, the author of The Holographic Universe suggests that the Eastern philosophers might have solved the enigma of the universe when they asserted that the whole world was an illusion, Maya, projected out of a deeper reality.

About Michael Talbot

Michael Talbot was an American writer. He wrote novels and nonfiction works. His books include The Delicate Dependency, Night Things, Beyond The Quantum, and Mysticism And The New Physics. Michael Talbot was born in Michigan in 1953. He wrote science fiction, and horror novels. But he is more famous for his books that link physics with quantum mechanics. Michael Talbot died of leukemia when he was just 38.