During the last three decades, important developments in the fields of mathematics, laser technology, holography, quantum-relativistic physics, and brain research have led to the discovery of new principles that have far-reaching implications for modern consciousness research and for science in general. These principles have been called holonomic, holographic, or hologrammic, because they open fascinating alternatives to conventional understanding of the relationship between the whole and its parts. Their unique nature can best be demonstrated in the process of storing, retrieving, and combining information with the technique of optical holography.
It is important to emphasize that it is premature to talk about the “holonomic theory of the universe and of the brain,” as has been done in the past. At present, we are dealing with a mosaic of important and fascinating data and theories in different areas that have not yet been integrated into a comprehensive, conceptual framework. However, the holonomic approach, which emphasizes interference of vibratory patterns rather than mechanical interactions and information rather than substance, is a very promising tool in view of the modern scientific understanding of the vibratory nature of the universe. The new insights are related to such fundamental problems as the ordering and organizing principles of reality and of the central nervous system, the distribution of information in the cosmos and in the brain, the nature of memory, the mechanisms of perception, and the relationship between the whole and its parts.
The modern holonomic approach to the universe has its historical predecessors in the ancient Indian and Chinese spiritual philosophies and in the monadology of the great German philosopher and mathematician Gottfried Wilhelm von Leibniz (1951). The transcendence of the conventional distinction between the whole and the parts, which represents the major contribution of the holonomic models, is an essential characteristic of various systems of perennial philosophy.
The poetic image of the necklace of the Vedic god Indra is a beautiful illustration of this principle. In the Avatamsaka Sutra it is written: “In the heaven of Indra, there is said to be a network of pearls, so arranged that if you look at one, you see all the others reflected in it. In the same way, each object in the world is not merely itself, but involves every other object and, in fact, is everything else.” And Sir Charles Eliot (1969), quoting this passage, adds: “In every particle of dust, there are present Buddhas without number.”
A corresponding image from the ancient Chinese tradition can be found in the Hwa Yen school of Buddhist thought,.21 a holistic view of the universe that embodies one of the most profound insights the human mind has ever attained. The Empress Wu, who was unable to penetrate the complexity of Hwa Yen literature, asked Fa Tsang, one of the founders of the school, to give her a practical and simple demonstration of the cosmic interrelatedness. Fa Tsang first suspended a glowing candle from the ceiling of a room the entire interior of which was covered with mirrors, to demonstrate the relationship of the One to the many. Then he placed in the center of the room a small crystal and, showing how everything around it was reflected in it, illustrated how in the Ultimate Reality the infinitely small contains the infinitely large and the infinitely large the infinitely small, without obstruction. Having done this, Fa Tsang complained about the fact that this static model was unable to reflect the perpetual, multidimensional motion in the universe and the unimpeded mutual interpentration of Time and Eternity, as well as past, present, and future (Franck 1976).
In the Jain tradition, the holonomic approach to the world is presented in the most sophisticated and elaborate way. According to Jain cosmology, the phenomenal world consists of an infinitely complex system of deluded units of consciousness, or jivas, trapped in matter in different stages of the cosmic cycle. This system associates consciousness and the concept of jiva not only with the human and animal forms, but also with plants and inorganic objects, or processes. The monads in Leibniz’s philosophy (1951) have many characteristics of the Jainist jivas; all the knowledge about the entire universe can be deduced from the information related to a single monad. It is interesting that Leibniz was also the originator of the mathematical technique that was instrumental in the development of holography.
The technique of holography can be used as a powerful metaphor for the new approach and as a dramatic illustration of its principles. Therefore, it seems appropriate to begin with a description of its basic technological aspects. Holography is three-dimensional, lensless photography capable of recreating unusually realistic images of material objects. The mathematical principles of this revolutionary technique were elaborated by the British scientist Dennis Gabor, in the late 1940s; in 1971, Gabor was awarded a Nobel price for his achievement. The holograms and holography cannot be understood in terms of geometrical optics in which light is treated as consisting of discrete particles or photons. The holographic method depends on the superposition principle and on interference patterns of light; it requires that light be understood as a wave phenomenon. The principles of geometric optics represent an adequate approximation for a variety of optical instruments, including telescopes, microscopes, and cameras. These utilize only the light reflected from the objects and the intensities of light, not the phase. There is no provision for recording the interference patterns of light in mechanical optics. However, this is precisely the essence of holography, which is based on interference of pure monochromatic and coherent light (light of a single wavelength with all the waves in step). In the actual technique of holography (fig. 6), the beam of laser light is split and made to interact with the photographed object; the resulting interference pattern is then recorded on a photographic plate. Subsequent illumination of this plate by laser light makes it possible to recreate a three-dimensional image of the original object.
Fig. 6. The Technique of Holography. A laser beam is split by a half-silvered mirror. One part of it passes through, is directed to the photographed object, and having bounced off, it reaches the photographic plate (working beam). The other part is reflected directly to the plate (reference beam). When the two laser beams reconverge, the interference pattern is recorded in the film emulsion. Later illumination of this frozen interference pattern recreates a three dimensional image of the object.
The holographic images have many characteristics that make them the best existing models of psychedelic phenomena and other experiences in unusual states of consciousness. They make it possible to demonstrate many of the formal properties of LSD visions, as well as various important aspects of their content. The reconstructed pictures are three-dimensional and have a vivid realism that approaches or even equals that of everyday perception of the material world. Unlike the pictures in contemporary cinematography, holographic images do not merely simulate three-dimensionality. They show genuine spatial characteristics, including an authentic parallax..22 Holographic images offer the possibility of selective focusing on different planes and allow for perception of inner structures through transparent media. By a change of focus, it is possible to choose the depth of perception and to blur or clear various parts of the visual field. For example, new advanced techniques of holography using films with microscopic grain make it possible to produce a hologram of a leaf and to study its cellular structure under a microscope by changing the focus.
A property of holography that is particularly relevant for modeling the world of psychedelic and mystical phenomena is its incredible capacity for the storage of information; up to several hundred pictures can be recorded in the emulsion that, in conventional photography, would hold only a single image. Holography makes it possible to take a picture of two people or an entire group of persons by sequential exposures. Using just one film, this can be done either from the same angle or with slight change of angle for each exposure. In the former case, subsequent illumination of the developed film will yield a composite image of the couple or the group involved (for example, the entire staff of an institute or all the members of a football team). Occupying the same space, this image will thus represent no one of them and all of them at the same time. These genuinely composite images represent an exquisite model of a certain type of transpersonal experience, such as the archetypal images of the Cosmic Man, Woman, Mother, Father, Lover, Trickster, Fool, or Martyr, or generalized ethnic and professional visions, as exemplified by the Jew or the Scientist.
A similar mechanism seems to be involved in certain illusive transformations of persons or elements of the environment commonly observed in psychedelic sessions. Thus the sitter can be seen simultaneously in his or her real form and as father, mother, executioner, judge, devil, all men, or all women. The treatment room can oscillate between its everyday appearance and that of a harem, renaissance castle, medieval dungeon, death row, or a cottage on a Pacific island.
When holographic pictures are taken from different angles, all the individual images can be teased out sequentially and separately from the same emulsion by replicating the original conditions during exposure. This illustrates another aspect of visionary experiences, namely, that countless images tend to unfold in a rapid sequence from the same area of the experiential field, appearing and disappearing, as if by magic.
The individual holographic images can be perceived as separate but, at the same time, they are integral parts of a much broader undifferentiated matrix of interference patterns of light from which they originate. This fact can be used as an elegant model for some other types or aspects of transpersonal experience. The holographic pictures can be taken in such a way that the individual images occupy different spaces, as in simultaneous exposure of a couple or of a group of people. In that case the hologram shows them as two separate individuals or a group of persons. However, it is at the same time obvious to anybody familiar with the principles of holography that they can also be seen as an entirely undifferentiated field of light that, by specific patterns of interference, creates the illusion of separate objects. The relativity of separateness versus oneness, is of crucial importance for mystical and psychedelic experiences. It is difficult to imagine a more ideal conceptual aid and teaching device than holography to illustrate this otherwise incomprehensible and paradoxical aspect of nonordinary states of consciousness.
Probably the most interesting properties of holograms are those related to “memory” and information retrieval. An optical hologram has distributed memory; any small part of it large enough to contain the entire diffraction pattern contains the information about the whole gestalt. The decreasing size of the part of the hologram used for recreating the image will be associated with a certain loss of the power of resolution, or increase of information noise, but the overall characteristics of the whole will be retained. The holographic technique also makes it possible to synthetize new images of nonexisting objects by combining various individual inputs. This mechanism could account for the numerous combinations and symbolic variations of the unconscious material observed in psychedelic sessions or dreams.
They could account for the fact that each individual psychological gestalt, such as vision, fantasy, psychosomatic symptom, or thought form, contains an enormous amount of information about the subject’s personality. Thus, free association and analytical work on each seemingly miniscule detail of the experience can bring a surprising amount of data about the individual involved.
However, the phenomenon of distributed memory is of the greatest potential relevance for understanding the fact that LSD subjects have, in certain special states of mind, access to information about almost any aspect of the universe. The holographic approach makes it possible to imagine how the information mediated by the brain is accessible in every cerebral cell, or how the genetic information about the entire organism is available in every single cell of the body.
In a model of the universe where the emphasis is on substance and quantity, as in the one created by mechanistic science, a part is different from the whole in an obvious and absolute way. In a model that depicts the universe as a vibratory system and emphasizes information rather than substance, this distinction no longer applies. This radical change that occurs when the emphasis shifts from substance to information can be illustrated by the human body. Although each somatic cell is a trivial part of the entire body, it has through the genetic code access to all the information about the body. It is conceivable that in a similar way all the information about the universe could be retrieved from any of its parts. The demonstration of how the seemingly irreconcilable difference between the part and the whole can be elegantly transcended is probably the single most important contribution of the holographic model to the theory of modern consciousness research.
Such parallels between holography and psychedelic experiences are remarkable, especially if one considers that this technology is in its initial stages; it is difficult to anticipate how far-reaching its developments might be in the near future. Although the problems related to three-dimensional holographic cinematography and television are considerable, their realization is certainly within the possibilities of modern technology. Another fascinating application of holography, which is at an early stage, is character, pattern, and symbol recognition and the capacity to translate from one symbolic language into another.
The hologram is a unique conceptual tool that can be extremely useful in understanding the notion of wholeness. However, it makes a static record of a movement of complex electromagnetic fields; this obscures certain important properties and possibilities of the holographic domain. In actuality, the movement of light waves (and other types of vibratory phenomena) is present everywhere and, in principle, enfolds the entire universe of space and time. These fields obey the laws of quantum mechanics implying the properties of discontinuity and nonlocality. Thus the totality of enfolding and unfolding goes far beyond what reveals itself to scientific observation.
Recent revolutionary discoveries of the Argentinian-ltalian researcher Hugo Zucarelli extended the holographic model into the world of acoustic phenomena. Early in his life, Zucarelli became fascinated by the problems associated with the capacity of various organisms to localize sounds in auditory perception. By careful study and analysis of the mechanisms by which different species in the evolutionary pedigree arrive at precise identification of the sources of sound, he came to the conclusion that the existing models of hearing cannot account for important characteristics of human acoustic perception. The fact that humans can locate the source of sounds without movements of the head or positioning of the ear lobes clearly suggests that comparison of the intensity of acoustic input in the right and left ear is not the mechanism responsible for human abilities in this area. In additon, even individuals whose hearing has been destroyed on one side can still localize sounds. To explain all the characteristics of spatial hearing adequately, it is necessary to postulate that human acoustic perception uses holographic principles. This requires the assumption that the human ear is a transmitter, as well as a receiver.
By replicating this mechanism while recording sounds, Zucarelli developed the technology of holophonic sound. Holophonic recordings have an uncanny capacity to reproduce acoustic reality with all its spatial characteristics to such an extent that, without constant visual control, it is virtually impossible to distinguish the perception of recorded phenomena from actual events in the three-dimensional world. In addition, listening to holophonic recordings of events that stimulated other senses tends to induce synesthesia—the corresponding perceptions in other sensory areas.
Thus, the sound of scissors opening and closing near one’s scalp will convey a realistic sense of one’s hair being cut; the hum of an electric hairdryer can produce sensations of the stream of hot air blowing through the hair; listening to a person striking a match might be accompanied by a distinct smell of burning sulphur; and the voice of a woman whispering into one’s ear will make one feel her breath.
Holophonic sound has clearly profound theoretical and practical implications for many fields and areas of human life—from revolutionizing the understanding of physiology and pathology of hearing to undreamed of applications in psychiatry, psychology and psychotherapy, mass media, entertainment, art, religion, philosophy, and many other realms.
These extraordinary effects of holophonic technology throw an entirely new light on the importance attributed to sound in various spiritual philosophies and mystical schools. The crucial role of the cosmic sound OM in the process of creation of the universe, discussed in ancient Indian systems of thought; the deep connection between various acoustic vibrations and the individual chakras in Tantra and Kundalini Yoga; the mystical and magical properties ascribed to the sounds of the Hebrew and Egyptian alphabet; and the use of sound as the technology of the sacred in shamanism and aboriginal healing ceremonies, as well as a powerful means of mediating experiences of other realities—these are just a few examples of the paramount role of sound in the history of religion. The discovery of holophonic sound is thus an important contribution to the emerging paradigm bridging modern science and ancient wisdom.
However exciting the possibilities of holography and holophony might be, one should not yet get carried away and apply them indiscriminately and too literally to consciousness research. After all, holograms and holophonic recordings can only replicate important aspects of events in the material world, whereas the spectrum of transpersonal experiences includes many phenomena that are undoubtedly active creations of the psyche, rather than just replicas of existing objects and events or their derivatives and recombinations. In addition, experiences in nonordinary states of consciousness include certain characteristics that cannot at present be directly modeled by holonomic technology, although some can occur in the form of synesthesia induced by holophonic sound. Among these are the experience of temperature changes, physical pain, tactile sensations, sexual feelings, olfactory and gustatory perceptions, and various emotional qualities.
In optical holography, the holographic images, the field of light that creates them, and the film that is their generating matrix all exist on the same level of reality, and they can all be simultaneously perceived or detected in the ordinary state of consciousness. Similarly, all the elements of a holophonic system are accessible to our senses and instruments in ordinary consciousness.
David Bohm,23 a prominent theoretical physicist, former coworker with Einstein, and author of basic texts on both relativity theory and quantum mechanics, has formulated a revolutionary model of the universe that extends the holonomic principles into realms that at present are not subject to direct observation and scientific investigation. In an effort to resolve the disturbing paradoxes of modern physics, Bohm resurrected the theory of hidden variables, long considered disproved by such emminent physicists as Heisenberg and von Neumann. The resulting vision of reality changes drastically the most fundamental philosophical assumptions of Western science. Bohm described the nature of reality in general, and consciousness in particular, as an unbroken and coherent whole that is involved in an unending process of change—the holomovement. The world is in a constant flux, and stable structures of any kind are nothing but abstractions; any describable object, entity, or event is considered to be a derivative of an undefinable and unknown totality.
The phenomena that we perceive directly through our senses and with the help of scientific instruments—the entire world studied by mechanistic science—represent only a fragment of reality, the unfolded or explicate order. It is a special form contained within, and emerging from, a more general totality of existence, the enfolded or implicate order, that is its source and generating matrix. In the implicate order, space and time are no longer the dominant factors determing relationships of dependence or independence of different elements. Various aspects of existence are meaningfully related to the whole, serving specific functions for a final purpose rather than being independent building blocks. The image of the universe thus resembles that of a living organism whose organs, tissues, and cells make sense only in relation to the whole.
Bohm’s theory, although primarily conceived to deal with urgent problems of physics, has revolutionary implications for the understanding of not only physical reality but also of the phenomena of life, consciousness, and the function of science and knowledge in general. In Bohm’s theory, life cannot be understood in terms of or derived from, inanimate matter. As a matter of fact, it is impossible to draw a sharp and absolute distinction between the two. Both life and inanimate matter have a common ground in the holomovement, which is their primary and universal source. Inanimate matter is to be considered a relatively autonomous sub-totality in which life is “implicit” but is not significantly manifested.
In contrast to both the idealists and materialists, Bohm suggests that matter and consciousness cannot be explained from, or reduced to, each other. They are both abstractions from the implicate order, which is their common ground, and thus represent an inseparable unity. In a very similar way, knowledge about reality in general and science in particular are abstractions from the one total flux. Rather than being reflections on reality and its independent descriptions, they are an integral part of the holomovement. Thought has two important aspects: when it functions on its own, it is mechanical and derives its—generally unsuitable and irrelevant—order from memory. However, it can also respond directly to intelligence, which is a free, independent, and unconditioned element, originating in the holomovement. Perception and knowledge, including scientific theories, are creative activities comparable to the artistic process, not objective reflections of independently existing reality. True reality is immeasurable, and true insight sees the immeasurable as the essence of existence.
The conceptual fragmentation of the world that is characteristic of mechanistic science tends to create a state of serious disharmony and has dangerous consequences. It tends not only to divide what is indivisible, but to unite what is not unitable and to create artificial structures—national, economic, political, and religious groups. To be confused about what is different and what is not means to be confused about everything. The inevitable result is emotional, economic, political and ecological crisis. Bohm pointed to the fact that the conceptual fragmentation is supported by the structure of our language which emphasizes divisions in terms of subject, verb, and object. He laid the foundations of a new language, the rheornode. It does not allow discussion of the observed facts in terms of separately existing things of an essentially static nature, but describes the world in a state of flux as a dynamic process.
According to Bohm, the present situation in Western science is intimately associated with the use of optical lenses. The invention of lenses made it possible to extend scientific explorations beyond the classical order into the domains of objects that are too small, too big, too far away, or moving too rapidly to be perceived by unaided vision. The use of lenses strengthened awareness of the various parts of the object and their interrelationships. This furthered the tendency to think in terms of analysis and synthesis.
One of the most important contributions of holography is its ability to help give a certain immediate perceptual insight into the undivided wholeness that is an essential feature of the modern world view emerging from quantum mechanics and the relativity theory. Modern natural laws should refer primarily to this undivided wholeness in which everything implicates everything else as suggested by holograms, rather than to analysis into the separate parts indicated by the use of lenses.
David Bohm probably went further than any other physicist by explicitly including consciousness in his theoretical speculations. Fritjof Capra considers Bohm’s theory of holomovement (1980) and Chew’s “bootstrap” philosophy of nature (1968) to be the most imaginative and philosophically profound approaches to reality. He points out the deep similarities between them and considers the possibility that they will merge in the future into a comprehensive theory of physical phenomena. They share the view of the universe as a dynamic web of relations, both emphasize the role of order, both employ matrices to portray change and transformation, and both use topology to describe categories of order.
It is hard to imagine how Bohm’s ideas about consciousness, thinking, and perception could ever be reconciled with the traditional mechanistic approaches to neurophysiology and psychology. However, some recent revolutionary developments in brain research have changed the situation considerably. Neurosurgeon Karl Pribram (1971; 1976; 1977; 1981) developed an original and imaginative model of the brain which postulates that certain important aspects of cerebral functioning are based on holographic principles. Although Bohm’s model of the universe and Pribram’s model of the brain have not been integrated into a comprehensive paradigm, it is very exciting and encouraging that the two share the holographic emphasis.
Pribram, who has established his scientific reputation as a prominent brain researcher during several decades of experimental work in neurosurgery and electrophysiology, traces the beginnings of his holographic model to the investigations of his teacher, Karl Lashley. In his numerous experiments with rats, focusing on the problem of the localization of psychological and physiological functions in various areas of the brain, Lashley discovered that memories were stored in every part of the cortex and that their intensity depended upon the total number of intact cortical cells. In his book, Brain Mechanisms and Intelligence (1929), Lashley expressed the opinion that the firing of billions of cerebral neurons results in stable interference patterns that are diffused over the entire cortex and represent the basis for all the information of the perceptual systems and memory. In his efforts to solve the conceptual problems posed by experiments of this kind, Pribram became intrigued by certain fascinating properties of optical holograms. He realized that a model based on holographic principles would account for many of the seemingly mysterious properties of the brain—vast storage capacity, distribution of memory storage, the imaging capability of the sensory system, projection of the images away from the storage area, certain important aspects of associative recall, and so on.
Exploring this avenue of research, Pribram came to the conclusion that the holographic process must be seriously considered as an explanatory device of extraordinary power for neurophysiology and psychology. In Languages of the Brain (Pribram 1971) and in a series of articles, he formulated the basic principles of what became known as the holographic model of the brain. According to his research, the holograms that showed the greatest explanatory power and held the most promise were those that could be expressed in the form of the so-called Fourier transforms. The Fourier theorem holds that any pattern, no matter how complex, can be decomposed into a set of completely regular sine waves. Applying the identical transform then inverts the wave patterns back into the image.
The holographic hypothesis does not contradict specific localization of function within various systems in the brain. Localization of function depends in large part on connections between the brain and peripheral structures; these determine what is encoded. The holographic hypothesis addresses the problem of inner connectivity within each system, which determines how events become encoded. Another interesting approach to the problem of localization is based on Dennis Gabor’s suggestion that the Fourier domain may become segmented into informational units, called logons, by the operation of a “window” that limits band width. The window can be so adjusted that processing sometimes occurs primarily in the holographic domain, at other times in the space/time domain. This seems to throw interesting light on the puzzle that brain functions appear to be both localized and distributed.
Pribram’s hypothesis represents a powerful alternative to the two models of brain function that were until recently seen as the only possibilities—the field theory and the feature correspondence theory. Both of these theories are isomorphic—they postulate that the representation in the central nervous system reflects the basic characteristics of the stimulus. According to the field theory, sensory stimulation generates fields of direct current that have the same shape as the stimulus. The feature correspondence theory suggests that a particular cell or assembly of cells responds uniquely to a certain feature of the sensory stimulus. In the holographic hypothesis, there is no linear correspondence or identity between the brain representation and the phenomenal experience, as there is no linear correspondence between the structure of the hologram and the image produced when the film is properly illuminated.
The holographic hypothesis does not aim to account for all brain physiology nor for all problems of psychology. However, even at this stage it is clear that it offers exciting new possibilities for future research. Convincing experimental data and precise mathematical descriptions have so far been given for the visual, auditory, and somatosensory systems.
Pribram (1977; 1981) was able to connect his holographic hypothesis with important aspects of brain anatomy and physiology. In addition to the standard transfer of neuronal impulses between the central nervous system and peripheral receptors or effectors, he also emphasizes slow-wave potentials occurring between synapses even in the absence of nerve impulses. These originate in cells with very rich dendritic ramifications and short axons or no axons at all. While the neuronal impulses operate in a binary “on-off” fashion, the slow potentials are graded and undulate continuously at the junctions between the neurons. Pribram believes that this “parallel processing” is of critical importance for the holographic functioning of the brain. The interaction of these two systems results in wave phenomena that follow holographic principles.24
Slow-wave potentials are very subtle and sensitive to a variety of influences. This provides an interesting basis for speculations about the interactions between consciousness and the brain mechanisms, as well as for theorizing about the psychological effects of psychoactive drugs and various nondrug mind-altering techniques. Particularly interesting from this point of view is the technique of holonomic integration, combining hyperventilation with music and focused body work; it is described in chapter 7. Approaches associated with slow-frequency waves, such as meditation and biofeedback, are also of special interest in this context.
As has already been mentioned, the theories of Bohm and Pribram are far from being unified and integrated into a comprehensive paradigm. Even if such a synthesis were accomplished in the future, the resulting conceptual framework could not provide satisfactory explanations for all the phenomena observed in modern consciousness research. Although both Pribram and Bohm address problems related to psychology, philosophy, and religion, they derive their scientific data primarily from the physical and biological domains, whereas many psychedelic and mystical states deal directly with nonmaterial realms of reality. However, there is no doubt that the holonomic perspective allows focusing of serious scientific interest on many genuine transpersonal phenomena for which the crude and heavy-handed mechanistic paradigms had no other alternative than conceited ridicule. As long as one attempts to relate the new data from consciousness research to the findings of other scientific disciplines, rather than ignore mainstream science altogether as some determined proponents of perennial philosophy do, the new conceptual frameworks offer exciting opportunities.
My own preference in the field of consciousness research is to create models that would draw primarily on observations from disciplines that study human experience—psychology, anthropology, parapsychology, thanatology, perennial philosophy, and others. The formulation of these models can draw inspiration from, and be influenced by, compatible, well-founded developments in other disciplines.
Since perfect integration has not been achieved even among different fields of physics that describe phenomena on the same level of reality, it would be absurd to expect a perfect conceptual synthesis between systems describing different hierarchical levels. However, it is conceivable that certain universal principles can be discovered that will be applicable in different domains, although they will take a different specific form in each domain. Prigogine’s “order through fluctuation” (1980) and René Thom’s catastrophe theory (1975) are important examples. With these reservations in mind, we can now discuss the relationship between various observations from consciousness research and the holonomic approach to the universe and the brain.
Bohm’s concept of the unfolded and enfolded orders and the idea that certain important aspects of reality are not accessible to experience and study under ordinary circumstances are of direct relevance for the understanding of unusual states of consciousness. Individuals who have experienced various nonordinary states of consciousness, including well-educated and sophisticated scientists from various disciplines, frequently report that they entered hidden domains of reality that seemed to be authentic and in some sense implicit in, and supraordinated to, everyday reality. The content of this “implicate reality” would have to include, among others, elements of the collective unconscious, historical events, archetypal and mythological phenomena, and past incarnation dynamics.25
In the past, many traditional psychiatrists and psychologists have interpreted the manifestations of the Jungian archetypes as imaginary products of the human mind, abstracted or constructed from actual sensory perceptions of other people, animals, objects, and events in the material world. The conflict between Jungian psychology and mainstream mechanistic science regarding the archetypes is a modern replica of the disputes about the Platonic ideas that went on for centuries between the nominalists and the realists. The nominalists maintained that the Platonic ideas were nothing but “names” abstracted from phenomena in the material world, whereas for the realists, these had an independent existence of their own on another level of reality. In an extended version of the holonomic theory, the archetypes could be understood as phenomena sui generis, cosmic principles that are woven into the fabric of the implicate order.
The fact that certain kinds of archetypal visions can be so successfully modeled by holography suggests a possible deep link between archetypal dynamics and the operation of holonomic principles. This is particularly true for archetypal formations that represent generalized biological, psychological, and social roles, such as the images of the Great or Terrible Mother and Father, Child, Martyr, Cosmic Man, Trickster, Tyrant, Animus, Anima, or the Shadow. The experiential world of such culturally colored archetypes as various concrete deities and demons, demigods, heroes, and the mythological themes could be interpreted as phenomena of the implicate order that have a more specific connection with certain aspects of the explicate order. In any case, archetypal phenomena must be seen as ordering principles supraordinated to and preceding material reality, rather than its derivatives.
The transpersonal phenomena that can most easily be related to the holonomic theory are those that involve elements of “objective reality”—identification with other people, animals, plants, and inorganic reality in the past, present, and future. Here, some of the essential characteristics of the holonomic understanding of the world—relativity of boundaries, transcendence of the Aristotelian dichotomy between the part and the whole, and all the information enfolded in and distributed throughout the entire system—offer an explanatory model of extraordinary power. The fact that both space and time are enfolded in the holographic domain would then be compatible with the observation that transpersonal experiences of this kind are not bound by the usual spatial or temporal limitations.
Everyday experiences of the material world, fully compatible with the Newtonian-Cartesian model of the universe, would be seen in this context as reflecting selective and stabilized focus on the explicate or unfolded aspect of reality. Conversely, transcendental states of a highly undifferentiated, universal, and all-encompassing nature could be interpreted as direct experience of the implicate order or the holomovement in its totality. The concept of the implicate order would have to be much broader than Bohm’s; it would have to be the creative matrix for all the levels described by perennial philosophy, not just those that seem immediately necessary for the description of phenomena on the physical or biological levels.
Other types of transpersonal experiences—such as sacralization of everyday life, manifestation of an archetype in everyday reality, seeing one’s partner as a manifestation of the Animus, Anima, or of the divine—could then be seen as transitional forms, combining elements of the explicate and implicate order. All the above examples have one common denominator that is an absolutely necessary prerequisite for this kind of thinking: one must assume that consciousness has—at least in principle, if not always in actuality—access to all forms of the explicate and implicate order.
The holonomic approach also offers some exciting new possibilities in regard to certain extreme paranormal phenomena consistently reported in spiritual literature, but discounted as absurd by mechanistic science. Psychokinesis, materialization and dematerialization, levitation, and other supernormal feats, or siddhis, demonstrating the power of mind over matter might well deserve scientific reevaluation in this connection. If the basic assumptions of the holonomic theory about the explicate and implicate order reflect reality with a sufficient degree of accuracy, it is conceivable that certain unusual states of consciousness could mediate direct experience of, and intervention in, the implicate order. It would thus be possible to modify phenomena in the phenomenal world by influencing their generative matrix. This kind of intervention would be entirely inconceivable for mechanistic science because it would bypass the conventionally recognized chains of linear causality and not involve energy transfer within the explicate order of reality as we know it.
It seems obvious that we are approaching the time of a major paradigm shift. At present, there is a rich mosaic of new theoretical concepts that share certain general characteristics, as well as the fact of radical departure from the mechanistic models. The synthesis and integration of these exciting new developments in science will be a difficult and complex task and it is questionable whether it is at all possible. In any case, it seems that such a comprehensive paradigm of the future, capable of accommodating and synthesizing all the diversity of data from quantum-relativistic physics, systems theory, consciousness research, and neurophysiology, as well as from the ancient and Oriental spiritual philosophies, shamanism, aboriginal rituals, and healing practices would have to involve complementary dichotomies on three different levels: those of the cosmos, of the individual, and of the human brain.
The universe would have its phenomenal, explicate, or unfolded aspects and its transcendental, implicate, or enfolded aspects. The corresponding complementarity on the level of the human being would be the image of the Newtonian-Cartesian biological machine and that of an unlimited field of consciousness. A similar dichotomy would then be reflected in the dual aspects of the human brain, combining the digital computerlike functioning and parallel processing governed by holonomic principles. Although it is not possible at present to consolidate these images and create an internally consistent model, even in its preliminary forms the holonomic approach offers undreamed of possibilities in the controversial field of modern consciousness research.