THE LIVING MATRIX
The Living Matrix, revolutionary it seemed when it was first issued, is now increasingly in the mainstream. Ostensibly about a supposed ‘miracle cure’, this documentary film narrated by several well-qualified academics looks inter alia at what the placebo effect implies as a matter of logic about how we influence our bodies by the power of our thinking. A series of questions are put such as why the genome of a chimpanzee which is so similar to that of a human’s genome results in such a different level of intelligence. Fast-acting as is the nervous system, it is not fast enough to process all the different bits of information that enable for instance a dancer correctly to take every step. It appears probable that there is some other directing centre of our thoughts and feelings that is not necessarily within the physical confines of the body. The tiniest portions of nan-cellular matter can be detected by huge-power microscopes and the flow of information-carrying waves to the brain can be tracked. Photons emit light from every one of our sub-atomic cells. The intensity of this light was measured by instruments sensitive enough to detect a candle flame at 12 miles Statistics well beyond those of ordinary probability demonstrate that not even an electro-magnetic shield stops the transference of thought from one individual to another. Basic drivers of our behaviour are considered: if they derive from DNA, surely there is an explanation that in turn fires up the DNA. What is it that inspires the DNA bodily changes that are demonstrated under laboratory conditions? A nebulous-sounding but extremely complex and interwoven system comprised in part of energy fields and ‘waves’ is posited as being pen ultimately responsible for our thinking, sensations and feelings. It is not to be pinned down to any non-localised centre in the physical body; where exactly is a ‘centre’ of the speech or a memory repository? There are two main centres, the brain and the heart. The heart is the first receiver of impulses and transmits its information to the brain which acts as a processor. Body cells interact with one another in a diffuse but coherent way with a parallel to the way in which the stars in the universe appear to interact.
What the Bleep do we Know
A bold appraisal of many of the ways in which the latest scientific development may impinge on belief systems. It is presented in a creative, non-professorial way that goes hand-in-hand with its fresh look at fundamental ideas about a spectrum that ranges from our personality to The Creation. The examples abound: In some Indian meditative cults it is the custom for devotees to begin a session of meditation by laughing out loud. It may seem like a good idea per se but it turns out there is grounding for doing so in the field of neuroplasticity. Brain scans appear to support the principle. The current received wisdom is that brain cells die off at an accelerating rate the older we get but it now seems that cells can be generated by intentionality to re-think and counter self-brainwashing. It gives grounds for hope that our ongoing decline with age is not a foregone conclusion. Are all the faith healers and proponents of conveying ideas or thoughts remotely, at a distance, necessarily peddling Old Wives’ Tales? It seems that biological cells can connect across the cosmos. The hypothesis of ‘Entanglement’ whereby, in lay terms, each cell has a ‘twin’ that reacts to stimuli irrespective of shared physical locale may be counter-intuitive but that does not make it pie in the sky. Do we have an effect on others; is the observer part of the equation that affects the observed? The question is considered from the standpoint of philosophical enquiry as well as physics. The astounding complexity of our neural networks where there are arguably more cells in a human body than stars in Outer Space gains in impact in the film where graphics illustrate the almost unending ‘pathways’ in each of us. This gives rise to philosophical ramifications with effect on whether there may be a shared unconscious supra-zone to each of us being creatures of the stars in which we had our origins. Laboratory experiments showing a statistically surprising degree of cohesion between thoughts and actions in others are a serious way in which to assess what may seem like a strange phenomenon. The nano world of quantum theory is a fertile ground to question basic assumptions about the eliding of space and time, now accepted by respected astrophysicists. It goes beyond our day-to-day perspective on ourselves, challenging our ideas of what is important in our lives, encouraging caution about many hidebound assumptions. The limitations of our sensory equipment should tell us that the world we ‘see’ is not the only world there is. Maybe many of the ideas of the mystics have a more solid basis than sceptics care to credit? The tale goes on, page after page in the book, scene after scene in the film, sometimes in breathless fashion, in some places perhaps more contentious than i n others, and usually with a rider that this is the state of advanced thinking at the moment, not accepted by all scientists. The wonderment at the incredible world in which we live is never far from the page or screen. Which jaded perspective is right to set all of this at naught even if some doubt, here and there, may seep in? It is a brave, even an inspiring, book and film.
THE TAO OF PHYSICS by Fritjof Capra
The Tao of Physics lives up to its subtitle An Exploration of The Parallels between Modern Physics and Eastern Mysticism. The criticisms of this best seller should be read before the book to gain an understanding of how mealy-mouthed spleen in the grove of Academe is not stoppered by an obstacle like fair-mindedness. Detractions of this work call to mind a dyspeptic grampus aiming a pea-shooter at a trail-blazing comet with: ‘Starting with reasonable descriptions of quantum physics, he (Capra) constructs elaborate extensions, totally bereft of the understanding of how carefully experiment and theory are woven together and how much blood, sweat, and tears go into each painful advance.’ Churchillian phraseology misses the point and it is irrelevant if advances of science are hard-won. It is a difficulty in reconciling the conclusions of scientific advances with common sense that brings a reader to The Tao of Physics, there to find ample scope to amaze and edify a layman about science and a copious knowledge about the mind-sets behind Eastern religion. Perhaps as Capra says: ‘Physics is impossible for lay person to understand but the mystical concepts speak to a timeless if unverifiable truth.’ How can a particle be in two places at the same time, be ‘there’ and ‘not there’, in ‘waves’ rather than at a fixed point, and happening before, during and after an ‘event’ which is not as it seems to a participant – a participant rather than an observer! It is enough to make minds spin faster than electrons. People may steady their ideas with the Zen dictum that ‘the instant you speak about a thing, you miss the mark.’ Capra does not disguise the fact that the metaphysics of this subject currently is not as clear as experimental results. Eastern ideas seem more apt at times than Newtonian physics to explain what is going on. Western tradition too can help make some sense of it, for instance Heraclitus who believed ‘in a world of perpetual change, all static being was based on deception, saw any pair of opposites as a unity, all change in the world arise from the dynamic and cyclic interplay of opposites. The unity which contains and transcends all opposing forces he called the Logos.’ The sub-atomic world and the Cosmos, the unifying wholeness and the inter-connectedness of everything, these and much more are considered while drawing on a wide range of physics and mysticism. The conundrum of how developments of physics square up with Eastern ideas is more satisfactorily dealt with by Capra, it is here contended, than by Catherine Glass who, before reading The Tao of Physics, opined in some bafflement that the following insight explains it:
None of this is easy to understand and Capra is less baffling than most.
POWERS OF TEN by Charles and Ray Eames
Starting with a closeup of a man sleeping near a lake, it makes its way quickly to the edge of the known universe. Then, just as quickly, it reverses course and descends down to the level of a carbon atom. Every ten seconds, the camera zooms out by the power of ten, moving from a one metre square view of the couple — viewed from one metre away — to ten, hundred and thousand metres till it reaches the limits of the known universe. As the voyage progresses, the earth is left behind, revealing the solar system and the stars before going past our ‘whorled’ galaxy —the Milky Way— into far-off empty space where human understanding of the universe ends. Now the camera begins the voyage back, zooming in at the power of minus ten from the astronomical to the inner world of an atom, where we meet another limit of human perception– that of the infinitely small. As the voyage ends within a proton embedded deep in one of the couple’s hands, the sub-atomic merges with the galactic, revealing a world within us that is as infinite filled with wonder as the vast swathes of outer space.
Based on the 1957 book by Kees Boeke, Cosmic View: The Universe in Forty Jumps, the Eameses used its concepts as the basis of a film that investigates the relative size of things and the significance of adding a zero to any number. The concept for the film is simple, but the concept they are trying to illustrate is large. It uses exponential powers to visualize the importance of scale. Illustrating the scale of cosmic immensity and smallness in just under 10 minutes.
Koyaanisqatsi
Koyaanisqatsi is an experimental film produced and directed by Godfrey Reggio that looks at the relationship between nature and humanity. It focuses on stunning cinematography and has neither dialog nor narration. Instead, it is backed by music composed by Philip Glass to set the tone.
In the Hopi language, Koyaanisqatsi means ‘life out of balance’. Ron Fricke, in charge of the cinematography, uses time-lapse and slow-motion effects to capture different natural landscapes in the United States. The footage surveys the environment and how quickly it is changing.
The film sets out to depict the juxtaposition between modern society and technology and how this contrasts with the natural world. Reggio purposefully uses no dialog or voice overlay in the film, not due to a lack of love of language but because he believes that words used no longer fit the world of today.
Paul Howard’s ‘INFINITE POTENTIAL’
This journey of Infinite Potential is both scientific and mystical. David Bohm provides answers to the big questions that humankind has been asking since the dawn of man. Who are we? Where do we come from? Why are we here? Bohm answers those questions and provides us with a fully integrated understanding of the mysteries of creation. It is part of a deeply relational science that goes beyond current models. This includes the gift of undivided wholeness and unfolding reality, a newly recognized domain of existence. It brings science, art, spirituality, and nature into a coherent system of wholeness and interconnectedness.
“Space is not empty. It’s full. It is the ground for the existence of everything, including ourselves”
Further exposition
The Cosmic Plenum: Bohm’s Gnosis: The Implicate Order
This is the vision David Bohm intuited from his insight (gnosis) into the quantum world. This vision discerns the characteristics of an evolving cosmos in process; and, also, it ponders upon the implications for humanity. Bohm’s scientific presentations are not in this article; however, they can be found in his books listed in the Reference Section at the end of these series of articles.
David Bohm, an American, was one of the leading quantum physicists of our age. He died recently. Following a venerable career at the University of California (Berkeley) and at Princeton’s Institute of Advanced Studies, he moved to become Professor of Theoretical Physics at Birkbeck College of the University of London. During his later years he linked a formidable knowledge of the history and philosophy of science to his keen experience as a physicist.
In recent years, Bohm attempted to explain an ontological basis for quantum theory. The basis of quantum theory can be summarized in three propositions:
1.) In the subatomic world, few things can be predicted with 100 percent precision; however, accurate predictions can be made about the probability of any particular outcome.
2.) One has to work with the probabilities rather than certainties, because it is impossible (for an observer) to describe all aspects of a particle at once (speed and location).
3.) Electromagnetic energy (such as light or heat) does not always behave like a continuous wave–rather it is grainy, because energy can be transferred only in quantum packages. Therefore, light has a dual character. Under certain circumstances, it may display wavelike aspects; and in other circumstances, it may have the characteristics of particles.
Referring to quantum theory, Bohm’s basic assumption is that “elementary particles are actually systems of extremely complicated internal structure, acting essentially as amplifiers of *information* contained in a quantum wave.” As a consequence, he has evolved a new and controversial theory of the universe–a new model of reality that Bohm calls the “Implicate Order.”
The theory of the Implicate Order contains an ultraholistic cosmic view; it connects everything with everything else. In principle, any individual element could reveal “detailed information about every other element in the universe.” The central underlying theme of Bohm’s theory is the “unbroken wholeness of the totality of existence as an undivided flowing movement without borders.”
During the early 1980s Bohm developed his theory of the Implicate Order in order to explain the bizarre behavior of subatomic particles–behavior that quantum phyicists have not been able to explain. Basically, two subatomic particles that have once interacted can instantaneously “respond to each other’s motions thousands of years later when they are light-years apart.” This sort of particle interconnectedness requires superluminal signaling, which is faster than the speed of light. This odd phenomenon is called the EPR effect, named after the Einstein, Podolsky, and Rosen thought experiment.
Bohm believes that the bizarre behavior of the subatomic particles might be caused by unobserved subquantum forces and particles. Indeed, the apparent weirdness might be produced by hidden means that pose no conflict with ordinary ideas of causality and reality.
Bohm believes that this “hiddeness” may be reflective of a deeper dimension of reality. He maintains that space and time might actually be derived from an even deeper level of objective reality. This reality he calls the Implicate Order. Within the Implicate Order everything is connected; and, in theory, any individual element could reveal information about every other element in the universe.
Borrowing ideas from holographic photography, the *hologram* is Bohm’s favorite metaphor for conveying the structure of the Implicate Order. Holography relies upon wave interference. If two wavelengths of light are of differing frequencies, they will interfere with each other and create a pattern. “Because a hologram is recording detail down to the wavelength of light itself, it is also a dense *information* storage.” Bohm notes that the hologram clearly reveals how a “total content–in principle extending over the whole of space and time–is enfolded in the movement of waves (electromagnetic and other kinds) in any given region.” The hologram illustrates how “information about the entire holographed scene is enfolded into every part of the film.” It resembles the Implicate Order in the sense that every point on the film is “completely determined by the overall configuration of the interference patterns.” Even a tiny chunk of the holographic film will reveal the unfolded form of an entire three-dimensional object.
Proceeding from his holographic analogy, Bohm proposes a new order–the Implicate Order where “everything is enfolded into everything.” This is in contrast to the explicate order where things are unfolded. Bohm puts it thus:
“The actual order (the Implicate Order) itself has been recorded in the complex movement of electromagnetic fields, in the form of light waves. Such movement of light waves is present everywhere and in principle enfolds the entire universe of space and time in each region. This enfoldment and unfoldment takes place not only in the movement of the electromagnetic field but also in that of other fields (electronic, protonic, etc.). These fields obey quantum-mechanical laws, implying the properties of discontinuity and non-locality. The totality of the movement of enfoldment and unfoldment may go immensely beyond what has revealed itself to our observations. We call this totality by the name *holomovement.*”
Bohm believes that *the Implicate Order has to be extended into a multidimensional reality;* in other words, the holomovement endlessly enfolds and unfolds into infinite dimensionality. Within this milieu there are independent sub-totalities (such as physical elements and human entities) with relative autonomy. The layers of the Implicate Order can go deeper and deeper to the ultimately unknown. It is this “unknown and undescribable totality” that Bohm calls the holomovement. The holomovement is the “fundamental ground of all matter.”
Finally, the manifest world is part of what Bohm refers to as the “explicate order.” It is secondary, derivative; it “flows out of the law of the Implicate Order.” Within the Implicate Order, there is a “totality of forms that have an approximate kind of recurrence (changing), stability, and separability.” It is these forms, according to Bohm, that make up our manifest world.
Summarizing, Bohm uses analogies most ingeniously as he attempts to simplify his theory. Bohm suggests that instead of thinking of particles as the fundamental reality, the focus should be on discrete particle-like quanta in a continuous field. On the basis of this quantum field, Bohm breaks down the Implicate Order into three categories:
The first category is the original, “continuous field” itself along with its movement. Bohm likens this continuous field to a television screen displaying an infinite variety of explicate forms.
The second category is obtained by considering superquantum wave function acting upon the field. (“This is related to the whole field as the original quantum wave is related to the particle.”) More complex and subtle, this second category applies to a “superfield” or *information* that guides and organizes the original quantum field. Bohm considers it to be similar to a computer which supplies the information that arranges the various forms–in the first category.
And last, Bohm believes that there is an underlying cosmic intelligence that supplies the information–the *Player* of this game who is the third category. Following this analogy, Bohm sees the whole process as a closed loop; it goes from the screen to the computer to the Player and back to the screen.
Bohm’s theory of the Implicate Order stresses that the cosmos is in a state of process. Bohm’s cosmos is a “feedback” universe that continuously recycles forward into a greater mode of being and consciousness.