The Holographic Universe
by Michael Talbot
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Book Reviews of The Holographic Universe
Book Review: Occam's Dull Razor is no Good for Shaving
Summary: 5 Stars
William of Occam never intended for his idea to be used in the manner a certain pseudo-skeptic reviewer (March 27 2006) uses it. Certainly, Newton's theory of gravity is simpler than Einsteins, but that doesn't make it more correct. Also, the decision regarding which theory is "simpler" is completely subjective. One person could have an easier time comprehending one theory over another and a second person could have the opposite view. Appealing to the view that "simpler is better in every circumstance" is a very dogmatic reflex for philosophical materialists. Even if, in some hypothetical world, everyone agreed that one theory was simpler than another that doesn't mean anything. The simpler view probably is simpler because it ignores any anomalous data, which is not scientific at all. This book explores all the data that doesn't fit with the current scientific paradigm of steel ball like subatomic particles devoid of consciousness and offers a theory that could explain it. In writing this book, Michael Talbot is following in the tradition of Galileo's Dialogue on the Two Chief World Systems, or Darwin's Origin of Species, challenging the status quo because it falls far from explaining the way things are.
Also, anecdotal evidence/personal testimony is absolutely valid. If it were not there would be hundreds of killers and rapists running around instead of in prison where they belong, all because the courts refused to accept the testimony of eye witnesses. I for one am glad the justice system doesn't have such impossibly high standards. Or, as Winston Wu put it:
"One argument I use that always gets these skeptics goes like this. I ask them about a country they've never been to before, such as France for example. And I state it like this: "Since you've never been to France before, and you have no real evidence that it exists other than anecdotes you heard, do you assume then that it doesn't exist for now? After all, the photos, videos, and souvenirs from that country could all be forgeries, you just don't know do you?" The skeptic will usually reply with "But I can fly to France and verify that it exists." And that answer totally misses the point, so I then counter with the key question "Yeah but UNTIL you go to France, do you assume for NOW that it doesn't exist, based on your skeptical philosophy that anecdotal evidence is invalid?" That stumps them EVERYTIME! They NEVER have a response to that one."
One further thing. If the wounds of stigmatics were self inflicted they would get infected, and yet they NEVER do. On top of that there's no way a stigmatic could sustain such massive blood loss and not have any negative side effects. Unless of course they stole units of blood and are giving themselves transfusions when nobody is looking (an asinine answer but I don't doubt some people will defend it for fear of losing their beloved materialism). Furthermore, most people who experience stigmata are placed unter intense scrutiny (no kidding) and show no signs of mental illness or psychological instability of any kind. For further refutation of the debunker's claims about stigmata see my website The Urban Mystic on AOL journals.
The Holographic Universe addresses the shortcomings of current scientific views and draws attention to the need for a more holistic approach to scientific investigation.
Book Review: Just another part of the one Universe
Summary: 5 Stars
I am researching LSD and its essential outgivings of the human psyche and why we release such thoughts the way we do under the influence of the chemical.Through my previos experience I exploited many astonishing findings that involved stretching out the senses. The state of mind I've put my self in through my sessions is one of a high faithful optimistic researcher. In with the "solution" (otherwise known to all as LSD)I discovered that at times the visual you project out of your mind is coming directly from the expiramenter. The powers of the astonishing wave moments come through with this particular solution from strong imaginative emotions. As with the explicate order, here in this other realm we are taught that the powers of the mind are so potenent that they are capable of projecting and materializing anything and shutting out the principles of science and how matter works. Gravity is a formal pull, and as we are told of psychokenesis, we may be able to even move gravity out of our way and float away like a feather in space. To make this theory clearer we must give ourselves the understanding that the energy field and particles making up gravity posses a certain kind of consciousness that we as human beings in our normal state of mind, cannot comprehend. Through inside the implicate with the solution we can somehow place ourselves in gravity's place putting ourselves vulnerable and capable of being gravity itself and literally possesing its traits. If an interconnection is installed through such an exercise the expectations should be classified as "Limitless" and "Unpredictable" leading to many phenomenal occurences such as an outer-body experience or a "New emotion-finding". When under the influence of LSD we give out so many different emotions through us. I believe these hard built emotions are emotions we probably once had in another life or maybe an emotion we posses through our unconcious selves. When touched through by LSD our brain functions at the equivalence of our dream like state clinically proving us unconcious or sometimes by these raging critics, "Insane". What's being projected out of our mind through the experience is whatever we profoundly percieve to be there or whatever we're thinking, and even what our "Focal Point" reminds us of. The focal point in an LSD session is simply where you're setting your stable sight on. For example,picture yourself looking at a sink and its faucet;depending on how strong you mind works and how strong your visual aids are will be the results of your "Out total projected image" that shocks you. It should not only be the image through your sight that is so shocking,but all those other senses should be shocked also. The shock should be composed either by a theory of that faucet's past, present, or future, or even how that faucet feels about everything.Many times I find myself not being able to project what an object feels about everything. So instead I simply find out how it physically feels. This itself "For now" is a brilliant data to my collection for my spirit and its skills. Skills are formatted by beliefs and faith. If you believe it can, then it will under the proper circumstances and under the right process taken.Book Review: An excellent description of the reality of SPIRIT
Summary: 5 Stars
The Holographic Universe is an excellent book in that it confirms the non-material aspect of reality, beyond the materialistic views of the human race. It is a view of the reality of SPIRIT. This book will help a person to realize that there is more to reality than we are able to perceive with our five senses. The phenomenon of the holographic principle is an excellent indication of how intimately we are connected with the Infinite Creator.How The Holographic Universe by Micheal Talbot is perceived depends on a person's degree of Spiritual perception. I think that science has done an excellent job on describing the reality of Spirit but not viewing it as such. The required "proof" of scientific evidence by many people is a typical western attitude that limits western thinking to the materialistic side of reality and they fail to recognize the non-material aspect of reality. When a person maintains that he or she must have scientific proof, they will never be able to aspire beyond the established scientific consciousness of western civilization. Not that I speak against scientific evidence, not at all, but we must be aware that science has its limits in what it can and cannot "proof." To make science the "god" of your life or to have it as your only means of proof can become a fatal mistake.
The Spiritual aware person who has read The Holographic Universe will realize that our so called "material world" is in truth not as physical or material as we think is. The fact that atomic particles have a waveform side to their existence indicates that there is a reality beyond our physical world which the material world, that which we perceive with our five senses, has to rely upon for its existence. It cannot exist without the energy field (Spirit) that manifests the atomic particles of which the universe is composed including our bodies and our surrounding reality. It has been stated that humans only use 10% of the capacity of their brain. It means that the perception of reality in the current state of human development is only perceived in that 10% capability. What will the other 90% of our brain capacity do for us? Will we see things that we are not able to see at the moment? Are there shapes in our reality that exist which the current undeveloped human mind is not capable of perceiving with its 10% of intelligence? It may be best to keep an open mind so that we can learn and progress faster than to think that we already know it all. The evidence of psychic phenomena and other unexplainable anomalies is proof that a something exists which science is not capable of analyzing, not even with the combined power of their super computers. They see it, analyze it, but cannot explain what they are viewing. I think that most humans fail to recognize the enormity of God's infinite presence in our reality and is obscured by personal, scientific, and religious conditioned thinking. God definitely does not exist between the covers of the Bible. If it did, that would invalidate the word "Infinite" which means that nothing can escape its presence because it is neither here, nor there, but EVERYWHERE.
Book Review: Interesting For New Agers
Summary: 4 Stars
This book attempts to prove that the universe has similar characteristics to a hologram. But the term 'universe' here goes far beyond the physical universe. I also includes other dimensions such as where people go when they are in between lives.
Those other dimensions are like looking at the hologram from different angles I guess and the past and future are already contained in this hologram.
A holograph is created by combining the images of an object with another image of that same object that has been reflected from mirrors. If a holographic image is broken apart each fragment contains the 'memory' of the entire image and can be used to reconstruct the entire image. I don't think anyone knows how this is possible.
This is then related to the holographic universe consisting of a direct image from 'God' and an indirect reflection of God from us:
"...our universe is constantly created and sustained by two wavelike flows, one from heaven and one coming from our own soul or spirit."
However it gets into a lot of new age topics which will mainly be interesting if you're a new ager. I am so I found it interesting.
There's a quite a few places where it talks about various things and then throws in the word 'hologram' once in awhile to remind the reader about the title of the book.
This is a good book if you want to find out about other new age authors and topics for further reading. It pulls in everything from mythology to UFOs.
Jeff Marzano
Fulcanelli: Master Alchemist: Le Mystere des Cathedrales, Esoteric Intrepretation of the Hermetic Symbols of The Great Work (Le Mystere Des Cathedrales ... of the Hermetic Symbols of Great Work)
The Giza Power Plant : Technologies of Ancient Egypt
The Mystery of the Crystal Skulls: Unlocking the Secrets of the Past, Present, and Future
The Lives of Edgar Cayce
Lives of the Master: The Rest of the Jesus Story
Edgar cayce's story of the origin and destiny of man
Secret Life: Firsthand, Documented Accounts of UFO Abductions
Ufo...Contact from Planet Iarga
The Outer Limits - The Original Series, Season 1
Book Review: Preaching to the choir
Summary: 2 Stars
If you are a skeptic looking for some real scientific backing for claims of paranormal phenomena, this is NOT the book for you. If, however, you already accept stories of levitation, faith healing, and psychic abilities as the gospel truth, you will find ample pseudo-scientific gobbledygook within this tome to back yourself up when talking to gullible and/or uneducated people.Talbot, an excellent writer, begins with the work of Karl Pribram, who does research into how the mind stores and retrieves memories. At some point, Pribram became aware of holograms, and found that the way the refracted laser light of hologram construction spreads out on its way to the film reminded him of the way a nerve impulse fans out at the end of a neuron. This, apparently, was enough to convinve Pribram (and Talbot) that not only is memory holographic, but so is the entirety of existence merely a holographic construct created by our brains.
From there, Talbot moves on, in a series of extremely well-constructed and well-reasoned arguments, to show that IF this theory of the nature of reality is true, then everything you ever saw in the Weekly World News and "The Matrix" could have more than enough scientific backing to convince any reasonable person of their reality. Diseases, even cancer, can be cured by merely willing them away. Levitation, pyrokinesis and ESP are there waiting for you to start doing them. It all makes a kind of sense, assuming, of course, you buy the premise of the book.
The real problem is that Talbot seems to accept these phenomena as true WITHOUT Pribram's hypothesis. At times, he almost seems to argue that because (for him) all of these mystical goings-on are well-established fact, then Pribram MUST be right.
Whether or not these things really happen, the whole book is based on an untested hypothesis based on an analogy drawn by one researcher. Does the analogy stand up when examined? How does the refracted light projected onto a film have anything to do with signals passing between physical neurons? Talbot never asks. For me, the analogy falls apart as soon as I take one step past noticing a correlation between the two events. This is more than Talbot (or, apparently, Pribram) ever does at any point in his book, so great is his enthusiasm.
Talbot (who I do not for a minute believe has any malicious designs in writing this book) has designed, down to the fine details, a beautiful castle in the air with no foundation. The world of possibilities he describes is truly wonderful and inspiring. I personally would love it if all the things in his book could be true. Of course, I thought the Tooth Fairy was a neat idea too, until I had experienced enough of the world to realize there was nothing substantial supporting my belief. Go read something by James Randi and clear your head.
Talbot gets the first star becuase Amazon does not allow a "zero stars" option, and earns the other star for attempting to deal in layman's terms with concepts of twentieth century physics. This is more than most schools do, leading too many people to accept premises such as Talbot's on faith alone.