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Reality as a hologram?

Posted: Fri Apr 29, 2005 8:16 am
by Dawngoogs
Hi Everyone,

I'm a newbie here. I came upon this sight searching for something else. But I'm glad I found it.

I'm consider myself somewhat of fallen Roman Catholic who is beginning to search out the truth. Personal experiences in my life have shattered many of my beliefs.

Anyway, I really wanted to get some thoughts on the idea that reality may be a type of hologram. Have you ever researched this idea? And how God falls into the hologram theory?

Has anyone ever read "Holographic Universe," by Michael Talbot?

I'd like to read any of your insights.

Posted: Fri Apr 29, 2005 8:45 am
by Dan
Do you mean the possibility that our reality is a projection of a 2 dimensional 'real world' that makes our 3 dimensional world the way it is?

I don't know what you're talking about exactly.

Posted: Fri Apr 29, 2005 10:22 am
by Prodigal Son
i read it. i have it somewhere around here. pretty weird, huh?

Posted: Sun May 01, 2005 9:53 am
by kateliz
Hey Dawngoogs,

I've only heard the mention of the idea, but it's intriguing. Would this be about there being other dimensions that would so cause our own reality to be a visual projection? Could someone please inform me of the general idea involved?

From what I remember

Posted: Mon May 02, 2005 7:57 am
by Dawngoogs
I read a couple of years back. But the general idea is that reality is very much like a hologram. The general idea somes from two leading scientists who came to the same conclusion working in two sperate professions. One was a neurophysiologist named Karl Pribram. The other was David Bohm a quantum physicist.

A hologram is basically a three-dimensional photograph made with a laser. To make a hologram, the object to be photographed is first bathed in the light of a laser beam. Then a second laser beam is bounced off the reflected light of the first and the resulting interference pattern (the area where the two laser beams commingle) is captured on film. What is unique about a hologram is that every part of the hologram photograph contains the entire information of the whole.

Isn't said in scripture that the entire universe could be found in a grain of sand?


Pribram found that memory in the brain was not stored in a location of the brain. Instead, he found memory storage to be "whole in every part."

One problem in quantum physics is how do subatomic particles stay in contact with each other regardless of distance. They defy physics and seem to communicate faster than the speed of light. Bohm believes the reason is because their separateness is an illusion. He argues that at some deeper level of reality such particles are not individual entities, but are actually extensions of the same fundamental something.

To sum it up, we are like receivers. Trained to interpret the interference pattern created by the holographic laser.

The Universe as an Illustration of God

Posted: Mon May 02, 2005 6:44 pm
by kateliz
Very intriguing indeed! To say that these solid objects around me are fundamentally a projected illusion... why if it doesn't defy logic it certainly requires quite a bit of it! I don't know a thing about quantum physics besides that they defy regular physics and can so allow for some pretty crazy realities. This does make one think.

And if it's a projected illusion, would that mean that there's one who does the projecting, or at least causes the illusion at the start of the whole process? I guess just like a watch requires a watch-maker, a hologram requires a guy behind the lazers, right?

And could this "same fundamental something" be God, through Whom everything was created and continues to exist? Huh! If you take that and run with it you could postulate that it's scientific evidence for God Himself! Wouldn't that be a hoot! So God spoke and from Him proceeded the universe, which could possibly have a fundamental similarity in every part of it that unifies it, and wouldn't it make sense that this unifier is the Unity from which it was once dispersed?

Hmmm, could the universe then be the illusion, and spiritual things the true reality? Just like behind a shadow is the the object it illustrates? Granted, not everything in the universe might be backed by a spiritual entity. But couldn't this also verify God declaring that the evidence for Him exists in every part of the universe? If this illusion we see is a representation of the Great Spirit, not only in appearance but also in it's fundamental existence, then that biblical principle would have scientific backing in this theory as well!

Does this theory cause science to back God, or God to back science? Does it more prove science supports God, or God supports science? Which came first, the chicken or the egg? I think I'm confusing myself again! It is difficult sometimes to convey one's thoughts, and especially when one loses them while doing the explaining! Might as well stop while you're slightly behind!

Posted: Mon May 02, 2005 8:11 pm
by AttentionKMartShoppers
If the universe is a hollogram, then what are we made up? Second, a hollogram is just a visual image of something that really exists...so what am I typing on? Then, that leads to, what do I exist in? How do I move around in a hollogram? :? And about subatomic particles communicating at the speed of light...huh? :?

Posted: Tue May 03, 2005 9:16 am
by Felgar
AttentionKMartShoppers wrote:If the universe is a hollogram, then what are we made up? Second, a hollogram is just a visual image of something that really exists...so what am I typing on? Then, that leads to, what do I exist in? How do I move around in a hollogram?
I agree, kind of. My thinking is that God has designed a fundamentally orderred universe, and there's no reason to make things more complicated than they are. What is exactly the problem with accepting that my chair is real? The universe contains mater and it's real - what is the purpose of questioning that?

The hologram theory (though I've never heard of it before) seems a lot like the old geocentric models of the solar system - possibly correlating with observed reality but overly complex and on the wrong track.
AttentionKMartShoppers wrote: And about subatomic particles communicating at the speed of light...huh? :?
Referencing entanglement, no doubt. As of yet, it's impossile to move anything (even information) faster than the speed of light - entanglement cannot yield information because detecting the spin alters it. Who knows, maybe some day we'll get a better handle on it. :)

I am the light of the world....

Posted: Tue May 03, 2005 1:34 pm
by Dawngoogs
Is the light of the world literally the light producing this holographic world?

Posted: Tue May 03, 2005 6:14 pm
by AttentionKMartShoppers
Lol, I find the achilles heel, yeah. A hollogram is light...so how do we have darkness? Shouldn't there just be light light light?

Posted: Tue May 10, 2005 10:59 am
by j316
Without varying degrees of light there would be no way to define anything so darkness is not proof of anything. A hologram doesn't have to be static like a photograph, it can be like video, so it is a usable metaphore for reality.

I wondered for a while if our reality wasn't actually a concept, like the ones we have. Can thoughts be aware of each other, how much reality do they have in relation to each other?

Posted: Tue May 10, 2005 4:23 pm
by AttentionKMartShoppers
For this being a hollogram, it's rather solid.

Is matter really solid?

Posted: Thu May 12, 2005 7:16 am
by Dawngoogs
A major conceptual problem haunting science is the dualistic nature of matter. They are finding that matter actually seems to be both particle-like and wave-like. And when you get right down to it, everything is really wave-like.

How do we really know objects in reality are solid? When we touch objects? Touching is a sensation we feel when our brain interprets different electrical impulses. So are we really touching a solid object?

Posted: Thu May 12, 2005 8:00 am
by kateliz
Think harder Marty! Or will it cause your brain to crash from overload?

Posted: Thu May 12, 2005 10:09 am
by j316
I have found that the quickest route to an excedrin headache is pondering over how and why we can know anything. I don't mean in the sense of creation or evolution, I mean why is there 'anything' as opposed to nothing at all.