Free The Holographic Universe by Michael Talbot

galaxies. And even
this is not all it may contain. Bohm concedes that there is no reason to
believe the implicate order is the end of things. There may be other undreamed
of orders beyond it, infinite stages of further development
    Experimental
Support for Bohm's Holographic Universe
    A number of tantalizing
findings in physics suggest that Bohm may be correct. Even disregarding the
implicate sea of energy, space is filled with light and other electromagnetic
waves that constantly crisscross and interfere with one another. As we have
seen, all particles are also waves. This means that physical objects and
everything else we perceive in reality are composed of interference patterns, a
fact that has undeniable holographic implications.
    Another compelling piece
of evidence comes from a recent experimental finding. In the 1970s the
technology became available to actually perform the two-particle experiment
outlined by Bell, and a number of different researchers attempted the task.
Although the findings were promising, none was able to produce conclusive
results. Then in 1982 physicists Alain Aspect, Jean Dalibard and Gerard Roger
of the Institute of Optics at the University of Paris succeeded. First they
produced a series of twin photons by heating calcium atoms with lasers. Then
they allowed each photon to travel in opposite directions through 6.5 meters of
pipe and pass through special filters that directed them toward one of two
possible polarization analyzers. It took each filter 10 billionths of a second
to switch between one analyzer or the other, about 30 billionths of a second
less than it took for light to travel the entire 13 meters separating each set
of photons. In this way Aspect and his colleagues were able to rule out any
possibility of the photons communicating through any known physical process.
    Aspect and his team
discovered that, as quantum theory predicted, each photon was still able to
correlate its angle of polarization with that of its twin. This meant that
either Einstein's ban against faster-than-light communication was being
violated, or the two photons were nonlocally connected. Because most physicists
are opposed to admitting faster-than-light processes into physics, Aspect's
experiment is generally viewed as virtual proof that the connection between the
two photons is nonlocal. Furthermore, as physicist Paul Davis of the University
of Newcastle upon Tyne, England, observes, since all particles are
continually interacting and separating, “the nonlocal aspects of quantum
systems is therefore a general property of nature.”
    Aspect's findings do not
prove that Bohm's model of the universe is correct, but they do provide it with
tremendous support. Indeed, as mentioned, Bohm does not believe any theory is
correct in an absolute sense, including his own. All are only approximations of
the truth, finite maps we use to try to chart territory that is both infinite
and indivisible. This does not mean he feels his theory is not testable. He is
confident that at some point in the future techniques will be developed which
will allow his ideas to be tested (when Bohm is criticized on this point he
notes that there are a number of theories in physics, such as “superstring
theory,” which will probably not be testable for several decades).
    The Reaction of
the Physics Community
    Most physicists are
skeptical of Bohm's ideas. For example, Yale physicist Lee Smolin simply does
not find Bohm's theory “very compelling, Physically.” Nonetheless, there is an
almost universal respect for Bohm's intelligence. The opinion of Boston University
physicist Abner Shimony is representative of this view. “I'm afraid I just
don't understand his theory. It is certainly a metaphor and the question is how
literally to take the metaphor. Still, he has really thought very deeply about
the matter and I think he's done a tremendous service by bringing these
questions to the forefront of physics's research instead of just