                         THE UNIVERSE AS HOLOGRAM 

       DOES OBJECTIVE REALITY EXIST, OR IS THE UNIVERSE A 
PHANTASM?

     In 1982 a remarkable event took place.  At the University 
of Paris a  research  team led by physicist Alain Aspect 
performed what may turn  out  to be one of the most important 
experiments of the 20th century.  You did  not hear about it on 
the evening news.   In fact,  unless you are in  the  habit  of 
reading scientific journals you probably have never even  heard 
Aspect's name, though there are some who believe his discovery 
may change  the face of science.

     Aspect  and  his team discovered that  under  certain 
circumstances  subatomic  particles  such  as  electrons  are 
able  to  instantaneously  communicate  with each other 
regardless of the distance separating  them.   It  doesn't 
matter whether they are 10 feet or 10 billion  miles  apart.   
Somehow each particle always seems to know what the other is 
doing.   The  problem  with  this feat is that it violates 
Einstein's  long-held  tenet  that no communication can travel 
faster than the speed of  light.   Since  traveling  faster than
the speed of light is tantamount to  breaking  the  time 
barrier, this daunting prospect has caused some physicists to 
try to  come  up with elaborate ways to explain away Aspect's 
findings.   But  it  has inspired others to offer even more 
radical explanations.   University  of London physicist David 
Bohm,  for example,  believes Aspect's findings  imply  that 
objective reality does not exist,  that despite its  apparent  
solidity the universe is at heart a phantasm,  a gigantic and 
splendidly  detailed hologram.

     To  understand  why Bohm makes this startling  assertion, 
one  must  first  understand  a  little about holograms.   A 
hologram  is  a  three-
dimensional photograph made with the aid of 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 id 
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.   When the film is 
developed,  it looks like a meaningless swirl of light and dark 
lines.   But as  soon  as  the  developed film is illuminated by
another laser  beam,  a  three-
dimensional image of the original object appears.

     The  three-dimensionality of such images is not the only 
remarkable  characteristic of holograms.   If a hologram of a 
rose is cut in half and  then illuminated by a laser, each half 
will still be found to contain the  entire image of the rose.  
Indeed, even if the halves are divided again,  each snippet of 
film will always be found to contain a smaller but intact  
version of the original image.   Unlike normal photographs, 
every part of  a halogram contains all the information possessed
by the whole.

     The  "whole in every part" nature of a hologram provides us
with  an  entirely  new way of understanding organization and 
order.   For most  of  its history, Western science has labored 
under the bias that the best way  to  understand a physical 
phenomenon,  whether a frog or an atom,  is  to  dissect  it and
study its respective parts.   A hologram teaches us  that  some 
things in the universe may not lend themselves to this approach.
If  we try to take apart something constructed holographically, 
we will  not  get the pieces of which it is made, we will only 
get smaller wholes.

     This insight suggested to Bohm another way of understanding
Aspect's  discovery.   Bohm  believes  the reason subatomic 
particles are  able  to  remain in contact with one another 
regardless of the distance  separating  them is not because they
are sending some sort of mysterious signal  back  and forth, but
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 enable people to better visualize what he means,  Bohm 
offers the  following illustration.   Imagine an aquarium 
containing a fish.  Imagine  also that you are unable to see the
aquarium directly and your  knowledge  about  it  and what it 
contains comes from two  television  cameras,  one  directed at 
the aquarium's front and the other directed at its side.   As  
you stare at the two television monitors,  you might assume that
the fish  on  each of the screens are separate entities.   After
all,  because  the  cameras are set at different angles,  each 
of the images will be slightly  different.   But  as  you 
continue  to watch  the  two  fish,  you  will  eventually 
become  aware that there is a  certain  relationship  between  
them.   When  one turns,  the other also makes a slightly 
different  but  corresponding  turn;  when  on faces the front, 
the other  always  faces  toward  the  side.   If  you  remain 
unaware of the  full  scope  of  the  situation,  you might even
conclude that the fish must be instantaneously  communicating 
with one another,  but this is clearly not the case.  This,  
says Bohm,  is precisely what is going on between the subatomic 
particles  in Aspect's experiment.

     According to Bohm, the apparent faster-than-light 
connection between  subatomic particles is really telling us 
that there is a deeper level  of  reality we are not privy to, a
more complex dimension beyond our own that  is  analogous to the
aquarium.   And,  he adds,  we view objects such  as  subatomic 
particles as separate from one another because we  are  seeing  
only  a  portion  of their reality.   Such  particles  are  not 
separate  "parts",  but  facets  of  a deeper and more 
underlying  unity  that  is  ultimately  as  holographic and 
indivisible as the  previously  mentioned  rose.   And  since 
everything in physical reality is comprised  of  these  
eidolons, the universe is itself a projection, a hologram.

     In addition to its phantomlike nature, such a universe 
would possess  other  rather  startling  features.   If  the 
apparent  separateness  of  subatomic  particles  is illusory, 
it means that at a  deeper  level  of  reality  all things in 
the universe are infinitely  interconnected.   The  electrons 
in  a  carbon atom in the human brain  are  connected  to  the  
subatomic  particles that comprise every salmon that swims, 
every  heart  that  beats,  and  every  star that  shimmers  in 
the  sky.   Everything  interpenetrates  everything,  and 
although  human  nature  may  seek  to  categorize  and 
pigeonhole and subdivide,  the various phenomena  of  the  
universe,  all  apportionments  are of necessity artificial  and
all  of  nature is ultimately a seamless web.  

     In  a holographic universe,  even time and space could no 
longer  be  viewed as fundamentals.   Because concepts such as 
location break down in  a  universe in which nothing is truly 
separate from anything  else,  time  and  three-dimensional 
space,  like  the images of the fish  on  the  tv  monitors, 
would  also  have to be viewed as projections of  this  deeper  
order.   At its deeper level reality is a sort of superhologram 
in  which  the past,  present,  and future all exist 
simultaneously.   This  suggest  that  given the proper tools it
might even be possible to  someday  reach  into the 
superholographic level of reality and pluck out scenes from  the
long-forgotten past.

     What  else  the superhologram contains is  an  open-ended 
question.   Allowing,  for the sake of argument, that the 
superhologram is the matrix  that has given birth to everything 
in our universe,  at the very least it  contains  every 
subatomic  particle  that has  been  or  will  be--every  
configuration of matter and energy that is possible,  from 
snowflakes  to  quasars,  from blue whales to gamma rays.   It 
must be seen as a sort  of  cosmic storehouse of All That Is. 
Although Bohm conce

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