Microcosm/Macrocosm
Scientific and Mystical View on the Origin of the Universe,
the Nature of Matter & Human Consciousness
Section I I
3b. David Bohm on Wholeness
and the Implicate Order
Ultimately, the entire Universe (with all its particles, including
those constituting human beings, their laboratories, observing instruments,
etc.) has to be understood as a single undivided whole, in which analysis
into separate and independent existent parts has no fundamental status.
(Bohm, 1980, p. 174)
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i. The Basic Paradigm
Dr. David Bohm was an associate of A. Einstein, and
author of the acclaimed Wholeness and the Implicate Order
(1980). One of the world’s foremost theoretical physicists, Bohm
published classic works on quantum and relativity theory, and was an important
contributor to the debate concerning hidden variables in quantum theory.
Because of his eminence as a physicist, David Bohm was in the privileged
position of being able to espouse his radical theoretical model–based on
the recognition of the undivided wholeness of reality. Dr. Bohm’s
ideas generated widespread interest, not only amongst scientists, but also
in philosophical, religious, and New Age circles. Bohm’s work figured prominently
in Capra’s work on the Tao of Physics, which work was a first modern
attempt to integrate science and mystical insights, and as the basis for
the holographic models of consciousness which arose during the 1980's and
90's. In fact, the basic wholeness paradigm intimately binds scientific
and mystical world views. Bohm’s conclusions about the Unity and
interrelatedness of all things have profound implications for the study
of physics and for consciousness studies.
Bohm’s model of wholeness and the implicate orders
arose from his attempts to reconcile relativity and quantum theory, while
accounting for non-local effects and other quantum paradoxes. He
distinguishes between the outward, manifest physical reality, which he
calls the “explicate order,” and the underlying, un-manifest realm,
the “implicate order.” In the explicate order, we have all the separate
little bits, the quanta existing outside of each other in separate regions
of space/time and interacting only through local effects. However,
Bohm suggests that beyond the explicate order, beyond the quantum level,
are the implicate and super-implicate orders. Quantum, which appear
in the explicate order to be separate in space and time, are interconnected
in the underlying implicate and super-implicate orders. There is
thus a deeper reality which plays a determining role in relationship to
the manifestation of material particles or quanta. The implicate
orders thus underlie the explicate orders, and material reality in a sense
unfolds from WITHIN/WITHOUT.
... a new notion of order is involved here, which we called the implicate
order (from a Latin root meaning ‘to enfold” or “to fold inward”). In terms
of the implicate order one may say that everything is enfolded into everything.
This contrasts with the explicate order now dominant in physics in which
things are unfolded in the sense that each thing lies only in its own particular
region of space (and time) and outside the regions belonging to other things.
(p.177)
Within Bohm’s framework, all manifest phenomena of the explicate (the manifest
physical world) order must be understood as particular cases of the unfolding
of a more general set of implicate orders (the unmanifest underlying realm).
The fundamental relationships are between the implicated structures which
interpenetrate each other throughout the whole of space and time. The explicate
order flows out of the laws and processes of a multi-dimensional implicate
order, as apparent differentiations of an undivided whole!
... the central underlying theme (is) the unbroken wholeness of the
totality of existence as an undivided flowing movement without borders.
... in the implicate order the totality of existence is enfolded within
each region of space (and time). So, whatever part, element, or aspect
we may abstract in thought, this still enfolds the whole and is therefore
intrinsically related to the totality from which it has been abstracted.
Thus, wholeness permeates all that is being discussed, from the very outset.
(1980, p. 172)
Bohm’s basic thesis is that even the whole of the Universe is implicated
in a point. Such a view is remarkable–a profound revision of centuries
of fragmentary little-bit scientific thought. Bohm turns everything upside
down: Whereas we had viewed causes as deriving from motion within
the explicate order, now the causes are in the implicate orders, and manifest
reality is but a shadow of the deeper underlying realities.
Within Bohm’s framework, there is a most unusual
conception of time and space, matter and energy being folded out of the
hidden implicate order. This implies a radically different view of the
nature of space and time, and the nature of the relationship between the
basic quanta or fields. In Bohm’s view, the fundamental reality is that
of undivided wholeness, and all quanta are interconnected within the implicate
orders instead of being isolated elements within space-time. Bohm’s views
certainly sound fantastic and farfetched. It is so against our common sense
to imagine that the whole of the universe is implicated within each region
of space and time. |
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ii. On Relativity and Quantum Theory
Bohm was lead to the wholeness paradigm through his
efforts to understand the paradoxes of modern relativity and quantum theory.
These theories are the foundations of modern physics and yet have never
been reconciled within a unifying theoretical framework. Bohm’s major orientation
in trying to unify these theories was to demonstrate how they both lead
to a view of the fundamental unity of reality:
... science itself is demanding a new, non-fragmented world view, in
the sense that the present approach of analysis of the world into independently
existent parts does not work very well in modern physics. It is shown that
both in relativity theory and quantum theory, notions implying the undivided
wholeness of the universe would provide a much more orderly way of considering
the general nature of reality. (1980, pp. xi-xii)
The wholeness paradigm is a step towards integrating relativity theory
and quantum mechanics within one framework:
It is instructive to contrast the key features of relativistic and
quantum theories. ... relativity theory requires continuity, strict causality
(or determinism) and locality. On the other hand, quantum theory requires
non-continuity, non-causality and non-locality. So the basic concepts of
relativity and quantum theory directly contradict each other. It is therefore
hardly surprising that these two theories have never been unified in a
consistent way. ... What is very probably needed instead is a qualitatively
new theory, from which both relativity and quantum theory are to be derived
as abstractions, approximations and limiting cases. ... The best place
to begin is with what they have basically in common. This is undivided
wholeness. Though each comes to such wholeness in a different way, it is
clear that it is this to which they are both fundamentally pointing. (p.176)
Einstein proposed that instead of taking reality as composed of particles,
we should take fields as the starting point. However, as noted by Bohm,
even Einstein’s views of fields retained the essential feature of a mechanistic
order. This is because:
... the fundamental entities, the fields, are conceived as existing
outside of each other at separate points in space and time, and are assumed
to be connected with each other only through external relationships which
are taken to be local, in the sense that only those field elements that
are separated by ‘infinitesimal’ distances can affect each other.
Bohm notes that although the unified field theory was
not successful in this attempt to provide an ultimate mechanistic basis
for physics in terms of the field concept, since it implied that “no coherent
concept of an independently existent particle” is possible. In fact, relativity
“showed in a concrete way how consistency with the theory of relativity
may be achieved by deriving the particle concept as an abstraction from
an unbroken and undivided totality of existence.” (pp. 173-4)
In Bohm’s analysis, a unified field theory
of relativity leads to one view of wholeness. However, it is quantum theory
which Bohm describes as posing a second and “much more serious challenge
to this mechanistic order, going far beyond that provided by the theory
of relativity.” (p. 175) According to Bohm, there are three features
to quantum theory what challenge the mechanistic view within science.
1. Movement is in general discontinuous, in the sense that action
is constituted of indivisible quanta (implying also that an electron, for
example, can go from one state to another, without passing through any
states in between).
2. Entities, such as electrons, can show different properties
(e.g., particle-like, wavelike, or something in between), depending on
the environmental context within which they exist and are subject to observation.
3. Two entities, such as electrons, which initially combine to
form a molecule and then separate, show a peculiar non-local relationship,
which can best be described as a non-causal connections of elements that
are far apart (as demonstrated in the experiments of Einstein, Podolsky
and Rosen). (1981, p.175)
The first point concerns the quantized or discontinuous nature of movement.
The fact that actions are in the form of discrete quanta, suggests to Bohm
that the interactions between different entities constitute “a single structure
of indivisible links, so that the entire universe has to be thought of
as an unbroken whole.” (p. 175) For example, in the explicate order, an
electron will appear in one energy state one moment, and then instantaneously
appear in another–disappearing between states. This discontinuous (or quantized)
jump of an electron from one orbit to another, with the particle leaving
no traces of its path, points to an underlying order or dimension of existence
which links the orbital arrangements into a larger whole. The implicate
orders are beyond the level of the quantum. The discontinuous or quantized
nature of movement, in the atom and more generally in quantum interactions,
is one aspect of quantum theory which suggests the underlying wholeness,
and the idea of the implicate order existing in relationship to the explicate
order.
The second point made by Bohm with respect to quantum
theory has to do with how entities, like electrons or photons, can exhibit
the properties of waves, particles, or, what he describes as “something
in between”–depending on the environmental context within which they exist
and are subject to observation. Einstein’s view of an objective reality
was of one that existed in a definite way independently of how it was being
observed or known. This is a second aspect of quantum theory which challenges
the mechanistic view of creation, and which points towards an underlying
realm of wholeness, which includes the consciousness and mind of the observer.
The third feature of quantum theory which challenges
the mechanistic order has to do with non-local relationships and the E-P-R
(or Einstein, Podolsky and Rosen) paradox. In discussing the nature
of the implicate order, Bohm uses the example of the EPR paradox and explains
that the electrons which influence each other non-locally and instantaneously,
must both be regarded as “projections of a higher dimensional reality:”
i.e., these particles do not interact between themselves, but rather, are
projections of the same higher dimensions (which are infolded into each).
The particles then refer to a single actuality which is the common ground
for both. A multidimensional implicate order thus projects into lower dimensional
elements and this is the basis for non-local relationships.
Bohm suggests that relativity and quantum theory,
the two major foundations of modern physics, both ultimately lead to a
view of wholeness, and that if we begin with this notion of wholeness as
the fundamental reality, then both theories might be derived as abstractions
or limiting cases explained from this starting point. |
iii. Active Information,
the Quantum Potential & Deep Reality
... the causal interpretation suggests that nature may be far more
subtle and strange than was previously thought. (Bohm & Peat, 1987,
p.93)
In Bohm’s view, there is a deep reality beyond the level
of the quanta which exerts determining, causal influences on the manifestations
of the wave/particles in space/time. Thus the uncertainty principle is
only a limiting principle evident in the explicate order, but there are
also hidden implicate orders beyond this.
There is a deep reality within the implicate and
superimplicate orders, which dimensions have a causal role in relationship
to the material particles. Bohm emphasized that a quantum was indeed
a real particle plus a real wave (Herbert, 1987), but it is linked to a
new field composed of the pilot wave which guides the movement of the particle.
Bohm viewed the electron, or quantum as an ordinary particle, but it was
guided by a very non-ordinary wave. The pilot wave was regarded as instantaneously
affected whenever a change occurred within the whole environment, and it
communicates this change to the particle altering its position and momentum.
Thus Bohm had a causal model but a non-local one, accepting the implications
of quantum theory’s baffling holism.
Bohm uses various analogies to explain his non-ordinary
waves–the pilot waves which carry the quantum potential. These pilot
waves carry information rather than energy or mass, and they serve to guide
the particle. The quantum potential is this information content. We thus
have a triad of matter, energy and information:
By way of illustration, think of a ship that sails on automatic pilot,
guided by radio waves. The overall effect of the radio waves is independent
of their strength and depends only on their form. The essential point is
that the ship moves with its own energy but that the information within
the radio waves is taken up and used to direct the much greater energy
of the ship. In the causal interpretation, the electron moves under
its own energy, but the information in the form of the quantum wave directs
the energy of the electron. (Bohm, Peat 1987, p. 90)
There are three elements: i) information in the pilot wave, ii) energy
in the engines of the ship, and, iii) the mass of the ship itself.
The direction of the ship, the matter, is then determined by the energy
expenditure of the engines, and this is informed by the information content–the
quantum potential.
The influence of the quantum potential does not
depend on the energy of the field, but on the form of the field, and the
transfer of information is not limited by the speed of light. The
quantum potential, or pilot wave, embodies “active information” without
form and with little (if any) energy. Similarly, a quantum such as
an electron moves under its own energy, but the information in the “quantum
potential” directs its energy expenditure.
The equation for the quantum potential is highly
unusual in that it’s strength is independent of distance. This contrasts
with the strength of other physical fields (e.g., electromagnetism or gravity)
which depend upon distance; such that the further two quanta (or two cosmic
bodies) are apart, then the weaker the force between them. Further,
the quantum potential bears information which is not limited by the speed
of light, but is instantaneously present throughout the field. Time
itself has a different meaning within this domain.
Bohm explains the profound implications of his view:
The quantum field contains information about the whole environment
and about the whole past, which regulates the present activity of the electron
in much the same way that information about the whole past and our whole
environment regulates our own activity as human beings, through consciousness.
... the higher level simply transcends the lower level altogether. ...
what is going on in the full depth of that one moment of time contains
information about all of it. ... In non-manifest reality, it’s all interpenetrating,
interconnected, one. (In Weber, 1986, pp. 39-41)
According to this formulation, information about the
whole informs any part, and is more primary. The hidden implicate
orders underlie the manifest explicate order. Material reality is
also “unfolded” from within/without, with the implicate orders “informing”
the explicate order. Bohm takes quantum interconnectedness to the
extreme–suggesting that any particular quanta (element, particle) is ultimately
connected through the implicate (and super-implicate) orders to the Whole–the
whole of the Universe!
All phenomena of the explicate order (the manifest
physical world) involve the unfolding of a more general set of implicate
orders (un-manifest, subtle dimensions). Bohm initially only
talked of the implicate and explicate orders, but later included the third
level of dimensions–the super-implicate orders, behind the implicate orders.
He describes these:
... a super-information field of the whole universe, a super-implicate
order which organizes the first level (of the implicate orders) into various
structures and is capable of tremendous development of structure.
The point about the super-implicate order is that if we take the holographic
theory, though we have an implicate order, nothing organizes it.
It is what’s called “linear” ... but it does not have an intrinsic capacity
to unfold an order. The super-implicate order, which is the so-called
higher field ... makes the implicate order non-linear and organizes it
into relatively stable forms with complex structures. (In Weber,
1986, p. 33)
According to this scheme, the physical world is external manifestation
of multidimensional holographic structures–inner dimensions of subtle being
within the implicate orders. Within these implicate and super-implicate
orders, all elements and quantum are ultimately interrelated–parts of one
Whole.
The explicate order flows out of the laws and processes
of a multi-dimensional implicate order–apparent differentiations of an
undivided whole:
... in the implicate order the totality of existence is enfolded within
each region of space (and time). So, whatever part, element, or aspect
we may abstract in thought, this still enfolds the whole and is therefore
intrinsically related to the totality from which it has been abstracted.
Thus, wholeness permeates all that is being discussed, from the very outset.
(1980, p. 172)
Bohm’s model is a remarkable and profound revision of centuries of fragmentary
scientific thought, and little-bit science philosophy. In this view,
reality as it appears to our senses–the everyday world of matter and energy
in time and space–is essentially a holographic image, projected out of
vast interconnected hidden dimensions. The separateness of quanta
is an illusion produced by severing the relationship of the parts to the
underlying whole.
Bohm’s model of the implicate order suggest that
there is indeed a deep reality–inner worlds beyond the level of the quanta.
Since all things are interconnected in informational fields which inform
material/energetic processes, there has to be some inner dimensions of
being capable of responding to this active information–some kind of receiver,
or resonator system. Bohm uses a radio analogy to explain this. The
radio wave carries information or a signal which might be considered to
be potentially available everywhere. However, for this potential information
to have an active informational influence, there has to be a radio set
with electrical energy which is capable of responding to this informational
field. In this case we might hear singing (molecular sound vibration)
propagated from a radio. We require the harmonic resonator (the radio set),
the information, and the energy (electrical power) to produce a manifestation
within the explicate order (sound). This analogy with a radio set
has startling implications for the necessity of other deep levels of reality.
Bohm and Peat note:
This implies that an electron, or any other elementary particle, has
a complex and subtle inner structure that is at least comparable with that
of a radio. ... But this inner complexity of elementary matter is not as
implausible as it may appear at first sight. For example, a large crowd
of people can be treated by statistical laws, (as quantum processes are
according to the uncertainty principle), whereas individually their behavior
is immensely subtler and more complex. Similarly, large masses of matter
reduce to simple Newtonian behavior whereas atoms and molecules have a
more complex inner structure. And what of the sub-atomic particles themselves?
It is interesting to note that between the shortest distance now measurable
in physics (10-16 cm) and the shortest distance in which current notions
of space-time probably have meaning (10-33 cm), there is a vast range of
scale in which an immense amount of yet undiscovered structure could be
contained. Indeed this range is roughly equal to that which exists
between our own size and that of the elementary particles. (pp. 93-4)
It seems that the world within is as potentially as
complex as the world without. It is only such inner dimensions of
being which would allow for a quantum to be responsive to the active information
of the quantum potential containing information about the whole.
Certainly, the new superstring theories also provide such resonator systems,
with structures at least as complex as that of a radio. Obviously
there are complex implicate and super-implicate orders beyond the quantum
for non-local effects to occur. These implications are at the heart of
quantum theory itself. |
| Dr. Bohm suggests indeed a very deep reality–just
the kind of reality into which to root a holographic mind and brain, and/or
a holographic heart and soul. If information about everything in the universe
is potentially there in the apparent nothingness of space, then we simply
require a corresponding isomorphic human subtle anatomy to resonate in
harmony/or disharmony with all kinds of cosmic activity and information.
The mind indeed is a radio set composed of matter and energy, embedded
within a sea of potential active information in deeper levels of reality.
In fact, the whole human being provides an even better radio set than does
the human brain and mind. Who knows what kinds of harmonic resonators
the heart, blood, glands, organs, cells, the subtle bodies, might be. Different
dimensions of the human anatomy, both subtle and gross, might have deep
isomorphic relationships to larger cosmic processes. The world within can
match the complexity of the world without. Of course, even the distinction
itself between the within and the without is only apparent. |
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