Wholeness and the Implicate Order

Rating:
Summary: From Atomistic, Relativity and Quantum to Implicate Order
Review: A deep and enlightening book that ventures beyond the mechanistic paradigm of classical physics. I am not a physicist and as a layman, I found this book overall understandable, except the mathematical equations Bohm employs in areas of relativity, quantum computations and other physic equations of algebraic and geometric means. It really is a brilliant piece of work and not easy book to explain, but I can say as a novice, this is a superior work.

Bohm starts out with our Western fragmented view of reality, failing to see wholeness, thinking through our lenses of space, time, matter, mechanics, causality, contingency and so forth, as Kant pointed out how we categorize our perceptions. The notion we view in fragment is our illusion which cause confusion. It is our measuring net over reality that fragments it. While the Newtonian works for much it is also the fragmentation of our cultures, cities, religions political systems, etc. Our mechanics look for absolutes and any theory of absolute truths results in fragmentation, thus the differences between the atomic theory, the theory of relativity and the quantum theory into a form of reality that is moving, resulting in what he calls a undivided wholeness in flowing movement.

Bohm describes a language he calls the Rheomode. Basically it is the opposite of our views where language describes a noun in action. The Rheomode. describes the verb center of action. Rather than the order of "I" am typing, it would be, there is typing being done. Beyond all of the sequential order expressed in terms of our divisional language their is the movement of attention. Evidently, by our ability to perceive and understand is limited by the freedom with which the ordering of attention can change, so as to fit the order that is to be observed. There is allot more to this, apparently this changes our atomistic view, changes our world views of self and truth, by taking away the importance from our world views, removing the fragmentary breaks we project.

Bohm describes reality and knowledge considered as a process. There is something above memory and the mechanical process to reason in what Bohm calls intelligence. One might suggest that in intelligent perception, the brain and nervous system respond directly to an order in the universal and unknown flux that cannot be reduced to anything that could be denied in theories of knowable structure. There's an intense outlay between thought and non=thought, knowledge considered as a process, a free movement of the mind needed for clarity of perception, which contributes to a pervasive distortion and confusion of every experience.

Bohm believes there are hidden variables in the quantum theory, despite its indeterminism of the Heisenberg principle and Von Neumanns arguments and the paradox of Einstein, Rosen and Podolsky. In this he attempts to resolve, it gets a little heavy here for the layman in treatment of the quantum fluctuations.

It is here where the quantum theory is seen as an indication of a new order. While the theory of relativity recognizes continuity and strict causality and locality, a singular overall pattern of curvular continuous connection, the quantum recognizes an order measured in non locality in autonomous groups but not continuously connected, an undivided wholeness with separate groupings, the observer and observed become one, while separate, a holomovement where each part contains the whole in some way, a relative autonomy, different closed circuits of particles of autonomous groups.

The enfolding and unfolding universe and consciousness completely removes the Cartesian grid. It is the idea of a projected hologram from a non locality that enfolds into itself. From a void that contains all, a movement which unfolds in explicate order which enfolds in implicate order back unto itself. The electrons enter a different kind of state, in which they are no longer relatively independent. Rather, each electron acts as a projection share a non-local, non-causal correlation, which is such that they go round obstacles co-operatively without being scattered or diffused, without resistance, all so into a multidimensional reality There are infinite relatively independent sub-totalities which are abstracted, explicated as autonomous.

Rating:
Summary: As easy as wrestling a hologram!
Review: At its heart, David Bohm's awe-inspiring book explores a deceptively simple and [I think] very old idea: everything in the universe that we can observe, measure, describe, and come to understand is connected, even if we cannot observe, measure, describe and come to understand that connection (Bohm's "implicate order"). It's not for the faint hearted. You'll be confronted with a devastatingly beautiful philosophical insight that completely undermines our post-"enlightenment" western tendency to divide, conquer, fragment and isolate everything we attempt to understand. You may need to skip the mathematical chunks and do some background reading into Quantum physics to survive the rigours of the argument. You'll probably get frustrated at Bohm's winsome ability to be mathematician and physicist one minute and philosopher and mystic the next. But if you hang in there, you'll find yourself returning again and again to contemplate this profound contribution to occidental thinking, as I have.

Rating:
Summary: Inspiring but difficult reading
Review: David Bohm is truly a giant - I normally read with a pencil, marking issues of importance or thought provoking ideas and concepts. Reading Wholeness and Implicate Order put this practice to the test - my copy of the book is littered with lines, questions, remarks and NB's.

I do not have an interest in quantum physics, so some of the discussions were a bit beyond my comprehension - as a book on philosophy though, the text stands out. Suggestions made by Bohm with regard to our fragmented views and approach to life, how we can and should re-look at all our frames of reference and even the use of language have far reaching consequences for mankind - that is if we actually give heed to "the call".

The principles and dilemmas explored by Bohm are of great relevance to all - I must warn you though, the book is not an easy read! Have patience and don't give up - the wealth of understanding and insight one can obtain (or at least be made aware of) by this book is well worth the effort!

Rating:
Summary: High Hopes go belly up
Review: I've heard detailed descriptions of Mr. Bohm's theory before ordering the book. At first....it was Very exciting to start delving into Mr. Bohm's incredible work.
But halfway through the book....it was painfully obvious how poorly written this book is!!....Hard to follow..Shabby consistency....NOT friendly reading.
I Still have the upmost respect for Mr. Bohm's theory of the implicate/explicate order...just wish this book was written clearly...could have been a facinating exploration.

Instead...was a frustrating trip.
Too bad....again....Much respect for Mr. Bohm....this book misses the mark though..

Rating:
Summary: If you want to know why the universe exists read this book
Review: If you've ever wondered why humans inhabit this world or why things happen the way they do then let Bohm do his thing. Humans don't inhabit this world humans habit-in this world. His view of the world as a hologram explains some of the phenomenons that other scietists can't explain. Read this book and take a whole new perspective on reality.

Rating:
Summary: Ultimate Reality
Review: Is there such a thing? Science and philosophy think so. It is their common fundamental quest.

But if there is an Ultimate Reality, is it perceivable by creatures bound by time and space and instruments conceived within that reality?

The sixth quark for instance, may only be seen in terms of where it was, and still other phenomena, only apprehendable by their absence. Newton's mechanistic universe seems especially anachronistic and inadequate in the face of quantum entanglement, where photons switch properties in accord with each other - effecting instantaneous 'spooky' action at a distance.

These mysterious connections which shocked Einstein have been empirically confirmed for fifteen years now, first by Aspect and again by Gisin in 1990, but no explanation has been forthcoming for this behaviour which defies all previous theories.

It is clearly not a question of developing better instruments. We need to be able to explain these phenomena, yet we cannot.

Bohm notes that there are two categories of criteria in simultaneous union at work: Einstein's local, causal, finite phenomena, and quantum's non-local, non-causal, infinite features.

But is quantum really non-causal? Are not both parts of the photon reciprocal causes of the other? And why should these connections surprise us? The universe is not a list of parts, but a whole system in connection with itself at fundamental levels.

As creatures of Einstein's model, is it plausible that we should we be able to explain Ultimate Reality? What is the logical or physical reason that this should be so? Even when we can verify these 'weird' phenomena empirically, we are hopelessly ill-equipped to deal with them theoretically.

Superstring theory - mainstream science's leading conjecture, is lost floundering around postulating one unsatisfying multiple dimension scenario after another, looking more and more capricious with every move.

Is it indeed probable that as Bohm surmises, Ultimate Reality is inevitably beyond our grasp - as a necessary condition of our existence? That the very inability to satisfy our curiosity satisfies a higher level of knowledge, awareness, and logical typing?

Perhaps as he suggests, it is deep wisdom.

Rating:
Summary: An Excellent Introduction to Bohmian Quantum Mechanics
Review: The Stochastic Interpretation of Quantum Mechanics was developed over a number of years, starting with Louis DeBroglie's 'pilot wave' innovation, then being much further refined by Jean Paul Vigier, and later David Bohm and Brian Hiley of University of London. Much of the theoretical basis for their work rests on the split photon experiments of Alain Aspect and colleagues at the University of Paris. I.e. Aspect et al evidently found 'correlations' between the polarizations of separated photons at significant (~ 12 m) distances.

All of which is the underpinning for David Bohm's book, 'Wholeness and The Implicate Order'. The book perfectly ties together all the loose ends and integrates them - starting with hidden variables theory, going on to the quantum potential and finally the explicate and implicate order.

In the most general sense, the apparently 'fragmented' universe we behold- made of disparate stars, galaxies, galaxy clusters etc. is the explicate order. The outwardly manfest reality occurring in 4 dimensional space time. However, we cannot be sure that at a higher dimensionality all the fragmented forms are not unified.

A good illustration is one that Bohm himself provides in this superb monograph. Imagine a fish in an aquarium tank and two TV cameras are trained on him. One captures his frontal view - the other his lateral view. These images are transmitted to two separate screens-monitors in another room. The casual observer on encountering the TV monitors most probably would infer two separate fish. But in fact they constitute one fish at the higher (3D) dimensionality.

This unified order would be described as 'implicate' - and one can ascertain that the explicate order is or can be 'enfolded' into it. In effect, one confronts a universe that has deceived our senses. We are decieved into believing there exist a multiplicity of entities, when in fact there is only one. We just can't apprehend it from our vantage point.

Now, a number of books have come out with similar themes. Some of these are simply too childish, and with too many mystical or 'supernatural' overtones. For example, David Talbot's 'Holographic Universe' falls under this rubric, where he gets carried away and led on to considering 'supernatural' mannifestations and 'miracles' merely because the universe may be implicate. Fritjof Capra's 'Tao of Physics' also falls under this, but nowhere near as badly. If nothing else, one can get a reasonable introduction to particle physics and group theory in Capra's book.

I think the interested reader is probably better served by three other books, which I think ought to be read before tackling David Bohm's - which, despite some portrayals - is not a popular science work! The first is perhaps the cartoon-plus-text book entitled 'Space, Time and Beyond' by Fred Alan Wolf and Bob Toben (Bantam New Age, 1982). After that, I recommend going on to 'The Non-Local Universe' by Robert Nadeau and Menas Kafatos (Oxford Univ. Press, 1999). Then, 'In Search of Reality' by Bernard d'Espagnat which is the best immediate introduction to Bohm's work. To really enable the reader to appreciate it.

It also helps to have some general familiarity with basic notions of physics- such as wave forms, interference and diffraction. For example, this would be particularly useful in seeing how Bohm composes 'the holomovement' (p.151).

The mathematics scattered throughout the text, cf. the chapter on 'Hidden Variables' is actually very basic for a book of this sort of depth and insight. However, to fully appreciate the gist of things, it does help to have a background at least in Calculus - if not Mechanics. (The latter is especially useful in understanding the sort of canonical transformations shown, e.g. on p. 92).

Finally, rather than supernaturalist drivel, I think the book really shows that we need to think of new ways- for example- to describe the phenomenon of human consciousness. I already attempted one such way, using 'Pauli spin operator' gates in the brain, in my book 'The Atheist's Handbook to Modern Materialism' (Chapter 5, 'Consciousness and Modern Materialism'). This also leads to the development of 'quantum' neural networks with the possibility of non-local features governing their operation (cf. p. 157 - my book).

The gateway to this whole panorama of ideas and concepts - connected to an inseparable cosmos- is Bohm's book. I've already re-read it three times, and still find new insights when I go back to it. I had hoped that before he died, Bohm (or colleague Brian Hiley) might have produced a more popular 'reader-friendly' version, but alas it was not to be. Still, it is possible for the non-physics specialist to get a lot out of it by navigating the route I suggested earlier.

The only ones likely to be disappointed, if any, will be those who either: a) are not familiar with the preliminary work leading up to Bohm's, or b) those who mistakenly think this book is of the 'popular' variety.

Rating:
Summary: A complex but insightful view through the looking glass.
Review: This is one of the better books on the philosophical premises and implications of the physics of the twentieth century. Although Bohm lost some favor among his contemporaries as he aged, his work was still respected. Without a strong math background, the middle chapters get a bit tough, but it is still worth the read.

Rating:
Summary: The Title is the Best Part
Review: This is one of those books that is praisefully referenced by other authors because the central concept, namely, the concept of Universe as Tao presented by Fritjof Capra in _The Tao of Physics_, is clear, provocative, and interesting. However, Bohm does a *miserable* job of explaining his arguments, veering across the dialectic road from fuzzy-zen-master-it-is-all-obvious to didactic, pedantic, white haired Professorish "I'll leave how the Universe got started as an exercise for the reader". At times the explanations come close to making sense, but his "proofs" of "external variables" "needed" for the formulation of sub-planck phenomena dull Occam's razor (the principle of Parsimony) to the point where one wonders if he used it to shave his dog.

I have almost every book written on this subject, and I've seen ones that were either too mathematical to make sense to the average reader or too vague to make a point. This book manages to be both.

I'd like to say that I "just don't get it", but I actually had no trouble with the partial differentials and Eigenvalues and so forth -- thanks to college. I just couldn't force myself to swallow the logic, and eventually was forced to spit out the conclusion because of the medicine it went down with.

Better luck next time, Dr. Bohm. I wish you well.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent Book With Paradoxically Excellent Reviews
Review: To get a real appreciation for the depth of Bohm, you should read the reviews by Philip Stahl, sqwark.com, and Earl Hazell. Stahl is atheist, Hazell is not. Stahl makes a strong case, but Bohm's own case is more compelling, and he was clearly more sympathetic to the possibilities of the implicate order than Stahl suggests. Bohm discusses these possibilities more deeply elsewhere. Nonetheless, as Bohm himself summarizes, in the conclusion of his book: "Through the force of an even deper, more inward necessity in this totality, some new state of affairs may emerge in which both the world as we know it and our ideas about it may undergo an unending process of yet further change." Bohm would certainly appreciate the risk of becoming too certain, as Stahl appears to be, in proposing a definitive paradigm, ala Kuhn's observations in "The Structue of Scientific Revolutions." See also the emerging paradigm of "Biocosm": http://www.biocosm.org/