Rating: 
Summary: Top of the Crackpot List
Review: I normally have quite an open mind. But this book is a great example of concepts that give New Age a bad name.This book is at the top of the crackpot list with Immanual Velikovsky's "Worlds in Collision".
Rating: 
Summary: for anyone in doubt
Review: If i asked you to "prove" you loved your wife or parents, you wouldnt be able to would you?? just read the book.. open your mind..immerse yourself in its ideas, and you might, just MIGHT be surprised, peace :)
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Summary: One Great Book Spawns Another
Review: This book came to my attention while reading LUCKY YOU! by Randall Fitzgerald, in which a strong case is made that streaks of luck are connected to our ability to induce, willfully or spontaneously, intuitive premonitions and precognitive dream states.Talbot's HOLOGRAPHIC UNIVERSE was given as an inspiring source material and now I can understand why. Talbot explores some fascinating ways in which the entire parapsychological realm can be explained according to holographic principles. Even though Talbot died in the early 90's, his book continues to energize and inspire other authors and consciousness pioneers, as evidenced by LUCKY YOU!
Rating: 
Summary: Interesting and flawed
Review: Yes, this book is an interesting and enjoyable read. And it will expand your horizons and make you think differently. But this comes at the price of plausibility. The book is centred aroud the theory that our universe is a hologram. The physics (largely at a quantum level) is explained well, as are the implications. These are divided into explaining unusual happenings to the mind and body as well as space and time. The problem is that the book, while not a New Age text as such, gives too much credence to events that aren't generally accepted in the scientific community. And when a book relates itself to the scientific method, it can't then go on to describe how the hologram theory explains miracles, almost taking their existence for granted. With a grain of salt however, it's delves into a very interesting question: what if everything (matter, space, time) is like a hologram - transient, malleable and self-contained? An enojoyable question to answer.
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Summary: It is the mind that creates the hologram
Review: "...There is evidence to suggest that our world and everything in it...are ...projections from a level of reality so beyond our own it is literally beyond both space and time."(Introduction p1)
. Talbot uses the theory developed by physicist Bohm in which he postulates an explicit order and an intricate order. The explicit is the world we see that is the hologram, which is projected from the intricate order, which is the mind.(or thought)(or spirit)
There is a brief discussion of holograms and theory and Talbot moves on to anecdotes. In biology he notes that human memory is vaster than would be possible if it were stored as on film on the brains surface. It must be stored holgraphically. (p21) Similarly the evidence that the brain sees "out there" is an illusion. The brain cannot tell the difference between "out" there and its own process (eg "phantom limb" syndrome). With respect to the role of mind in Medicine he quotes Siegal (author Love, Medicine and Miracles). Siegal sees this as a sign of tremendous hope,(p87) an indication that if one has the power to create sickness, one also has the power to create wellness. And another quote from psychologist Keith Floyd. "Contrary to what everyone knows is so, it may not be the brain that produces consciousness, but rather consciousness that creates the appearance of the brain-matter,space,time and everything else we are pleased to interpret as the physical universe" (p160)
(In other words the brain is the effect of mind and not the cause!)
With respect to quantum physics he notes that small "particles" literally have no dimensions. (This would be consistent with say being a projection) The quote by the way that "a grain of sand contains all the information out of which the universe is made" which is attributed to Blake in the "Holographic Universe" is also attributed to Jesus in "A Course in Miracles." Talbot also uses the holographic theory to explain Marian visions, as does Gary R Renard in Disappearance of the Universe. UFO's are also explained as being the physical manifestations of human (or nonhuman??) subconscious. Some other insights of the power of mind are 1) The stigmatists. Starting with St Francis of Assisi, a group of mystics were able to alter skin blood vessels etc to create the wounds incurred by Christ. This is attributable to autosuggestion (and not divine intervention!). The mind altering normal body physiology to produce the result.
2) Hawaiian firewalkers. After undertaking various mind training exercises by the shamans, Hawaiians are able to walk across hot lava without harm, something that would be impossible under normal physics. Clearly the mind of the firewalkers alters the local physical environment in some way. Strengths 1) Offers a scientific theory for the illusory nature of the "physical" world".
2) Offers support for the concept that we can create our own reality. That it is mind that causes body effect. This can be used to treat "dis-ease"! Weaknesses
1) There is only one major physicist to draw on: David Bohm.
2) The quotation of various biological experiments does not get it all together In fact the brain is as illusory as the rest of the body, and mind must be separate from it as well. Spiritual Correlates For 1500 years the fact that the world is illusory is known to Hindu yogis> the illusion is referred to as the "Maya" in Sanskrit.. In the Twentieth Century "A Course in Miracles" also states that the world is illusory, a dream of a mind outside of space and time In Summary Talbot is on the right track. He however tries to string too many anecdotes in without rigidly sticking to his original theory. Despite that..A must read.
Rating:
Summary: the pupetteer
Review: this book is not about science or the new age or even about a holographic universe. talbot is appealing to a meta-genre: that of finding the pupetteer behind the show. also in this category are: castaneda's "the fire within," spengler's "the decline of the west," shlain's "the alphabet and the goddess."
the premise is the basic theme of "the wizard of oz": that there is a different, simpler, frequently anti-intuitive explanation to the dynamic of reality. whatever fits our current working model (modern science) we call rational and apply to support the status quo. talbot however turns to the paranormal not as a rejection of the working model we call rationale but an enhancement or expansion of it. in short, talbot's model seeks to subsume the rational by using science (NOT pseudo-science) to explain how seemingly "unscientific" principles could be just as 'real' as basic aspects of reality, such as gravity. phenomena such as stigmata or clairvoyance (which Western minds such as Jung and Schopenhauer have long trumpeted) become a part of the _same_ reality as the conservation of momentum and the boiling point of water at sea level.
this book is about synthesizing the accepted and the paranormal into one beautiful understanding of one beautiful universe. for, if there is a truth to be understood, must it not reflect both the rational and irrational if it is to reflect the cosmos we live everyday?
Rating:
Summary: Theodicy of Scientific Ideas
Review: .
I usually can determine a good book from the way it remains in the memory after subsequent time passes. In this case, almost a year later and I'm still thinking about Talbot's book. Some notes I have made regarding wonderful points raised by Talbot. 1. The Mind fills in the physical holes in the eye's retina: completing eyesight with what the MIND perceives (not the eye sees) it to be; as opposed to naked reality. 2. Schizophrenia; the possibility of different souls, different persons, living in one body, as each personality contains entirely different electrical brain impulses, opposing patterns, and physiological variations, conflicting allergies, negative and positive physical traits that cannot be found in one individual. 3. Energy patterns leave traceable fingerprints in the holographic universe, traumatic events leave stronger residual patterns. An individual's energy pattern, angle and strength, may align itself with the remaining pattern of a previous event, thus illuminating and/or creating the observation of a ghost, an apparition of past events, places and peoples. 4. Repressed energy can result in the manifestation of poltergeist activity, appearing to be from external sources. 5. Advanced meditation results in equality and replacement to entheogenic drug use in mystical experiential consciousness. The example of Ram Dass (Richard Albert) encounter with an Indian Mystic more capable of mystical experience than the strongest dosage of hallucinogenic. 6. Non locality: the aspect of all reality, projected into the illusion of time and space, of separations. 7. Thought Bursts; this is an amazing idea. While all information is conveyed point-to-point, in thought bursts one obtains groups of thoughts at once time, that is increased levels of awareness. The result; head rushes, or revelations, inspirations. It is suggested that death experiences of entire lifetimes passing in a matter of a split second are of this nature. This book has much more to relate. Five stars on my part.
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Summary: snake eats tail
Review: I really enjoyed this book. I did not even mind the slightly warped logic that Talbot's theory is based on, and which goes something like this: paranormal event X could be explained IF (and only IF) the universe is a holographic one. The weird thing now is that he presents material as if he was drawing conclusions from the evidence - e.g. he claims that things (like pieces of glass/ashes) could materialize out of thin air -and at times used to. This brings someone with a sceptical mind (which shouldn't be illegal) to ask himself a serious question: what if there is neither a holographic universe NOR a paranormal event (those pieces of glass, for example, being the evidence)? What then? A more objective approach would be to draw the conclusion from the evidence, not build the evidence around a foreordained conclusion (or the other way around? I'm confused...). But he presents "evidence" not only in form of annecdotial reports which can be impossbily verified by the reader (did glass materialize?), but also beefs things up with personal experiences that must be taken at face-value. The stories become more and more unbelievable (to the sceptic mind) towards the end of the book. Regardless of the fact that in order to believe in any of this one would have to make up ones mind in what to believe first (holographic universe vs. the specific paranormal events described in this book), this work is a tantalizing read that has caused me to get interested in quantum mechanics, which would have been a laughable idea two months ago....And: I especially agree with the author as he states that the "Big Bang"-theory and theory of relativity by Einstein have never been verified (this being impossible) but are nevertheless accepted to be facts or truths by the scientific community, leave alone the public. Therefore, it should be possible to think in all sorts of directions as one pleases, without being discriminated against by anyone for not delivering the ultimate proof. And certain things certainly should be subjected to more research. I just don't believe in glass materializing, as I know I mentioned before.
Rating:
Summary: Fantastic book
Review: To the reviewers who don't believe what is written in this book: Stop being in denial, surmount your fears, widen your horizons, just try, ..... just try once, and you'll see how far you can go. Try to sense the information in this book with your whole being, not just with your brain, it'll help. Great work!
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Summary: Okay, I'm sixteen years old and I see past this...
Review: One of the greatest arguements of the book is that when certain portions of the brains that controlled certain actions were lobotomized, the subject was unaffected. I'm guessing the author has never heard of plasticity (the brain's ability to rewire itself.) In addition, if this is legit, why would people with broken spines become paralyzed? The author's arguements are not constant. In this book, Talbot also makes the claim that LSD is a time machine. Despite lack of empirical evidence, I still want to know how it would factor into a holographic universe. Talbot, you fool, extrapolate! Talbot's most convincing arguement is practically based in spirituality and faith; that synchronicities have some deep relevance. Talbot claims synchronicities to be flaws in the fabric of reality. My guess is there are unfounded scientific laws that have not been uncovered yet that explain the things this book attempts to.
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