Wholeness and the Implicate Order

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.

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!

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, '

What Freud is to psychoanalysis, Thomas Merton and Aquinas are to Christian theology and spirituality, Maimonedes is to Judaism, Picasso is to modern art, Armstrong, Ellington, Parker and Coltrane are to jazz and Einstein is to the first half of the twentieth century in terms of science, is what this man and this book will probably be for the next hundred or so years of our culture. I am still having a hard time with this book, because he reifies and affirms so many of my most cherished intuitions regarding spirituality via using the highest brand of intellectuallisms one can probably hope to use in today's world--AND VICE VERSA. I would recommend anyone who finds the majesty of today's world and its endeavors to bridge the gap between science and spirituality fascinating to read first the work of his would be disciples: Michael Talbot (the Holographic Universe) and Jenny Wade (Changes of Mind). They will prepare both your mind and heart for what Bohm elucidates in this book, the central one of his life, thought and career.Nonetheless, this book effectively bridges the gap, and becomes in may ways the blue print by which the highest level of consciousness and perspective achievable in the context of Western Society today will be henceforth embraced and appreciated. Bohm was one of the most important thinkers in Western culture, not just our time or the last century. And this incredible challange of a work of his may not take you half as long to fully digest as it is taking me, but it will open your eyes in ways that you would not expect about possibility, mind, matter, energy, thought, order and existence in the universe. The yogis and the Memphite priests of ancient Egypt were right: here is the proof by the highest science.

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.