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Authors: Michael Talbot
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enfolds the whole. This means that if we knew how to access it we
could find the Andromeda galaxy in the thumbnail of our left hand. We could
also find Cleopatra meeting Caesar for the first time, for in principle the
whole past and implications for the whole future are also enfolded in each
small region of space and time. Every cell in our body enfolds the entire
cosmos. So does every leaf, every raindrop, and every dust mote, which gives
new meaning to William Blake's famous poem:
To see a World
in a Grain of Sand
And a Heaven
in a Wild Flower,
Hold Infinity
in the palm of your hand
And Eternity
in an hour.
The Energy of a Trillion
Atomic Bombs in
Every Cubic Centimeter of Space
If our universe is only
a pale shadow of a deeper order, what else lies hidden, enfolded in the warp
and weft of our reality? Bohm has a suggestion. According to our current
understanding of physics, every region of space is awash with different kinds
of fields composed of waves of varying lengths. Each wave always has at least
some energy. When physicists calculate the minimum amount of energy a wave can
possess, they find that every cubic centimeter of empty space contains more
energy than the total energy of all the matter in the known universe!
Some physicists refuse
to take this calculation seriously and believe it must somehow be in error.
Bohm thinks this infinite ocean of energy does exist and tells us at least a
little about the vast and hidden nature of the implicate order. He feels most
physicists ignore the existence of this enormous ocean of energy because, like
fish who are unaware of the water in which they swim, they have been taught to
focus primarily on objects embedded in the ocean, on matter.
Bohm's view that space
is as real and rich with process as the matter that moves through it reaches
full maturity in his ideas about the implicate sea of energy. Matter does not
exist independently from the sea, from so-called empty space. It is a part of
space. To explain what he means, Bohm offers the following analogy: A crystal
cooled to absolute zero will allow a stream of electrons to pass through it
without scattering them. If the temperature is raised, various flaws in the
crystal will lose their transparency, so to speak, and begin to scatter
electrons. From an electron's point of view such flaws would appear as pieces
of “matter” floating in a sea of nothingness, but this is not really the case.
The nothingness and the pieces of matter do not exist independently from one
another. They are both part of the same fabric, the deeper order of the
crystal.
Bohm believes the same
is true at our own level of existence. Space is not empty. It is full , a
plenum as opposed to a vacuum, and is the ground for the existence of
everything, including ourselves. The universe is not separate from this cosmic
sea of energy, it is a ripple on its surface, a comparatively small “pattern of
excitation” in the midst of an unimaginably vast ocean. “This excitation
pattern is relatively autonomous and gives rise to approximately recurrent,
stable and separable projections into a three-dimensional explicate order of
manifestation,” states Bohm. In other words, despite its apparent materiality
and enormous size, the universe does not exist in and of itself, but is the
stepchild of something far vaster and more ineffable. More than that, it is not
even a major production of this vaster something, but is only a passing shadow,
a mere hiccup in the greater scheme of things.
This infinite sea of
energy is not all that is enfolded in the implicate order. Because the
implicate order is the foundation that has given birth to everything in our
universe, at the very least it also contains every subatomic particle that has
been or will be; every configuration of matter, energy, life, and consciousness
that is possible, from quasars to the brain of Shakespeare, from the double
helix, to the forces that control the sizes and shapes of
could find the Andromeda galaxy in the thumbnail of our left hand. We could
also find Cleopatra meeting Caesar for the first time, for in principle the
whole past and implications for the whole future are also enfolded in each
small region of space and time. Every cell in our body enfolds the entire
cosmos. So does every leaf, every raindrop, and every dust mote, which gives
new meaning to William Blake's famous poem:
To see a World
in a Grain of Sand
And a Heaven
in a Wild Flower,
Hold Infinity
in the palm of your hand
And Eternity
in an hour.
The Energy of a Trillion
Atomic Bombs in
Every Cubic Centimeter of Space
If our universe is only
a pale shadow of a deeper order, what else lies hidden, enfolded in the warp
and weft of our reality? Bohm has a suggestion. According to our current
understanding of physics, every region of space is awash with different kinds
of fields composed of waves of varying lengths. Each wave always has at least
some energy. When physicists calculate the minimum amount of energy a wave can
possess, they find that every cubic centimeter of empty space contains more
energy than the total energy of all the matter in the known universe!
Some physicists refuse
to take this calculation seriously and believe it must somehow be in error.
Bohm thinks this infinite ocean of energy does exist and tells us at least a
little about the vast and hidden nature of the implicate order. He feels most
physicists ignore the existence of this enormous ocean of energy because, like
fish who are unaware of the water in which they swim, they have been taught to
focus primarily on objects embedded in the ocean, on matter.
Bohm's view that space
is as real and rich with process as the matter that moves through it reaches
full maturity in his ideas about the implicate sea of energy. Matter does not
exist independently from the sea, from so-called empty space. It is a part of
space. To explain what he means, Bohm offers the following analogy: A crystal
cooled to absolute zero will allow a stream of electrons to pass through it
without scattering them. If the temperature is raised, various flaws in the
crystal will lose their transparency, so to speak, and begin to scatter
electrons. From an electron's point of view such flaws would appear as pieces
of “matter” floating in a sea of nothingness, but this is not really the case.
The nothingness and the pieces of matter do not exist independently from one
another. They are both part of the same fabric, the deeper order of the
crystal.
Bohm believes the same
is true at our own level of existence. Space is not empty. It is full , a
plenum as opposed to a vacuum, and is the ground for the existence of
everything, including ourselves. The universe is not separate from this cosmic
sea of energy, it is a ripple on its surface, a comparatively small “pattern of
excitation” in the midst of an unimaginably vast ocean. “This excitation
pattern is relatively autonomous and gives rise to approximately recurrent,
stable and separable projections into a three-dimensional explicate order of
manifestation,” states Bohm. In other words, despite its apparent materiality
and enormous size, the universe does not exist in and of itself, but is the
stepchild of something far vaster and more ineffable. More than that, it is not
even a major production of this vaster something, but is only a passing shadow,
a mere hiccup in the greater scheme of things.
This infinite sea of
energy is not all that is enfolded in the implicate order. Because the
implicate order is the foundation that has given birth to everything in our
universe, at the very least it also contains every subatomic particle that has
been or will be; every configuration of matter, energy, life, and consciousness
that is possible, from quasars to the brain of Shakespeare, from the double
helix, to the forces that control the sizes and shapes of
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