A month or so ago, I stumbled upon a set of videos entitled, "The Holographic Universe" by Stephen Davis. Stephen's theory is based on the book by Michael Talbot with the same name, and apparently there is a whole new group of self-help gurus who are using their understanding of quantum physics (as if that is a cool term to throw around) -- specifically, the "double slit" experiment (something VERY COOL to watch over and over and mull over), and they are imposing their philosophical belief systems upon the quantum theory to churn out what seems to be a hologram-theory of our reality and our experience.
First of all, the video set is available for free for download at http://www.holographicuniverseworkshops.com/, and in my opinion, I enjoyed watching EVERY MINUTE of the five hours of videos the workshop provided. In fact, it really opened my eyes to a number of Chassidic concepts I have learned over the years, and it has allowed me to see the concept of "ein od milvado," or, "there is nothing but Hashem (our creator)" in a very new light.
My current understanding of the concept (applying my Jewish understanding of what I have read so far in Chassidus-based texts) is simply this. Life as we know it is "happening" for us because we are in the hologram which is projecting our reality around us. However, the "us" (or more personally, the "I" that I experience every day (including my moods, my thoughts, any itches, scratches, sniffles, or sneezes I experience, and any happy or sad feelings I experience) is really a holographic projection, and I experience these experiences AS THOUGHTS. To take a stab and integrating Judaism into the holographic theory (or vice versa), it appears to me as if our Neshama (soul) is creating our human experience that we perceive ourselves as physically being *in*, and we go through our lives making choices and living and experiencing the consequences of our choices.
To understand the real "us," you need to think of a movie screen. The movie screen itself does not change when a movie is projected onto it. And, in "truth" (whatever that means,) we are the observer who is watching the movie that we ourselves are projecting onto the screen. Our "human experience" is a movie that we have made for whatever purpose we have (or Hashem has) created it. And, we appear to be the "star character" in our movie. And, we can affect the outcome of our movie because we have free will to make choices of how to act and what decisions to make in the movie (our holographic projection, our "world," or our hologram that was made just for us). However, our mistake in perception is that in watching the movie, we mistakenly identify not with the observer watching the movie, but with the character in the movie, and we live life experiencing the various events, feelings, and emotions which the "player" or the "I" character in the movie goes through as he or she grows from being an infant, to a toddler, all the way through life, which ultimately ends in the death of our character.
Now obviously this theory is just a model, and I have not yet reconciled what it means as far as Torah and Mitzvos, Hashem, and other "players." Apparently, from what Robert Schienfeld or Stephen Davis seem to describe, there are no other players in my hologram, and taking on the extreme narcissistic point of view, everyone in my world was created to be a reflection of me (as if you all are "extras" in my movie, and vice versa). Now obviously, this would only be from the point of view of my "player," and other players would be experiencing their "human experiences" through their own holograms where every person in their hologram (in this case, you as the player created me, Zoe Strickman the blogger to reflect yourself back to you) creates and experiences everyone else, even me, but if you are reading this, then I am your creation. For now, I am assuming that there is a "common hologram" or "common world" -- holographic or not -- "in" which we all live, whether or not this "common world" is real, and as things stand, I can't make heads or tails of the theory of "there is no you, but only me," and I need to hash it out further to understand the implications.
G-d can easily still exist in a hologram-based existence. Whether it is my Neshama (soul) or my higher consciousness (if there is such a thing) that is creating the holographic experience for me [or not], it could just as easily be one G-d that is creating all holographic experiences. But, for reasons I don't yet understand, G-d is a creator of the "higher self" or "consciousness" (what I am calling my Neshama), and the model suggests that "He" is not the one creating our hologram for us to live in. I think the reason for this is because we are not really "in" the hologram, but rather, we are experiencing "it" as an observer (which would logically put us "outside" of the hologram). [I'm using quotes because I'm not sure the hologram is physical, but if I think of the double-slit experiment relating to quantum mechanics, I would posit that our hologram is a wave form in its natural state, but as we look at it, we become the "observer" and as such, we collapse the wave form into something we perceive as hard physical reality (e.g., I can bang on the wooden desk at which I am sitting, and I can hear the clicks of my laptop's keyboard as I type, but in reality, there may be no table, laptop, or keyboard -- by observing, I may simply be collapsing the table which exists as a wave form (presumably the Hebrew letters spelling "SHULCHAN" [shin, lamed, chet, nun]) in what I perceive to be a physical object in my hologram, but when I turn around, like a video game which only shows what is in front of the player's focus, the table might revert to the wave form (or the Hebrew letters from which they are comprised).] But who knows. I am hashing this out and will continue to do so for months to come.
The easy thing to understand in the holographic experience is Torah and Mitzvos. The creator G-d created the Torah which can easily be the "blueprint" or the "field" which quantum physics refers to when it refers to the "zero point field" from which each person's personal hologram and/or their own personal "holographic universe" comes from. In other words, every universe in the multiverse (assuming an infinite permutations of what can come out of the field, and hence an infinite number of holograms or so-called "physical" universes) which is created comes from the field, which, according to Judaism could easily be the Torah which G-d wrote. We learn from the Midrash Rabbah in explaining the word "Bereishis" that "G-d looked into the Torah and created the world," [just as scientifically, a laser can be aimed at a hologram and out pops out a 3D holographic image.] [Side note: Now read what Rabbi Akiva Tatz wrote in his article on torah.org with this new perspective. Weird, huh?] As such, as Jews, we understand that in every holographic universe, there are still rules (commandments) which are dictated by G-d and written into the blueprint which is Torah. And, if Torah is the blueprint, then halacha and mitzvos are the structures and rules by which we are judged by our actions as positive and negative consequences in our world.
BUT that still doesn't preclude the fact that we are not necessarily "in" our hologram, but rather, we are observers of a "movie" to which we associate ourselves as the main character in that movie, without realizing that the being "in" the movie is living within the hologram that we have created (or that has been created for us). As such, every emotion, feeling, and idea in the hologram (the "movie") is a THOUGHT which is projected into the "mind" of the player through whom we act in our "human experience;" in our holographic world. And, because Hashem creates us and our world every single second (the world is not a lump of clay that has an inkling of its own existence), it could be understood that the holographic universe is not a stable "thing" that exists on its own; rather, at every instant, BECAUSE Hashem is re-creating the holographic universe that we live in at every instant, in two seconds from now, he could create a universe where something has changed (a bird is now "placed" at the other side of a room), or where someone's mind changes (e.g., a potential business partner decides to work with you, or an enemy decides to make peace with you), or where some small "fact" is changed. The holographic world we live in at 12:21pm might be a different world at 12:22pm because either G-d or our higher selves changed something in the programming code of the hologram. (My intuition is that it is G-d who is looking into the field and creating our existence, but the current holographic-quantum-theory psychology suggests that G-d is merely the creator of everything including our consciousnesses (perhaps in Robert Scheinfeld's words, he is "pure creative essence,"), but [for some reason,] WE are the ones projecting our own holographic universes from the field, not G-d, and then we trick ourselves into thinking that the hologram is real. This doesn't yet sit well with me, unless the suggestion is that he is teaching the concept of "ein od milvado," meaning that there is NOTHING BUT THE PURE CREATIVE ESSENCE, or in short, nothing but G-d.)
Just for fun, watch this thought taken from Rabbi Yisroel Ciner's torah.org article from Parshas Chaya Sarah [my comments in brackets]:
The Nesivos Sholom explains that it was Hashem's chessed which brought Him to create the world [think, "He creates our physical world as our own personal hologram"]. Hashem needed nothing but wanted to share His goodness with others. Furthermore, the world, having been created 'yesh ma'ayin' {something from nothing} is in the constant, perilous state of being unable to continue to exist on its own. It is only through a constant re-creation, every single second of time [think, so long as the supernal laser shines into the field and creates the hologram], through which Hashem's chessed (kindness) enables this world to continue to exist.And now, read what Rabbi Avraham Kahn writes in a shemayisrael.com article on Parshas Tzaria-Metzorah, entitled, "The World Was Made For Me" [again, my comments in brackets]:
Everything for me
The Talmud (Sanhedrin 37a) tells us that every person is obligated to say, "The world was created for me." [think, MY holographic "world" (meaning, holographic projection of my personal "human experience" which I (being the Neshama or consciousness OUTSIDE of the holographic projection) identify as my reality) was made for me (to act through, to do mitzvahs, to avoid aveiros, and to experience "a human experience" with all consequences of my actions.] Rashi explains that this should bring a person to think that if I am so important, and the whole world [or think, my holographic "human experience," or "my hologram"] was created just for me, then how could I think of doing even one transgression [e.g., why fight what is "wrong" within the world (e.g., I'm too fat, I don't have enough money, etc.) when everything (even reality itself) was made for my benefit.]. This attitude brings us to stop in our tracks whenever we have a choice to make. However, the arrogant may say that if the whole world was created for me, then I expect everyone and everything to serve my needs [if understanding the hologram FROM this section, it implies that even in my personal hologram which was made for my benefit and my spiritual growth, there is still a G-d and Torah, mitzvos, and halachas that we are obligated to follow]. Just like children who expect their every wish to be fulfilled, the arrogant expect that their needs will be treated with priority over everything else.
In sum for now, obviously I am working through the holographic world theory of reality which seems to be the current "self-help" theory of reality based on what people understand or misunderstand of our current understanding of quantum physics. To understand what I am talking about, go watch the "Holographic Universe" videos on http://www.holographicuniverseworkshops.com, read one of Robert Scheinfeld's books, and then take one or more of his courses. I must say that at the moment, it appears as if we differ as to the purpose of the holographic universe; it appears to me that the authors believe that "we created ourselves to have an experience [to experience stuff]," and understanding of the purpose of the holographic universe is to dogmatically reconcile what we appear to understand with the concepts of G-d, Torah, and Mitzvos. However you believe and FOR WHATEVER PURPOSE the universe was created, for now, it appears as if there is no real and persistent physical universe, but rather, a "hologram" or "holographic blueprint" of what we call the physical universe -- what chassidus describes as the lowest world which is called "Asiyah" (which is spiritual), in which we mistakenly identify our true selves as being "the player" in the hologram rather than understanding and getting excited by the creation (or the creator of such a magnificent creation [with all its details and its unlimited depths]), and we perceive the creation as being "real."
Now to bring The Matrix movies into this, I could re-write this entire article, and every place I say the "hologram," you can supplement "the matrix" and you'd get a similar idea of the concept of a hologram. However, where I differ from the Matrix movies is that I don't think that we are some "brain in a vat" experiencing or being "plugged in" (literally through our necks and our spines) into reality. But rather, I am starting to think that as soon as we understand that "there is no spoon," we will not unplug, chos v'sholom, and we will not escape to an alternate world where we are eating slobber in ships that avoid robot machines who want to kill us. But rather, once we learn the truth, we will start to live IN our hologram with a new set of rules. Our world and our hologram will probably start to change because we will understand it better, and we will get an inkling as to what is outside of the hologram.
What I respected about the Holographic Universe videos is that the author (Stephen Davis) flat-out said that "we cannot know what is going on or what is really happening on the OTHER SIDE of the hologram because it is simply not accessible to us," meaning, our consciousness is firmly ROOTED "in" the hologram (or in other words, we are the observer who's eyes are glued to the screen upon which our world is being broadcast). We cannot disengage or unplug from reality, and we cannot know whether the entity creating the hologram is G-d, an angel, our higher selves (if such things exist), our Neshamas (or some level of our souls), a guardian, or whatever. All we know is that we are an observer "collapsing the wave" (more on this in another post) and experiencing "reality" through the player with whom we identify as "I."
I suspect that through meditation I can focus on [one glimpse at a time] the boundary-less "movie screen" upon which we project our holographic world. This movie screen has no "up," no "down," no "left," and no "right." Rather, we can imagine ourselves floating in any direction with no perception of "where we are on the screen of the movie screen," and the reason for this is because the movie screen is not a physical entity, but a spiritual entity without known boundaries. So I could -- in my mind -- make flips, fly circles, etc. in my own mind-space (the "movie screen" upon which my hologram ("real world") is projected), and I wouldn't know whether I moved up or down because the screen goes on forever and ever in every direction.
Thinking of my movie screen is certainly exciting, but I don't think my consciousness can perceive anything farther back then that. Maybe there is no movie screen either.
-Zoey
PS - On a personal note, isn't it interesting that when I was younger, I spent so much time reading Stanislav Grof's books,"The Holotropic Mind," and "The Adventure of Self-Discovery." It was in the '90's, and as a college student, I was roaming through the University library, and I don't remember why, but I was pulled to his books. For all I know the topics he writes about versus what I am discussing here are not related, but how cool would it be if they ARE related. I spent so much time reading them, and now years later I find this stuff so relevant to my "path," as if I was shown hints of my path even many years ago.
1 comment:
Yep, that was a pretty long and nasty article. Whoever got through it, I am impressed.
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