The Essential David Bohm [Paperback]

Lee Nichol (Editor)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0415261740 | ISBN-13: 978-0415261746 | Publication Date: December 29, 2002

There are few scientists of the twentieth century whose life's work has created more excitement and controversy than that of physicist David Bohm (1917-1992). For the first time in a single volume, The Essential David Bohm offers a comprehensive overview of Bohm's original works from a non-technical perspective. Including three chapters of previously unpublished material, each reading has been selected to highlight some aspect of the implicate order process, and to provide an introduction to one of the most provocative thinkers of our time.

Editorial Reviews

Review

...this is an excellent overview of Bohm's contributions to science, philosophy and society. The selections outline the foundations of Bohm's notion of implicate order, drawing from theoretical physics, consciousness ,perception, creativity and cosmology...The reader will appreciate Bohm's status as a provocative, diverse and (at times) somewhat unorthodox probing mind, concerned more with broad understanding than ego. Commentary April 27, 2003.

About the Author

The late David Bohm, one of the greatest physicists and foremost thinkers this century, was Fellow of the Royal Society and Emeritus Professor of Physics at Birkbeck College, University of London. Lee Nichol is a freelance writer and edited two works by David Bohm, On Dialogue (1996) and On Creativity (1998), both published by Routledge.

Product Details

• Paperback: 400 pages
• Publisher: Routledge (December 29, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0415261740
• ISBN-13: 978-0415261746
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.4 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #566,412 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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74 of 79 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Meaning in a subjective universe, October 31, 2003

By 

David J. Kreiter (Iowa City, Iowa USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Essential David Bohm (Paperback)

I've read several books by and about physicist David Bohm including "Wholeness and the Implicate Order", but it wasn't until I read "The Essential David Bohm" that I began to comprehend Bohm's philosophy.

If I were to attempt a one-line summary of his philosophy it would be that nature is an undivided whole. This is not a new idea as it has its roots in monistic traditions, but it has always been difficult for me to understand just how we, as individual observers, fit into the wholenss of the universe. How is it, as Einstein himself wondered, that we are able to make the universe comprehensible by doing objective science if we are a part of what we are studying? And if matter and energy scurry around in a cold, purposeless fashion as most modern orthodox physicists proclaim, why do we, as one of the most complex inhabitants of this universe, seem to aspire to creativity and purpose?

The answer according to David Bohm, is that the universe is organized at all levels of complexity according to "meaning", and this includes life itself. If "meaning" is enfolded within all matter and energy, in what Bohm calls the implicate order, then there is no separation of mind and matter. Nor, can objectivity and subjectivity be discrete. If the entire universe is organized according to meaning then the universe is contextual and therefore subjective at all levels. Objectivity becomes a false endeavor.

Yet, it is undeniable that "objective" science has taken us a long way in the twentieth century, from an understanding of the workings of the atom to the marvels of DNA. There is a limit to this kind of approach, however. There is a growing realization in many scientific disciplines that the ultimate building blocks of nature are unattainable. The philosophy of reductionism has by definition a major flaw. The part can never abstract the whole. Therefore, a new holistic aproach must be adapted in which "meaning" is considerd at all levels of complexity.

How is it possible for us to observe nature if all is subjective? Bohm explanation is that "meaning" is self-referential allowing consciousness to observe itself. And contrary to what most of us intuitively believe, the process of observation is not passive. Similar to the scientific method, experimentation between our brain and the environment are constantly taking place in a process of active "attunement".

Such attunement is a skill that requires practive. For example, visual observation requires a subtle unconscious movement of the eyeball itself. When subjects are placed in sensory depravation where practice of these skills cease, perception can completely break down. Taking a Kantian viewpoint, Bohm says that observation allows us only an abstraction of the universe filtered through our senses. We are not creating reality through this continual interplay between our nervous systems and nature. We are only creating an "inner show" which allows us a subjective insight into the universe. Therefore, an abstract comprehension of nature is possible due to the constant interplay between nature and ourselves, and because the universe is subjective and contextual.

The idea of a contextual universe is not such a radical step for two reasons: First, Niels Bohr himself made the position and momentum of particles context dependent by bringing in the measuring device (the observer) as the determining factor for the outcome of the experiment. An "observation" is required in quantum experiments to make the particle determinate. And second, Bohr realized that there could be no division between the classical and quantum worlds. In fact, in his later years Bohr proclaimed: "There is no quantum world." And yet, there seems to be a dichotomy. Classical physics is supposed to be causal, objective, and deterministic, while quantum physics is non-local, acausal, and indeterministic.

For example, two similar processes exemplify one of the most mysterious aspects of quantum theory: The acausal jump of the electron from one orbit to another around the nucleus of an atom, and the acausal process of nuclear decay. Both processes are indeterministic in that there is no cause for an individual electron to make a jump, nor an unstable atom to decay. Only a statistical average can be determined. But if, as Bohm claims, the universe is context driven then "meaning" can be the unifying factor of the quantum and classical worlds. For if we realize that the original source of all cause and effect is "meaning", then both classical and quantum physics would be contextual, and therefore no division would exist.

One of David Bohm's colleagues once said of Bohm's ideas: Some are brilliant, many are obscure, and some are just plain nonsense." In reading this book I discovered much of the brilliance as well as some of the obscurity of David Bohm. And though I found his description of physic's famous double-slit experiment, as well as his "pilot-wave" idea unsatisfying, I would not want to proclaim it "nonsense". This book was truly mind-expanding and I highly recommend it for the contemplative individual.

This book review by David Kreiter, author of "Quantum Reality: A New Philosophical Perspective."

23 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Precisely that: Essential., March 9, 2007

By 

Suvit Singhsachakul "Science Fiction Enthusiast" (Bangkok, Thailand) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Essential David Bohm (Paperback)

Edited by Lee Nichol, this book is the quintessential introduction to the genius that was David Bohm, a prominent physicist who nonetheless lost out to Einstein in terms of popularity. The fervent synthesis of science and philosophy during the latter half of his career did not sit well with the scientific community at the time: As such, his most marvelous accomplishments were relegated to the sidelines of scientific inquiry. However, Bohm did succeed in securing a slew of open-minded followers who have carried his theories through the decades in an undercurrent that has been gaining momentum in recent years. In the last decade alone, hundreds of best-selling books by "New Age" authors have cited his works as substantially contributing to their ideas and postulations. After reading a large selection of these books myself, I thought it was time to go straight to the source and this book fit the bill. Nichol has flawlessly and intelligently compiled a series of articles, essays, dialogues, interviews and correspondence penned by Bohm throughout the years into a logical reading sequence where each chapter builds up our understanding for the next.

The first part of the book covers Bohm's views on "Universal Orders". Here, we are presented with a series of chapters elaborating the relative and unsubstantial nature of human perception and its inadequacies in accessing any form of "truth" through scientific inquiry alone. Science (that hinges on quantifiable and testable hypotheses) without philosophy (that hinges on qualitative analyses) inevitably leads to a misleading mechanistic view of reality that has already been shown to be severely "limited" in lieu of quantum physics on one end of the spectrum and Einstein's theory of relativity on the other. Furthermore, certain inexplicable experimental results (such as "non-local" qualities expressed by entangled particles) in Quantum Physics have underscored the inadequacy of modern science and has thus highlighted the urgent "need" for a new and more open-minded dogma of scientific inquiry. It is here that Bohm proposes his landmark theory of the Implicate Order. Using the "ink spot in the glycerine cylinder" analogy and principles of holography as examples, Bohm demonstrates the idea of an infinite and implicit level of true reality (the Implicate and Super-Implicate Order) that gives rise to our universe (the Explicate Order) in a process of enfoldments and "unfoldments" called the "Holomovement". Here, time, space, thought, consciousness, and matter are all elements that unfold from the implicate order, which may also contain in it other "orders" that ultimately do not manifest in our domain of experience. What does manifest however, are certain patterns of "causality" that we have taken for granted as permanent scientific laws when in fact these laws are nothing more than tiny derivative subsets "abstracted" from a larger cornucopia of non-linear relationships that may exist in the super implicate order (which "informs" the implicate order on what and how to manifest into the explicate.) Bohm also puts to rest the notion of separation between "mind" and "matter" in the treatment of a subject he coins as "Soma-Significance". Here, mind is but a subtle process (or has a "significance" as it were) that arises from lower-level interactions of matter (nerves, pulses, cells, glands, etc.), or "soma". This somatic structure, in turn, is a subtle expression of yet another level of matter/soma (chemicals, cellular structures, organic compounds, molecules, etc.) In this way, matter (also soma, structure, content, or manifest) and meaning (also significance, mind, context, or subtle) comprise the various levels of reality that mutually interact with and modify one another ad infinitum, all of which are enfolded in the implicate order.

The second part of the book stresses on the human Ego. Bohm ventures to explain the structure-process of the ego as nothing more than a mechanical process (once again, from a soma-significant standpoint) that deprives us of a wholesome existence by creating a constant state of crisis, conflict and contradiction. At the core of our psychological conditioning is the "I"-"me" dichotomy that seems to establish our sense of "self" (or ego) as a concrete entity separate from the immediate environment that we perceive. Where as our past, memories, experiences, conditioning, and values compose the content of the "I", the "me" is essentially the interactive process of perception of our present surroundings (as in "this [or that] is happening to me"). As long as the ego-content categorizes these present situations according to past criteria, we will always be in a state of conflict and confusion that does not allow us to "understand" the truth of what we perceive. At the heart of the ego process is what Bohm calls the "Pleasure Principle", a mechanical yearning in our brain's cortex to create thoughts and illusions from our memory banks so as to stimulate the thalamus into producing the emotion of pleasure. This reflex distorts that which we perceive and generates "false" emotions based on what we "think" is happening. If these emotions happen to be undesirable, our cortex goes into a tailspin and generates more illusions to appease our distraught thalamus that was misled by the ego-process of the cortex in the first place! This creates a tangled mess of illusions and false knowledge that prevent us from seeing the "mechanicalness" of our own minds. To understand a present situation in its totality (and hence, true knowledge), we ourselves must be whole, a state of true "individuality" that does not separate the perceiver from the act of perception, the "I" from the "me". We must also be attentive of the fact that "thought" and "emotions" are the same thing: there is no thought without emotion and vice versa. This is yet another division we impose that seems to cause us even more confusion. Furthermore, our sense of ego is continually strengthened by thoughts and illusions that result from incessantly reliving our "memory scratches" in order to artificially simulate pleasure that, in fact, should only come from true perception in the "now".

To dismantle our egos and experience true conflict-free individuality, Bohm suggests that we must engage in a process called "suspension". This is a process by which we must seek to become aware of our thoughts, both explicit and implicit (our immediate value judgments), and the emotions that arise in response to them. It is called suspension precisely because we must allow these sensations to physiologically "play out" without acting upon them or thinking even more thoughts to change or subdue them (which would just be more smoke and mirrors by the ego). Engaging in such an unobtrusive mode of awareness of our mental machinations will automatically deprive it of energy and expose the mechanical nature of it all. Only then, in a true act of "free will", would we be able to respond to actual information, where our possible courses of action are not determined by self-deceiving false knowledge (ignorance) but by what is actually true or false. Bohm also proposes that the "insights" we gain from this act of "preprioception" is a "creative" process by which we "catch a glimpse" of the implicate order. The third part of this book carries the aforementioned principles of the ego-process to a larger context of human societies and demonstrates how the internal conflicts in our minds are but a microcosm of the tragic conditions that plague the human race as a whole (warfare, terrorism, etc.). In accordance to soma-significance, if enough of us can attain indivisibility within our psyches, it would serve as a potent impetus to gradually "solve" the divisions and conflicts confronted by the human race. This can be done through the encouragement of collective dialogue and discourse.

There are two common themes running throughout the course of Bohm's works: The methodical limitations of science as it currently stands (i.e. in the chronic need for experimental results or "pay-offs") and the undivided wholeness of the universe. As such, there is no differentiation of the "I" from the "me", "mind" from "matter", "effect" from "cause", "soma" from "significance", "time" from "space", "past" from "future", "meaning" from "intention", "perceiver" from "perception", and definitely no "relative experience" from "concrete reality". Everything is relative to everything else and all are enfolded in the implicate and super-implicate orders. Furthermore, the implicate order may be considered as the "ultimate" soma and the super-implicate order, the "ultimate" significance. That could possibly imply a self aware and intelligent universe: what many of us call "God" perhaps? The content of this book is beyond review in my opinion. It is like trying to review Shakespeare, whose works have become the backbone of English literature: Any attempt at constructive criticism on my part would be ill-developed or naïve at best. However, what I can review is Lee Nichol's style of compilation, which is superbly executed in its own right and requires no more discussion. What becomes clear upon reading this masterpiece, are the hordes of new age authors that have been eager to "borrow" only relevant portions of Bohm's theories to corroborate and validate their own musings. This has led to much distortion and misrepresentation of Bohm's ideas. If you want to intimately understand David Bohm's awesome theoretical achievements, this would be "the essential" starting point.

6 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Essential David Bohm, February 6, 2007

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Robyn Knight - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Essential David Bohm (Paperback)

This book is a must for any enquiring mind that delights in thinking outside the box. I first found David Bohn when he was in discussion with Krishnmurti on DVD, amassing stuff. Not only have I found his work and writings of tremendous interest but they have also changed my life. I would suggest those not accustomed to quantum dynamics or who still feel a need for "God" in the traditional sense, to start with Anthony De Mello's Book :"Awareness" first as Bohm can be a little heavy for those not used to it.