The Holographic Universe (29 page)

Hunt also discovered
that when an aura reader saw a particular color in a person's energy field, the
electromyograph always picked up a specific pattern of frequencies that Hunt
learned to associate with that color. She was able to see this pattern on an
oscilloscope, a device that converts electrical waves into a visual pattern on
a monochromatic video display screen. For example, when an aura reader saw blue
in a person's energy field, Hunt could confirm that it was blue by looking at
the pattern on the oscilloscope. In one experiment she even tested eight aura
readers simultaneously to see if they would agree with the oscilloscope as well
as with each other. “It was the same right down the line,” says Hunt.

Once Hunt confirmed the
existence of the human energy field, she, too, became convinced that the
holographic idea offers one model for understanding it In addition to its
frequency aspects, she points out that the energy field, and indeed all of the
body's electrical systems, is holographic in another way. Like the information
in a hologram, these systems are distributed globally throughout the body. For
instance, the electrical activity measured by an electroencephalograph is
strongest in the brain, but an EEG reading can also be made by attaching an
electrode to the toe. Similarly, an EKG can be picked up in the little finger.
It's stronger and higher in amplitude in the heart, but its frequency and
pattern are the same everywhere in the body. Hunt believes this is significant
Although every portion of what she calls the “holographic field reality” of the
aura contains aspects of the whole energy field, different portions are not
absolutely identical to each other. These differing amplitudes keep the energy
field from being a static hologram, and instead allow it to be dynamic and
flowing, says Hunt.

One of Hunt's most
startling findings is that certain talents and abilities seem to be related to
the presence of specific frequencies in a person's energy field. She has found
that when the main focus of a person's consciousness is on the material world,
the frequencies of their energy field tend to be in the lower range and are not
too far removed from the 250 cps of the body's biological frequencies. In
addition to these, people who are psychic or who have healing abilities also
have frequencies of roughly 400 to 800 cps in their field. People who can go
into trance and apparently channel other information sources through them, skip
these “psychic” frequencies entirely and operate in a narrow band between 800
and 900 cps. “They don't have any psychic breadth at all,” states Hunt.
“They're up there in their own field. It's narrow. It's pinpointed, and they
literally are almost out of it.”

People who have
frequencies above 900 cps are what Hunt calls mystica! personalities. Whereas
psychics and trance mediums are often just conduits of information, mystics
possess the wisdom to know what to do with the information, says Hunt. They are
aware of the cosmic interrelatedness of all things and are in touch with every
level of human experience. They are anchored in ordinary reality, but often
have both psychic and trance abilities. However, their frequencies also extend
way beyond the bands associated with these capabilities. Using a modified
eiectromyogram (an electromyogram can normally detect frequencies only up to
20,000 cps) Hunt has encountered individuals who have frequencies as high as
200,000 cps in their energy fields. This is intriguing, for mystical traditions
have often referred to highly spiritual individuals as possessing a “higher
vibration” than normal people. If Hunt's findings are correct, they seem to add
credence to this assertion.

Another of Hunt's
discoveries involves the new science of chaos. As its name implies, chaos is
the study of chaotic phenomena, i.e., processes that are so haphazard they do
not appear to be governed by any laws. For example, when smoke rises from an
extinguished candle it flows upward in a thin and narrow stream. Eventually the
structure of the stream breaks down and becomes turbulent. Turbulent smoke is
said to be chaotic because its behavior can no longer be predicted by science.
Other examples of chaotic phenomena include water when it crashes at the bottom
of a waterfall, the seemingly random electrical fluctuations that rage through
the brain of an epileptic during a seizure, and the weather when several
different temperature and air-pressure fronts collide.

In the past decade
science has discovered that many chaotic phenomena are not as disordered as
they seem and often contain hidden patterns and regularities (recall Bohm's
assertion that there is no such thing as disorder, only orders of indefinitely
high degree). Scientists have also discovered mathematical ways of finding some
of the regularities that lie hidden in chaotic phenomena. One of these involves
a special kind of mathematical analysis that can convert data about a chaotic
phenomenon into a shape on a computer screen. If the data contains no hidden
patterns, the resulting shape will be a straight line. But if the chaotic
phenomenon does contain hidden regularities, the shape on the computer screen
will look something like the spiral designs children make by winding colored
yarn around an array of nails pounded into a board. These shapes are called
“chaos patterns” or “strange attractors” (because the lines that compose the
shape seem to be attracted again and again to certain areas of the computer
screen, just as the yarn might be said to be repeatedly “attracted” to the array
of nails around which it is wound).

When Hunt observed
energy field data on the oscilloscope, she noticed that it changed constantly.
Sometimes it came in great clumps, sometimes it waned and became patchy, as if
the energy field itself were in an unceasing state of fluctuation. At first
glance these changes seemed random, but Hunt sensed intuitively they possessed
some order. Realizing that chaos analysis might reveal whether she was right or
not, she sought out a mathematician. First they ran four seconds of data from
an EKG through the computer to see what would happen. They got a straight line.
Then they ran the same amount of data from an EEG and an EMG. The EEG produced
a straight line and the EMG produced a slightly swollen line, but still no chaos
pattern. Even when they submitted data from the lower frequencies of the human
energy field, they got a straight line. But when they analyzed the very high
frequencies of the field they met with success. “We got the most dynamic chaos
pattern you ever saw,” says Hunt.

This meant that although
the kaleidoscopic changes taking place in the energy field appeared to be
random, they were actually very highly ordered and rich with pattern. “The
pattern is never a repeatable one, but it's so dynamic and complex, I call it a
chaos holograph pattern,” Hunt states.

Hunt believes her
discovery was the first true chaos pattern to be found in a major
electrobiological system. Recently researchers have found chaos patterns in EEG
recordings of the brain, but they needed many minutes of data from numerous
electrodes to obtain such a pattern. Hunt obtained a chaos pattern from three
to four seconds of data recorded by one electrode, suggesting that the human
energy field is far richer in information and possesses a far more complex and
dynamic organization than even the electrical activity of the brain.

What Is the
Human Energy Field Made Of?

Despite the human energy
field's electrical aspects, Hunt does not believe it is purely electromagnetic
in nature. “We have a feeling that it is much more complex and without doubt
composed of an as yet undiscovered energy,” she says.

What is this
undiscovered energy? At present we do not know. Our best clue comes from the
fact that almost without exception psychics describe it as having a higher
frequency or vibration than normal matter-energy. Given the uncanny accuracy
talented psychics have in perceiving illnesses in the energy field, we should
perhaps pay serious attention to this observation. The universality of this
perception— even ancient Hindu literature asserts that the energy body
possesses a higher vibration than normal matter—may be an indication that such
individuals are intuiting an important fact about the energy field.

Ancient Hindu literature
also describes matter as being composed of
ami
, or “atoms,” and says
that the subtle vibratory energies of the human energy field exist
paramanu
,
or literally “beyond the atom.” This is interesting, for Bohm also believes
that at a subquantum level
beyond the atom
there are many subtle
energies still unknown to science. He confesses that he does not know whether
the human energy field exists or not, but in commenting on the possibility, he
states, “The implicate order has many levels of subtlety. If our attention can go
to those levels of subtlety, then we should be able to see more than we
ordinarily see.”

It is worth noting that
we really don't know what
any
field is. As Bohm has said, “What is an
electric field? We don't know.” When we discover a new kind of field it seems
mysterious. Then we name it, get used to dealing with it and describing its
properties, and it no longer seems mysterious. But we still do not know what an
electric or a gravitational field really is. As we saw in an earlier chapter,
we don't even know what electrons are. We can only describe how they behave.
This suggests that the human energy field will also ultimately be defined in
terms of how it behaves, and research such as Hunt's will only further our
understanding.

Three-Dimensional
Images in the Aura

If these inordinately
subtle energies are the stuff from which the human energy field is made, we may
rest assured that they possess qualities unlike the kinds of energy with which
we are normally familiar. One of these is evident in the human energy field's
nonlocal characteristics. Another, and one that is particularly holographic, is
the aura's ability to manifest as an amorphous blur of energy, or occasionally
form itself into three-dimensional images. Talented psychics often report
seeing such “holograms” floating in people's auras. These images are usually of
objects and ideas that hold a prominent position in the thoughts of the person
around whom they are seen. Some occult traditions hold that such images are a
product of the third, or mental, layer of the aura, but until we have the means
to confirm or deny this allegation, we must confine ourselves to the
experiences of the psychics who are able to see images in the aura.

One such psychic is
Beatrice Rich. As often happens, Rich's powers manifested at an early age. When
she was a child, objects in her presence would occasionally move about on their
own accord. When she grew older she discovered she knew things about people she
had no normal means of knowing. Although she began her career as an artist, her
clairvoyant talents proved so impressive that she decided to become a full-time
psychic. Now she gives readings for individuals from all walks of life, from
housewives to chief executives of corporations, and articles about her work
have appeared in such diverse publications as
New York
magazine,
World
Tennis
, and
New York Woman.

Rich often sees images
floating around or hovering near her clients. Once she saw silver spoons,
silver plates, and similar objects circling around a man's head. Because it was
early in her explorations of psychic phenomena, the experience startled her. At
first she did not know why she was seeing what she was seeing. But finally she
told the man and discovered that he was in the import/export business and
traded in the very objects she was seeing circling his head. The experience was
riveting and changed her perceptions forever.

Dryer has had many
similar experiences. Once during a reading she saw a bunch of potatoes whirling
around a woman's head. Like Rich, she was at first dumbfounded but summoned her
courage and asked the woman if potatoes had any special meaning for her. The
woman laughed and handed Dryer her business card. “She was from the Idaho
Potato Board, or something like that,” says Dryer. “You know, the potato
grower's equivalent of the American Dairy Association.”

These images don't
always just hover in the aura, but sometimes can appear to be ghostly
extensions of the body itself. On one occasion Dryer saw a wispy and
holographic like layer of mud clinging to a woman's hands and arms. Given the
woman's impeccable grooming and expensive attire, Dryer could not imagine why
thoughts of mucking around in some kind of viscous sludge would be occupying
her mind. Dryer asked her if she understood the image, and the woman nodded,
explaining that she was a sculptor and had tried out a new medium that morning
that had clung to her arms and hands exactly as Dryer had described.

I, too, have had similar
experiences when looking at the energy field. Once, while deep in thought about
a novel I was working on about werewolves (as some readers may be aware, I have
a fondness for writing fiction about folkloric subjects), I noticed that the
ghostly image of a werewolf's body had formed around my own body. I would
quickly like to stress that this was a purely visual phenomenon and at no time
did I feel I had in any way become a werewolf. Nonetheless, the holographiclike
image that enveloped my body was real enough that when I lifted my arm I could
actually see the individual hairs in the fur and the way the canine nails
protruded from the wolfish hand that encased my own hand. Indeed, everything
about these features was absolutely real, save that they were translucent and I
could see my own flesh-and-blood hand beneath them. The experience should have
been frightening, but for some reason it wasn't, and I found myself only
fascinated by what I was seeing.