Part 2

Our understanding of the term interference pattern has now gone full circle. It started with the physical and least effective waves formed and meeting one another in water and then went on to light, where much better results were observed, and then went on to mind nature of a relatively higher order of responsiveness again. Whereas we can measure the effect of the first two scientifically, the last is beyond our present ability to observe in this way, and yet, our reason enables us to carry our understanding into this area. But, as the holism of the higher orders of our nature is approached, so the word interference begins to feel less suited to this pattern of interdependence, for what started out as a crude superimposition of one individual wave upon the privacy of another, has gradually turned into a symphony of awareness at the highest level, where the individuality of one wave is longing to engage with, and respond to, the individuality of another.

This last point is drawn out in this fashion in order to lead the argument, for those who are with it in spirit, to a more poetic plane of thought where we can immediately see the correspondence between these levels of holographic effect and the generalised understanding of the spiritual evolution of our human nature, through which we seem to begin with a feeling of irritation over the fact that other people are different from ourselves, and end with the feeling of thankfulness and gladness that they are so.

The next correspondence to be noticed in the nature of the hologram is one that we can take from the way in which the information contained in the holographic pattern is in a meaningless form of abstract lines and rhythmic intervals. All sorts of light may be applied to this photographic image, but none of them will have the effect of producing for us the picture of the object which has been recorded. There is only one key which will unlock the meaning of the message in this secret elemental language, and that is the exact form of coherent light which transcribed it in the first place. In human terms, it is saying that the light brought to bear on the situation is equivalent to an attitude of consciousness which will not be able to realise, or recognise, the true significance of the structure it is observing unless it takes an attitude similar to the one that put the structure there in the first place. What is being observed will consequently remain an apparent accident or intent, take up the attitude inherent in the causes leading to the existence of the observed phenomena.

We may come to this idea again later on in this discussion, but there are other factors present in the holographic process which produce interesting analogies. One is the nature of coherent light itself and the other is the way the coherent light beam is divided into two parts in order that one part should explore the object and the other part remain unaltered. This is rather like a reporter holding a pencil in one hand and a notebook in the other. The pencil hand is actively engaged in recording the elements of the situation in question, while the notebook hand is doing the very opposite by being completely passive and blind to anything but the point of the pencil. If the notebook hand became excitedly engaged in the event that the reporter was noticing, then it would begin to exert its own tensions and movements on the movements of the pencil, thus upsetting the writing with the wrong sort of interference. But if the reporter had forgotten his notebook, then the correct sort of interference would be absent to cause the friction which rubs the lead off the pencil and stores it.

There are many other things that the reporter could have in his hand which would not be able to do this special pattern creation with the pencil. In fact the pencil and paper situation is part of a holistic idea that has been carefully evolved and the one has no life without the other. We tend to take the passivity of the notebook for granted, but we should not allow ourselves to do this. In practice, it can be observed that it is quite as much an art to be learned for the reporter to keep his book hand still, and with the right strength to maintain that stillness under pressure, as it is to manage the pencil hand that follows the special writing shapes of words. The point that is being made here, is that we are generally biased, in our present cultural attitude, to favour the more flamboyant activity of the writing hand and not give due attention and respect to the hand that appears to have a less obvious role to play.

The analogy of the physical light hologram will help us to take this understanding further and make the principle inherent in it even plainer. For here we see, in the diagram that describes the making of the hologram, the reference half of the beam of laser light taking the place of the reporter’s notebook and the working half the place of the pencil. The holographic process is thus providing its own pencil and paper holistic idea in the form of light. The comments of the pencil are thus written on the paper by the working beam talking to the reference beam, in the language of light and in the nature of light, in mid air, as it were, in front of the photographic plate. It is just fortunate that such a substance as the photographic emulsion is able to be placed there in order to record this happening of light events. The fact that this observation of the object by light is spoken in the elemental language of light is made clear by the fact that we will never find the shape of the object, as we see it, when we examine this holographic photograph. It is very likely that this holographic image occurred many times in the experiments of scientists before someone accidentally recorded this elemental image and wondered what it was. We can also imagine that it was some time before the scientist found out that the significance of its content could only be projected by one specific form of light.

In the nature of light, even more than in the nature of a pencil and paper, we notice that there has to be much attention to the exact nature of the relatively passive reference beam as there is to the activity of the working beam. What we take for granted in the reference nature of the light is that it contains the essential nature of light itself and, in coherent light, in a very pure form. The syndrome that this is pointing towards is the one that causes us to notice what an interesting phenomenon this interference pattern is, and yet, miss the fact that it is the wonderful property of light that enables the process to happen at all, and it is the reference beam which is supporting and recording the original undistorted nature of that light. The working beam has gone off on an adventure which has caused a distortion of its original nature through the experience of the object upon which it has been focused.

It is important for the working beam to be able to recover itself again after shedding its load onto the reference beam, for if it were all we had left to shine through the hologram, this distorted form of the coherent light would not be able to unlock its secrets. From the point of view of the life of a human being, our spiritual philosophies suggest that evolution of the true individual is the etching of our unique responses to experience upon a permanent base of fundamental reality. Over a very long period, this builds up a spiritual individuality which is a uniquely different mixture of possible qualities and talents. But the great secret which is constantly being urged upon us is that the substance of our permanent base is already a living and conditioned entity, whose special nature is not simply the passivity of a clean sheet of paper, but a passivity whose nature is already like that of a wonderful Divine Being whose personal characteristic we have glimpsed in the lives of holistic men, or holy men, who carry them to earth. When the significance of this reaches our understanding, we realise that the permanent self we are endeavouring to quarry out of experience can only be recorded and substantiated in qualities that are coherent to the nature of our permanent basis of reality.

The small, self-centred and casual qualities of diminished human nature will never ‘take’ upon the permanent Divine Ground, and there is nothing that any saviour can do about it if mankind does not understand this. Example can be shown us, and the way pointed out and explained, but if we do not etch ourselves wisely upon eternal substance, our initial spirit of life will wilt and fade in a temporary exhibition of foolishness. When a saviour tells us there is nothing He can do for us if we choose to sin against the Holy Spirit, He is saying that His love for us is not enough if we fail to recognise and value the already established qualities of the Holistic Spirit of our Creator's Nature. For He is the permanence He is offering to us, and His are the talents that our individuality is able to combine in a unique mixture. Qualities and talents which are alien to this Reference Nature are simply not coherent enough to be recorded or noticed, and are thus considered to be unfit for the responsibilities which our endless living together will entail. This seems to be the grown-up version of the message which the Christian Religion is meant to give to us, and which is the element in it which does the actual saving from extinction, or the unnecessary pains resulting from behaviour whose patterns are contrary to the preconditioned patterns of essential life. We have made such a mess of our interpretations of the childish forms in which this message has come to us, that the efficacy and seriousness of their import has been lost. We are now mature enough in our intelligence to grasp these great equations of understanding and realise that they are no different to the nature of Highest Love, which has been our emotional guideline of Grace.

The holistic reality of life is now beginning to dawn on many people through their greater respect for the natural environment of nature, and the clear messages we are receiving from nature, that, if we misuse her, she will be unable to support our physical existence. We must now hope that such an attitude will carry on through the humanist expression of holistic thinking to the level where we encounter a spiritual holistic awareness, whose sense of idealism and social conscience is leavened by an attitude which does not imprison mankind in a comfortable, safe and caring society which feels no need for the knowledge that stems from the Divine Coherent Awareness. For humanistic idealism, while moving in the right direction, is still not potent enough to capture the whole spirit of man and burn it, with the correct intensity, upon the untarnished elements of our individual grail of life.

It emerges from this progressive scale of holism in the physical, psychic, spiritual and divine realms that the reciprocal principle of ‘do as you would be done by’ becomes more active and acute as the progression is made, so that our liking and respect for one another is not simply an expression of affection, but also a mechanical law. It is a law because all Creation is built upon a Primal Hologram and the reciprocity of the holistic interference nature functions throughout. We may also notice that the paper and pencil principle becomes a more living phenomenon as it moves into light waves, and thence into mind waves of a finer and finer order, until it is superbly efficient at the cosmic level, where information about all things is everywhere present in such a way that ordinary time and space considerations evaporate. Thus we may imagine the mind of God to be present everywhere, and the miraculous nature of mind most clearly indicated. The paradox being that, as the reality and faith we seek becomes available to us, it does so through the senses of our higher nature which we have been conditioned to ignore. We are then in the position of someone who is trying to reproduce the physical image, locked in a language of the interference patterns of light upon a holographic photo plate, but doing it with rough and ready incoherent forms of light which only produce vague and distorted images, or none at all.

Let us propose now, that there is a creative principle present in the hologram made in mind, which cannot occur in physical holograms. And let us allow that this creativity increases with the greater efficiency of the highest order of mind; not only because the definition and accuracy is more acute, but also because the mind nature becomes more aware in its most primal form.

In this diagram we will follow the process of our original hologram of light but, instead of the source being a laser beam of coherent light, we will replace it with coherent mind. The two beams will then separate into the reference beam and the working beam. This working beam will then be directed onto the object, which in this case will not be a physical object as before but, instead, an idea of purpose which emanates from the individual to whom this mind nature belongs.

The interaction of these two parts of the mind, which meet as before at the place of the holistic photograph, causes a pattern to arise which carries the purpose of the individual into definitions of explicit detail which previously were only latent in the idea of purpose. This correspondence between light and mind has now taken a step away from physical reality into that of conjecture. The strength of this philosophical discussion will therefore depend on how many loose ends are able to be tied together through its use, and how elegantly it is done. But we now have an analogy in the stuff of mind, which will require a great deal of insight to explain. The suggestion here is that the nature of mind is such that it is able to bring to bear a computing intelligence upon the object, which is an essential abstract image.

The nature of this image, which contains emotional equivalents as well as formal concepts of purpose, will thus act as a complex command pattern when the working beam of mind falls upon it. These commands will then be carried on by the working beam to be presented to the reference beam. Instead of the reference beam merely recording the stress difference between itself and that of the working beam, as in the light hologram, this living expression of the reference principle in the intelligent nature of mind searches for the best response available in its store of memory and understanding. The work of the reference beam is thus to act as a store of all that has ever occurred to mind experience, and to respond intelligently to any demand that the working beam makes upon it. The result is, as we have already said, not a mechanical measure of the stresses left in the working beam after its visit to the object, as in the case of light, but a reassembly of forms that have been understood, experienced and memorised, which most closely match the creative characteristics taken from the expression of the idea placed in the path of the working beam as it comes to remarry the reference beam in creative synthesis.

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Part 3