Showing posts with label science spirituality. Show all posts
Showing posts with label science spirituality. Show all posts

2023/01/04

An Uncommon Collaboration: Introduction David Bohm and J. Krishnamurti

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An Uncommon Collaboration:
David Bohm and J. Krishnamurti
David Edmund Moody
2
Table of Contents
page
Introduction 4
Chapter
1. The Path to Princeton 8
2. Quantum Consequences 18
3. The Observer and the Observed 28
4. The World Teacher 38
5. Choiceless Awareness 49
6. Three Diaries 59
7. The Mirror of Relationship 70
8. Ojai 87
9. The Nature of Intelligence 97
10. Wholeness and Fragmentation 108
11. Bohm’s Reservations 118
12. The Ending of Time I 128
13. The Ending of Time II 144
14. The Ending of Time III 154
15. The Ending of Time IV 165
3
16. Confrontation 176
17. Thought as a System 185
18. Physics and Metaphysics 194
19. The Source of Revelation 204
20. Implications and Reflections 214
Appendices
1. Moody/Bohm on Krishnamurti 226
2. Moody/Bohm on Time 237
3. Inward Observation 246
4. Physics and the Laws of Nature 266



An Uncommon Collaboration:
David Bohm and J. Krishnamurti

Introduction

In a world consumed with problems of every possible kind and dimension –
environmental, economic, political, religious, social, ethical, and personal – and deepseated conflicts resulting in endemic violence, the question must arise whether the
multiplicity of issues all arise from disparate sources, with little relationship among them;
or whether these problems and conflicts have a common denominator. Our leaders
evidently conceptualize and seek solutions on a piecemeal basis, with little attention
given to the possibility that the only meaningful and enduring answer lies in
understanding that our problems have a common source. To examine the matter in this
fashion seems to be a radical approach in and of itself; and what we discover if we
investigate in this way may go beyond the radical – the penetration to the root of things –
to open up a new way of looking and behaving that may be characterized as
revolutionary.
The psychological philosopher J. Krishnamurti (1895 – 1986) examined society
and human affairs in precisely this manner. Although he lacked academic degrees or any
5
form of institutional support beyond the barest minimum, he managed over the course of
a lifetime to articulate an original, profound, and comprehensive understanding of
consciousness as it functions in daily life, and to elucidate the structural features of it that
lead to illusion, conflict and disorder on an individual as well as a collective scale. In this
endeavor, he touched the lives of millions, and he engaged in dialogues, many of them
recorded, with hundreds of individuals who found his observations deeply insightful and
vitally important. Of those with whom he engaged in this manner, none was more
significant than the quantum theoretical physicist David Bohm.
Among the major innovators in intellectual history, collaboration is the exception,
not the norm. Copernicus, da Vinci, Galileo, Newton, Shakespeare, Mozart, Einstein –
most of those whom we consider to represent the quality of genius were individuals who
broke new ground without a travelling companion. A few prominent exceptions spring to
mind: Watson and Crick; Russell and Whitehead; Freud and Jung (for a time); Rodgers
and Hammerstein. These exceptions are notable, however, precisely for their infrequency
of occurrence.
Among that small subset of collaborations among men of genius, the case of J.
Krishnamurti and David Bohm may be the most extraordinary. Watson and Crick were
both biologists; Russell and Whitehead both philosophers; Freud and Jung both
psychiatrists. But David Bohm was an eminent scientist, a physicist, whereas
Krishnamurti represented a blend of philosopher and psychologist, with a spiritual or
metaphysical background. How did these two men find one another? What did they
have in common? What did they talk about?
6
Over a period of two decades, 144 conversations were recorded between Bohm
and Krishnamurti, and many of these dialogues were videotaped as well. Thirty-four
were transcribed and edited for publication and appeared in a series of books including
the following titles: The Limits of Thought; Truth and Actuality; The Wholeness of Life;
The Ending of Time; and The Future of Humanity.
Krishnamurti’s philosophy is personal and direct. It is not a matter of abstractions
about arcane theories, much less New Age flights of fancy. He addressed everyday
issues of fear, loneliness, love, death, sorrow, joy, and self-understanding. At the same
time, his views are subtle and sometimes elusive. He paid great attention to the
respective roles of thought, emotion, desire, intelligence, and insight, and to the
possibility of a transformation of consciousness. He emphasized that he was not any kind
of authority figure and that his philosophy had significance only to the extent that it
facilitated the actual understanding of oneself.
Bohm is now acknowledged as among the foremost physicists of the twentieth
century. His associations with Oppenheimer and Einstein are interesting in their own
right, but of far greater significance were his contributions to the foundations of quantum
theory. These were sufficiently radical as to mark him as a maverick in the field, and it
has required decades for his contribution to be more fully appreciated. His life- and
career-altering encounter with the House Committee on UnAmerican Activities adds
another dimension to his intriguing personal story.
There can be little doubt that Bohm regarded Krishnamurti’s philosophy as
essential to his understanding of his own state of mind. This factor adds an intensely
human and poignant element to the quality of their collaboration. The biographical
7
information presented in the early chapters of this book should be understood in that
context. The extraordinary sequence of events, political and professional, that dominated
the first decades of Bohm’s career must have prepared him to appreciate and explore
Krishnamurti’s work. The success or failure of his involvement with that philosophy
represents the subtext of all that follows here.
From 1975 until 1992, I had the good fortune to work closely with both
Krishnamurti (until his death in 1986) and with David Bohm. This involvement occurred
in the context of the Oak Grove School, founded by Krishnamurti in Ojai, California,
where I worked as teacher, educational director, and as director. My relationship with the
two men focused on educational and psychological issues, but there was a personal
element as well. This background perhaps prepared me to appreciate the quality and the
meaning of the twenty-plus-year dialogue that occurred between them, and it adds an
element of richness and context that would not otherwise be available.
It may be many years before the collaboration between Krishnamurti and David
Bohm can be fully unraveled and assessed. Their dialogue was so extensive and
profound as to defy encapsulation in any single book. The aim of the present volume is
to introduce their work to a larger audience, not to provide any final or definitive
characterization of it. Each man was uncommonly interesting and unusual by himself,
and the record of their interaction even more so. The story of their relationship is
timeless. 

The Undivided Universe: An Ontological Interpretation of Quantum Theory - Bohm, David, Hiley, Basil J.

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The Undivided Universe: An Ontological Interpretation of Quantum Theory Hardcover – 7 October 1993
by David Bohm (Author), Basil J. Hiley (Author)
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'This is a brilliant book, of great depth and originality. Every physicist and physics student who wants to understand quantum mechanics should read this book.' - Physics Today

'A remarkable piece of work.' - Times Higher Education Supplement

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From the Back Cover
In The Undivided Universe, Professor David Bohm, one of the foremost scientific thinkers of the day and one of the most distinguished physicists of his generation, presents a radically different approach to quantum theory. With Basil Hiley, his co-author and long-time colleague, an interpretation of quantum theory is developed which gives a clear, intuitive understanding of its meaning and in which there is a coherent notion of the reality of the universe without assuming a fundamental role for the human observer. With the aid of new concepts such as active information together with non-locality, a comprehensive account of all the basic features of quantum theory is provided, including the relativistic domain and quantum field theory. The new approach is contrasted with other commonly accepted interpretations and it is shown that paradoxical or unsatisfactory features of the other interpretations, such as the wave-particle duality and the collapse of the wave function, do not arise. Finally, on the basis of the new interpretation, the authors make suggestions that go beyond current quantum theory and they indicate areas in which quantum theory may be expected to break down in a way that will allow for a test.

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Publisher ‏ : ‎ Routledge; 1st edition (7 October 1993)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 412 pages
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4.7 out of 5 stars
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James Slater
5.0 out of 5 stars Important workReviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on 27 April 2020
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historically important work
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Danilo C.
5.0 out of 5 stars the individed universeReviewed in Italy 🇮🇹 on 25 May 2016
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ben fatto e molto chiaro anche se scritto in inglese. Un bellissimo essmpio di divulagazione scientifica chiara in un campo difficile
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Amazon Customer
5.0 out of 5 stars Lots of math, but has some essential insights into QMReviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on 11 February 2020
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Mostly beyond my skillset, but I'll get through it some day.

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G. Conger
5.0 out of 5 stars D. Bohm was way ahead of his time. ...Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on 28 November 2015
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D. Bohm was way ahead of his time. Someday he will receive his recognition. I am guessing another 20-30 years.
His ideas are difficult if not impossible for us to prove.
G

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Richard Decker
5.0 out of 5 stars Five StarsReviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on 29 January 2018
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Great book about quantum theory and how it implies the interconnectedness of everything.

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====







The Undivided Universe: An Ontological Interpretation of Quantum Theory

David Bohm, Basil Hiley

4.33
106 ratings12 reviews

This text develops an interpretation of quantum mechanics which provides a clear understanding of its meaning and in which there is a coherent notion of the reality of the universe without assuming a fundamental role for the human observer. With the aid o

GenresSciencePhysicsPhilosophyNonfictionQuantum MechanicsReferenceTechnical
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First published January 1, 1993
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About the author


David Bohm44 books351 followers

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David Joseph Bohm (December 20, 1917 – October 27, 1992) was an American scientist who has been described as one of the most significant theoretical physicists of the 20th century and who contributed innovative and unorthodox ideas to quantum theory, neuropsychology and the philosophy of mind.




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Jason
4 reviews · 4 followers

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September 3, 2012
I have been working up to being able to read this book from cover to cover, and at least have some idea of what the most technical sections are arguing, since I first started studying Bohm's ideas in the late 1980s.

If one can get through the complex physics context of his insights, I believe he expresses a revolutionary degree of sanity and simplicity.

Everything belongs and makes sense in Bohm's model. The classical worldview is a limiting condition already contained in the quantum model, not an external to be presupposed and grappled with for historical reasons. Quantum processes occur independent of observations. Time doesn't flow backwards as in Feynman Diagrams, or delayed choice experiments. Non-locality like the EPR experiments is the rule, not the exception. Mind and Matter are both expressions of the same implicit holistic flow, not opposed to each other or separated arbitrarily.

In short, this book makes a highly articulate case for an ontological holism that has the ability to make intuitive, graspable, (simple in its own way) sense of the physical world and Everything.

It is worth reading even for the physics novice. It is about a lot more than re-framing contemporary quantum mechanics with a more intuitive paradigm. It is intensely consistent and coherent in its approach to all of experience, and treats physical theory and mathematics as descriptive of an ever-evolving horizon of our total understanding.



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Dolf van der Haven
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August 10, 2020
Not the introductory text in quantum mechanics I thought it was - this is an advanced textbook! Bohm gives an ontological interpretation of QM, rather than the epistemological interpretation most physicists give, the latter limiting the possibilities of the theory. Bohm also repeats his theory of the implicate order, forst described in Wholeness and the Implicate Order. This book stays much closer to physics and mathematics, though, and is therefore harder to read. Bohm's theory is still tentative, carefully involving consciousness into QM, but is a much healthier alternative to the abuse many New Agers make of quantum theory.

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Chris Marks
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November 7, 2018
Remarkable. I do not understand why Bohm's ideas are not more widely accepted and appreciated. Bohmian mechanics explains much at little cost.

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Brian
2 books · 35 followers

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December 11, 2017
Bohm and Hiley make an argument for a new interpretation of quantum mechanics in which the hypothetical models calculated to account for experimental observations correspond to actually-occurring processes, rather than simply mathematical abstractions used to facilitate accurate predictions. This interpretation leads them to suggest that the quantum field comprises a pool of non-locally communicating information which informs the behavior of classically observable fields and particles. They address the implications of their interpretation for quantum theory's a priori hypotheses as well as its experimental results, and show that they arrive at results identical to those of traditional interpretations. Their proofs do make heavy use of the algebraic equations particular to quantum theory, but as long as one already has some grasp of the concepts and notation of such representations it is possible to comprehend their conclusions, if not follow all of their arguments in line-by-line detail.

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Ign33l
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May 21, 2022
Lol 3 years after i have finished this book. It was because before i was weak and could not understand at all what this was giving me. Many formulas had to watch videos to understand physics, but now i have finished it and helped me align myself with the universe better. It showed me the dimension of where i am and how it is represented in the space and all the elements that cause interaction in it.
Also made me a better person to break some barriers that were not allowing my quantums to keep onmoving amd helped me understand how my particles can keep creating energy and communicate with the world.

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Matt
76 reviews · 16 followers

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Shelved as 'to-read-soon'February 17, 2020
I have loved this book because the ideas it addresses are very interesting. More physicists today should consider these ideas seriously and think in ontological terms. Quantum mechanics becomes much more intuitive under Bohm's interpretation.

However, the material is very dense. I have only made it to page 232. I am putting the book down for a while, just because it is dense and I don't have as much time to read as I would like. I am putting it down only until I have some more free time again, and plan to finish it then. Again, this has nothing to do with the quality of the material.
physics
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Preston
10 reviews

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May 16, 2020
As a theoretical chemist whose dissertation was on applications and further development of the Quantum Theory of Atoms IN Molecules (the most rigorous partitioning of matter), Bohm’s UNdivided universe is literally the opposite paradigm from what I have been accustomed to. For that reason alone it drew me in, like a moth to a flame. What new secrets does it hold?

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Mitch Allen
114 reviews · 7 followers

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January 11, 2014
Bohm's ambitious book—his last, published after his death—attempts to prove his quantum theory mathematically and show that it is the most complete theory for the moment. He subsumes the common theory by providing a model for a holistic, quantum universe, not merely predicting experimental results, and shows that the classical physics world is a sub-world of a quantum one. The mathematics can be difficult for the non-technical reader, but overall some very intriguing stuff, particularly his digressions into consciousness and his explanations for classical dynamics as a function of quantum dynamics.

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Michael
79 reviews · 7 followers

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January 29, 2017
The quantum potential paradigm is neat; but like every other quantum mechanics book I've read, this one discusses a lot of meta-physics.

Also, it's obvious that Hiley rushed the book through the publisher after Bohm died to keep the Bohm name on the cover. It could have used some more editing.


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DJ
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Want to readJuly 24, 2009
referenced in "Nontrivial quantum effects in biology" by Wiseman and Eisert

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David Bohm - Wikipedia

David Bohm - Wikipedia:

David Bohm

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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David Bohm
David Bohm.jpg
Born20 December 1917
Died27 October 1992 (aged 74)
London, England, UK
NationalityAmerican-British
Citizenship
  • American
  • Brazilian
  • British
Alma mater
Known for
Awards
Scientific career
FieldsTheoretical physics
Institutions
Doctoral advisorRobert Oppenheimer
Doctoral students
InfluencesAlbert Einstein
Jiddu Krishnamurti
InfluencedJohn Stewart BellPeter Senge

David Joseph Bohm FRS[1] (/bm/; 20 December 1917 – 27 October 1992) was an American-Brazilian-British scientist who has been described as one of the most  significant theoretical physicists of the 20th century[2]

 and who contributed unorthodox ideas to quantum theoryneuropsychology and the philosophy of mind. 

Among his many contributions to physics is his causal and deterministic interpretation of quantum theory, now known as De Broglie–Bohm theory.

Bohm advanced the view that quantum physics meant that the old Cartesian model of reality—that there are two kinds of substance, the mental and the physical, that somehow interact—was too limited. To complement it, he developed a mathematical and physical theory of "implicate" and "explicate" order.[3] 

He also believed that the brain, at the cellular level, works according to the mathematics of some quantum effects, and postulated that thought is distributed and non-localised just as quantum entities are.[4][failed verification] 

Bohm's main concern was with understanding the nature of reality in general and of consciousness in particular as a coherent whole, which according to Bohm is never static or complete.[5]

Bohm warned of the dangers of rampant reason and technology, advocating instead the need for genuine supportive dialogue, which he claimed could broaden and unify conflicting and troublesome divisions in the social world. In this, his epistemology mirrored his ontology.[6]

Born in the United States, Bohm obtained his Ph.D. under J. Robert Oppenheimer at the University of California, Berkeley. Due to his Communist affiliations, he was the subject of a federal government investigation in 1949, prompting him to leave the U.S. He pursued his career in several countries, becoming first a Brazilian and then a British citizen. He abandoned Marxism in the wake of the Hungarian Uprising in 1956.[7][8]

Youth and college[edit]

Bohm was born in Wilkes-BarrePennsylvania, to a Hungarian Jewish immigrant father, Samuel Bohm,[9] and a Lithuanian Jewish mother. He was raised mainly by his father, a furniture-store owner and assistant of the local rabbi. Despite being raised in a Jewish family, he became an agnostic in his teenage years.[10] Bohm attended Pennsylvania State College (now Pennsylvania State University), graduating in 1939, and then the California Institute of Technology, for one year. He then transferred to the theoretical physics group directed by Robert Oppenheimer at the University of California, Berkeley Radiation Laboratory, where he obtained his doctorate.

Bohm lived in the same neighborhood as some of Oppenheimer's other graduate students (Giovanni Rossi Lomanitz, Joseph Weinberg, and Max Friedman) and with them became increasingly involved in radical politics. He was active in communist and communist-backed organizations, including the Young Communist League, the Campus Committee to Fight Conscription, and the Committee for Peace Mobilization. During his time at the Radiation Laboratory, Bohm was in a relationship with the future Betty Friedan and also helped to organize a local chapter of the Federation of Architects, Engineers, Chemists and Technicians, a small labor union affiliated to the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO).[11]

Work and doctorate[edit]

Manhattan Project contributions[edit]

During World War II, the Manhattan Project mobilized much of Berkeley's physics research in the effort to produce the first atomic bomb. Though Oppenheimer had asked Bohm to work with him at Los Alamos (the top-secret laboratory established in 1942 to design the atom bomb), the project's director, Brigadier General Leslie Groves, would not approve Bohm's security clearance after seeing evidence of his politics and his close friendship with Weinberg, who had been suspected of espionage.

During the war, Bohm remained at Berkeley, where he taught physics and conducted research in plasma, the synchrotron and the synchrocyclotron. He completed his PhD in 1943 by an unusual circumstance. According to biographer F. David Peat,[12] "The scattering calculations (of collisions of protons and deuterons) that he had completed proved useful to the Manhattan Project and were immediately classified. Without security clearance, Bohm was denied access to his own work; not only would he be barred from defending his thesis, he was not even allowed to write his own thesis in the first place!" To satisfy the University, Oppenheimer certified that Bohm had successfully completed the research. Bohm later performed theoretical calculations for the Calutrons at the Y-12 facility in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, which was used for the electromagnetic enrichment of uranium for the bomb dropped on Hiroshima in 1945.

McCarthyism and leaving the United States[edit]

After the war, Bohm became an assistant professor at Princeton University. He also worked closely with Albert Einstein at the nearby Institute for Advanced Study. In May 1949, the House Un-American Activities Committee called upon Bohm to testify because of his previous ties to unionism and suspected communists. Bohm invoked his Fifth Amendment right to refuse to testify, and he refused to give evidence against his colleagues.

In 1950, Bohm was arrested for refusing to answer the committee's questions. He was acquitted in May 1951, but Princeton had already suspended him. After his acquittal, Bohm's colleagues sought to have him reinstated at Princeton, but Princeton President Harold W. Dodds[13] decided not to renew Bohm's contract. Although Einstein considered appointing him as his research assistant at the Institute, Oppenheimer (who had served as the Institute's president since 1947) "opposed the idea and [...] advised his former student to leave the country".[14] His request to go to the University of Manchester received Einstein's support but was unsuccessful.[15] Bohm then left for Brazil to assume a professorship of physics at the University of São Paulo, at Jayme Tiomno's invitation and on the recommendation of both Einstein and Oppenheimer.

Quantum theory and Bohm diffusion[edit]

The Bohmian trajectories for an electron going through the two-slit experiment. A similar pattern was also observed for single photons.[16]

During his early period, Bohm made a number of significant contributions to physics, particularly quantum mechanics and relativity theory. As a postgraduate at Berkeley, he developed a theory of plasmas, discovering the electron phenomenon now known as Bohm diffusion.[17] His first book, Quantum Theory, published in 1951, was well received by Einstein, among others. But Bohm became dissatisfied with the orthodox interpretation of quantum theory he wrote about in that book. Starting from the realization that the WKB approximation of quantum mechanics leads to deterministic equations and convinced that a mere approximation could not turn a probabilistic theory into a deterministic theory, he doubted the inevitability of the conventional approach to quantum mechanics.[18]

Bohm's aim was not to set out a deterministic, mechanical viewpoint but to show that it was possible to attribute properties to an underlying reality, in contrast to the conventional approach.[19] He began to develop his own interpretation (the De Broglie–Bohm theory, also called the pilot wave theory), the predictions of which agreed perfectly with the non-deterministic quantum theory. He initially called his approach a hidden variable theory, but he later called it ontological theory, reflecting his view that a stochastic process underlying the phenomena described by his theory might one day be found. Bohm and his colleague Basil Hiley later stated that they had found their own choice of terms of an "interpretation in terms of hidden variables" to be too restrictive, especially since their variables, position, and momentum "are not actually hidden".[20]

Bohm's work and the EPR argument became the major factor motivating John Stewart Bell's inequality, which rules out local hidden variable theories; the full consequences of Bell's work are still being investigated.

Brazil[edit]

After Bohm's arrival in Brazil on 10 October 1951, the US Consul in São Paulo confiscated his passport, informing him he could retrieve it only to return to his country, which reportedly frightened Bohm[21] and significantly lowered his spirits, as he had hoped to travel to Europe. He applied for and received Brazilian citizenship, but by law, had to give up his US citizenship; he was able to reclaim it only decades later, in 1986, after pursuing a lawsuit.[22]

At the University of São Paulo, Bohm worked on the causal theory that became the subject of his publications in 1952. Jean-Pierre Vigier traveled to São Paulo, where he worked with Bohm for three months; Ralph Schiller, student of cosmologist Peter Bergmann, was his assistant for two years; he worked with Tiomno and Walther Schützer; and Mario Bunge stayed to work with him for one year. He was in contact with Brazilian physicists Mário SchenbergJean MeyerLeite Lopes, and had discussions on occasion with visitors to Brazil, including Richard FeynmanIsidor RabiLéon RosenfeldCarl Friedrich von WeizsäckerHerbert L. AndersonDonald KerstMarcos Moshinsky, Alejandro Medina, and the former assistant to HeisenbergGuido Beck, who encouraged him in his work and helped him to obtain funding. The Brazilian CNPq explicitly supported his work on the causal theory and funded several researchers around Bohm. His work with Vigier was the beginning of a long-standing cooperation between the two and Louis De Broglie, in particular, on connections to the hydrodynamics model proposed by Madelung.[23] Yet the causal theory met much resistance and skepticism, with many physicists holding the Copenhagen interpretation to be the only viable approach to quantum mechanics.[22]

From 1951 to 1953, Bohm and David Pines published the articles in which they introduced the random phase approximation and proposed the plasmon.[24][25][26]

Bohm and Aharonov form of the EPR paradox[edit]

In 1955 Bohm relocated to Israel, where he spent two years working at the Technion, at Haifa. There, he met Sarah ("Saral") Woolfson, whom he married in 1956.

In 1957, Bohm and his student Yakir Aharonov published a new version of the Einstein–Podolsky–Rosen (EPR) paradox, reformulating the original argument in terms of spin.[27] It was that form of the EPR paradox that was discussed by John Stewart Bell in his famous paper of 1964.[28]

Aharonov–Bohm effect[edit]

Schematic of double-slit experiment in which Aharonov–Bohm effect can be observed: electrons pass through two slits, interfering at an observation screen, with the interference pattern shifted when a magnetic field B is turned on in the cylindrical solenoid.

In 1957, Bohm relocated to the United Kingdom as a research fellow at the University of Bristol. In 1959, Bohm and Aharonov discovered the Aharonov–Bohm effect, showing how a magnetic field could affect a region of space in which the field had been shielded, but its vector potential did not vanish there. That showed for the first time that the magnetic vector potential, hitherto a mathematical convenience, could have real physical (quantum) effects.

In 1961, Bohm was made professor of theoretical physics at the University of London's Birkbeck College, becoming emeritus in 1987. His collected papers are stored there.[29]

Implicate and explicate order[edit]

At Birkbeck College, much of the work of Bohm and Basil Hiley expanded on the notion of implicate, explicate, and generative orders proposed by Bohm.[3][30][31] In the view of Bohm and Hiley, "things, such as particles, objects, and indeed subjects" exist as "semi-autonomous quasi-local features" of an underlying activity. Such features can be considered to be independent only up to a certain level of approximation in which certain criteria are fulfilled. In that picture, the classical limit for quantum phenomena, in terms of a condition that the action function is not much greater than Planck's constant, indicates one such criterion. They used the word "holomovement" for the activity in such orders.[32]

Holonomic model of the brain[edit]

In a holographic reconstruction, each region of a photographic plate contains the whole image.

In collaboration with Stanford University neuroscientist Karl H. Pribram, Bohm was involved in the early development of the holonomic model of the functioning of the brain, a model for human cognition that is drastically different from conventionally-accepted ideas.[4][failed verification] Bohm worked with Pribram on the theory that the brain operates in a manner that is similar to a hologram, in accordance with quantum mathematical principles and the characteristics of wave patterns.[33]

Consciousness and thought[edit]

In addition to his scientific work, Bohm was deeply interested in exploring the nature of consciousness, with particular attention to the role of thought as it relates to attention, motivation, and conflict in the individual and in society. 

Those concerns were a natural extension of his earlier interest in Marxist ideology and Hegelian philosophy

His views were brought into sharper focus through extensive interactions with the philosopher, speaker, and writer Jiddu Krishnamurti, beginning in 1961.[34][35] Their collaboration lasted a quarter of a century, and their recorded dialogues were published in several volumes.[36][37][38]

Bohm's prolonged involvement with the philosophy of Krishnamurti was regarded somewhat skeptically by some of his scientific peers.[39][40] A more recent and extensive examination of the relationship between the two men presents it in a more positive light and shows that Bohm's work in the psychological field was complementary to and compatible with his contributions to theoretical physics.[35]

The mature expression of Bohm's views in the psychological field was presented in a seminar conducted in 1990 at the Oak Grove School, founded by Krishnamurti in Ojai, California. It was one of a series of seminars held by Bohm at Oak Grove School, and it was published as Thought as a System.[41] In the seminar, Bohm described the pervasive influence of thought throughout society, including the many erroneous assumptions about the nature of thought and its effects in daily life.

In the seminar, Bohm develops several interrelated themes. He points out that thought is the ubiquitous tool that is used to solve every kind of problem: personal, social, scientific, and so on. Yet thought, he maintains, is also inadvertently the source of many of those problems. He recognizes and acknowledges the irony of the situation: it is as if one gets sick by going to the doctor.[35][41]

Bohm maintains that thought is a system, in the sense that it is an interconnected network of concepts, ideas and assumptions that pass seamlessly between individuals and throughout society. If there is a fault in the functioning of thought, therefore, it must be a systemic fault, which infects the entire network. The thought that is brought to bear to resolve any given problem, therefore, is susceptible to the same flaw that created the problem it is trying to solve.[35][41]

Thought proceeds as if it is merely reporting objectively, but in fact, it is often coloring and distorting perception in unexpected ways. What is required in order to correct the distortions introduced by thought, according to Bohm, is a form of proprioception, or self-awareness. Neural receptors throughout the body inform us directly of our physical position and movement, but there is no corresponding awareness of the activity of thought. Such an awareness would represent psychological proprioception and would enable the possibility of perceiving and correcting the unintended consequences of the thinking process.[35][41]

Further interests[edit]

In his book On Creativity, quoting Alfred Korzybski, the Polish-American who developed the field of General Semantics, Bohm expressed the view that "metaphysics is an expression of a world view" and is "thus to be regarded as an art form, resembling poetry in some ways and mathematics in others, rather than as an attempt to say something true about reality as a whole".[42]

Bohm was keenly aware of various ideas outside the scientific mainstream. In his book Science, Order and Creativity, Bohm referred to the views of various biologists on the evolution of the species, including Rupert Sheldrake.[43] He also knew the ideas of Wilhelm Reich.[44]

Contrary to many other scientists, Bohm did not exclude the paranormal out of hand. Bohm temporarily even held Uri Geller's bending of keys and spoons to be possible, prompting warning remarks by his colleague Basil Hiley that it might undermine the scientific credibility of their work in physics. Martin Gardner reported this in a Skeptical Inquirer article and also critiqued the views of Jiddu Krishnamurti, with whom Bohm had met in 1959 and had had many subsequent exchanges. Gardner said that Bohm's view of the interconnectedness of mind and matter (on one occasion, he summarized: "Even the electron is informed with a certain level of mind."[45]) "flirted with panpsychism".[40]

Bohm dialogue[edit]

To address societal problems during his later years, Bohm wrote a proposal for a solution that has become known as "Bohm Dialogue", in which equal status and "free space" form the most important prerequisites of communication and the appreciation of differing personal beliefs. An essential ingredient in this form of dialogue is that participants "suspend" immediate action or judgment and give themselves and each other the opportunity to become aware of the thought process itself. Bohm suggested that if the "dialogue groups" were experienced on a sufficiently-wide scale, they could help overcome the isolation and fragmentation that Bohm observed in society.

Later life[edit]

Bohm continued his work in quantum physics after his retirement, in 1987. His final work, the posthumously published The Undivided Universe: An Ontological Interpretation of Quantum Theory (1993), resulted from a decades-long collaboration with Basil Hiley. He also spoke to audiences across Europe and North America on the importance of dialogue as a form of sociotherapy, a concept he borrowed from London psychiatrist and practitioner of Group Analysis Patrick de Maré, and he had a series of meetings with the Dalai Lama. He was elected Fellow of the Royal Society in 1990.[1]

Near the end of his life, Bohm began to experience a recurrence of the depression that he had suffered earlier in life. He was admitted to the Maudsley Hospital in South London on 10 May 1991. His condition worsened and it was decided that the only treatment that might help him was electroconvulsive therapy. Bohm's wife consulted psychiatrist David Shainberg, Bohm's longtime friend and collaborator, who agreed that electroconvulsive treatments were probably his only option. Bohm showed improvement from the treatments and was released on 29 August, but his depression returned and was treated with medication.[46]

Bohm died after suffering a heart attack in Hendon, London, on 27 October 1992, aged 74.[47]

The film Infinite Potential is based on Bohm's life and studies; it adopts the same name as the biography by F. David Peat.[48]

Reception of causal theory[edit]

In the early 1950s, Bohm's causal quantum theory of hidden variables was mostly negatively received, with a widespread tendency among physicists to systematically ignore both Bohm personally and his ideas. There was a significant revival of interest in Bohm's ideas in the late 1950s and the early 1960s; the Ninth Symposium of the Colston Research Society in Bristol in 1957 was a key turning point toward greater tolerance of his ideas.[49]

Publications[edit]

See also[edit]

References[edit]

  1. Jump up to:a b B. J. Hiley (1997). "David Joseph Bohm. 20 December 1917 – 27 October 1992: Elected F.R.S. 1990". Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the Royal Society43: 107–131. doi:10.1098/rsbm.1997.0007S2CID 70366771.
  2. ^ Peat 1997, pp. 316-317
  3. Jump up to:a b David Bohm: Wholeness and the Implicate Order, Routledge, 1980 (ISBN 0-203-99515-5).
  4. Jump up to:a b Comparison between Karl Pribram's "Holographic Brain Theory" and more conventional models of neuronal computation
  5. ^ Wholeness and the Implicate Order, Bohm - 4 July 2002
  6. ^ David Bohm: On Dialogue (2004) Routledge
  7. ^ Becker, Adam (2018). What is Real?: The Unfinished Quest for the Meaning of Quantum Physics. Basic Books. p. 115. ISBN 978-0-465-09605-3.
  8. ^ Freire Junior, Olival (2019). David Bohm:A Life Dedicated to Understanding the Quantum World. Springer. p. 37. ISBN 978-3-030-22714-2.
  9. ^ [1] - By the Numbers – David Bohm
  10. ^ Peat 1997, p.21. "If he identified Jewish lore and customs with his father, then this was a way he would distance himself from Samuel. By the time he reached his late teens, he had become firmly agnostic."
  11. ^ Garber, Marjorie; Walkowitz, Rebecca (1995). Secret Agents: The Rosenberg Case, McCarthyism and Fifties America. New York: Routledge. pp. 130–131. ISBN 9781135206949.
  12. ^ Peat 1997, p.64
  13. ^ Russell Olwell: Physics and Politics in Cold War America: The Two Exiles of David Bohm, Working Paper Number 20. Program in Science, Technology, and Society. Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
  14. ^ Kumar, Manjit (24 May 2010). Quantum: Einstein, Bohr, and the Great Debate about the Nature of RealityISBN 9780393080094.
  15. ^ Albert Einstein to Patrick Blackett, 17 April 1951 (Albert Einstein archives). Cited after Olival Freire, Jr.Science and Exile: David Bohm, the cold war, and a new interpretation of quantum mechanics, HSPS, vol. 36, Part 1, pp. 1–34, ISSN 0890-9997, 2005, see footnote 8. Archived 26 March 2012 at the Wayback Machine.
  16. ^ Observing the Average Trajectories of Single Photons in a Two-Slit Interferometer.
  17. ^ D. Bohm: The characteristics of electrical discharges in magnetic fields, in: A. Guthrie, R. K. Wakerling (eds.), McGraw–Hill, 1949.
  18. ^ Maurice A. de Gosson, Basil J. Hiley: Zeno paradox for Bohmian trajectories: the unfolding of the metatron, 3 January 2011 (PDF – retrieved 16 February 2012).
  19. ^ B. J. Hiley: Some remarks on the evolution of Bohm's proposals for an alternative to quantum mechanics, 30 January 2010.
  20. ^ David Bohm, Basil Hiley: The Undivided Universe: An Ontological Interpretation of Quantum Theory, edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-library 2009 (first edition Routledge, 1993), ISBN 0-203-98038-7p. 2.
  21. ^ Russell Olwell: Physics and politics in cold war America: the two exiles of David Bohm, Working Paper Number 2, Working Program in Science, Technology, and Society; Massachusetts Institute of Technology
  22. Jump up to:a b Olival Freire, Jr.Science and Exile: David Bohm, the cold war, and a new interpretation of quantum mechanics Archived 26 March 2012 at the Wayback Machine, HSPS, vol. 36, Part 1, pp. 1–34, ISSN 0890-9997, 2005
  23. ^ "Erwin Madelung 1881–1972"Goethe-Universität Frankfurt am Main. 12 December 2008. Archived from the original on 12 February 2012. Retrieved 8 May 2012.
  24. ^ Pines, D; Bohm, D. A (1951). "Collective Description of Electron Interactions. I. Magnetic Interactions". Physical Review82 (5): 625–634. Bibcode:1951PhRv...82..625Bdoi:10.1103/physrev.82.625.
  25. ^ Pines, D; Bohm, D. A (1952). "Collective Description of Electron Interactions: II. Collective vs Individual Particle Aspects of the Interactions". Physical Review85 (2): 338–353. Bibcode:1952PhRv...85..338Pdoi:10.1103/physrev.85.338.
  26. ^ Pines, D; Bohm, D. (1953). "A Collective Description of Electron Interactions: III. Coulomb Interactions in a Degenerate Electron Gas". Physical Review92 (3): 609–626. Bibcode:1953PhRv...92..609Bdoi:10.1103/physrev.92.609.
  27. ^ Bohm, D.; Aharonov, Y. (15 November 1957). "Discussion of Experimental Proof for the Paradox of Einstein, Rosen, and Podolsky". Physical Review. American Physical Society (APS). 108 (4): 1070–1076. Bibcode:1957PhRv..108.1070Bdoi:10.1103/physrev.108.1070ISSN 0031-899X.
  28. ^ Bell, J.S. (1964). "On the Einstein Podolsky Rosen paradox" (PDF)Physics Physique Fizika1 (3): 195–200. doi:10.1103/PhysicsPhysiqueFizika.1.195.
  29. ^ "collected papers". Archived from the original on 11 February 2006. Retrieved 26 November 2005.
  30. ^ Bohm, David; Hiley, Basil J.; Stuart, Allan E. G. (1970). "On a new mode of description in physics". International Journal of Theoretical Physics. Springer Science and Business Media LLC. 3 (3): 171–183. Bibcode:1970IJTP....3..171Bdoi:10.1007/bf00671000ISSN 0020-7748S2CID 121080682.
  31. ^ David Bohm, F. David Peat: Science, Order, and Creativity, 1987
  32. ^ Basil J. Hiley: Process and the Implicate Order: their relevance to Quantum Theory and Mind. (PDF Archived 26 September 2011 at the Wayback Machine)
  33. ^ The holographic brain Archived 18 May 2006 at the Wayback Machine, with Karl Pribram
  34. ^ Mary Lutyens (1983). "Freedom is Not Choice"Krishnamurti: The Years of Fulfillment. Krishnamurti Foundation Trust Ltd. p. 208. ISBN 978-0-900506-20-8.
  35. Jump up to:a b c d e David Edmund Moody (2016). An Uncommon Collaboration: David Bohm and J. Krishnamurti. Alpha Centauri Press. ISBN 978-0692854273.
  36. ^ J. Krishnamurti (2000). Truth and Actuality. Krishnamurti Foundation Trust Ltd. ISBN 978-8187326182.
  37. ^ J. Krishnamurti and D. Bohm (1985). The Ending of Time. HarperCollins. ISBN 978-0060647964.
  38. ^ J. Krishnamurti and D. Bohm (1999). The Limits of Thought: Discussions between J. Krishnamurti and David Bohm. Routledge. ISBN 978-0415193986.
  39. ^ Peat 1997
  40. Jump up to:a b Gardner, Martin (July 2000). "David Bohm and Jiddo Krishnamurti"Skeptical Inquirer. Archived from the original on 9 March 2015.
  41. Jump up to:a b c d David Bohm (1994). Thought as a System. Psychology Press. ISBN 978-0415110303.
  42. ^ David Bohm (12 October 2012). On Creativity. Routledge. p. 118. ISBN 978-1-136-76818-7.
  43. ^ David Bohm; F. David Peat (25 February 2014). Science, Order and Creativity Second Edition. Routledge. pp. 204–. ISBN 978-1-317-83546-2.
  44. ^ Peat 1997, p.80
  45. ^ Hiley, Basil; Peat, F. David, eds. (2012). Quantum Implications: Essays in Honour of David Bohm. Routledge. p. 443. ISBN 9781134914173.
  46. ^ Peat 1997, pp.308–317
  47. ^ Peat 1997, pp. 308–317
  48. ^ Infinite potential: the life and times of David Bohm (film) www.infinitepotential.com, accessed 28 December 2020
  49. ^ Kožnjak, Boris (2017). "The missing history of Bohm's hidden variables theory: the Ninth Symposium of the Colston Research Society, Bristol, 1957". Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part B: Studies in History and Philosophy of Modern Physics62: 85–97. Bibcode:2018SHPMP..62...85Kdoi:10.1016/j.shpsb.2017.06.003.

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