Summary The Quantum Hologram Theory of Consciousness proposes that the consciousness of a being depends on a sophisticated information storage and retrieval system. A remote object is recognized when a holographic representation in the mind resonates with an external holographic representation of the object in the zero point field, perhaps by a process of quantum entanglement. However, experiences of sensations, or qualia, have no place in the remote object’s holographic representation, and so could not participate in the recognition process. Since we are able to recall experiences of qualia like colour and smell, the theory cannot be correct. Qualia appear to be irreducible properties of consciousness, and so the problem would be resolved if the holographic representations exist in a substrate of consciousness. The proposed revision to the theory rejects the assumption of materialism in favour of the assumption that consciousness is the essence of all that is, including matter.
The Dr. Edgar Mitchell Foundation for Research into Extraterrestrial Encounters (FREE) is a website founded in honour of the astronaut Edgar Mitchell. The site offers a place for experiencers of encounters with “non-human intelligent beings” to exchange stories and to support each other in their shared experiences. The founders have also conducted a useful survey that characterizes the nature of the experiences.
The responses of many experiencers to the survey questions suggest that such encounters often create anomalies in an experiencer’s consciousness. More than half of the respondents received telepathic messages, and a similar number felt they became more telepathic with fellow humans after their experiences began. Many also felt that their consciousness was separated from their bodies during the contact experience. Accordingly, the founders of the site have given some thought to the nature of consciousness. In particular, a recent article by Hernandez, Davis, Klimo, Schild, and Swanson (2017), “Contact with Non-Human Intelligence and the Quantum Hologram Theory of Consciousness: Toward an Integration of the Contact Modalities”, discusses a theory of consciousness based on an article by Mitchell and Staretz (2011), “The Quantum Hologram And the Nature of Consciousness”, in which the Quantum Hologram Theory of Consciousness (QHTC) is presented.
Mitchell and Staretz (2011) understand consciousness to be an awareness of self and a separate surrounding environment. It includes the ability to perceive, learn, adapt, and evolve in the environment. According to the QHTC, these processes employ a mechanism for storing and processing information holographically. Holographic circuits in the brain resonate with information from the holographic image of a physical object being perceived. The holographic image is known as the Quantum Hologram and is stored non-locally in the zero point field.
When an internal holographic representation in a being’s mind resonates with the non-local emissions of an external object, it is recognized by the being. The external holographic representation corresponds to the object as it exists in three dimensional space. The process is analogous to recognition of an object by a bat or dolphin that receives the echoes of its sonar emissions. Pattern classification and recognition of signals in such a resonant loop is said to be “the basis for the most fundamental level of perception in all living organisms.” The holographic information in the zero point field can resonate via quantum entanglement with any brain tuned to do so.
Mitchell and Staretz (2011) propose that the theory accommodates anomalous information acquisition as, for example, in experiments on remote viewing. The location of a remote target object is typically decoded somehow from supplied information such as earth coordinates. Emissions received from the holographic image of the remote object then resonate with a holographic representation in the viewer’s mind in order to identify a feature of the object.
Treating consciousness as primarily an information classification and retrieval process may obscure a difficulty with the theory. It cannot deal with a phenomenon we all share; that is, the experiences of sensations, or qualia. Our internal sensory experiences are qualitatively distinct from the external physical information that is received. The internal information is so different from the external information that it should not contribute to the resonation between the internal and external holographic representations.
The QHTC requires that a subjective sensory experience be encoded somehow in the holographic image in the zero point field. If it were not, resonance between the internal and external representations of an object could not include such information. However, Mitchell and Staretz (2011) do not explain how non-physical qualia could be represented. Colour, for example, would be interpreted as a physical parameter such as wavelength, but this is qualitatively different from the internal subjective experience of the colour. Resonation between such disparate internal and external properties could not occur, and an object’s colour would never be recognized. Since sensory attributes such as colours and smells actually are recognized or recalled, there must be a problem with the theory.
A theoretical approach mentioned in the article by Hernandez et al. (2017) suggests how the theory may be rescued. Klimo, a coauthor of the article, proposed for consideration another theory in which consciousness is an aware, universal entity, dissociated to form many “sub-personalities”. Further, “everything that exists… is at its foundation… a single unitary, universal consciousness field seen as one living Being. … To the extent to which one is able to overcome one’s kinds and degrees of cosmological dissociation, one may access increasingly more of the consciousness, contents, potentiality, capacities, and identity of the one underlying Being.” The metaphysical concept that all that exists is consciousness and has awareness is known as panpsychism. If Klimo’s theory were accepted as the basis of the QHTC, holographic representations that include qualia could possibly exist in an aware consciousness field.
Klimo’s theory appears to be consistent with a model of creation described by extraterrestrial visitors. The visitors are from races of beings who may be responsible for the anomalies reported by experiencers. Many conversations were held with the beings from 2012 to 2016. They spoke through the Australian medium, Paul Hamden, after extensive adaptation and training of the medium. Most often, the beings were of the extraterrestrial Zeta race. Various people, including the author, spoke with them about many subjects. The conversations with the beings are documented in several books freely available as eBooks, and also as printed books from the Lulu book publisher for the cost of printing. Of particular interest for our purpose is the Zeta’s discussion of the creation process and the perception of what has been created. The Zeta model of creation shows us how the QHTC should be modified.
According to the Zetas, a property of consciousness relevant to creation is the ordinal dimension of vibration. Every being is positioned somewhere on this dimension, and the position corresponds to the being’s highest vibrational state. Further, each being behaves like a low-pass filter so that it is normally not aware of vibrational states higher than its own highest state. When a being has the intention to create, it modulates its highest vibrational state with the contents of its thoughts. The modulated vibration combined with the original unmodulated vibration creates an interference pattern that is stored in the substrate of consciousness. The interference pattern is analogous to the physical hologram.
Like the image of a physical hologram, the original thought is recovered by intentionally “illuminating” the stored pattern with the unmodulated vibration that created it. Other beings able to exist in the same vibrational state may also perceive the pattern and share the creator being’s reality. The properties of the creation, including the felt states of sensations, are potentials in the energy of consciousness. For example, a colour is perceived by a consciousness when a particular potential is activated. The experience of colours and other qualia are irreducible properties of consciousness.
Mitchell (1995) commented that the most fundamental aspects of consciousness are perception and intentionality. He believed that intention always accompanies an awareness of a perception. This insight is consistent with the Zeta’s information that intention accompanies perception of a creation. If Mitchell had been aware of the creation process, he would likely have agreed that intention accompanies creation as well.
Creation and perception are important processes of consciousness. They are necessary for the physical universe to exist. According to the Zetas, our physical reality came into being when advanced non-human entities created patterns in the energy of consciousness in a locale we know as the etheric realm. These etheric patterns are templates that defined the properties of basic physical particles such as the electron. As the universe evolved, the templates of the basic particles combined to form higher-order templates.
The etheric templates of physical objects are holographic-like patterns. They are unintelligible, non-physical, distributed interference patterns in consciousness that make sense only when transformed by our perceptual systems. The transformations appear in our minds as features of the physical environment. That is, the physical matter that we experience only exists in our awareness as the end product of our perceptual processes. An object has the properties we experience because certain consciousness potentials were activated by the perceptual processing of the object’s etheric template.
All the physical reality we experience is due to the transformation of information patterns in the etheric realm. The patterns evolve to produce the changes we see in the physical environment. For example, the splash of a raindrop has an etheric representation that changes continuously. The perceptual process transforms the changing etheric representation of the water to create the physical illusion of the splash in motion.
Human intention can influence physical matter to a small degree as demonstrated in telekinesis experiments. This indicates that we can indeed create with our thoughts. The telekinesis effects are usually not practically significant, perhaps because they are overwhelmed by our normal physical experience. Also, we generally resist knowing that the physical experience depends on the templates in the etheric realm, and so forming the proper intention to change the environment is difficult.
As noted earlier, the QHTC is unable to accommodate the felt states of sensory experiences, or qualia. The felt states are not in the same domain as the physical parameters describing external objects. As a result, qualia cannot be part of the external holographic representation of an object in the zero point field, and so cannot contribute to the resonations required by the theory. Resolution of the problem begins by replacing the theory’s assumption of materialism with that of panpsychism. The external holographic representations of the theory could then be said to exist in the energy of consciousness rather than the zero point field.
Mitchell and Staretz (2011) steered clear of such a non-physical basis for existence. They emphasized, “We are not suggesting that we are all virtual beings living in a ‘literal’ holographic reality as interference patterns on nature’s holographic plate. We are all real beings living in a very real material existence consisting of matter, energy and information just as we experience it.” Their comment explicitly supports materialism and denies the possibility of a holographic reality existing in something like the energy of consciousness. Nevertheless, the rejection of materialism is necessary to save the theory.
The zero point field is currently proposed by the QHTC as the substrate for the holographic representations. It is understood to be electromagnetic energy or particles of matter like photons, and so is consistent with the assumption of materialism. Substitution of a consciousness field for the zero point field may be difficult for many people to accept. Materialism as the basis of our reality is deeply ingrained in our culture. However, replacing the zero point field with the energy of consciousness is necessary to preserve the viability of the theory.
In the model of creation stimulated and confirmed by discussions with the Zetas, a physical being experiences an object when an etheric holographic pattern is transformed by the being’s perceptual process. In the revised QHTC, the resonations would be between etheric holographic patterns. Since qualia are potentials of consciousness, the holographic representations could now include the felt states of sensory experiences appropriate for that object.
Hernandez, J., Davis, R., Klimo, J., Schild, R., and Swanson, C. Contact with Non-Human Intelligence and the Quantum Hologram Theory of Consciousness: Toward an Integration of the Contact Modalities, 2017.
Mitchell, E. A Dyadic Model of Consciousness, 1995.
Mitchell, E. and Staretz, R. The Quantum Hologram And the Nature of Consciousness, Journal of Cosmology, 14, 2011.
Treurniet, W. and Hamden, P. A Primer of the Zeta Race, Copyright Hamden and Treurniet, 2012.
Treurniet, W. and Hamden, P. The Science of the Zeta Race, Copyright Hamden and Treurniet, 2016.
Treurniet, W. and Hamden, P. The Quick Zeta Primer, Copyright Hamden and Treurniet, 2016.