Implicate and Explicate Order - Definition and Overview

David Bohm believed, as countless thinkers¹ have, that true reality is different in some way from the reality we perceive. In his writings on the subject, Bohm distinguishes between actual and apparent reality with the terms Implicate and Explicate Order, respectively. The proposed Implicate Order is to be a metaphysical entity responsible for matter and energy as well as consciousness (which belong to different categories under his scheme). It is to be the fundamental underlying substructure of everything.

Particularly crucial to his scheme is the notion that objects which seem separated by great distances in the Explicate Order (such as a particular electron here on earth and an alpha particle in one of the stars in the Abell 1835 galaxy, the farthest galaxy from Earth known to humans) may actually be manifestations of a single object within the Implicate Order. It seems his motivation for this perspective is the room within quantum mechanics for the entanglement of such objects.

Bohm uses the term holomovement to denote occurrences within the Implicate Order, particularly those that manufacture the explicate order. He also uses the term unfoldment in this last respect. Bohm likens unfoldment to the decoding of a television signal to produce a sensible image on a screen. The signal, screen, and television electronics in this analogy represent the Implicate Order whilst the image produced represents the Explicate Order. Holomovement is the process taken as a whole.

In another analogy, Bohm asks us to consider a pattern produced by making small cuts in a folded piece of paper and then, literally, unfolding it. Widely separated elements of the pattern are, in actuality, produced by the same original cut in the folded piece of paper. Here the cuts in the folded paper represent the Implicate Order and the unfolded pattern represents the Explicate Order.

Many, along with Bohm himself, have seen strong connections between his ideas and ideas from the East. Some proponents of alternative religions (such as shamanism) claim a connection with their belief systems as well.

Footnote

¹A partial list: Plato (Parable of the Cave), Immanuel Kant, John Locke, George Berkeley, René Descartes, holographic principle, unobservables, Bodhi, Mind's eye

See also

• Bohm's interpretation of quantum mechanics
• Taoism
• Brahman

External links

• Interview with David Bohm (http://www.fdavidpeat.com/interviews/bohm.htm) – An interview with Bohm concerning this particular subject matter conducted by F. David Peat.
• Excerpt from The Holographic Universe (http://www.soultravel.nu/2004/040907-swedenborg/index.asp) – Parallels some of the experiences of 18th century Swedish mystic, Emanuel Swedenborg, with David Bohm's ideas.