The Holographic Universe
By Michael Talbot

This must be one of the most fascinating, if not the most fascinating book I have ever read, and it is a must-read for anyone who is even remotely curious about who and what we really are or who wants to see spirituality meeting science. The claims that are made are backed up by numerous scientific studies, but it doesn't blow you away with scientific jargon. It's written in an easy-to-read style and the different chapters are split up into subsections, which also helps.

Michael Talbot explains what a hologram is and then goes on to argue that the holographic model can be used to explain multiple personality disorders (extraordinary! - if you know nothing about MPD, then you absolutely must read this section), psychokinesis, miracles, the human energy field (or energy bodies), past/present/future existing seemlessly together, near death experiences (NDEs), UFO sightings and much more. Whether you accept the holographic theory or not, just reading the results of the various scientific studies mentioned in the book is fascinating and for me, personally, as a poet and author, it was also inspiring. The idea that everything is interconnected in this holographic universe of ours and is part of the same continuum inspired me, for example, to write a poem called 'My Life' to try and make sense of it ('...all that I see and don't see, hear and don't hear, touch and don't touch, smell and don't smell, taste and don't taste I am - I am the eternal energy of everything...'), whilst the story of the woman in the NDE chapter who said that 'she hadn't danced enough yet', making the being of light she was talking to laugh heartily and enabling her to return to physical life, gave me an idea for a children's story. In short, I found the book riveting and inspirational - jam-packed full of extraordinary scientific fact way more mind-blowing and thrilling than any science fiction I've ever read - and I am now reading it for a second time and will probably read it a third and fourth time as well!