g2

g o o d m a n 2

c h a o s a r c h i t e c t u r e

- a - metapattern - that - connects -

THE HOLOMOVEMENT AND THE TORUS

Quantum pysicist and philosopher David Bohm describes the cosmic process as one vast "holomovement"-- a perpetual circling between a primary multi-dimensional realm of the forms of meaning and a secondary realm, the perceived, apparently three-dimensional world of objects, events, space and time that "float" on the holomovement. Bohm stresses the flow between these realms, the infinite and the finite. And adds we must learn to see ourselves as an integral part of the way the holomovent shapes itself; that in fact this unfolding-enfolding-shaping is precisely what is meant by the nonunitary transformation process of quantum mechanics.

Many have found that the doughnut topography of the torus best illustrates and embodies this doubling back-self-referential movement. I first dreamed of it in the mid-60's and scratched its fountain-like movement on a scrap of paper by my bed, half asleep, with the words "gather...sift...see..." Whenever I've read of others using the torus analogy, I've felt a rush of excitement and presentiment. And I still do as I read more and more frequently of others--mathematicians, systems philosophers, artists, and mystics--who use it to describe this metaform, the cosmic structure.

" gather ... sift ... see ...."
torus sketch from dream

Arthur M. Young, inventor of the Bell helicopter and founder of the Institute for the Study of Consciousness in Berkeley, wrote extensively about toroidal dynamics in The Reflexive Universe: "I recognized that the universe and the creatures which inhabit it are toroidal. The torus shape, which is also that of a vortex, a magnetic field, and eddies in water...is the only manner by which self-sustained motion can exist in a given medium."

To aid our recognition of the reflexive process the torus permits, he suggests "..thinking of ourselves starting from a point and going out in every direction to gain experience." In thus creating "a sphere of experience, we encompass everything within a given orbit. So doing, we encounter a great diversity of experience, represented by the sphere, but this material must be gathered and integrated, and then incorporated into ourselves." In contrast to the dissipative action of an exploding sphere, Young shows that the hole in the torus permits an implosive accumulation of the experiences gained in the outreach movement.

Torus. Arthur M.Young
Consciousness and Reality

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