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turn might be what give the brain its holographic properties. “The
hologram was there all the time in the wave-front nature of brain-cell
connectivity,” observed Pribram. “We simply hadn't had the wit to realize it.”
    Other Puzzles
Explained by the Holographic Brain Model
    Pribram published his
first article on the possible holographic nature of the brain in 1966, and
continued to expand and refine his ideas during the next several years. As he
did, and as other researchers became aware of his theory, it was quickly
realized that the distributed nature of memory and vision is not the only
neurophysiological puzzle the holographic model can explain.
    THE VASTNESS OF
OUR MEMORY
    Holography also explains
how our brains can store so many memories in so little space. The brilliant
Hungarian-born physicist and mathematician John von Neumann once calculated
that over the course of the average human lifetime, the brain stores something
on the order of 2.8 × 10 20 (280,000,000,000,000,000,000) bits of
information. This is a staggering amount of information, and brain researchers
have long struggled to come up with a mechanism that explains such a vast
capability.
    Interestingly, holograms
also possess a fantastic capacity for information storage. By changing the
angle at which the two lasers strike a piece of photographic film, it is
possible to record many different images on the same surface. Any image thus
recorded can be retrieved simply by illuminating the film with a laser beam
possessing the same angle as the original two beams. By employing this method
researchers have calculated that a one-inch-square of film can store the same
amount of information contained in fifty Bibles!
    OUR ABILITY TO
BOTH RECALL AND FORGET
    Pieces of holographic
film containing multiple images, such as those described above, also provide a
way of understanding our ability to both recall and forget. When such a piece
of film is held in a laser beam and tilted back and forth, the various images
it contains appear and disappear in a glittering stream. It has been suggested
that our ability to remember is analogous to shining a laser beam on such a
piece of film and calling up a particular image. Similarly, when we are unable
to recall something, this may be equivalent to shining various beams on a piece
of multiple-image film, but failing to find the right angle to call up the
image/memory for which we are searching.
    ASSOCIATIVE
MEMORY
    In Proust's Swann ‘s
Way a sip of tea and a bite of a small scallop-shaped cake known as a petite
madeleine cause the narrator to find himself suddenly flooded with memories
from his past At first he is puzzled, but then, slowly, after much effort on
his part, he remembers that his aunt used to give him tea and madeleines when
he was a little boy, and it is this association that has stirred his memory. We
have all had similar experiences—a whiff of a particular food being prepared,
or a glimpse of some long-forgotten object—that suddenly evoke some scene out
of our past.
    The holographic idea
offers a further analogy for the associative tendencies of memory. This is
illustrated by yet another kind of holographic recording technique. First, the
light of a single laser beam is bounced off two objects simultaneously, say an
easy chair and a smoking pipe. The light bounced off each object is then
allowed to collide, and the resulting interference pattern is captured on film.
Then, whenever the easy chair is illuminated with laser light and the light
that reflects off the easy chair is passed through the film, a
three-dimensional image of the pipe will appear. Conversely, whenever the same
is done with the pipe, a hologram of the easy chair appears. So, if our brains
function holographically, a similar process may be responsible for the way
certain objects evoke specific memories from our past.
    OUR ABILITY TO
RECOGNIZE FAMILIAR THINGS
    At first glance our
ability to recognize familiar things may not seem so