6101226 selected david bohm quotes

Selected David Bohm QuotesCompiled by Richard Burg

"I would say that in my scientific and philosophical work, my main concernhas been with understanding the nature of reality in general and ofconsciousness in particular as a coherent whole, which is never static orcomplete but which is an unending process of movement andunfoldment...."

D. Bohm, _Wholeness and the Implicate Order_, p.ix

"Then there is the further question of what is the relationship of thinking toreality. As careful attention shows, thought itself is in an actual process ofmovement. That is to say, one can feel a sense of flow in the stream ofconsciousness not dissimilar to the sense of flow in the movement of matterin general. May not thought itself thus be a part of reality as a whole? Butthen, what could it mean for one part of reality to 'know' another, and towhat extent would this be possible?"

D. Bohm, _Wholeness and the Implicate Order_, p. ix

"...awakening...the process of dialogue itself as a free flow of meaningamong all the participants. In the beginning, people were expressing fixedpositions, which they were tending to defend, but later it became clear thatto maintain the feeling of friendship in the group was much more importantthan to hold any position. Such friendship has an impersonal quality in thesense that its establishment does not depend on a close personalrelationship between participants. A new kind of mind thus beings to comeinto being which is based on the development of a common meaning that isconstantly transforming in the process of the dialogue. People are no longerprimarily in opposition, nor can they be said to be interacting, rather theyare participating in this pool of common meaning which is capable ofconstant development and change. In this development the group has nopre-established purpose, though at each moment a purpose that is free tochange may reveal itself. The group thus begins to engage in a newdynamic relationship in which no speaker is excluded, and in which noparticular content is excluded. Thus far we have only begun to explore thepossibilities of dialogue in the sense indicated here, but going further alongthese lines would open up the possibility of transforming not only therelationship between people, but even more, the very nature ofconsciousness in which these relationships arise."

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1 de 4 17-09-2008 22:45

D. Bohm, _Unfolding Meaning_, p. 175

"Indeed, for both the rich and the poor, life is dominated by an evergrowing current of problems, most of which seem to have no real andlasting solution. Clearly we have not touched the deeper causes of ourtroubles. It is the main point of this book that the ultimate source of allthese problems is in thought itself, the very thing of which our civilization ismost proud, and therefore the one thing that is "hidden" because of ourfailure seriously to engage with its actual working in our own individuallives and in the life of society."

D. Bohm & Mark Edwards, _Changing Consciousness_, p. x

"If [man] thinks of the totality as constituted of independent fragments,then that is how his mind will tend to operate, but if he can includeeverything coherently and harmoniously in an overall whole that isundivided, unbroken, and without a border then his mind will tend to movein a similar way, and from this will flow an orderly action within the whole."

D. Bohm, _Wholeness and the Implicate Order_, p. xi

"My suggestion is that at each state the proper order of operation of themind requires an overall grasp of what is generally known, not only informal logical, mathematical terms, but also intuitively, in images, feelings,poetic usage of language, etc. (Perhaps we could say that this is what isinvolved in harmony between the 'left brain' and the 'right brain'). This kindof overall way of thinking is not only a fertile source of new theoreticalideas: it is needed for the human mind to function in a generallyharmonious way, which could in turn help to make possible an orderly andstable society."

D. Bohm, _Wholeness and the Implicate Order_, p.xiv

"Suppose you have two religions. Thought defines religion - the thoughtabout the nature of God and various questions like that. Such thought isvery important because it is about God, who is supposed to be supreme. Thethought about what is of supreme value must have the highest force. So ifyou disagree about that, the emotional impact can be very great, and youwill then have no way to settle it. Two different beliefs about God will thusproduce intense fragmentation - similarly with thoughts about the nature ofsociety, which is also very important, or with ideologies such as communismand capitalism, or with different beliefs about your family or about yourmoney. Whatever it is that is very important to you, fragmentation in yourthought about it is going to be very powerful in its effects."


2 de 4 17-09-2008 22:45

D. Bohm & Mark Edwards, _Changing Consciousness_, p. 11

"Difference exist because thought develops like a stream that happens to goone way here and another way there. Once it develops it produces realphysical results that people are looking at, but they don't see where theseresults are coming from - that's one of the basic features of fragmentation.When they have produced these divisions they see that real things havehappened, to they'll start with these real things as if they just suddenly gotthere by themselves, or evolved in nature by themselves. That's [a] mistakethat thought makes. It produces a result, and then it says, I didn't do it; it'sthere by itself, and I must correct it. But if thought is constantly makingthis result and then saying, 'I've got to stop it', this is absurd. Becausethought is caught up in this absurdity, it is producing all sorts of negativeconsequences, then treating them as independent and saying, I must stopthem."


"[Thought] seems to have some inertia, a tendency to continue. It seems tohave a necessity that we keep on doing it. However ... we often find that wecannot easily give up the tendency to hold rigidly to patterns of thoughtbuilt up over a long time. We are then caught up in what may be calledabsolute necessity. This kind of thought leaves no room at all intellectuallyfor any other possibility, while emotionally and physically, it means we takea stance in our feelings, in our bodies, and indeed, in our whole culture, ofholding back or resisting. This stance implies that under no circumstanceswhatsoever can we allow ourselves to give up certain things or changethem."


"If I am right in saying that thought is the ultimate origin or source, itfollows that if we don't do anything about thought, we won't get anywhere.We may momentarily relieve the population problem, the ecologicalproblem, and so on, but they will come back in another way."

D. Bohm & Mark Edwards, _Changing Consciousness, p. 25

"Of course, one of the main legitimate functions of thought has always beento help provide security, guaranteeing shelter and food for instance.However, this function went wrong when the principle source of insecuritycame to be the operation of thought itself."



3 de 4 17-09-2008 22:45

"...it is proposed that a form of free dialogue may well be one of the mosteffective ways of investigating the crisis which faces society, and indeed thewhole of human nature and consciousness today. Moreover, it may turn outthat such a form of free exchange of ideas and information is offundamental relevance for transforming culture and freeing it ofdestructive misinformation, so that creativity can be liberated."

David Bohm & David Peat, _Science Order, and Creativity_, p 240

"A key difference between a dialogue and an ordinary discussion is that,within the latter people usually hold relatively fixed positions and argue infavor of their views as they try to convince others to change. At best thismay produce agreement or compromise, but it does not give rise toanything creative."

David Bohm & David Peat, _Science Order, and Creativity_, p. 241

"What is essential here is the presence of the spirit of dialogue, which is inshort, the ability to hold many points of view in suspension, along with aprimary interest in the creation of common meaning."

David Bohm & David Peat, _Science Order, and Creativity_, p.247

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6101226 selected david bohm quotes

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