EPISODE 32 — Psyché Tropes

Psyché Tropes Episode 32
11pm, 28 June 2025 on Resonance 104.4 FM

Presented by Steven McInerney, Psyché Tropes Episode 32 investigates the technical, ethical, and philosophical implications of holographic theory, ranging from its real-world use cases to speculative concepts.

The rise of virtual stage performances by deceased entertainers has become an increasingly common phenomenon in recent years. In 2012, a surprise performance by Tupac Shakur shocked attendees at Coachella as he holographically performed Hail Mary from his critically acclaimed posthumous album The Don Killuminati: The 7 Day Theory under his stage name Makaveli before following up with 2 of Amerikaz Most Wanted, rapping alongside the real-life Snoop Dogg.

In 2014, Michael Jackson returned from the grave to perform the track Slave to the Rhythm at the Billboard Music Awards, while years later, in 2020, The Whitney Houston Hologram Tour was described by The Guardian as a "ghoulish cash-in." Neither performers personally consented to the use of their likeness for these virtual performances.

Choreographed body doubles, impersonators, and poor deepfake-technology are now grafted onto digitally projected avatars, lacking the unique stage presence and liveliness that touring idols such as Michael Jackson and Whitney Houston gave their very lives for.

Although marketed as cutting-edge holographic technology, not one of the aforementioned stage shows was actually a hologram. They were modelled on a technique devised in 1862 by John Henry Pepper which reflects a light source at an angle onto a transparent mirror. Modern use of this technique now uses polyester film or transparent gauze as the projection screen, presenting merely an illusion of a hologram.

Holography dates back to 1947 when scientist Dennis Gabor’s research aimed at enhancing the resolution of an electron microscope led to the development of holography theory. Gabor’s successful experiments with light demonstrated in three papers from 1948 to 1951 where he attained an exact analysis of the method, but progress stalled for over a decade due to the absence of a pure and consistent beam of light that was needed to complete the experiment. It wasn’t until 1960 that a breakthrough occurred.

The invention of the laser, a source of coherent wavelengths of light, enabled the reconstruction of depth in the first-ever holographic images created in 1962. Further advancements were made in white light transmission, rainbow holograms, and gelatin recording media, and in 1971, Gabor was rewarded for his pioneering work by receiving the Nobel Prize in Physics.

It wasn’t long after the 1971 Associated Press interview with Gabor explaining holography’s many practical applications that holograms began to gain mainstream attention, integrating into art, industry, and commerce. In 1976, holograms were featured as a special effect in the science fiction film Logan’s Run, directed by Michael Anderson and starring Michael York, who attempts to understand such a novel technology in a behind-the-scenes documentary.

In Terence and Dennis McKenna’s 1975 book, The Invisible Landscape, they explore the idea that the mind is not merely a product of physicochemical processes but is instead a higher level of organisation that transcends yet incorporates lower organic and chemical levels. They state that the mind, like an organism, cannot be reduced to its parts alone. Its qualities emerge from a holistic matrix, much like a hologram, in which each fragment contains the whole—a distributed model of consciousness in which memory and perception might be encoded across the brain’s neural network, as cited in the work of eminent scientist Karl Pribram. Described as the “Einstein of Brain Science” by his contemporaries, Pribram was a visionary pioneer in the fields of cognitive psychology, cognitive science, neuropsychology, holonomic brain theory, and the theory of holographic consciousness. Similarly, Michael Talbot, the author of The Holographic Universe, based his research on the the holographic principle.

As quantum physicist David Bohm’s work suggests, physicists need to reassess the limiting structure of the current scientific paradigm, where information is without meaning. This lack of meaning could be the driving force that is not only dividing physicists but also dividing us from nature and each other. The holographic principle of reality (in which each part contains the whole) offers a potential framework for unification. Everything is interconnected and enfolded. Each point in the implicate order contains the potential for the collective manifest. Adopting the mindset of the whole can help us move beyond our self-imposed limitations and toward a more harmonious way of living.

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