Is Our Universe a Hologram?

Startling new scientific discoveries point out we may be living in an illusion. Learn about the physics behind this theory.

To explain our universe, people have studied space for as long as recorded history has existed. However, lots of times, we were guessing as to what was out there in the beyond. Luckily, many new and exciting hypotheses arose when modern technology came into play.

Today, hundreds of millions of dollars are spent each year on high tech research centers, planetariums, rockets, satellite dishes, and laboratories to figure out how our universe functions. Around the world, astrologers and physicists are honing in on two particular areas of study: the explanation of what makes up the universe and finding out why it rotates in a specific fashion.

You see, up until now, how our universe moves could only be explained mathematically by the inclusion of the gravitational force of invisible particles we call dark matter. Unfortunately, despite thousands of hours of research, not one single team of international scientists have found proof of this elusive theory. Experts must believe it is out there, and in vast quantities, representing up to 85 percent of the entire universe. Additionally, quantum physicists claim this dark matter exists in six dimensions.

James Scargill from the University of California recently published a paper with a different idea about how our universe works. Essentially, it states our universe might be a hologram. Holography ultimately challenges the notion of dark matter. He suggests an alternative way to explain the math and more accurately solve the complex equations which have relied on the unproven theory of dark matter thus far.

His scientific study posits a fascinating theory concerning our perception of reality. Examining the leftover radiation from the explosion which created the universe he claims to have found evidence that gravity and time emit from a flat 2-dimensional plane. Thus, the third dimension we perceive is merely a mirage.

If the concept of living in a reality with more or less than three dimensions is mind-boggling to you, you certainly are not alone. It is the current equivalent of human beings throughout history, thinking the Earth is flat and then finding out it is indeed round.

To wrap your head around it, think about your driver's license. While it is a flat, or two-dimensional object, the hologram on it appears to be three-dimensional. Or consider the last 3-D movie you saw. The projection screen for the film was flat, yet you experienced it in a way which it appeared to jump off the screen and into the third dimension.

Despite famous and brilliant proponents of dark matter, such as Albert Einstein, holographic cosmology is not necessarily brand new. The science fiction novel Flatland, written in 1884, proposed the idea of a 2-D universe. There were also extensive studies into the theory of holography in the 1990s, but they unearthed no such compelling results.

So, is it true we are all unknowingly living in an optical illusion? Possibly. Only time will tell.