We could be living in a two-dimensional holographic universe.
While that may sound like the work of science fiction, the theory has been entertained by the US government.
The study entitled 'Analysis and Assessment of The Gateway Process' was penned in 1983 by US Army Lieutenant Colonel Wayne M McDonnell.
The intelligence report explains how consciousness is created through the brain's processing of energy in the physical world and transforming it into a hologram.
Holograms are a common feature in the Star Wars franchise, used by characters to see and hear each other in real-time, even if they're separated by light years.
A hologram, as defined by physics, arises when interference between wave-light particles — like photons of light — generates the illusion of a 3D structure.
'Energy creates, stores and retrieves meaning in the universe by projecting or expanding at certain frequencies in a three-dimensional mode that creates a living pattern called a hologram,' Lt Col McDonnell wrote.
Scientists outside the classified realm have also entertained versions of these 'holographic universe' theories — including a series of 'Holometer' experiments at the US Department of Energy's Fermi National Accelerator Lab.
But while many physicists still hope to validate or disprove this idea, that the universe seen as 3D is really just 2D, US Army officers had grander ambitions.
We could be living in a two-dimensional holographic universe (stock)
They hoped to train their own troops to elevate their vibrating brain waves 'which the mind projects' to 'intercept meaning directly from the holographic transmissions of the universe.'
Lt Col McDonnell's 29-page report for the United States Army Intelligence and Security Command (INSCOM) has garnered increasing attention online — in part, because new military witnesses have alleged modern use of its psychic espionage proposals.
This summer, former Pentagon UFO investigator Luis Elizondo revealed in his memoirs that he worked telepathically with colleagues in so-called 'group remote viewing' to thwart terrorist thousands of miles away.
And, in his testimony alongside Elizondo before the House Oversight Committee, journalist Michael Shellenberger submitted written remarks detailing further overlap in personnel within America's secretive UFO-hunting and these kooky programs.
'The CIA didn't care why it worked,' as Elizondo wrote of remote viewing in his now bestselling book, Imminent, 'the only thing that mattered was that it did.'
But Chicago-based comedian Sara Holcomb, who has dug into Lt Col McDonnell's study in a series of Tik Tok shorts, has persisted in trying to actually understand 'why' the program worked, if it did work.
'So, we've just been programmed with the five senses to understand this reality?' Holocomb ask. 'But we can have more senses than that in this reality, as well?'
This composite image above shows a schematic prepared by US Army Lt Col Wayne McDonnell as part of his metaphysical, and once secret, report on consciousness. The schematic hopes to illustrate the interrelationship between what humans see and our deeper 'holographic' reality
Everything in our universe could actually be encoded in tiny packets in two dimensions instead of three, some physicists say, and Fermilab's 'Holometer' laser experiment - initiated over a decade ago - hoped to find answers to that question: 'Do we live in a holographic universe?'
Decade's prior to Fermilab's holographic universe tests, US Army Intelligence officers - like Lt. Frederick Holmes 'Skip' Atwater - took the 'holographic universe' theory as a given, in an effort to 'intercept meaning directly from the holographic transmissions of the universe'
Lt Col McDonnell's mind-bending Pentagon study was first commissioned to better understand what its Army intel colleagues were doing, by sending officers to a small institute in Charlottesville, Virginia that was working on the Gateway Experience.
The then-secretive Gateway project was 'a training system designed to bring enhanced strength, focus and coherence... to alter consciousness.'
From there, Gateway's goal was to shift the practitioner's consciousness 'outside the physical sphere so as to ultimately escape even the restrictions of time and space' — via a meditative practice designed to help the brain access holographic reality.
At least according to Lt Col McDonnell, the Monroe Institute's discoveries that wound up bolstering the case for reincarnation were profound.
'There is a sound and rational basis in terms of physical science parameters for considering Gateway to be plausible in terms of its essential objectives,' he reported.
Lt Col McDonnell based his conclusions on the more public, non-secret research of Stanford neuroscientist Karl Pribram and one-time Princeton physicist David Bohm.
'His [Pribram's] 'holographic model' marries brain research to theoretical physics,' the INSCOM officer wrote, quoting another scholar.
Portions of the 'remote viewing' psychic spy program were dramatized in the black comedy film 'The Men Who Stare at Goats,' starring George Clooney (still above). But some former intelligence officers with the old INSCOM program say the film mocked its serious operations
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'It accounts for normal perception and simultaneously takes the paranormal and transcendental experiences out of the supernatural,' his report continued, 'by explaining them as part of nature.'
In this early 1980s era, INSCOM was headed by Major General Albert Stubblebine III, one of the US military's greatest proponents of psychic warfare.
And at least two of his subordinates — 'Remote Viewer No1.' Joe McMoneagle and remote viewing operations officer Lt. Frederick Holmes 'Skip' Atwater — have since moved on to assume roles at The Monroe Institute as private citizens.
Today, McMoneagle serves as on the Board of Advisors and as a 'Gateway' trainer for the Monroe Institute, while Skip Atwater became the Institute's president.
'Through the studies we've done on remote viewing, we've discovered that there's a certain amount of noise emanating out of the core of the galaxy and that noise has an effect on our ability to be psychic or do remote viewing,' McMoneagle said in a 2021 interview.
'This implies a very interesting proposition,' he continued. 'It implies that all sentient beings are dealing with the same source of information.'
Pentagon