"...thought with totality as its content has to be considered as an art form, like poetry, whose function is primarily to give rise to a new percepti… - David Bohm

This proposal, of a creative plurality in scientific ideas and theories, does, however, raise a significant question: What is the relationship of science to reality? Is this plurality simply a matter of developing a number of different points of view which depend on the requirements of society or the particular preferences of the individual? If this is true, then it would appear that the idea of objectivity within science, as a means of obtaining some relative truth about nature, would no longer be valid. We suggest that there is indeed a meaning to a reality that lies outside ourselves but that it is necessary that we, too, should be included in an essential way as participators in this reality. Our knowledge of the universe is derived from this act of participation which involves ourselves, our senses, the instruments used in experiments, and the ways we communicate and choose to describe nature. This knowledge is therefore both subjective and objective in nature.

In this flow, mind and matter are not separate substances. Rather, they are different aspects of one whole and unbroken movement.

Suppose you have two religions. Thought defines religion — the thought about the nature of God and various questions like that. Such thought is very important because it is about God, who is supposed to be supreme. The thought about what is of supreme value must have the highest force. So if you disagree about that, the emotional impact can be very great, and you will then have no way to settle it. Two different beliefs about God will thus produce intense fragmentation — similarly with thoughts about the nature of society, which is also very important, or with ideologies such as communism and capitalism, or with different beliefs about your family or about your money. Whatever it is that is very important to you, fragmentation in your thought about it is going to be very powerful in its effects.