Everything feels broken in the world today.

People feel disconnected from themselves, from each other, and from nature. Creativity comes in flashes and then disappears. Clarity feels harder to hold. Systems meant to support life feel unstable. Even our inner lives often feel fragmented, pulled in too many directions at once.

Most people assume this is normal. That life is chaotic. That separation is inevitable. That struggle is simply part of being human.

But what if that assumption is wrong?

What if the feeling of fragmentation is not the truth of reality, but the result of how we have been taught to think about reality?

Decades ago, a physicist named David Bohm saw this problem clearly. He believed the deepest crisis facing humanity was not political, technological, or economic. It was perceptual. We learned to see the world in pieces, and then we forgot that we were the ones who divided it.

His work offers a radically different understanding of reality. One that explains why fragmentation feels wrong, why wholeness feels intuitive, and why human beings are designed to create when aligned with the deeper order of life.

The Habit of Fragmentation

From an early age, we are taught to break things apart. Mind versus body. Human versus nature. Observer versus observed. Science versus spirituality. Individual versus collective.

This way of thinking becomes so familiar that we stop noticing it. We assume reality itself is divided, rather than recognizing that division is a product of thought.

Bohm argued that this habit of fragmentation shapes everything. It shapes how science is practiced. How societies organize themselves. How people relate to their own inner experience. Over time, fragmentation creates confusion, conflict, and a sense of isolation that feels personal but is actually systemic.

When reality is experienced as broken into parts, creation becomes effortful. We try to force outcomes. We compete instead of collaborate. We extract instead of participate. Life begins to feel like something we must push against.

A Different View of Reality

Bohm proposed that beneath the surface of everyday experience, reality is not divided at all. He called this deeper level the implicate order.

The implicate order describes reality as an unbroken whole. Everything is connected within a continuous movement that Bohm referred to as the holomovement. What we normally experience as separate objects, events, or identities are temporary expressions of this deeper unity.

What we see and measure in daily life is what Bohm called the explicate order. This is the unfolded world of forms, where things appear distinct and separate. The problem arises when we mistake this surface appearance for the whole truth.

A clear overview of Bohm’s book and its central ideas can be found here:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wholeness_and_the_Implicate_Order

And a simple explanation of implicate and explicate order is available here:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Implicate_and_explicate_order

Why Thought Is Central

One of Bohm’s most important insights was that thought itself participates in fragmentation.

Thought divides reality in order to understand it. That is useful. The problem is that thought then forgets it has done the dividing. We begin to treat our mental categories as reality itself.

This is where conflict arises. We defend ideas as if they are facts. We cling to identities as if they are fixed. We oppose what feels separate rather than questioning the perception of separation itself.

Bohm suggested that healing fragmentation begins with observing thought. Not suppressing it, not fighting it, but seeing how it operates. When thought is seen clearly, it loosens its grip. A more coherent perception begins to emerge.

Why This Matters for Creation

Creation does not arise from fragmentation. It arises from coherence.

When the human system is aligned, insight flows naturally. Creativity feels effortless. Timing becomes intuitive. Decisions arise from clarity rather than force. This is not mystical. It is what happens when perception aligns with wholeness.

Bohm’s work helps explain why creativity feels blocked in states of stress, fear, or division. The system is operating from separation. When the system returns to coherence, access to possibility expands.

Understanding wholeness is not about believing a philosophy. It is about restoring a natural relationship with reality. When individuals perceive themselves as part of an unbroken whole, creation becomes participatory rather than forced.

Why Bohm Matters Now

Bohm’s ideas are more relevant today than when he wrote them.

Modern life intensifies fragmentation. Algorithms divide attention. Institutions reward competition. Information arrives faster than it can be integrated. The mind becomes scattered.

At the same time, people are sensing that something deeper is missing. There is a growing intuition that life is meant to be lived in coherence. That creativity is natural. That separation is learned, not inherent.

Bohm’s work gives language to this intuition. It bridges science and inner experience. It offers a framework that honors both rational inquiry and the lived sense of connection that many people feel but struggle to articulate.

For a more interpretive and accessible reflection on Bohm’s ideas, including metaphors that bring his work to life, this essay provides helpful context:
https://www.themarginalian.org/2023/05/25/wholeness-and-the-implicate-order-david-bohm/

Wholeness, Source, and Human Evolution

At its deepest level, Bohm’s work points toward something ancient and intuitive. The idea that life unfolds from a unified source. That separation is not fundamental. That creation is an expression of alignment with the whole.

Whether one uses the language of source, God, consciousness, or nature, the implication is the same. Humans are not meant to dominate reality or struggle against it. We are meant to participate in it.

As individuals rediscover wholeness, self knowledge deepens. Creation becomes more conscious. As more individuals live from coherence, the collective field shifts. This is how evolution happens. Not through force, but through alignment.

A Return to Wholeness

David Bohm is not widely known, but his insight may be one of the most important of our time. He reminds us that the world is not broken. Our perception is fragmented.

When perception returns to wholeness, creation becomes natural again.

The invitation is simple, but profound. To observe thought. To question separation. To sense the deeper order moving beneath appearances. To remember that we are not isolated creators, but participants in a living, intelligent universe.

The better we understand wholeness, the more skillfully we engage with reality. The more we engage with reality, the more consciously we create.

And that may be exactly what this moment in human history is asking of us.

If this perspective resonates, take a moment to notice where fragmentation shows up in your own thinking. Creation begins with perception. As more individuals return to wholeness, we participate consciously in the evolution of life itself.

You are not separate from the universe.
You are part of how it creates.