David Bohm’s concept of the implicate order refers to a deep, hidden aspect of reality in which everything is fundamentally interconnected, and all phenomena are “enfolded” together rather than existing as separate, isolated entities. The explicate order, which is what we ordinarily perceive—space, time, particles, and objects—is seen as a “surface” or unfolding from the deeper, all-encompassing implicate order.​

Bohm’s Framework

Bohm used the terms implicate (enfolded) and explicate (unfolded) order to explain how quantum phenomena, which often defy classical logic, might arise from a more fundamental reality. In the implicate order, distinctions like space and time are secondary constructs; the primary reality is wholeness, where every part contains information about the whole. He likened this idea to a hologram, where every fragment contains the pattern of the whole image.​

Enfoldment and Unfoldment

For Bohm, every “moment” contains aspects of all others, with relationships implied by the total content, not just the local, separate properties. As phenomena unfold from the implicate into the explicate order, what is hidden becomes manifest and vice versa—this ongoing process gives rise to the world of appearances.​

Holistic and Creative Reality

The implicate order suggests that reality is a continuous whole, where even consciousness and matter arise from a unified plenum—a filled space rather than empty. Bohm considered this ongoing enfoldment and unfoldment as a creative process at the core of physical and mental phenomena.​

Example

Bohm describes an experiment with viscous fluid: if a dye is folded repeatedly, the colors become invisible (implicate), but by reversing the process, the dye pattern reappears (explicate). This is a practical metaphor for how reality can “enfold” and then “unfold” observable forms from deeper structures.​

In summary, Bohm’s implicate order posits a hidden, holistic dimension to reality out of which our familiar world emerges, emphasizing wholeness, connection, and creativity as fundamental features.​

Perplexity