Conversation with David Bohm, 1972 – On Intelligence

David Bohm has been described as one of the most significant theoretical physicists of the 20th century and was a fellow of the royal society. He worked with Einstein at the Institute for Advanced Study, and on the Manhattan Project with Oppenheimer. Later he pioneered research into quantum physics and models of the brain, being increasingly interested in consciousness, order and thought. Bohm’s books include Wholeness and the Implicate Order, Science, Order and Creativity, and Causation and Chance in Modern Physics. 

This relatively early conversation between Bohm and Krishnamurti centres around the relationship between thought and intelligence. Thought is mechanical, measurable, a movement in time. Is intelligence mechanical and of time? Does intelligence use thought? Thought is a pointer; without intelligence the pointer has no value. Politically, religiously and psychologically thought has created a world of tremendous contradiction and fragmentation. Can life be guided by intelligence and lived in harmony? The desire for intelligence has created the image of God. Thought must be completely still for the awakening of intelligence. You come upon it when you see the whole. The quality of a mind that sees the whole is not touched by thought. Therefore there is perception and insight. 

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