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I am writing my web paper on the holographic theory of the brain, and as I read these posts on phantom limbs I can't help but relate it to the Holographic model. Basically, in a holographic model of the universe, which is more in the realm of physics than biology, the universe is full of waves which are interpreted by our senses into visible, smellable, hearable things. These waves bounce off of and mix with each other and create interference patterns. A hologram is produced by the interference patterns of light waves reflecting off of an image. One of the distinctive qualities of a hologram is that every bit of the hologram contains an image of the whole, so if you cut a tiny piece of holographic film off of the original, you will be able to see what the original image was in its entirety. According to the model, memories are dispersed across the brain in this way, as are some learned behaviors. I wonder if phantom limb pain can be explained by saying that the memory of that limb is still in existence throughout the brain, that the waves that made up the limb are somehow still imprinted in the person and therefore reacting to the external environment.