There are those rare times in one’s life when a discovery of
an idea or new theory opens up a new mode of thought, an almost transcendent
moment of clarity. In the Author’s case, that moment was presaged many years
ago. During the week of March 14th, 1977, he read a curious book
review in Time Magazine, The Lost
Voice of the Gods. http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,947274-3,00.html,
by Julian Jaynes.
It was a fascinating read for a kid that hid an intellectual
kernel beneath an adolescent shell. But
it was laid aside and the topic was only revisited a few times in the
intervening 32 years. In February of this year the Author purchased the book “The
Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind” and is almost
finished reading it. The thesis of the book remains controversial and on the
fringes of accepted science. Yet the book remains in print and the ideas therein
still banging around.
THE OWNERS MANUAL FOR
THE HUMAN RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE?
According to Jaynes, humankind did not develop consciousness
minds until approximately 3,000 years ago. Prior to that time, humans could
think, speak, make decisions. But the introspective inner world, the “I-space”
where we spend nearly all our conscious time, did not exist.
Rather, humans lived under the admonition and direction of
the right hemisphere of the brain, voices that were deemed to be dead kings,
and later, gods. “Greek Zombies” as one later author denoted bicameral man.
(Bicameral is Jayne’s description of the condition where both sides of the
brain were active in the auditory hallucinations.)
The evidence for this bicameral existence comes from the
literature of the second and third centuries B.C.E. According to Jaynes, there
is no consciousness in the writings extant from theses eras. From the Time
magazine article in 1977:
As evidence
of the switch from bicamerality to conscious life, Jaynes points to the ancient
classics. "There simply is no consciousness in the Iliad, except for a few
later accretions," he says. "The heroes do not wonder, ponder or
decide. They are pulled around by the voices of the gods. The same is true in
the early books of the Bible. Abraham isn't conscious, and Amos isn't either.
Consciousness comes later, with Ecclesiastes."
In some of
these later writings, Jaynes finds laments for the lost bicameral world. He
notes that the Odyssey, probably coming at least 100 [1,000 is more probable]
years after the Iliad, features "the wily Odysseus, the first modern hero,
picking his way through a ruined and god-weakened world." In Hindu
literature, the unconscious writings of the Veda give way to the subjective
Upanishads, and in the Old Testament, the voices of Yahweh and prophets grow
silent, replaced by subjective men wrestling with unanswered questions.
Though
subdued, the voices of the right side of the brain still occasionally break
through as, for example, the voices of Joan of Arc, some drug hallucinations
and schizophrenia. Psychiatrists, says Jaynes, "seem to like my theory.
They are literate men, and many of them say they sense something archaic in the
hallucinatory voices of schizophrenics." Jaynes also folds poetry into his
theory: it arose as unconscious divine speech, its mesmerizing rhythms produced
by right-sided brain impulses.
EXPULSION
FROM THE GARDEN OF EDEN-LOSS OF THE BICAMERAL MIND AND THE GODS THAT LIVED
THEREIN?
HUMANS WERE
NOT KICKED OUT OF THE “GARDEN”, THE “GARDEN” WAS KICKED OUT OF HUMANS…
Jaynes also sees the story of the Adam and Eve’s fall as a myth
describing the breakdown of the bicameral mind. Writes Jaynes on page 299:
The serpent
promises that “you shall be like the [gods] themselves, knowing good and evil”
(Genesis 3:5), qualities that only subjective conscious man is capable of.
Jaynes also notes that the qualities of deceit are a hallmark of
consciousness, as the nonconscious bicameral humans lacked the ability to
deceive. And now conscious, knowing what was gained-and what was lost-humans
mourn the Fall and still seek the gods that assured them through uncounted
days. And try to regain the “authority” of those voices, through oracles,
divination, idols, prophecy, biblical literacy, and so-called “creation
science”.
Over the next weeks and perhaps months the Author will continue to
read and study the Origin of Consciousness in the Break Down of the Bicameral
Mind and will likely post on the topic.