Talk:Julian Jaynes

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What many on-line reviewers miss about Jaynes' concept of consciousness is its definition as an analog world constructed bicamerally through conceptual metaphors.

[edit] The Voice of God

There is no doubt that cultures all over the world heard the Voice of God. Everything points to this one, irrefutable fact. We no longer hear this Voice (except for schizophrenics ). Why? No one has answered this question better than Julian Jaynes. No one else has even come close to answering the question, "Why is there religion?" -- LKS 5/10/06

People hear the voice of God all the time and we ignore them (good thing too). There is nothing that needs explaining here. Jamrifis 16:50, 21 June 2007 (UTC)

[edit] When did the breaking down of bicameral mind take place?

08:46, 3 January 2007 (UTC)82.143.200.206In his book Jaynes refers to the biblical myth of expulsion from Eden calling it a metaphor of awakening of consciousness. So far I know this story is considered to be one of the oldest biblical myth - perhaps of summerian origin. According to Jaynes breaking down of the bicameral mind took place in the second half of the second millenium B.C. The summerian civilization ceased to exist on the border of 3rd and 2nd millenium B.C. Something might be wrong here...

Zlatan 03.01.2007

No, not at all. The Genesis myth was a recension after the break down; the older Sumerian myth being drawn upon was, if I recall my Campbell, a more positive myth in which the serpent, a symbol of life (again following Campbell) bestowed it on the Adamic pair. That it was modified by the much later authors of Genesis into the current form of Trees of Knowledge and Life and the Fall don't augur against Jaynes's theories. --Gwern (contribs) 13:02 29 June 2007 (GMT)

Plus, as Jaynes makes clear, the version of the story which we have in Genesis is one that was written down well after the awakening of consciousness by the breakdown of bicamerality, and makes the story an allegory of that. 12.214.62.215 (talk) 19:12, 13 April 2008 (UTC)