Author: Brian J. McVeigh

It is possible (advisable?) to strip away all the variations, dissimilarities, and kaleidoscopic richness and search for major patterns in world religions? Of course, the question in the social sciences, ever since they took shape since the Enlightenment, has been “are there universal, uniform, and unchangeable deep truths about human nature buried under the messy, unique particulars of place and period?” Each discipline contouring the current intellectual landscape differs depending on how they characterize the human condition, i.e., as something either defined by commonalities or differences. …

Claiming that Bronze Age peoples lacked the internet, supercomputers, and lunar orbiters as well as the scientific know-how to construct such technological marvels is not controversial. And no one would be offended by the claim that these ancient peoples lacked the linguistic terminology that underwrites the knowledge base upon which rests the impressive wonders of human ingenuity. …

In Catholic theology transubstantiation describes how during mass bread and wine are converted into the body and blood of Christ. For believers, how this happens exactly is a mystery. Also mysterious is how energy and information absorbed by an organism is converted into mental activity. …

Exploring human mentality’s evolution, this essay hypothesizes four types of bicameral mentality, their association with social complexities, and the continuity of lateralized brain structures shaping duplex psychology. Jaynes’ concept of a two-tiered mentality is linked to historical shifts and social control, with vestigial hallucinations and language intricacies playing fundamental roles. As human societies advanced, the essay traces a shift from external divine guidance to the rise of conscious interiority and self-reflexivity paralleling social and technological progress.

We accept as fact the magical transformation of species (Darwinian evolution), the warping of spatiotemporal fabric (Einsteinian astrophysics), and the superposition of particles and “spooky action at a distance” (quantum mechanics)….

A word of thanks to all those who tested their knowledge of Jaynes’s theory by taking the quizzes. In an earlier blog, “Julian Jaynes Is …

People commonly confuse and conflate sensory perception with Jaynesian consciousness. Indeed, this is why in much of my writing I have stressed their distinction. However, here I argue that despite their important differences, they are nevertheless intimately related.