Myths vs. Facts

Myth 9: Chimpanzees can recognize themselves in a mirror, and this “provides clear evidence of self-awareness in chimpanzees” (Griffin, 1978).

Myth 8: Jaynes argues that people in ancient times heard the actual voices of gods or other supernatural entities. Fact: I

Myth 7: People could not have functioned in ancient civilizations if they were “crazy” or suffering from mental illness. Fact: This

Myth 6: More recent studies in neuroscience have disconfirmed Jaynes’s ideas. Fact: Quite the opposite. Recent neuroimaging studies have largely confirmed

Myth 5: Jaynes’s theory has been “debunked” or Jaynes’s theory has been disproven. Fact: There are no substantive critiques of Jaynes’s

Myth 4: The gods in the Iliad were “just a literary device;” the Iliad is “just a story” and as

Myth 3: Jaynes was an “ethnocentrist.” Fact: This origin of this misconception is particularly confusing. A definition of ethnocentrist is: “the

Myth 2: Jaynes was mistaken in areas outside of his expertise. Fact:  Jaynes — unmarried, without children, and uninterested in

Myth 1: Jaynes’s book was not peer reviewed. Fact:  While Jaynes ultimately chose to publish his book with a non-academic

“The human mind likes a strange idea as little as the bodylikes a strange protein, and resists it with a