Myth 6: “Neuroscience has disconfirmed Julian Jaynes’s theory of the bicameral mind”

Myth 6: “Recent studies in neuroscience have disconfirmed or disproven Julian Jaynes’s theory of the bicameral mind.”

Fact: Quite the opposite. Recent neuroimaging studies have largely confirmed Jaynes’s early predictions on the neurology of auditory hallucinations (his neurological model for the bicameral mind). For a full discussion of this issue see “Consciousness, Hallucinations, and the Bicameral Mind: Three Decades of New Research” by Marcel Kuijsten in Reflections on the Dawn of Consciousness: Julian Jaynes’s Bicameral Mind Theory Revisited (pgs. 116-120), “New Evidence for Jaynes’s Neurological Model: A Research Update” by Marcel Kuijsten in The Jaynesian, Vol. 3, Issue 1 (Spring 2009); and “Neuroscience Confirms Julian Jaynes’s Neurological Model.”

Learn more about Julian Jaynes’s theory by joining the Julian Jaynes Society and reading our books.