Introduction to Reflections on the Dawn of Consciousness
It has now been 30 years since Julian Jaynes first published The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind. In it he presented his …
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Directly Related Articles
A listing of many of the articles directly related to Julian Jaynes’s theory. See also the Indirectly Related Articles and Supporting Evidence categories.
Talking Moai?
Van Tilburg (1998) eloquently expressed our current understanding of the moai as “an icon exemplifying the fundamental Polynesian concern with genealogy, …
Read MoreHypnosis as a Vestige of the Bicameral Mind
Biological theories of the origin of consciousness are unsupported by evidence and fail to account for altered states of consciousness such as hypnosis…
Read MoreThe Self as Interiorized Social Relations: Applying a Jaynesian Approach to Problems of Agency and Volition
A self is an internalized conceptualization of agency, imported by socialization processes through the use of metaphoric mind-words “into” our heads. …
Read MoreJulian Jaynes and Ezekiel’s Wheel
As a follow-up to the discussion of the binary soul doctrine in my book, “The Division of Consciousness,” a further discussion of the binary soul …
Read MoreSociety In the Self: Towards An Anthropology of Agency
Many have convincingly argued that the self, rather than an acultural, essentialist entity, is locally constituted from a matrix of age, class, gender, ….
Read MoreVestiges of the Gods: The Influence of Julian Jaynes on North American Literature
In 1976, Julian Jaynes wrote “The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind,” his only major published work during a lifetime of …
Read MoreAuditory Hallucinations and the Bicameral Mind
According to Jaynes’ daring hypothesis, man had no consciousness until 1000 BC. Before that time, language had developed slowly for a long period…
Read MoreBeyond Confusion: Culture, Cognition, and Consciousness
This article has two purposes; 1. to suggest why and how at least two terms, “consciousness” and “cognition” (or introspecting and thinking) can and…
Read MoreMental Imagery and Hallucinations as Adaptive Behavior: Divine Voices and Visions as Neuropsychological Vestiges
“Hallucinations” and “adaptation” are not two words we usually associate with each other. After all, we link the former with loose brain wiring that …
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