Modern Academic Says Gods Spoke to Ancient Greeks

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Academic Julian Jaynes postulated that before modern consciousness occurred, the voices ancient Greeks heard in their heads were those of gods.

by Patrick Garner

In 1976 an obscure psychologist from Princeton University in New Jersey published a book titled, The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind.

It was an unexpected sensation, not in small part because author Julian Jaynes postulated that before modern consciousness occurred, the voices humans heard in their heads were those of gods.

Jaynes’ “bicameral mind” refers to the two sides of the human brain. Our brain has two chambers, a right and a left, that Jaynes speculates initially did not communicate with each other.

Scientists agree that the left side of the brain controls speech. It’s the right side that is the mystery.

Jaynes considers this to be the god-side and the origin of automatic, executive commands. Millennia ago when humans heard voices — as schizophrenics commonly do today — our ancestors would have believed them to be divine. In effect, Athene, Artemis and Ares would have been issuing commands to our early ancestors. ...

Read the full article: https://greekreporter.com/2023/08/23/go ... ent-greeks