Julian Jaynes Society Books

Read the top books on Julian Jaynes’s theory of consciousness and bicameral mentality from the Julian Jaynes Society, guaranteed to further your understanding of Jaynes’s groundbreaking ideas.

Conversations on Consciousness and the Bicameral Mind

Conversations on Consciousness and the Bicameral Mind: Interviews with Leading Thinkers on Julian Jaynes’s Theory
Marcel Kuijsten (ed.) (Julian Jaynes Society)
How old is consciousness? What is the relationship of consciousness and language? What is the origin of god beliefs and religion? Why do people hear voices that command their behavior? These are just a few of the fascinating questions posed by Princeton University psychologist Julian Jaynes’s influential and controversial theory and discussed in this book. A treasure trove of provocative ideas, Conversations on Consciousness and the Bicameral Mind explains, extends, clarifies, and presents the latest evidence for Jaynes’s theory in a series of highly engaging interviews with both voice-hearers and leading thinkers on the theory.

Gods, Voices, and the Bicameral Mind: The Theories of Julian Jaynes

Gods, Voices, and the Bicameral Mind: The Theories of Julian Jaynes
Marcel Kuijsten (ed.) (Julian Jaynes Society)
Does consciousness inevitably arise in any sufficiently complex brain? Although widely accepted, this view — inherited from Darwin’s theory of evolution — is supported by surprisingly little evidence. Offering an alternate view of the history of the human mind, Julian Jaynes’s ideas challenge our preconceptions of not only the origin of the modern mind, but the origin of gods and religion, the nature of mental illness, and the future potential of consciousness. The tremendous explanatory power of Jaynes’s ideas force us to reevaluate much of what we thought we knew about human history.

Reflections on the Dawn of Consciousness: Julian Jaynes’s Bicameral Mind Theory Revisited

Reflections on the Dawn of Consciousness: Julian Jaynes’s Bicameral Mind Theory Revisited
Marcel Kuijsten (ed.) (Julian Jaynes Society, Revised Second Edition)
“In this book Marcel Kuijsten and his colleagues have integrated a quintessential collection of original thoughts concerning Jaynes’s concepts as well as some of Jaynes’s original essays. I have rarely read a manuscript that so eloquently and elegantly examines a complex and pervasive phenomenon. The contributors of this volume have integrated the concepts of psychology, anthropology, archaeology, theology, philosophy, the history of science, and modern neuroscience with such clarity it should be considered an essential text for any student of human experience.”
— from the Foreword by Dr. Michael A. Persinger, Professor of Behavioral Neuroscience, Biomolecular Sciences Program, Laurentian University

The Julian Jaynes Collection

The Julian Jaynes Collection
Marcel Kuijsten (ed.) (Julian Jaynes Society)
Princeton University psychologist Julian Jaynes’s revolutionary theory on the origin of consciousness or the “modern mind” remains as relevant and thought-provoking as when it was first proposed. Supported by recent discoveries in neuroscience, Jaynes’s ideas force us to rethink conventional views of human history and psychology, and have profound implications for many aspects of modern life. Included in this volume are rare and never before seen articles, lectures, interviews, and in-depth discussions that both clear up misconceptions as well as extend Jaynes’s theory into new areas such as the nature of the self, dreams, emotions, art, music, therapy, and the consequences and future of consciousness. Expanded to include a new, previously unpublished wide-ranging 30-page interview with Julian Jaynes.

The Minds of the Bible: Speculations on the Cultural Evolution of Human Consciousness

The Minds of the Bible: Speculations on the Cultural Evolution of Human Consciousness
Rabbi James Cohn (Julian Jaynes Society)
Two developments in the history of the Bible are deeply related, and not merely coincidental. One is the lamentation of the loss of the experience of hearing God’s voice. The other is the rise of the language of introspection: an interiorized subjective dialogue with oneself. In our own time, we are acculturated from infancy on, to understand our mental life as a narratized interior mind-space in which we introspect in a ceaseless conversation with “ourselves.” Our ancestors, however, were acculturated to understand their mental life in terms of obedient responses to auditory prompts, which they projected outwards as the external voice of God. Although these “bicameral” people could think and act, they had no awareness of choices or of choosing — or of awareness itself.

The Psychology of Ancient Egypt: Reconstructing A Lost Mentality

The Psychology of Ancient Egypt: Reconstructing A Lost Mentality
Brian J. McVeigh (Julian Jaynes Society)
Building upon Julian Jaynes’s theory of bicameral mentality, Brian McVeigh reconstructs the worldview of ancient Egypt, with its innumerable gods and goddesses, magnificent temples, and monumental mortuary architecture. By surveying the spiritual landscape of glorified ancestors, radiant gods, and a theocentric social order crowned by awe-inspiring pharaohs that lasted for three millennia, McVeigh argues that depictions of supernatural visitations were more than mytho-literary fabrications. Rather, they were recountings of audiovisual hallucinations interpreted as divine guidance. Moreover, the multiple manifestations of the deceased — Kas (spiritual doubles), Bas (human-headed bird body‒souls), and Akhs (transfigured dead) — evidence hallucinated visitations. This book puts into scientific perspective the mysteries of this impressive civilization, which continue to fascinate the modern imagination. It also challenges the assumption that human psychology does not change through history and the conventional wisdom of Egyptology, as well as offering lessons about cognitive relativism.

Foreign translations of
The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind

Der Ursprung des Bewußtseins durch den Zusammenbruch der bikameralen Psyche

Der Ursprung des Bewusstseins durch den Zusammenbruch der Bikameralen Psyche
Julian Jaynes (Julian Jaynes Society – German Edition)
Im Zentrum dieser wegweisenden Arbeit steht die revolutionäre Idee, dass das menschliche Bewusstsein nicht in der tierischen Evolution begann, sondern ein erlernter Prozess war, der durch Katastrophen vor nur dreitausend Jahren aus einer halluzinatorischen Mentalität hervorgegangen ist und sich noch entwickelt. Die Implikationen dieses wissenschaftlichen Paradigmas erstrecken sich auf praktisch jeden Aspekt unserer Psychologie, unserer Geschichte, unserer Kultur, unserer Religion — in der Tat unserer Zukunft. In den Worten des Rezensenten ist es „ein demütigender Text, der die meisten von uns, die ihren Lebensunterhalt durch Denken verdienen, daran erinnert, wie viel Denken noch zu tun ist.“

El origen de la conciencia en la ruptura de la mente bicameral

El Origen de la Conciencia en la Ruptura de la Mente Bicameral
Julian Jaynes (Julian Jaynes Society – Spanish Edition)
En el corazón de esta fundamental obra está la revolucionaria idea de que la conciencia humana no comenzó con la evolución animal, pero que surgió como un proceso aprendido, a través de cataclismos y catástrofes, de una mentalidad alucinatoria hace solo tres mil años y sigue desarrollándose. Las implicaciones de este paradigma científico se extienden virtualmente dentro de cada aspecto de nuestra psicología, nuestra historia, nuestra cultura, nuestra religión — en efecto nuestro futuro. En las palabras de un crítico, es “un humilde texto, del tipo que nos recuerda a muchos de nosotros que vivimos nuestra vida a través del pensamiento, cuanto pensamiento todavía nos queda por hacer.”

La Naissance de la Conscience dans L'Effondrement de L'Esprit Bicaméral

La Naissance de la Conscience dans L’Effondrement de L’Esprit Bicaméral
Julian Jaynes (Julian Jaynes Society – French Edition)
Au cœur de ce travail fondateur se trouve l’idée révolutionnaire que la conscience humaine n’est pas remontée à l’évolution animale mais était un processus savant qui a émergé, par cataclysme et catastrophe, d’une mentalité hallucinatoire il y a seulement trois mille ans et qui est encore en développement. Les implications de ce paradigme scientifique s’étendent à pratiquement tous les aspects de notre psychologie, notre histoire, notre culture, notre religion — en fait notre avenir. Pour reprendre les mots du critique, il s’agit d’un «texte humiliant, du genre qui rappelle à la plupart d’entre nous qui vivons en réfléchissant, combien il nous reste de réfléchir».