Self-Study Course on Julian Jaynes’s Theory

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After reading Jaynes’s The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind, people are often very interested in learning more but are not sure what to study next.

To that end, the Julian Jaynes Society has put together this self-study course as a guide for those wishing to gain a comprehensive understanding of Julian Jaynes’s theory of the origin of consciousness and the bicameral mind. Carefully constructed by Marcel Kuijsten after many years of research, this course combines the most relevant recent publications with reading assignments from Julian Jaynes’s own Princeton University course on consciousness.

After completing the 12-month course, you will have a well-rounded understanding of the evidence relevant to Jaynes’s theory. Additional reading suggestions are provided in each section for those interested in delving deeper into specific subjects.

The timeline is designed for someone taking the course part-time. The full-time student should be able to complete the course in half the time or less.

Section 1: Jaynesian Theory 101 (Weeks 1–4)

  1. Julian Jaynes, The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind, 1976/2000.
  2. “Introduction: Four Hypotheses on the Origin of Mind” and “Julian Jaynes, the Bicameral Mind, and The Origin of Consciousness.” In M. Kuijsten (ed.), Conversations on Consciousness and the Bicameral Mind, 2022.
  3. Marcel Kuijsten (ed.), The Julian Jaynes Collection, 2012, esp. Parts III & IV: Interviews & Discussion.
  4. William Woodward & June Tower, “Julian Jaynes: Introducing His Life and Thought.” In M. Kuijsten (ed.), Reflections on the Dawn of Consciousness, 2007.
  5. James E. Morriss, “Reflections on Julian Jaynes’s The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind.” In M. Kuijsten (ed.), Gods, Voices, and the Bicameral Mind, 2016, Ch. 2.
  6. Brian J. McVeigh, “Elephants in the Psychology Department: Overcoming Intellectual Barriers to Understanding Julian Jaynes’s Theory.” In M. Kuijsten (ed.), Gods, Voices, and the Bicameral Mind, 2016, Ch. 3.

Hypothesis One: Consciousness Based on Language

Section 2: Consciousness & Language (Weeks 5–8)

  1. Marcel Kuijsten, “Consciousness and Language.” In M. Kuijsten (ed.), Conversations on Consciousness and the Bicameral Mind, 2022.
  2. Brian J. McVeigh, “Julian Jaynes and the Features of Consciousness.” In M. Kuijsten (ed.), Conversations on Consciousness and the Bicameral Mind, 2022.
  3. Ted Remington, “Metaphor and the Rhetorical Structuring of Consciousness.” In M. Kuijsten (ed.), Conversations on Consciousness and the Bicameral Mind, 2022.
  4. John Limber, “Language and Consciousness.” In M. Kuijsten (ed.), Reflections on the Dawn of Consciousness, 2007, Ch. 6.
  5. Ted Remington, “Echoes of the Gods: Towards a Jaynesian Understanding of Rhetoric.” In M. Kuijsten (ed.), Gods, Voices, and the Bicameral Mind, 2016, Ch. 13.
  6. Scott Greer, “A Knowing Noos and A Slippery Psyche: Jaynes’s Recipe for an Unnatural Theory of Consciousness.” In M. Kuijsten (ed.), Reflections on the Dawn of Consciousness, 2007, Ch. 8.
  7. Tor Nørretranders, “Part III: Consciousness.” In Nørretranders, The User Illusion: Cutting Consciousness Down to Size, 1988, Chapters 9-12. [AMAZON] [WORLDCAT]
  8. L.S. Vygotsky, “The Genetic Roots of Thought and Speech.” In Vygotsky, Thought and Language, 1962, Ch. 4. [AMAZON] [WORLDCAT]
  9. Brian J. McVeigh, A Psychohistory of Metaphors: Envisioning Time, Space, and Self through the Centuries, 2016. [AMAZON] [WORLDCAT]

    Further Reading:
  10. Daniel Dennett, Kinds of Minds: Towards an Understanding of Consciousness, 1997. [AMAZON] [WORLDCAT]
  11. Jose Luis Bermudez, “The Limits of Thinking without Words.” In Bermudez, Thinking without Words, 2003, Ch. 9. [AMAZON] [WORLDCAT]
  12. William James, “The Stream of Thought.” In James, The Principles of Psychology, 1890, Ch. 9. [FULL TEXT] [WORLDCAT]
  13. William James, “The Consciousness of Self.” In James, The Principles of Psychology, 1890, Ch. 10. [FULL TEXT] [WORLDCAT]
  14. Francis Galton, “Antechamber of Consciousness.” In Galton, Inquiries into Human Faculty and Its Development, 1883. [FULL TEXT] [WORLDCAT]
  15. I.A. Richards, The Philosophy of Rhetoric, 1965. [AMAZON] [WORLDCAT]

Hypothesis Two: Bicameral Mentality

Section 3: Auditory Hallucinations & Schizophrenia (Weeks 9–12)

  1. Tanya Luhrmann, “Hearing Voices, Sensed Presences, and Imagined ‘Others’.” In M. Kuijsten (ed.), Conversations on Consciousness and the Bicameral Mind, 2022.
  2. Marius Romme, Sandra Escher, and Dirk Corstens, “Making Sense of Voices,” In M. Kuijsten (ed.), Conversations on Consciousness and the Bicameral Mind, 2022.
  3. Julian Jaynes, “Verbal Hallucinations and Preconscious Mentality.” In M. Kuijsten (ed.), Reflections on the Dawn of Consciousness, 2007, Ch. 3.
  4. Michel Knols, “Living with Voices.” In M. Kuijsten (ed.), Conversations on Consciousness and the Bicameral Mind, 2022.
  5. Elisabeth Bell Carroll, “A Vestige of the Bicameral Mind in the Modern World.” In M. Kuijsten (ed.), Conversations on Consciousness and the Bicameral Mind, 2022.
  6. Julian Jaynes, “The Ghost of a Flea: Visions of William Blake.” In M. Kuijsten (ed.), Reflections on the Dawn of Consciousness, 2007, Ch. 2.
  7. Russell T. Hurlbert, “A Schizophrenic Woman Who Heard Voices of the Gods.” In M. Kuijsten (ed.), Gods, Voices, and the Bicameral Mind, 2016, Ch. 10. 
  8. Marcel Kuijsten, “Consciousness, Hallucinations, and the Bicameral Mind: Three Decades of New Research” (pgs. 100–106). In M. Kuijsten (ed.), Reflections on the Dawn of Consciousness, 2007, Ch. 4. 
  9. John Hamilton, “Auditory Hallucinations in Nonverbal Quadriplegics.” In M. Kuijsten (ed.), Reflections on the Dawn of Consciousness, 2007, Ch. 5.
  10. John Sappington & John Hamilton, “On Listening to Voices.” In M. Kuijsten (ed.), Gods, Voices, and the Bicameral Mind, 2016, Ch. 9.

    Further Reading:
  11. Daniel B. Smith, Muses, Madmen, and Prophets: Rethinking the History, Science, and Meaning of Auditory Hallucination, 2007. [AMAZON] [WORLDCAT]
  12. G. Lynn Stephens & George Graham, When Self-Consciousness Breaks: Alien Voices and Inserted Thoughts, 2000. [AMAZON] [WORLDCAT]
  13. John Watkins Hearing Voices: A Common Human Experience, 2008. [AMAZON] [WORLDCAT]
  14. Iris E.C. Sommer & Rene S. Kahn (eds.), Language Lateralization and Psychosis, 2009. [AMAZON] [WORLDCAT]
  15. Mary Boyle, Schizophrenia: A Scientific Delusion?, 2002. [AMAZON] [WORLDCAT]
  16. Richard P. Bentall, Madness Explained, 2005, Chapters 1 – 6. [AMAZON] [WORLDCAT]
  17. Lori Schiller & Amanda Bennett, The Quiet Room: A Journey Out of the Torment of Madness, 1996. [AMAZON] [WORLDCAT]
  18. Alexandre-Jacques-Francois Brierre de Boismont, Hallucinations: The Rational History of Apparitions, Visions, Dreams, Ecstasy, Magnetism, and Somnambulism. 1853/1976. [AMAZON] [WORLDCAT]
  19. Marius Romme, Making Sense of Voices: The Mental Health Professional’s Guide to Working with Voice-Hearers, 2000.

Section 4: Bicameral Mentality in Ancient Civilizations (Weeks 13–16)

  1. Marcel Kuijsten, “The Bicameral Mind Explained.” In M. Kuijsten (ed.), Conversations on Consciousness and the Bicameral Mind, 2022.
  2. Todd Gibson, “Evidence for Bicameral Mentality in Ancient Tibet.” In M. Kuijsten (ed.), Conversations on Consciousness and the Bicameral Mind, 2022.
  3. Julian Jaynes, “The Meaning of King Tut.” In M. Kuijsten (ed.), Reflections on the Dawn of Consciousness, 2007, Ch. 10.
  4. Julian Jaynes, “Dragons of the Shang Dynasty: The Hidden Faces.” In M. Kuijsten (ed.), Reflections on the Dawn of Consciousness, 2007, Ch. 12.
  5. Bill Rowe, “Voices Become Gods.” In M. Kuijsten (ed.), Gods, Voices, and the Bicameral Mind, 2016, Ch. 4. 
  6. Bill Rowe, “The Ancient Dark Age.” In M. Kuijsten (ed.), Gods, Voices, and the Bicameral Mind, 2016, Ch. 5.
  7. Michael Carr, “The Shi ‘Corpse/Personator’ Ceremony in Early China.” In M. Kuijsten (ed.), Reflections on the Dawn of Consciousness, 2007, Ch. 13.
  8. Todd Gibson, “Souls, Gods, Kings, and Mountains: Julian Jaynes’s Theory of the Bicameral Mind in Tibet, Part One.” In M. Kuijsten (ed.), Gods, Voices, and the Bicameral Mind, 2016, Ch. 14.
  9. Todd Gibson, “Listening for Ancient Voices: Julian Jaynes’s Theory of the Bicameral Mind in Tibet, Part Two.” In M. Kuijsten (ed.), Gods, Voices, and the Bicameral Mind, 2016, Ch. 15. 

    Further Reading:
  10. Siegfried Morenz, “Divine Commandments, Guidance, and Inspiration: The Functions of the Gods.” In Morenz, Egyptian Religion, 1973, Ch. 4. [AMAZON] [WORLDCAT]
  11. Henri Frankfort, Chapters 5, 19, 21. In Frankfort, Kingship and the Gods: A Study of Ancient Near Eastern Religion as the Integration of Society and Nature, 1948, 1978. [AMAZON] [WORLDCAT]
  12. Leo Oppenheim, Ch. 4. In Oppenheim, Ancient Mesopotamia: Portrait of a Dead Civilization, 1964. [AMAZON] [WORLDCAT]
  13. J. Eric Thompson, Maya History and Religion, 1990. [AMAZON] [WORLDCAT]
  14. H.W.F. Saggs, The Greatness that was Babylon: A Sketch of the Ancient Civilization of the Tigris-Euphrates Valley, 1962. [WORLDCAT]
  15. S.H. Hooke, Babylonian and Assyrian Religion, 1963.

Section 5: The Mentality of of Pre-Literate and Pre-Modern Peoples (Weeks 17–20)

  1. Lucien Lévy-Bruhl, Primitive Mentality, 1923, 1975, Chapters 1, 2, 4–7, 12. [WORLDCAT]
  2. Lucien Lévy-Bruhl, How Natives Think, 1926, 1985, Chapters 8 and 9. [WORLDCAT]
  3. Daniel L. Everett, Don’t Sleep, There Are Snakes: Life and Language in the Amazonian Jungle, 2009. [AMAZON] [WORLDCAT]
  4. A. Lock and P. Heelas, Indigenous Psychologies: The Anthropology of the Self, 1981. [WORLDCAT]

    Further Reading:
  5. Maurice Leenhardt, Do Kamo: Person and Myth in the Melanesian World, 1947, 1979. [WORLDCAT]
  6. E.E. Evans-Pritchard, “Levy-Bruhl.” In Evans-Pritchard, Theories of Primitive Religion, 1965, Ch. 4.
  7. Scott Wallace, The Unconquered: In Search of the Amazon’s Last Uncontacted Tribes, 2009. [AMAZON] [WORLDCAT]

Hypothesis Three: Dating the Development of Consciousness to 1200-1500 BC

Section 6: Evidence from the Early Greeks (Weeks 21–24)

  1. Jan Sleutels, “Greek Zombies: On the Alleged Absurdity of Substantially Unconscious Greek Minds.” In M. Kuijsten (ed.), Reflections on the Dawn of Consciousness, 2007, Ch. 11.
  2. Boban Dedovic, “The Evolution of Mental Language in the Iliad and the Odyssey.” In M. Kuijsten (ed.), Conversations on Consciousness and the Bicameral Mind, 2022.
  3. Jan Sleutels, “Julian Jaynes and Contemporary Philosophy of Mind.” In M. Kuijsten (ed.), Conversations on Consciousness and the Bicameral Mind, 2022.
  4. E.R. Dodds, The Greeks and the Irrational, 1951, Chapters 1–3, 5, Appendix II. [AMAZON] [WORLDCAT]
  5. Richard Stoneman, The Ancient Oracles: Making the Gods Speak, 2011. [AMAZON] [WORLDCAT]
  6. Bruno Snell, The Discovery of the Mind In Greek Philosophy and Literature, 1953/1982, Chapters 1–3, 5–7. [AMAZON] [WORLDCAT]
  7. Chester Starr, The Awakening of the Greek Historical Spirit, 1968. [AMAZON] [WORLDCAT]
  8. Ruth Padel, “Madness in Fifth-Century (B.C.) Athenian Tragedy.” In A. Lock and P. Heelas, Indigenous Psychologies: The Anthropology of the Self, 1981. [WORLDCAT]

    Further Reading:
  9. Ruth Padel, In and Out of the Mind: Greek Images of the Tragic Self, 1994. [AMAZON] [WORLDCAT]
  10. R.B. Onians, The Origins of European Thought: About the Body, the Mind, the Soul, the World, Time and Fate, 1988. [AMAZON] [WORLDCAT]

Section 7: Religion and the Transition from Bicameral Mentality to Consciousness (Weeks 25–29)

  1. James Cohn, “The Bible As A Written Record of The Dawn of Consciousness.” In M. Kuijsten (ed.), Conversations on Consciousness and the Bicameral Mind, 2022.
  2. Brian J. McVeigh, “Evidence for Bicameral Mentality in the Bible.” In M. Kuijsten (ed.), Conversations on Consciousness and the Bicameral Mind, 2022.
  3. Marcel Kuijsten, “Consciousness, Hallucinations, and the Bicameral Mind: Three Decades of New Research” (pgs. 120–126). In Kuijsten (ed.), Reflections on the Dawn of Consciousness, 2007, Ch. 4.
  4. James Cohn, Minds of the Bible: Speculations on the Cultural Evolution of Human Consciousness, 2013. [JJS]
  5. David C. Stove, “The Oracles and Their Cessation: A Tribute to Julian Jaynes.” In M. Kuijsten (ed.), Reflections on the Dawn of Consciousness, 2007, Ch. 9. 

    Further Reading:
  6. Brian J. McVeigh, The Psychology of Bible: Explaining Divine Voices and Visions, 2020.
  7. Brian J. McVeigh, How Religion Evolved: Explaining the Living Dead, Talking Idols, and Mesmerizing Monuments, 2016. [AMAZON] [WORLDCAT]

Hypothesis Four: Jaynes’s Neurological Model for the Bicameral Mentality

Section 8: Evidence for Jaynes’s Neurological Model (Weeks 30-34)

  1. Marcel Kuijsten, “New Evidence for Jaynes’s Neurlogical Model.” In M. Kuijsten (ed.), Conversations on Consciousness and the Bicameral Mind, 2022.
  2. Iris Sommer and Sane Brederoo, “Auditory Hallucinations and the Right Hemisphere.” In M. Kuijsten (ed.), Conversations on Consciousness and the Bicameral Mind, 2022.
  3. Marcel Kuijsten, “Consciousness, Hallucinations, and the Bicameral Mind: Three Decades of New Research” (pgs. 116–120). In M. Kuijsten (ed.), Reflections on the Dawn of Consciousness, 2007, Ch. 4.
  4. Marcel Kuijsten, “Introduction” in M. Kuijsten (ed.), The Julian Jaynes Collection, 2012.
  5. Michael Gazzaniga, “The Split Brain in Man.” In Robert Ornstein (ed.), The Nature of Human Consciousness: A Book of Readings, 1973, Ch. 7. [AMAZON] [WORLDCAT]
  6. Joseph E. Bogen, “The Other Side of the Brain: An Appositional Mind.” In Robert Ornstein (ed.), The Nature of Human Consciousness: A Book of Readings, 1973, Ch. 8. [AMAZON] [WORLDCAT]
  7. Roger W. Sperry, “Consciousness, Personal Identity, and the Divided Brain.” In D. Frank Benson, The Dual Brain: Hemispheric Specialization in Humans, 1985. [AMAZON] [WORLDCAT]
  8. Joseph E. Bogen, “The Dual Brain: Some Historical and Methodological Aspects.” In D. Frank Benson, The Dual Brain: Hemispheric Specialization in Humans, 1985. [AMAZON] [WORLDCAT]

    Further Reading:
  9. Eran Zaidel, “Language in the Right Hemisphere.” In D. Frank Benson, The Dual Brain: Hemispheric Specialization in Humans, 1985. [AMAZON] [WORLDCAT]
  10. Charles E. Marks, Commissurotomy, Consciousness, and Unity of Mind, 1981. [AMAZON] [WORLDCAT]
  11. Stuart Dimond, The Double Brain, 1972. [AMAZON] [WORLDCAT]
  12. Antonio M. Battro, Half a Brain is Enough: The Story of Nico, 2002. [AMAZON] [WORLDCAT]
  13. Anne Harrington, Mind, Medicine, and the Double Brain: A Study in Nineteenth-Century Thought, 1989. [AMAZON] [WORLDCAT]
  14. A.L. Wigan, A New View Of Insanity: The Duality of The Mind Proved by the Structure, Functions And Diseases of The Brain (with new Foreword by Joseph Bogen), 1844/1985. [WORLDCAT]

Additional Topics

Section 9: Dreams (Bicameral Dreams vs. Conscious Dreams) (Weeks 35–39)

  1. Julian Jaynes, “The Dream of Agamemnon,” In M. Kuijsten (ed.), The Julian Jaynes Collection, 2012.
  2. Marcel Kuijsten, “Consciousness, Cave Art, and Dreams.” In M. Kuijsten (ed.), Conversations on Consciousness and the Bicameral Mind, 2022.
  3. Robert Atwan, “The Interpretation of Dreams, The Origin of Consciousness, and the Birth of Tragedy.” In M. Kuijsten (ed.), Gods, Voices, and the Bicameral Mind, 2016, Ch. 6.
  4. E.R. Dodds, “Dream-Pattern and Culture-Pattern.” In Dodds, The Greeks and the Irrational, 1951, Ch. 4. [AMAZON] [WORLDCAT]
  5. Lucien Lévy-Bruhl, “Dreams.” In Lévy-Bruhl, Primitive Mentality, 1923, 1975, Ch. 3. [WORLDCAT]
  6. William Vernon Harris, Dreams and Experience in Classical Antiquity, 2009 [AMAZON] [WORLDCAT]
  7. David Foulkes, Children’s Dreaming and the Development of Consciousness, 1999 [AMAZON] [WORLDCAT]

    Further Reading:
  8. Robert L. Van De Castle, Our Dreaming Mind, 1994, Parts 1 & 2. [AMAZON] [WORLDCAT]
  9. Sigmund Freud, “The Scientific Literature Dealing with the Problems of Dreams.” In Freud, The Intepretation of Dreams, 1911, Ch. 1. [FULL TEXT] [WORLDCAT]

Section 10: Consciousness & Hallucinations in Children (Weeks 40-42)

  1. Bill Rowe, “The Development of Consciousness in Children.” In M. Kuijsten (ed.), Conversations on Consciousness and the Bicameral Mind, 2022.
  2. Bill Rowe, “Two Origins of Consciousness.” In M. Kuijsten (ed.), Gods, Voices, and the Bicameral Mind, 2016, Ch. 11.
  3. Dorothy G. Singer and Jerome L. Singer, “Imaginary Playmates and Imaginary Worlds.” In Singer & Singer, The House of Make-Believe: Childrens Play and the Developing Imagination, 1992. Ch. 5. See also pgs. 123–127, 278. [AMAZON] [WORLDCAT]
  4. L.S. Vygotsky, “Piaget’s Theory of the Child’s Speech and Thought.” In Vygotsky, Thought and Language, 1962, Ch. 2. [AMAZON] [WORLDCAT]
  5. Marjorie Taylor, Imaginary Companions and the Children Who Create Them, 1999. [AMAZON] [WORLDCAT]
  6. Daniel Pilowsky & William Chambers (eds.), Hallucinations in Children, 1986. [AMAZON] [WORLDCAT]

    Further Reading:
  7. Nathan A. Harvey, Imaginary Playmates and other Mental Phenomena of Children, 1918.

Section 11: Hypnosis, Possession, and Trance States (Weeks 43-46)

  1. Brian J. McVeigh, “Vestiges of Bicameral Mentality.” In M. Kuijsten (ed.), Conversations on Consciousness and the Bicameral Mind, 2022.
  2. Edoardo Casiglia, “Consciousness, Hypnosis, and Free Will.” In M. Kuijsten (ed.), Conversations on Consciousness and the Bicameral Mind, 2022.
  3. Laurence Sugarman, “Authorizing Clinical Hypnosis: From Bicameral Mentality to Autonomy.” In M. Kuijsten (ed.), Conversations on Consciousness and the Bicameral Mind, 2022.
  4. John F. Kihlstrom, “Hypnosis, Bicameral Mentality, and the Theory of Mind.” In M. Kuijsten (ed.), Conversations on Consciousness and the Bicameral Mind, 2022.
  5. Brian J. McVeigh, “The Self as Interiorized Social Relations: Applying a Jaynesian Approach to Problems of Agency and Volition.” In M. Kuijsten (ed.), Reflections on the Dawn of Consciousness, 2007, Ch. 7. 
  6. Ernest Hilgard, Divided Consciousness: Multiple Controls in Human Thought and Action, 1986. [WORLDCAT]
  7. T.K. Oesterreich, Possession: Demoniacal and Other, 1930, 2003. [AMAZON] [WORLDCAT]
  8. Marcel Kuijsten, “Hypnosis As A Vestige of the Bicameral Mind.” In Contemporary Hypnosis & Integrative Therapy, 2012, Vol. 29, Issue 3.

    Further Reading:
  9. Alan Gauld, A History of Hypnotism, 1995. [AMAZON] [WORLDCAT]
  10. Charles Baudouin, Suggestion and Autosuggestion: A Psychological and Pedagogical Study Based Upon the Investigations of the New Nancy School, 1920. [AMAZON] [WORLDCAT]
  11. Emma Cohen, The Mind Possessed: The Cognition of Spirit Possession in an Afro-Brazilian Religious Tradition, 2007. [AMAZON] [WORLDCAT]

Section 12: Poetry, Literature & The Gods (Weeks 47-52)

  1. Judith Weissman, “Evolution and Inspiration.” In M. Kuijsten (ed.), Gods, Voices, and the Bicameral Mind, 2016, Ch. 7. 
  2. Edward Proffitt, “Romanticism, Bicamerality, and the Evolution of the Brain.” In M. Kuijsten (ed.), Gods, Voices, and the Bicameral Mind, 2016, Ch. 8.
  3. Laura Mooneyham White, “The Origin of Consciousness, Gains and Losses: Walker Percy vs. Julian Jaynes.” In M. Kuijsten (ed.), Gods, Voices, and the Bicameral Mind, 2016, Ch. 12.
  4. Robert E. Haskell, “Vico and Jaynes: Neurocultural and Cognitive Operations in the Origin of Consciousness.” In M. Kuijsten (ed.), Gods, Voices, and the Bicameral Mind, 2016, Ch. 16.
  5. Carole Brooks Platt, In Their Right Minds: The Lives and Shared Practices of Poetic Geniuses, 2015 [AMAZON]

    Further Reading:
  6. Judith Weissman, “Homer: Old Fathers and Absent Kings.” In Weissman, Of Two Minds: Poets Who Hear Voices, 1993, Ch. 1. [AMAZON] [WORLDCAT]
  7. Judith Weissman, “William Blake: Harsh Instruments of Sound and Witches with Knives.” In Weissman, Of Two Minds: Poets Who Hear Voices, 1993, Ch. 6. [AMAZON] [WORLDCAT]
  8. Jon D. Mikalson, Honor Thy Gods: Popular Religion in Greek Tragedy, 1992. [AMAZON] [WORLDCAT]
  9. Andrew Lang, Walter Leaf, Ernest Myers (translators), The Iliad of Homer, 1900. [FULL TEXT] [WORLDCAT]

Optional Section: Consciousness & Modern Life

  1. Brian J. McVeigh, The Self-Healing Mind: Harnessing the Active Ingredients of Psychotherapy, 2022.
  2. Nathaniel Branden, The Art of Living Consciously: The Power of Awareness to Transform Everyday Life, 1999. [AMAZON] [WORLDCAT]

Supplemental Material: Documentaries and Audio Programs

  1. FRONTLINE: Right to Fail, PBS, 2019. [WATCH]
    Thousands of New Yorkers with severe mental illnesses won the chance to live independently in supported housing, following a 2014 federal court order. FRONTLINE and ProPublica investigate what’s happened to people moved from adult homes into apartments and find more than two dozen cases in which the system failed, sometimes with deadly consequences.
  2. FRONTLINE: The Released, PBS, 2009. [WATCH]
    This year, hundreds of thousands of prisoners with serious mental illnesses will be released into communities across America, the largest exodus in the nation’s history. Within 18 months, nearly two-thirds are re-arrested. In this follow-up to the groundbreaking film “The New Asylums,” FRONTLINE examines what happens to the mentally ill when they leave prison and why they return at such alarming rates.
  3. From Jesus to Christ: The First Christians, PBS Home Video, 2004. [WATCH]
    Excellent documentary on the time after the breakdown of the bicameral mind and the transition from polytheism to monotheism.
  4. Sinking Atlantis (Secrets of the Dead Series), PBS Home Video, 2008. [WATCH]
    Five thousand years ago the Minoans, Europe’s first great civilization, flourished on the island of Crete. Yet in their heyday, they mysteriously disappeared. Sinking Atlantis digs deep into the Minoan soil and history, following archaeologists who are finding evidence of a massive tsunami that devastated the Minoans – and may have spawned the myth of Atlantis.
  5. How Art Made the World: How Humans Made Art and Art Made Us Human, BBC Warner, 2006.
    Encompassing everything from cave paintings to ceramics and pyramids to palaces, How Art Made the World probes the global trend for unrealistic depictions of the human body; the secret powers of the feature film; how politicians manage to manipulate people so easily; visions of death and the afterlife; and crucially why we use imagery at all.
  6. Archaeology and the Iliad: The Trojan War in Homer and History, Prof. Eric Cline, The Modern Scholar, 2006.
    A series of audio lectures covering many related topics such as Homer, the Iliad, the Mycenaean Greeks, the Hittites, etc.

Updated September 2023