JAYNES ezekiel gilgal
The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the BICAMERAL MIND
Julian Jaynes, Psychology Teacher Princeton U. Allen Lane 1976/9 ISBN 0 7139 1254 5 128.2
History and culture gradually produced consciousness, not evolution.
Ancient people could not think as we do. They:
[i] were incapable of introspection
[ii] were not conscious of their mind
[iii] experienced [mainly auditory] hallucinations
[iv] believed these hallucinations had their origins in instructive deities.
[v] automatically obeyed the voices of these hallucinations
Actual source of Hallucinations: 310?They come from the right hemisphere, mainly in such unfamiliar stressful situations as the Exodus and Exile.
Consciousness began to be learned amongst upheavals beginning around 1000 BC [time of the Exodus!].
From this time, the voices of the gods became increasingly inconsistent.
313 The remaining elohim retreat into silence amongst confusion & tragic violence.
The prophets battle to keep contact until a substitute is found in adherence to the Law [me].
A deep yearning for divine volition & service is left:
Psalm 42 - ...My mind thirsts for gods! for living gods!
When shall I come face to face with gods?
312 The entire succession of works in the Old testament is the majestic and wonderful birth pangs of our subjective consciousness.
Jaynes' mentions Yahweh/ Moses.
301 Only once do they speak face to face as friends do Ex:33:11
174 unembodied[ not in a statue etc] bicameral voices led Moses zig zagging across the Sinai desert.
305 There was no concept of chance until well into the subjective eras.
Spontaneous divination from immediate sensory experience began with the voices. The voice takes a cue from what is being looked at. It puns on similar words. The speaker then makes a metaphorical interpretation of whatever is seen.
302 JOSHUA was more spoken to than speaking with his voice. Halfway between bicamerality & subjectivity, he has to draw lots to make decisions.
Gradually, taking the place of the older bicameral authority, things were decided by casting lots.
The result is the word of an ANALOGUE God deciding lands & tribes, what to do, who to destroy.
174 In Ezekiel's time, idols were still heard to actually speak -
Ez 21:21 The king of Babylon consults several terap.
Commentators have always argued as to whether Ezekiel may have been schizoid. Jaynes gives support to this idea.
Ezekiel's 'condition' though was a sign of progress to self -awareness.
Jaynes' idea also explains the discrepancies in the Pentateuch:
302 'But with the breakdown of bicamerality, particularly when a previous bicameral people has become nomadic as in the Exodus [and Exile?], the voices will begin to say different things to different people and the problem of authority becomes a considerable difficulty. [see Numbers 12:1-2] - here Miriam, Aaron & Moses all hear the voice, but aren't sure which is the most authentic- 'Has he not spoken by us as well?' She is given 'leprosy' as a punishment.
303 Jeremiah, a contemporary of Ezekiel, has these problems... [to the voice of God]15:19 'Will you be totally like a liar to me?'
Chapter 28 relates Jeremiah and Hananiah arguing over which is the real voice of God.
311 These 'bicamerals' displayed eccentric behaviour
Amos: a compulsive gatherer of sycamore fruit.
Jeremiah: staggers under a yoke from village to village
Ezekiel sees visions
Isaiah has religious agonies:
312 By 400 BC [only 100 years after Ezekiel] the conscious, moral, law imposing mind has taken over.
Zechariah 13: 3-4 - around 500 BC everyone watches their children for signs of visioning. If suspected, they kill them on the spot.
92 Modern schizophrenics:
Jaynes gives numerous examples of hallucinations. Think about what Ezekiel reported in comparison...
In acute twilight states religious scenes are experienced. In broad daylight, the heavens open and a god speaks to the patient.
Anything visual can fit into the actual scene. Angels can walk around a hospital ward.
93 As the hallucination becomes less intensive, anything visual becomes a shining light or cloudy fog from which the voice is heard.
Some Biological forerunners of hallucination:
[i] A low stress threshold caused by anything out of the ordinary or 'out of the blue' [an electrical storm on a calm, sunny day?]
[ii] Genetically produced kidney problems resulting in:
[iii] poor ability to process adrenaline by products
examples of metaphor? 1K 22:11 pair of horns
Amos 7:8 builder & plumb-line 8:1-2 fruit basket.
Jeremiah 1: 11-15 blowing pot, almond branch 24: 1-10 2 baskets of figs.
Presocratic philosophers 209-10 Heraclitus, Apollo
‘The lord whose oracle is in Delphi neither speaks out nor conceals, but gives a sign’
A sign may accord with the underlying truth of the LOGOS than a misleadingly explicit statement.
update june 1 1999
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