How God Became “I” - Julian Jaynes / Brian McVeigh

Micky & Quinn meet up with Dr. Brian McVeigh, an anthropologist and mental health counselor, who was once a student of Dr. Julian Jaynes. Jaynes developed the Theory of the Bicameral mind, which seeks to explain the evolution of conscious introspection in humanity. In other words, how did humans come to have a perception of themselves that could be abstracted - the I of the present, and the “me” of future action, cognition, and planning?

Jaynes’ proposed that this shift happened as a result of the bronze age collapse of around 1200 BCE. Prior to this event, he suggests that humans experienced thought as auditory hallucinations, theophanies, which were assumed to be of divine provenience.

In this perspective, ancient human thoughts were understood as the voice of Gods, which regularly appeared to people and helped them navigate decision making.When the bronze-age civilizations of the middle east ended, a new mentality emerged from the wreckage - a unicameral perspective where those voices were integrated into the Self. In this way, the voice that seems to create ideas and inspiration from thin air went from being the word of God to simply being a thought that belonged to the individual.

In his recent work, “The Psychology of the Bible: explaining divine voices and visions”
Dr. McVeigh adds a biblical hypothesis to the Jaynsian picture. He compares the wording in different chapters of the bible, written at different time periods, to illustrate how the voice of god receded from society over time.

We also talked about the future evolution of consciousness in Humans and other animals on Earth, and how the destabilizing effect of an overwhelming information stream might precipitate radical adaptations - much like the Bronze Age Collapse did.

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