Fragment 27

The last "Fragment" was inspired in part by "The Naked Ape" by Desmond Morris. In this "Fragment" some of the inspiration shall come from Julean Jaynes's book "The Origins of Consciousness in the Break Down of the Bicameral Mind", Do we shall continue with observing the development of consciousness. I will try to give a brief summary of Jaynes's theory of consciousness. Jaynes posits that the humans of the Bronze Age had a far different conscious mind than we do today. That instead of a conscious self reflective thought to guide their actions, that they were grided by audio hallucinations. In simpler terms, instead of thinking about a course of action, a voice identified with a god would tell them what to do. This was an age ruled by the Egrergores. It seems in the early Bronze Age humans and regularly gods conversed face to face. One only has to look at the arts and myths of the age to observe humans and gods talking. This dramatically changed around 1230 B.C. In the year 1230 B.C. the Assyrian King Tukulti-Ninurta had an alter made that is dramatically different than anything that had come before, Jaynes describes it thus: "In the carving on its face Tukulti is shown twice first as he approaches the throne of his god, and as he kneels before it. The very double image fairly shouts aloud this beggarly posture unheard of in a King before in history. As our eyes descend from the standing King to the kneeling King, just in front of him. it is emphatic as a moving picture in itself a quite remarkable artistic discovery. But far more remarkable is the fact that the throne before which this first cruel Assyrian conquers grovels is empty." So what happened to the gods? There are three theories of what happened to the gods. That the gods left gor reasons only known to them: the theological theory. That the gods were ancient alien astronauts, and left for reasons only known by them: The alien theory. And the third theory, that there was a change in human consciousness: Jaynes's theory. Jaynes goes on to describe brain anatomy, and the symptoms of schizophrenia to bolster his theory. Basically what he is saying is that the left brain hemisphere interprets the voices from the right brain hemisphere as the voices of external gods. That instead of consciously thinking humans were directed by the voice of their gods, and this only changed with the introduction of writing and larger and more complex social structures. Some of the evidence Jaynes produces to support this theory is" quite illuminating. Most human thinking to this day is done unconsciously. That is why solutions to problems often come about as inspiration; out of seeming nowhere. Like when suddenly a solution to a problem pops into our heads when we are doing something unrelated to the problem. As I said before most of our thinking is still done unconsciously. What Jaynes is saying is that Bronze Age humanity did not know how to think out their problems consciously. Instead they heard the voice of a god when the unconscious mind had come up with a solution. Another interesting theory of Jaynes's is that for the ancients reading was a psychedelic experience. That they hallucinated as they read. What Jaynes is saying is that by our standards Bronze Age people were unconscious. I do not think Jaynes needed to make his theory as strong as he did. I think most humans act and think unconsciously. The difference is now we have moved the voices we hear from outside to inside our heads. That except in exceptional cases, and mental illness we regard the voices of the Egregores as internal instead of external. And reading is still a hallucinatory experience. A primate staring at a page of printed symbols has nothing to do with the images and thoughts in the primates' mind. Of course, as I have said before our seperation of inside (subjective) and outside (objective) is a construct. All our experience is inside (subjective) experience. The difference is we have developed tools, like the law of noncontradiction to create the outside or the objective world. In the ancients there was only the external world, all emotions,and voices were all thought to be in the external world. As late as Empedocles we can observe that psychology and physics had not yet been separated. As I have said before it was Protagoras that separated inside (subject) from outside (objective).The thing with humans is that they gain competence before comprehension. And sometimes we never gain comprehension. We start doing or believing something long before we understand the 'why' and the 'how' . So humans were using the law of noncontradiction long before Paramenides and Protagoras explained what we were doing. Philosophers are more discovers than inventors. The other key part of Jaynes's theory, that the subjective self or "I" is created I am in total agreement with.The subjective self is a creation, and was first developed in the Bronze Age. Child psychologists tell us that humans develop a "Me" before an "I". The "Me" is when we view ourselves the third person. An example is when the mind's eye I see myself hunched over my desk writhing, as if from above. The "I" is the first person way of looking from the inside out, instead of the "Me" which is looking from the outside in. Ancient humans did not distinguish between inside and outside, emotions, voices, etc. were all thought to have an external source. Ancient humans found the crocodile scary, they were not scared of the crocodile. Scary was an external quality possessed by objects. Of course , they had not consciously, it is the default way that humans experience the world. This can be observed in children. Children often look to adults on how to interpret an experience. I have observed children looking to adults after a joke was told to figure out if they should laugh. During the Bronze Age humans were property of the gods. One can still observe this in Islam. Many muslims still today talk about being owned by Allah. Humans are the tools which the Egregores use to achieve their goals. It is interesting to note that almost all Bronze Age names are theophoric. they contain the name of a god. The names of the Egyptian Pharaohs are good examples. It is also during the Bronze Age that humans developed the quality of treachery. Many animals use deception. Examples would be birds mimicking the calls of other animals to trick them out of their food. Jaynes gives the charming example of a female chimp assuming a seductive pose in order to trick a male out of a banana. Treachery is different, to be treacherous one needs a more sophisticated form of consciousness, namely a subjective "I". A self that can pretend to like someone while plotting against them. One must have a subjective self to make such decisions, instead of a "Me" that is told what to do by the gods. I will have a lot more to say about this in future "Fragments". I know the reader is asking how do I bridge the gap between the last "Fragment" where I discussed our early hominid ancestors and the much more sophisticated consciousness of the Bronze Age. What happened that led to the new state of consciousness? The answer is that early humans started using audio signs to stand for things or actions. So when an instinct or desire called for a course of action. humans would hear the audio sign for the action as if from an external source. So if one felt thirsty the audio sign for drink would be heard. In the early Bronze Age the gods (Egregores) ruled humans undisturbed by the rebellious subjective selfs. The gods were masters and the humans were their slaves and property. Even to this day there is a great longing to recapture this state of affairs, Jaynes calls this state of affairs the Bicameral paradigm. This is of course, the origin of the modern Utopia psychoses. Where everyone would be united by hearing the same voice. There would be no need of a coercive government. No one would have to take any responsibility, everyone would be the collective property of the god. Modern progressives have of course substituted government for god. Progressives are always saying we are all owned by the government. This is why Jung claimed that the consciousness of early humans was held in thrall by the gods. I will have more on this in future "Fragments". I shall try to make this more clear by concluding with a myth that had its first development in the Bronze Age. The Osiris-Set-Isis-Nephthys-Horus myth. I will be following the Plutarch Version of the story. So let us begin with Osiris. In the ancient world Osiris was often identified with Jupitar. Both were Kingsthat ruled over humanity; they were the archetype of the god-king that ruled over a golden age. J. Bohme when discussing astrology says that Jupitar represents the outside order. According to the myth, Osiris and his fabulous wife Isis brought civilization to humans. They taught humans all the arts and sciences from writing to agriculture. Osiris had a younger brother, Set who was jealous of his older brother. So what is Set the god of? What does he represent? Set seems to be the god of many things thunder, the other, the Red lands, etc. His name is often associated with the destroyer,but destroyer of what? Maybe we could call him the god of alienation. This would seem to tie all the other things together. But more accurately Set is the god of the subjective self, or the "I'. Set is the destroyer of the outside order and the domination of the Egregores over humanity. He is also the god of freedom. It is interesting to note Set's connection with the Christian Devil, Both Set and the Devil walked out of Utopia.They refused to renounce their individuality for the collective. To go on with our story, Osiris is seduced by Nephthys (Set's wife) and becomes pregnant with Anubis. This was the last straw for Set. He vows revenge and becomes treacherous. He talks kindly to Osires while plotting against him. Remember to practice treachery one must have a subjective self. To move on with the story Set has a beautiful golden box or casket made, Set brings the box to a party that is being held to honor Osiris.Set tells everyone at the party that he shall give the box to anyone who fits in the box. Of course, Set had the made only to fit Osiris. Everyone at the party tries and fails to fit into the box. Finally Set gets Osiris to try the box, Osiris eits in perfectly. Then Set and his retainers close the box and nail it shut. And throw the box into the Nile. The box represents the distinction between the inside (subjective) and outside (objective) worlds. As I said humans do things and use techniques long before they understand what they are doing. It would not be till centuries later that Greek philosophers would rationally explain the distinctions and techniques. Lood how long Christianity was around until Agustine explained it to us. Myth was the highest form of consciousness at the time. As reasons uses abstractions, myth uses symbols. To be continued