Julian Jaynes Bicameral Breakdown: The Disappearance of God

Julian Jaynes Bicameral Breakdown Series, 2 of 8

As the complexity of society increases, the bicameral mind becomes stressed, requiring elaborate rituals to maintain the voice within.

[end of 3^rd millennium B.C.] the tempo and complexity of social organization demand a far greater number of decisions in a far greater number of contexts, resulting in a proliferation of deities for any potential situation (p196).

As gods increased in complexity (in the Near East, 2^nd millennium B.C.) unsureness creates personal gods to intercede and reach the higher gods – “Who seem to be receding into the heavens where in one brief millennium they will have disappeared” (p202).

Inconsistency between people:

As people migrate, quickly due to major geological/climatological stressors, as refugees, they are thrust into ever-increasing new situations not dealt with before, either by themselves or their ancestors. The voices then say different things to different people. Hierarchical authority deconstructs and loses its validity.

– Social Disorganization and Bicameral Breakdown

The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind, Julian Jaynes, 1976.

ISBN 0-395-20729-0

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