The Consciousness of Thunder

To refer to the bicameral man as having consciousness is to give an animal consciousness. It is the same as assigning to the lightning and the thunder a knowing of their own whereabouts and happenings. (Earlier I struck a tree in the forest, and then a house on Main St. …My thunder at around six o’clock this evening was tremendous). It’s not like that.

“It is very difficult to suspend the habit of projecting consciousness in thinking about ancient civilizations or even animals close to us or even in newborn infants.”

-Julian Jaynes. 1986. “Consciousness and the Voices of the Mind”, Canadian Psychology, 27, 128-148.

-found in Reflections on the Dawn of Consciousness, Jaynes Revisited... . M. Kuijsten (ed.), 2006.