On Teilhard’s Integrated Theory of Evolution and the Theory of Conscious Matter:

Teilhard and Cosmic Evolution Series, 1 of 8

-Life from dead matter

-Man from animal

-Matter is conscious but requires a high degree of organization to enable it to cross the threshold and manifest itself as consciousness

-Life as universal phenomenon of the complexification of matter

The Law of Complexity Consciousness:

-Besides entropy (energy dissipation)

-Besides expansion (universal unfolding and granulization)

-Besides electrical and gravitational forces of attraction

--There is a perennial current of “interiorizing complexification” that animates the whole mass of things (p33).

There may be a hidden relation between Newtonian gravity of condensation (stars) and the “gravity” of complexification (life) (p33, note).

Pierre Teilhard de Chardin

Man’s Place in Nature: The Human Zoological Group

Written 1949, Harper’s 1956, English trans 1966

Julian Jaynes Bicameral Breakdown: The General Bicameral Paradigm

Julian Jaynes Bicameral Breakdown Series, 8 of 8

Jaynes uses Hypnosis as an example for the paradigm:

Collective Cognitive Imperative:

-consensus reality [personal notes]

-cultural matrix (Haitian voodoo and nzombies) [personal notes]

-crowds strengthen the imperative (hypnosis works better with an audience)

-the imperative reinforces expectancy (of the hypnosis actually working)

-the isolation of the lab reduces the effect

Induction:

-ritual

-narrowing of consciousness

-Hypnosis: focusing on the stopwatch and then just the voice until all sensory input is blocked except the voice (of the original bicameral condition)

Trance:

-left and right sides of the brain can act, but cannot communicate

-Hammurabi: ‘The Code’ was written in trance (and any ‘writer’ of a bicameral mind did so while in a trance)

Archaic Authorization:

-by an accepted god (or the hypnotist)

Jaynes describes certain people as having greater ‘hypnotizability’

-left-handed (due to their right-brain dominance)

-religious (more likely to believe)

-imaginary childhood friends (that represent the bicameral god/voice within)

-prior experience with hypnosis (or other induction ritual)

-children (more susceptible to authority)

-the severely punished (also more susceptible to authority)

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

ISBN 0-395-20729-0

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julian_Jaynes

http://www.julianjaynes.org/

Julian Jaynes Bicameral Breakdown: The Auguries of Science

Julian Jaynes Bicameral Breakdown Series, 7 of 8

Science started out as a religious endeavor to reveal hidden divinity (that once was there before the breakdown), (p436).

We must become our own authorization (p438).

It is only if we make generations our persons, or centuries hours that the pattern is clear (p445).

The very notion of truth is a culturally given direction, a part of the pervasive nostalgia for an earlier certainty (p446).

What was then an augury for direction of action among the ruins of an archaic mentality is now the search for an innocence of certainty among the mythologies of facts (p446, last sentence of the book).

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

ISBN 0-395-20729-0

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julian_Jaynes

http://www.julianjaynes.org/

Julian Jaynes Bicameral Breakdown: On Ancient Misinterpretation

Julian Jaynes Bicameral Breakdown Series, 6 of 8

There is a constant attempt on the part of scholars to impose modern categories of thought on those ancient cultures in order to make them more familiar…to modern readers (p201).

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

ISBN 0-395-20729-0

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julian_Jaynes

http://www.julianjaynes.org/

Julian Jaynes Bicameral Breakdown: The Code of Hammurabi

Julian Jaynes Bicameral Breakdown Series, 5 of 8

The prologue/epilogue is written by Hammurabi, the text is about him and his relationship to his god, evident is the concept of ‘I’ or ‘self’.

The code itself is written by Marduk, his god, spoken to Hammurabi and channeled from him to a scribe.

Both sides are unconscious of each other. When the code is written, Hammurabi, in a trance, lets the unconscious take over.

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

ISBN 0-395-20729-0

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julian_Jaynes

http://www.julianjaynes.org/

Julian Jaynes Bicameral Breakdown: On Human Responsibility

Julian Jaynes Bicameral Breakdown Series, 4 of 8

The soldiers of the Trojan War were noble automatons who knew not what they did (p75).

Man and his early civilizations had a profoundly different mentality than our own. They were not conscious, not responsible for their actions and cannot be given credit of blame. Instead, each person had a part of his nervous system [the right hemisphere of the brain] that was divine, by which he was ordered about like a slave (p201-202)

The debut of human responsibility: Solon (Greek, credited with “Know Thyself”) warns his fellow Athenians not to blame the gods, but themselves (p386).

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

ISBN 0-395-20729-0

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julian_Jaynes

http://www.julianjaynes.org/

Julian Jaynes Bicameral Breakdown: Writing and the Erosion of the Bicameral Mind

Julian Jaynes Bicameral Breakdown Series, 3 of 8

Writing eroded the auditory authority of the bicameral mind [god’s orders were transmitted via ‘auditory hallucinations’ within mind of the bicameral man]. The input to the divine hallucinatory aspect of the bicameral mind was auditory. Once the word of god was silent, written on dumb clay tablets or incised into speechless stone, the god’s commands or the king’s directives could be turned to or avoided by one’s own efforts in a way that auditory hallucinations never could be. The word of god had a controllable location rather than an ubiquitous power with immediate obedience (p208).

“What had to be spoken is now silent and carved upon a stone to be taken in visually” (p302).

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

ISBN 0-395-20729-0

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julian_Jaynes

http://www.julianjaynes.org/