Don Trent Jacobs - Julian Jaynes & Our Consciousness

[moorishbelle]

hmmm...very interesting.  thanks for the post!

[epsilon8998]

This all sounds so true. It shows how people can be duped by guys like Glenn Beck who use sound bytes and talking points to dupe and hypnotize people by tapping into their fears of life, politics, government, and economics, and in effect control them to do whatever they want. It's really scary. It shows that we haven't really evolved as a culture as much as we think we have, and we are in danger of reverting back into a primitive society as these people gain more and more power.

[thomasjmckee]

Its more fundamental than hypnosis. This guy gave possibly the worst summary of Jayne's theory. In reality, ancient civilizations believed they spoke directly to "God" because they did not have a language complex enough to accomodate an analog "I." Human consciousness (our ability to describe our "selves" and articulate the motivations for our behavior) evolved with our linguistic capabilities. Its much less about hypnosis than it is about the construction of language itself.

[Wolfsbane909]

@thomasjmckee why don't u tell me something that i DON'T KNOW already, from reading the book?

[thomasjmckee]

@Wolfsbane909 I don't know. Why don't you tell me something?

[bashia]

@thomasjmckee right I caught that, but I think his point about hypnosis and cognitive dissonance is relevant.

[mujaku]

Side by side with Dr. Jacobs is Dr. Charles Tart. He coined the term "consensus trance." Tart is concerned with how to wake up from the cultural trance we are in.

[icebear1946]

In the case of idols and idolatry and the practices Jaynes described involving them, no explanation other than mass hallucination suffices. Try searching on 'jaynes' and 'crime' for the bearfabrique description.

[icebear1946]

Biggest problem is thinking that the phenomena Jaynes described had always been hallucinations. Try a Youtube search on 'jaynes' and 'nature of the discovery'

[frozenge]

I think this guy is dead right. Mass hypnosis is alive and well is the U.S. media. There are people to this DAY who think Saddam attacked us on 9/11, based on what they heard in the media and the carefully constructed, repetitive sound-bites orchestrated by the Bush mob over the months leading up to the war. And that's just a single example from 2002-2003.

[thehumanbeast777]

Jaynes ideas refer to the ascension of the left brain over the right brain.

the right brain is holistic, non linear, and "intuitive". large-scale data processing.

the left brain is what we live in today ... analytical, linear, segmented, linguistic, etc

our 2 brains are connected by the corpus callossum - a bunch of nerve fibres that resemble a swan with outstretched wings.

to revisit the right brain, go climb into a floatation tank.

[mate6mty]

what is a flotation tank???

[fossilman2]

Check out Betty Edwards' "Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain" a standard text in beginning art classes. The psych experiments involving isolation tanks entered public debate in the late 1960's and gave rise to a popular sci-fi novel " The Mindbenders " which lent it's name to a rock group from tha era.

[Northside777]

Jaynes defines the inner God voice of the bicameral mind in ancient Greece (of Homer's time) for example as an auditory hallucination coming from inside the brain and the later rise of religious rituals as a quest to obtain a lost authorization. Human consciousness could be thought of as a transitory state in the evolution of our minds.

[fossilman2]

Found the book in a bin at Salvation Army, it changed my understanding of what was going on in my own head. Prof. George Lakoff talks about the power of words and language to sculpt opinion, gratefully he is not advising neocons. Every word is an analog, creating or ready to create a separate perceived reality. It will remain to be seen whether our consciousness is maladaptive or not, stay tuned, the next few years should tell.

[mate6mty]

i found the book in a thrifth stored too, very lucky,,put some perspective on carlos castanedas bok a separate reality,,and the mayan prophesies about the next breakdown or shift of conciusness in a few year ahead

[MikeRLloyd73]

@mate6mty

Castaneda is a complete fake,been proven....there is no Don Juan

[mate6mty]

@MikeRLloyd73 same think with christ , Budah , but is what he wrote that has importance ,,,his book are on the religion section in the libraries if it was fake ,,why is not on fiction??? im not saying any of the caracthers existed , ut what he talks about is reality as we know it is a fantasy of the brain ,interpretation of light waves on certain frequency,,,no self,, just multiple programs running in your head , yet you are experiencing them not being them...

[mate6mty]

thanx for the info, it all comes into a different perspective once yoy acquire all the facts,i saw a movie"ALTERED STATES" where a guy is floating in water in a tank.Some times i felt i wished i ,d lived in the 60,s but now i think we ,re riding on the crest of the next big wave,,

[Fuliginosus]

I too am reading Jayne's book right now, and hope to hear more from Jacobs--and any other academics who see things in Jaynes' work that they consider worthwhile.

[Pope2501]

I appreciate his p.o.v. I'm reading Jayne's bok right now and would have liked to hear Jacobs cite some specific words/phrases/actions that cause this hypnosis he's speculating that some people are under.

[trocar44]

He's the only one under hypnosis or should I say delusions. What a piece of work