The Jaynes Legacy - Imprint Academic

description Reviews Formats extras

Julian Jaynes' 1976 book, The Origins of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind, continues to arouse an unsettling ambivalence. Richard Dawkins called it "either complete rubbish or a work of consummate genius, nothing in between". The present book suggests that the bicameral mind is a phantasm; the dating of the origin of consciousness contradicts archeological and literary evidence; and the theory contributes nothing toward explaining why some physical states are conscious while others are not because the nonconscious bicameral brain is neurophysiologically equivalent to the conscious brain.

However, the author pays tribute to Jaynes's work as a work of "consummate genius" because it compels us to re-evaluate the significance of humankind's earliest traditions and texts that might shine light on the "very suspicious totem of evolutionary mythology" that consciousness has evolved continuously and gradually from worms to man.

The present book suggests that the evolution of the relationship between consciousnesses, mass, energy, and spacetime radically changed nearly 6,000 years ago during the epigenetic, evolutionary degeneration of a little-known, threadlike structure originating from the center of the central nervous system called Reissner's fiber. The earliest Egyptian, Hebrew, Indian and Chinese traditions, buried beneath the dust of fallen Babel and thousands of years of distortions and disguisings, describe this process during the origin of religion and mystical traditions.
Mar 10, 2018

https://medium.com/@geoffjward/still-in-two-minds-over-this-controversial-theory-of-the-origin-of-human-consciousness-cf5f77b3da69

Source: Medium.com

Credit: Geoff Ward

"An engaging dissection of Jaynes's assertions and assessment of his 'legacy’ acts as a springboard for Wile to set out his own stall... In the most astonishing and revelatory part of his book, he suggests that the evolution of the relationship between consciousnesses, mass, energy, and space-time radically changed nearly 6,000 years ago."

Sep 24, 2018

Source: Paradigm Explorer

Credit: David Lorimer

"an interesting discussion of the role of Reissner's fibre in mystical cognition... [It] is discussed with great sophistication within an overall theory that consciousness is coeternal with the initial singularity giving rise to space-time..."

Apr 30, 2019

Source: Fortean Times

Credit: Books Reviews Editor

"A difficult, complex and profoundly important theory, well-argued and explained clearly."
Paperback
- Publication Date: 02 January 2018
- ISBN-13: 9781845409227
- Product Content: Text (eye-readable)
- Extent: Main content page count : 180
- Code: 9781845409227
- Dimensions: 15.6 x 23.4 x 1.4 cm
- Weight: 350 grams
- Packaging Type: No outer packaging
- List Price: £14.95
- ONIX Version 2.1, Version 3
Lawrence talks about his book ( mp4 23.30 MB )

Hear Lawrence Wile talk about The Jayne Legacy

Details

Title: The Jaynes Legacy
Subtitle: Shining New Light Through the Cracks of the Bicameral Mind
Author: Lawrence Wile
Language: English
Publisher: Imprint Academic
Imprint: Imprint Academic

See all details

Mechanisms in World and Mind
Perspective Dualism, Systems Theory, Neuroscience, Reductive Physicalism
Bernd Lindemann
Thomas Reid on Religion
The 'Other' Psychology of Julian Jaynes
Ancient Languages, Sacred Visions, and Forgotten Mentalities
Brian J. McVeigh
The Psychology of the Bible
Explaining Divine Voices and Visions
Brian J. McVeigh
Looking In and Speaking Out
Introspection, Consciousness, Communication
Robin Wooffitt
Church-going, Going, Gone!
A Movement of the Human Spirit Begins
Michael Horan
The Jaynes Legacy
Shining New Light Through the Cracks of the Bicameral Mind
Lawrence Wile
The Rupture
On Knowledge and the Sublime
Olivia Fane
The Past is a Future Country
The Coming Conservative Demographic Revolution
Edward Dutton
Arthur Balfour's Ghosts
An Edwardian Elite and the Riddle of the Cross-Correspondence Automatic Writings
Trevor Hamilton

Details

Related titles