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ADDITIONAL RESOURCES
Additional resources for learning about Julian Jaynes's theory.
Blog
The Julian Jaynes Society Blog
Read articles and get updates about Julian Jaynes's theory.
Books
Julian Jaynes, The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind (Mariner Books/Houghton-Mifflin, 1976/2000). One of the most controversial books of the twentieth century, this work argues that ancient civilizations were governed by audiovisual hallucinations that were interpreted as divine guidance and commands. By around the first millennium BCE, due to growing social complexity, people had to culturally evolve a new mentality, i.e., consciousness. Jaynes, relying on archaeology, linguistics, religious studies, and neuropsychology, provides a theoretical framework that accounts for modern-day hallucinations, spirit possession, frenzied prophesy, hypnosis, and other anomalous psychological behavior.
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Directly related books that explain Julian Jaynes's theory:
James Cohn, The Minds of the Bible: Speculations on the Cultural Evolution of Human Consciousness (Julian Jaynes Society, 2013).
Adopting a Jaynesian perspective, this book delves into the historical context of the Bible, showing how it provides evidence for how human consciousness evolved.
Marcel Kuijsten (ed.), Conversations on Consciousness and the Bicameral Mind: Interviews with Leading Thinkers on Julian Jaynes’s Theory (Julian Jaynes Society, 2022).
One sentence summary.
Marcel Kuijsten (ed.), Gods, Voices, and the Bicameral Mind (Julian Jaynes Society, 2016).
One sentence summary.
Marcel Kuijsten (ed.) The Julian Jaynes Collection (Julian Jaynes Society, 2012).
One sentence summary.
Marcel Kuijsten (ed.) Reflections on the Dawn of Consciousness: Julian Jaynes’s Bicameral Mind Theory Revisited (Julian Jaynes Society, 2006/2024).
One sentence summary.
Brian J. McVeigh, The “Other Psychology” of Julian Jaynes: Ancient Languages, Sacred Visions, and Forgotten Mentalities (Imprint Academic, 2018). Examines the transformative power of metaphors, ancient languages, the evolution of mental words, and the adaptive role of hallucinations.
Further Reading
Books extending Julian Jaynes's theory or applying it to additional areas:
Brian J. McVeigh, A Psychohistory of Metaphors: Envisioning Time, Space, and Self through the Centuries (Lexington Books, 2016). Exploring the psyche's adaptive ability to search the world for the familiar to explain the unfamiliar and configure and reconfigure definitions of time, space, and mind through history.
Brian J. McVeigh, How Religion Evolved: The Living Dead, Talking Idols, and Mesmerizing Monuments (Routledge, 2016). A journey across the world’s religious landscape reveals changes in mentality, evolving spirituality, and how the modern self has replaced the gods.
Brian J. McVeigh, The History of Japanese Psychology: Global Perspectives, 1875-1950 (Bloomsbury Academic, 2017). Using a Jaynesian lens, an exploration of the origins of Japanese psychology by charting cross-cultural connections, commonalities, and the transition from religious–moralistic to secular–scientific definitions of human nature.
Brian J. McVeigh, The Psychology of Ancient Egypt: Reconstructing a Lost Mentality (Julian Jaynes Society, 2022). An earlier mentality explains Egypt’s radiant gods, soaring pyramids, awe-inspiring pharaohs, and the hallucinatory nature of supernatural visitations.
Brian J. McVeigh, The Psychology of the Bible: Explaining Divine Voices and Visions. (Imprint Academic, 2020). Inspired by Julian Jaynes, this work analyzes the Bible, looking for evidence on how idols, angels, prophets, and supernatural visitations by Yahweh (hallucinations) were once adaptive.
Brian J. McVeigh, The Self-Healing Mind: Harnessing the Active Ingredients of Psychotherapy (Oxford University Press, 2022). This book will appeal to students, practitioners, and researchers interested in how features of therapeutically-focused consciousness repair psyche.
Brian J. McVeigh (ed.) Discussions with Julian Jaynes: The Nature of Consciousness and the Vagaries of Psychology (Nova Publishers, 2016). Interviewed by Brian J. McVeigh, Julian Jaynes expounds upon his theories of consciousness and why mainstream psychology gets so many things wrong.
Brian J. McVeigh, The Psychology of Westworld: When Machines Go Mad (Kindle Edition, 2018). Can machines experience like us? Does technology radically transform human nature? Does Julian Jaynes’s “bicameral mentality” explain consciousness?
Carole Brooks Platt, In Their Right Minds: The Lives and Shared Practices of Poetic Geniuses (Imprint Academic, 2015). Working from Jaynes's proposition that poetry and prophecy originated in the “god-side” of the brain, this book investigates the role of the right hemisphere in the artistic geniuses of Blake, Keats, Hugo, Rilke, Yeats, Merrill, Plath, and Hughes.
Judith Weissman, Of Two Minds: Poets Who Hear Voices (Wesleyan University Press, 1993). An exploration of the intersection of poetry with Julian Jaynes's theory, delving into the creative expressions of poets who grapple with auditory hallucinations.
Member Area
Julian Jaynes Society Member Area
The Julian Jaynes Society Member Area contains a great deal of additional content related to Jaynes's theory.
Online Discussion
Julian Jaynes Society Discussion Forum
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Julian Jaynes Society Facebook Group
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Podcast
Consciousness and the Bicameral Mind: The Julian Jaynes Society Podcast
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Videos
Julian Jaynes Society YouTube Channel
Watch videos related to Julian Jaynes's theory, including lectures and interviews.