Julian Jaynes Society Wiki

The implications of Jaynes’s ideas are far-ranging. Besides ancient history and the origins of religion, his theories help us understand neuroscience, evolutionary psychology, neuroplasticity, anomalous psychological behavior (e.g., hypnosis and spirit possession), linguistics, metaphor, philosophy (mind‒body dualism), art and aesthetics, the dynamics of modern politics, counseling, psychotherapy, the interface of psychology with technology, and the future of the ever-changing human psyche.

Vestiges of Bicameral Mentality

Mainstream psychology lacks a coherent theory that accounts for spirit possession, speaking in tongues, channeling, hypnosis, imaginary childhood playmates, and schizophrenic hallucinations.

There is no clear evidence that spirit possession existed in preconscious times. In other words in the bicameral age no supernatural entity speaks “through” a person. Given that possession is global and ubiquitous since the first millennium BCE, it is a good question why this is the case.

Those controlled and forced to mouth the messages of Yahweh—the Old Testament prophets—are famous examples of possession behavior. The prophets, central to the Old Testament, were chosen by Yahweh. Only they could commune directly with the divine and experience what we call audiovisual hallucinations. Their behavior―shouting and bellowing the admonishments and rebukes of Yahweh―indicate a transition. By around 400 BCE they had lost their prominent place in society.

Possession is not a return to bicameral mentality, though these behaviors are most likely related. Spirit possession appears to be a derivative of bicamerality and its contours follow the General Bicameral Paradigm. The collective cognitive imperatives, expectancies, and the rituals of induction resulted in possession behavior for which the right hemisphere―the god-side―was responsible.

Jaynes believed that the hallucinations of bicamerality and the speech of prophets and the possessed are related for the following reasons: (1) they serve the same social function; (2) They yield similar communications of authorization; and (3) the early history of oracles strongly suggests that possession is a gradual outgrowth from the hallucinations of gods.

Jaynes conceded that possession behavior calls into question his neurological model of bicamerality. However, possession does not completely jeopardize his arguments. In modern times those “possessed” by spirits are probably not engaging right hemispheric speech centers for the articulated speech. More likely, while hallucinations were organized and heard from the right hemisphere in the bicameral mind, in modern possession, articulated speech is a left hemisphere production but controlled by the right hemisphere. So what corresponds to Wernicke's area on the right hemisphere is using the left hemisphere’s Broca's area. Such cross control causes trancing and depersonalization.

It is clear that normal hemispheric dominance relations are disturbed, so that the right hemisphere is more active than it is normally. Perhaps the early training of the oracle and induction procedures resulted in a higher ratio of right hemispheric activity in relation to the left. Perhaps this accounts for the contorted features and the rapid, involuntary, oscillatory motion of the eyeball (nystagmic eyes), i.e., right hemisphere interference or release from inhibition by the left hemisphere.