Over the past few weeks, you may have noticed that the Julian Jaynes Society website and Discussion Forum were either running unusually slowly or, at times, completely inaccessible. Several of you reached out to alert us to the issue, and we appreciate your vigilance.

At first, we could see that ...

Join us for a 90-minute interview and Q&A session with Brian J. McVeigh on his latest book, The Psychology of Ancient Egypt: Reconstructing A Lost Mentality .

We will be delving into many aspects of ancient Egypt that are relevant to Julian Jaynes’s theory.

This online event will be held on ...

By Marcel Kuijsten

In June 2020, the psychiatrist and blogger Scott Alexander wrote a review of Julian Jaynes’s The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind for his popular “Slate Star Codex” blog. His discussion of Jaynes’s theory contains a number of misconceptions and ...

By Brian J. McVeigh

Scott Alexander begins his review of Jaynes’s The Origin of Consciousness with an odd opening. He describes it as “brilliant” and writes that it only has “two minor flaws”: It purports to explain the origin of consciousness and it “posits a breakdown of the bicameral mind ...

Academic Julian Jaynes postulated that before modern consciousness occurred, the voices ancient Greeks heard in their heads were those of gods.

by Patrick Garner

In 1976 an obscure psychologist from Princeton University in New Jersey published a book titled, The Origin of Consciousness in the ...

By Brian J. McVeigh

In the second chapter of The World behind the World: Consciousness, Free Will, and the Limits of Science , Erik Hoel briefly treats the historical development of what he calls the “intrinsic perspective” (mental experiences). In doing so he brings up the contributions of Julian ...

Thank you, another good post. A key point you raise is the lack of usefulness of consciousness for the kinds of problems we currently look to AI to solve. Jaynesian consciousness is much less useful for AI than I think most people assume. What I wonder about is the eventual emergence of some of the ...

"Julian Jaynes and the Bicameral Mind Theory," an interview with Marcel Kuijsten by Dustin Eirdosh for This View of Life Magazine and The Evolution Institute. For more on Julian Jaynes's theory please visit https://www.julianjaynes.org.

Includes an introduction to Julian Jaynes's theory, an ...

"Julian Jaynes, the Bicameral Mind, and the Origin of Consciousness," an interview with JJS Founder Marcel Kuijsten by Henrik Palmgren for Red Ice Radio. To listen to the full 100-minute interview and many other interviews and lectures on Julian Jaynes's theory, please join the Julian Jaynes Society ...

Part 1 of an eight part Q&A session on our latest book, Conversations on Consciousness and the Bicameral Mind: Interviews with Leading Thinkers on Julian Jaynes's Theory , with Boban Dedovic, Marcel Kuijsten, Brian McVeigh, Bill Rowe, and Jan Sleutels. Hosted by Marcel Kuijsten.

Including ...

Introduction to May 2021 Q&A and Discussion Session on Julian Jaynes's Bicameral Mind Theory with Marcel Kuijsten, Brian J. McVeigh, and John Hainly.

https://youtu.be/k5sX9JrT0uU

Topics discussed in the full video:

"Is the concept of emergent evolution relevant to Julian Jaynes's theory?
"Is ...

Julian Jaynes interviewed on his research into hearing voices by host Steve Martorano on WHDH Boston. Jaynes is also complimented on his book, The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind by a caller.

Recorded on July 14, 1989. Recording was made by placing a tape recorder ...

Marcel Kuijsten talks with Boban Dedović, a masters degree student of ancient languages at the University of Chicago, on his recent article "‘Minds’ in ‘Homer’: A quantitative psycholinguistic comparison of the Iliad and Odyssey," and the evidence for the evolution of mind words in the Iliad and ...

Marcel Kuijsten talks with anthropologist, author, and Jaynesian scholar Brian J. McVeigh about his recent book "The Psychology of the Bible" and the evidence for the bicameral mind and the transition to consciousness in the Old Testament. The interview is followed by Q&A with the event participants ...

Tanya Luhrmann, the Albert Ray Lang Professor of Anthropology at Stanford University, discusses Julian Jaynes's theory of consciousness and bicameral mentality.

Read the entire fascinating discussion "Hearing Voices, Sensed Presences, and Imagined 'Others'," as well as many other interviews on ...