I just spent the last couple of days reading articles on this subject and now I'm afraid I'm going to start hearing voices.  I mean, other than the voices I already hear.

Weirdly enough, the whole thing started when I downloaded some old issues of Tank Girl for the purposes of a nice, violent trip through nostalgia-land and one of them had a scene with an aborigine shaman making reference to Julian Jaynes...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julian_Jaynes

And his infamous 1976 book, "The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind":

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Origin_of_Consciousness_in_the_Breakdown_of_the_Bicameral_Mind

...and the birth of the theory of bicameralism, "a hypothesis which argues that the human brain once assumed a state known as a bicameral mind in which cognitive functions are divided between one part of the brain which appears to be "speaking", and a second part which listens and obeys."

"a bicameral mentality, that is to say a mental state in which there are two distinct sections of consciousness, was the normal and ubiquitous state of the human mind as recently as 3000 years ago. He used governmental bicameralism to metaphorically describe such a state, in which the experiences and memories of the right hemisphere of the brain are transmitted to the left hemisphere via auditory hallucinations. This mental model was replaced by the conscious mode of thought, which Jaynes argues is grounded in the acquisition of metaphorical language. The idea that language is a necessary component of subjective consciousness and more abstract forms of thinking has been gaining acceptance in recent years, with proponents such as Daniel Dennett, William H. Calvin, Merlin Donald, John Limber, Howard Margolis, and Jose Luis Bermudez."


So basically, the theory is that at the inception of humanity, our consciousness was split into two halves: the half that did shit, and the half that told the other half what the fuck to do through auditory hallucinations, vis a vis "hearing voices".  Sounds whackadoo, I'm sure, except for the fact that:

"In the late 1990s, Jaynes's ideas received renewed attention as brain imaging technology confirmed many of his early predictions.[10][11]. A 2007 book titled Reflections on the Dawn of Consciousness: Julian Jaynes's Bicameral Mind Theory Revisited contains several of Jaynes's essays along with chapters by scholars from a variety of disciplines expanding on his ideas."

So now they've possibly found evidence with their hi-tech raygun brain scanners that he might have been right in the first place.  this whole thing could give new light to SO many things, like schizophrenia, religious nutjobs that think God is talking to them, and people like Yuri Geller, John Edward, and George W Bush.

So, thoughts?

It's over, Johnny. IT'S OVER!

It's not over 'till it's over.

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WELCOME BACK, ANTEATER!

it's an interesting theory. I'm pretty sure the greeks had metaphors though so maybe the timeline is a little out

I talk to myself all the time, but I rarely listen.

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Ill eat ur ants buddy