Did Religions Arise From Our Misunderstanding of Human Consciousness? | HowStuffWorks

• ""The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind.” He posits that human consciousness is only about 3,000 years old. Before humans mastered language— meaning we understood metaphors, comparisons and differences of perspective — we didn’t have what we recognize today as basic consciousness, or the ability to self-reflect. Instead, Jayne says, thoughts occurred to us and we obeyed the thoughts without question, believing that we were receiving orders from some higher authority.” ⤴️
• “Characters in the earlier “Iliad” had no introspection, no tendency to ask why; the heroes in the story were told what to do, and simply did it. Later, in the “Odyssey,” critical thinking is apparent in the story, with Odysseus and other characters reflecting on their actions and the consequences of doing them.” ⤴️
• “Jaynes feels that this accounts for the rise of organized religions: Humans felt the need for righteous interpreters to speak to and for the gods, since we could no longer do it ourselves.” ⤴️
• “When the left side of the brain talks to the right side, it presents information as an auditory hallucination, making us think we hear a little voice telling us what to do.” ⤴️
• “this idea is also ethnocentric, based entirely on the formation of the English language.” ⤴️
• “how does schizophrenia fit into this theory?” ⤴️