"Weirdly [...] the voices she hears are of a Christian-like "God"."
Not so weird if you get the causality around the right way. That such visions caused the idea of God is a much more parsimonious explanation than the reverse.
reply
....
That's so very, very true from what I can tell. It actually feels like a precursor to modern day thought; like a more basic/basal form of though/reasoning.
In a way it's more comprehensive than normal thought but it's also fundamentally incompatible with the current style of thinking though, because it brings us a much greater degree of being able to manipulate reality.
That reminds me I really still need to read the bicameral mind book...
Do read it. The first 30-40 pages feel a bit directionless and even annoying as you get used to Jaynes' authorial tone, but once it gets going it's a great read. It's tricky to falsify and I'm not sure if he meets the threshold of explaining the origin of consciousness, but even if he's wrong it's a great guide to the origins of culture.
In the schizophrenic consciousness God is very similar to the scientific method for today's consciousness: it's the most obvious and useful representation for reality.
Basically; if you integrate everything into a coherent worldview as a schizophrenic then you arrive at one of the gods; whether it's the teachings of Allah, Buddha or Jahweh.
It's essentially about defining your 'self' as 'the universe / all that is' and then following that path to it's eventual conclusion.
"Weirdly [...] the voices she hears are of a Christian-like "God"."
Not so weird if you get the causality around the right way. That such visions caused the idea of God is a much more parsimonious explanation than the reverse. reply
....
That's so very, very true from what I can tell. It actually feels like a precursor to modern day thought; like a more basic/basal form of though/reasoning.
In a way it's more comprehensive than normal thought but it's also fundamentally incompatible with the current style of thinking though, because it brings us a much greater degree of being able to manipulate reality.
That reminds me I really still need to read the bicameral mind book...