The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind Audiobook By Julian Jaynes cover art

The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind

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The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind

By: Julian Jaynes
Narrated by: James Patrick Cronin
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At the heart of this classic, seminal book is Julian Jaynes' still-controversial thesis that human consciousness did not begin far back in animal evolution but instead is a learned process that came about only 3,000 years ago and is still developing. The implications of this revolutionary scientific paradigm extend into virtually every aspect of our psychology, our history and culture, our religion - and indeed our future.

©1976, 1990 Julian Jaynes (P)2015 Audible, Inc. Anatomy & Physiology Biological Sciences Consciousness & Thought Philosophy Science Social Sciences Sociology Thought-Provoking Consciousness
Thought-provoking Theory • Revolutionary Ideas • Expressive Tones • Eloquent Writing • Comprehensive Research
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What made the experience of listening to The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind the most enjoyable?

Hearing "new" ideas about the origin of consciousness, and how the past can help explain current psychological problems.

What was the most compelling aspect of this narrative?

Solid delivery

What does James Patrick Cronin bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

The voice of a god. I must go and make a shrine to him.

If you were to make a film of this book, what would the tag line be?

You've never been conscious of your consciousness like this before.

Great concept!

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It's rare that I find a book which really gives me completely new ideas about the world. This is definitely a book that makes you pounder your experience.

Very thought provoking book!

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I was very skeptical about the thesis proposed in this book. After reading it, I am utterly impressed by the detailed analysis and evidence presented by Jaynes.

I cannot say that I agree with every assertion, but I credit Jaynes with shedding new light on concepts I have been exploring.

I feel this book will offer so much every time I read it (which will be many I’m sure).

I highly recommend this book.

Complicated Yet Brilliant

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It is clearly an excellent book. The audible edition is even better due to the narrator's charisma. I believe certain things may have changed in the interim for example it may be less right-left hemispheric interaction and more frontal lobe insula involvement. But for the pre fMRI era, it is an astonishing work. The universality of the theory in other cultures is complex - some cultures may still be in bicameral mind - consciousness transition. Even more comparison of Greek - Hebrew mythology is a kind of far stretch hypothesis since medieval Europeans might have been more bicameral minded than Greeks in 100 AC.

Bicameral mind

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The book gives us great insights but it is sometimes too dense for an audiobook

Great insights

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Any additional comments?

This book was highly referenced in the first season of HBO’s Westworld, so, naturally, I had to read it given the fact that that show is probably one of the greatest shows on television of all time...until they jump the shark...please don’t Jump the Shark!
I can’t say I agree with all the concepts presented within this book but I found the book to be quite informative regarding the possible source of that non-corporeal voice-in-our-heads that the ancients called “god.”

Westworld brought me here!

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This opened my eyes to a completely different way of thinking about God. What a perspective shifting book!

Mind blowing!

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Fascinating neurophilosophical theory of the minds of the ancients, complementing Jungian archetypes, begging the question of the transpersonal. If you're interested in that, then I think you will appreciate this book as it is original and the content is not covered in any other audiobook as far as I know. There are excellent paper and e-books by scholars that expand on it, but they usually assume you've already read this one.

origins of consciousness, not sentience

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This may be the best book Audible has to offer. I can't believe it is not on everyone's summer beach read list, and Ken Burns hasn't turned it into a series. Vivid and compelling. I will re read several times.

Great reading, amazing book.

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An intriguing hypothesis for the origin of consciousness. The author makes some interesting points from which the most interesting, for me, is that consciousness emerges from language. The narration is very good.

An intriguing hypothesis for consciousness

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