Thoughts On Evolutions

I can’t remember the last time that I read a book about consciousness that had such a mindfuck effect on me. Here are some half-baked thoughts on Julian Jayne’s bicameral mind until I’ve gathered some diagrams to demonstrate what I really want to say. I just have to start.

The Other Half: A Jungian and Alchemical Perspective

According to William James, the “integrated nature”, or sudden and spontaneous religious and metaphysical conversions represent an ontological problem because of the seemingly missing causal link—what may lead to such a spontaneous change—unlike in gradual and purposeful practices such as long-term and dedicated meditation practice. Energy flow, neural annealing, attention field lines and field symmetrification might offer some explanatory power for this ongoing ontological psychospiritual issue. Let’s have a look at some of the background.

Jungian psychonalyst James Hollis, in his book “In Search of the Magical Other: Project Eden,” delves into the elusive quest for “a man’s other half.” This concept resonates deeply with themes found in Jungian psychology and alchemy, Mysterium Coniunctionis, or much older ideas, such as Hieros Gamos, offering a rich source of meaning that explores the integration of the self, collapse of dualities, and our search for wholeness.

Alchemy, often considered a precursor to modern chemistry, was deeply intertwined with spiritual and psychological symbolism. Alchemists sought the Philosopher’s Stone, a legendary substance believed to transmute base metals into gold and grant immortality. However, beyond its literal interpretation, the Philosopher’s Stone symbolizes the ultimate goal of personal and spiritual transformation.

The process of finding “man’s other half” parallels the alchemist’s journey to create the Philosopher’s Stone. This journey involves several stages, each representing a different phase of inner transformation: nigredo (blackening), albedo (whitening), citrinitas (yellowing), and rubedo (reddening). These stages symbolize the dissolution of the ego, purification of the soul, and awakening of insight.

In Jungian psychology, the idea of “man’s other half” is closely related to the concepts of the anima and animus. Carl Jung posited that within every man exists an inner feminine counterpart, the anima, and within every woman, an inner masculine counterpart, the animus. Theoretically, for a man, the anima represents his true inner self, his soul-image. It is often personified in dreams and fantasies as a female figure and is a key to his emotional life. Conversely, the animus in a woman is personified as a male figure, symbolizing her inner strength and rationality. The journey of integrating these inner figures is central to achieving psychological wholeness. I believe that in this century we’ll be able to tackle this from physics side. Nondual physics may be around the corner.

Hollis’s notion of searching for man’s other half can be likened to the alchemical process of uniting the opposites (the masculine and feminine, conscious and unconscious) to achieve the Philosopher’s Stone. This union, or “coniunctio,” is the sacred marriage of the “alchemical king and queen,” representing the harmonious integration of all aspects of the self. Sacred or divine marriage is a real emergent phenomenon where the perceived abolition of incompleteness happens on a spiritual plane due to “meeting of The One”, which is another ontological issue that doesn’t have to be an issue. I think what we’re meeting is a Qualia. I’m a dual aspect monist. Hear me out.

The quest for man’s other half, as articulated by Hollis, is a profound journey of self-discovery and self-integration. This journey requires courage, introspection, and a willingness to face the unknown aspects of ourselves. From a Jungian perspective, this quest is essential for individuation, the process by which a person becomes a whole, integrated individual. Individuation is not about becoming perfect but about becoming complete. It involves integrating the anima or animus, the shadow (the repressed and often negative parts of ourselves), and the persona (the social mask we wear) into a cohesive self.

In alchemical terms, achieving phenomenal completeness is akin to the Great Work (Magnum Opus), the spiritual endeavor to transform the base elements of our psyche into the gold of self-realization. The search for man’s other half, therefore, is not just a search for a romantic partner or external fulfillment but a deeper, inner journey toward psychological and spiritual wholeness. If these halves are predetermined or not depends on your school of thought, but, for instance, Plato thought that they are.

Basically, to get back to the motivation for this post, In “The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind” Julian Jaynes makes a claim that there was a time when people were hallucinating the voices of their gods. As they slowly got into trade, their attention field lines changed and civilizations as they conceived them collapsed. The man was left alone, with bulging left hemisphere, and incomplete.

Someone to Complete Us: Vestiges of the Bicameral Mind

From the neuroscience perspective, Jaynes suggests that the involuntary inhibition of the temporal lobe of the right hemisphere made the gods disappear from Earth. What does he mean? We may follow his cues and say that with the beginning of trade, the attentional shift in the physical field of consciousness became more regulated by the values of the left hemisphere. This is important because the right temporal lobe, heavily involved in processing auditory information and language, often perceived as “the other” in the double-subject fallacy, turned off! The gods have left the building.

They left the shrine, actually. The chair is empty and the ruler is on his knees for the voice to come back. He needs directions and God from the right temporal lobe to tell him what to do. What if the search for a man’s other half is quite literally the search for a Supreme Idea of The One who will stimulate their complementary temporal lobe (the other half) and awaken the sleeping guiding voices of love and wisdom?

Furthermore, if Plato was on the right track by suggesting that everyone is “searching for their other half,” maybe that’s the cultural background of his view, hiding right there in the bicameral mind. Maybe what we are searching for is actually that missing fundamental frequency that will re-establish the lost connection between the two hemispheres. (I’ll refer more to these physical aspects in Part II)

In conclusion, the change hypothesized by Jaynes didn’t have to happen in the brain through long years of evolution but rather in the field of consciousness through directing our attention (wave modulation) to different values. The meaning infrastructure changed within the field itself.

If true, the power of directing attention toward the right cause might just help us save the planet from adult children competing for attention. If the change comes with the cost of ruining this type of infrastructure, I’m not sure I’d vote against a radical attentional reform. But that’s also a topic for another time.

Thank you for reading!

To be continued.