Interesting, I found

So I was getting coffee at BNG the other day with Jenn Spitzer, and we were discussing the Bible, psychology, the idea of a "conscience", and history... and my mind flashed back to something I had read that talked about how the human brain has been evolving over the centuries to what it is today.

What that means is that our frontal lobes, the part we associate with "high intelligence", have been growing and become more interconnected. As I understand it, the right side of the brain is where a lot of our language understanding and speech recognition comes from, and the left is a lot of memory storage and subconcious thought. Now obviously each side does a lot, lot more, but those are the important parts for this discussion.

Way back when, in ancient times, it's theorized that the left and right side of the brain were not connected by nearly as many synapses and neurons as there are now, which means the communication between the two was much more distant. This led to two phenomenons that seem to be recorded in ancient texts: one being that people "heard" voices in their heads and recorded them as out-of-body voices (be it God, gods, devil, an actual separate conscience, etc.) and thus wrote about them. The other being that people were less aware of themselves.

Well, I found out where I had read it, and I'm going to type it out for you to read as well. It's from my Personality Psychology book, written by one of the UNH professors. Cool shtuff.

"It is not entirely clear when the concept of consciousness first emerged in the West. Early biblical and Greek writings appear to ignore the concept of consciousness... Julian Jaynes (1976) suggested the radical hypothesis that people were not fully conscious, in the modern sense of the word, until consciousness evolved some time between the eigth and second centuries B.C.E. Before that there was little sense of identity, and people often mistook their inner voices for other people, or even gods. For example, Amos is one of the earliest books of biblical literature, dating to the eighth century BCE. The book of Amos includes no mention ofa mind, or of thinking or thoughts, or of feeling, or of understanding. Amos describes himself minimally, as a shepherd, a "gatherer of sycamore fruit." Nor, in a sense, does Amos even speak. He pronounces, and after each prounouncement announces, "Thus speaks the Lord!" Amaziah, the priest of Bethel, reported that Amos was raising a conspiracy against Israel. Amaziah tells Amos directly to leave the land: "Get out, you seer! Go back to the land of Judah." In response, Amos answers in third person, saying he is acting on the basis of another's commands:

I was neither a prophet nor a prophet's son, but I was a shepherd, and I also took care of
sycamore-fig trees. But the Lord took me from tending the flock and said to me, "Go,
prophesy to my people Israel." Now then, hear the word of the LORD. (Amos 7:10-12)

There is little sense of personal awareness in this passage and others like it. By contrast, in the book of Ecclesiastes, dating from the second century BCE, we see personality in al of its introspective grandeur. The author of Ecclesiastes wants to share his knowledge and teach it to others:

I thought to myself, "Look, I have grown and increased in wisdom more than anyone who
has ruled over Jerusalem before me; I have experienced much of wisdom and knowledge."
Then I applied myself to the understanding of wisdom, and also of madness and folly, but I
learned that this, too, is a chasing after the wind. For with much wisdom comes much
sorrow; the more knowledge, the more grief.
I thought in my heard, "Come now, I will test you with pleasure to find out what is good."
But that also proved to be meaningless... I wanted to see what was worthwhile for men to do
under heaven during the few days of their lives. (Ecclesiastes 2:1-3)

The contrast between the eighth-century BCE Amos and the second-century Ecclesiastes could not be more striking. Here, finally, is a modern-seeming personality talking to us. This same transistion to consciousness appears in the literary works of the ancient Greeks, and of other peoples of the Middle East, the Mediterranean, and elsewhere."

I don't know about you, but I found that all to be interesting to think about. Again, it's just a theory, with little way to prove or disprove it. But hey, it certainly seems plausible.

Sorry if this post was too long for you to read. I liked it though.

Buh-bye.

~Sean