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Politics : Should God be replaced? -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Solon who wrote (7582)	6/20/2001 9:18:24 AM
From: epicure	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 28931

I so totally disagree with that. Not only do I think consciousness probably evolved much earlier that Mr. Jaynes does, I think some animals (maybe all animals) are conscious. There is no way to "discover" that people didn't have consciousness 3000 years ago. You can make that hypothesis, but I think it is utterly ridiculous. The hallucinations Jaynes talks about I think is due to wiring, and poor diet- as scientists are finding out, we are wired for mystical experience. ANY mystical experience. And stress is an accelerant for the mystical wiring- as we all know. "Vision quests" start with fasting, monks and nuns fast, holy ascetics fast- because it makes your brain go into overdrive with the mystical chemicals, to induce a state where you won't feel the pain of your body, Duh. But of course mystical people aren't going to like that very much. Since we are all unique some of us are less wired for it. Like me. Mystical experience has adaptive value, probably, or there wouldn't be so many people wired for it. I have always argued that it would be difficult to build a society with a lot of individualists like myself- because the constant questioning, and disrespect for authority, would slow everything down. You'd want a few of us, for new ideas, but not so many you bogged down the great leap forward. (that's a joke- I don't actually think the Chinese "great Leap forward" was actually great , or a leap, well...maybe a leap backwards). In a mature society people without mysticism, without collective group think, can flourish.