also points out that today, as throughout history, a symptomatic cure for demon-
possessed people involves exorcising rituals that enable a more powerful authority
or god to replace the authority of the demon. The New Testament, for example,
shows that Jesus and his disciples became effective exorcists by substituting one
authority (their god) for another (another god or demon). Despite religion,
conscious minds caused the gradual shifts from governments of gods to
governments of human individuals and from divine laws to secular laws.
Jaynes provides support to my thesis in that he also believes that artistic
inspiration and poetic reverie are in a sense atavistic. Thus, the chanting cadence
of poetry and the rhythmic beat of music are also rooted in the bicameral mentality.
I n ancient writings, the hallucinated voices of the gods were always in poetic verse,
usually in dactylic hexameter and sometimes in rhyme or alliteration, all
characteristic of right brain functioning. The oracles and prophets also spoke in
verse and even today, schizophrenics often speak in verse when they hallucinate.
Poetry and chants can have commanding beats and rhythms that can effectively
block or alter consciousness. Poetry, of course, has always been identified as the
language of the gods; it is the language of the artistic, right-hemisphere section of
the brain. Plato recognized poetry as a divine madness. Poetry and songs also
often have an abruptly changing or a discontinuous pitch whereas normal speech
has a smoothly changing pitch. Jaynes demonstrates that reciting poetry, singing,
and playing music are right-brain functions, while speaking is a left-brain function.
That is why people with speech impediments can often sing, chant, or recite poetry
with flawless clarity. Conversely, almost anyone trying to sing a conversation will
find their words quickly deteriorating into a mass of nonsensical or inarticulate
clichés.
Because listening to music and poetry is a right-brain function, music,
poetry, or chants that project authority with loud or rhythmic beats can suppress
left-brain functions to temporarily relieve anxiety or a painfully troubled
consciousness; the same poetic reverie that Bachelard speaks of:
Reverie is commonly classified among the phenomena of psyche
détente. I t is lived out in relaxed time which has no linking force.
Since it functions with inattention, it is often without memory. I t
is a flight from out of the real that does not always find a
consistent unreal world. By following the path of reverie ...
consciousness relaxes and wanders and consequently becomes
clouded ... in the realm of language and more precisely poetic
language ... consciousness creates and lives the poetic image
(Bachelard, 1960:5).
ron
(Ron)
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