trodden on – and, looking at these stones, this painting, this ring,
you shrink to nothing, lose all your significance. And then you
shake yourself – and piece by piece recover it (Dessaix, 2001:97-
98).I ndeed, scientific investigations into the phenomenon of consciousness have
demonstrated that people experience far more than their consciousness perceives;
that they interact far more with the world around them and with each other than
their consciousness thinks they do, and that the control of actions that
consciousness feels it exercises is an illusion (Norretranders, 1991:ix). I n short,
consciousness plays a much smaller role in human affairs than Western culture has
tended to believe. The bipolar continuum is really the nature of consciousness,
oscillating backwards and forwards, being in two minds simultaneously, that of
egoic consciousness and that of the bicameral mind of participation mystique.
I t is interesting to note at this point that the writer Tom Keneally shows
quite an extraordinary understanding of the nature of these different
consciousnesses. Keneally intimates that remnants of natural thinking or the mental
processes of the participation mystique are embedded in the modern evolved
consciousness of every individual. I n some individuals it may have evolved further
and is now manifested as what is perceived as shamanic states of consciousness or
MLC. I n his response to the research questions, Keneally spoke of a mind that
predated specialization, which contained the entire mythic and imaginative history
of humankind:
I just believe that all the equipment we need to be everyone else
is laid down in that noosphere ... I think of it existing both
spiritually and biologically, if there is any difference between those
two. And being the part of existence necessary to art ... to be the
sort of strong man - political leader ... you know, to be John
Howard in other words, it’s most convenient if that part of the
brain is totally cemented over. I t can’t be eradicated but attempts
are made by such people to obliterate it because in it lies
potentially an overwhelming empathy with, you know, universal
empathy. This is why writers bring this stuff into play all the time,
because they are involved in crossing over the categories, because
they contain all the archetypes in themselves and are conscious of
that even if they’re not conscious of how these archetypes will
play when they begin a novel.
Thomas Keneally has averred exactly what Jaynes suggested, namely, that
religions and governments are rooted in [ the remnants of] the non-conscious
bicameral mind that is obedient to the voices of external authorities, obedient to the
voice of God, gods, rulers, and leaders and that in spite of egoic consciousness