The Bicameral Mind

[beyond_godlike]

At one time, human nature was split in two, an executive part called a god, and a follower part called a man. Neither part was Consciously aware.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bicameralism_(psychology)
I just found this theory a few hours ago and it's conclusions are extremely thought-provoking and ground-breaking. This theory is highly relevant to the goal of ANUS as it seems that bicameral minds are reemerging. I haven't read any actual books on the topic, so I'm a bit weary of how accurate the interpretations of the books are on the wikipedia page. Wikipedia is known for its gross oversimplifications and misinterpretations, intentional of otherwise. At least, the page has the following quote.

"It is one of those books that is either complete rubbish or a work of consummate genius, nothing in between! Probably the former, but I'm hedging my bets."

After finding out about this theory, I did some more reading and found this study where the connections in between the two hemispheres of the brain are severed. Only the brain stem connects the two. I'm not a neurologist, so I don't know how analogous this experiment is to the bicameral mind. I'm not even sure if these studies give credence or not to the bicameral mind theory.

By far the most dramatic finding of the early tests was the total failure of the right cerebral cortex on its own to express itself in speech. It could not utter words to explain its awareness or knowledge.

In general only the left hemisphere could speak, write, or calculate.

The tests of Zaidel and Sperry have shown that both hemispheres of commissurotomy patients have awareness of themselves as persons and a strong sense of the social and political value, or meaning, of pictures or objects.

http://www.answers.com/topic/split-brain-and-the-mind

[Conservationist]

Seems to me it's the same body/mind division the Hindus tell us about.

The personality emerges from the process of being aware; however, the personality cannot conceptualize itself as something that is itself a product of the calculations of a mind. It needs to think it's a finite thing that exists. So a division between PERSONALITY and MIND emerges.

Because personality is most similar to things of an absolute nature of personality, we project it into God or gods. We also project it into other personalities, which is the formation of "crowdism."

Because our personality does not control our mind, we project it into physical reality and surmise it's like nature: lawless, chaotic, something we can't CONTROL.