~ From a Bicameral to a Tricameral Consciousness ~
(The Study of Threes)
http://threesology.org
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The usage of the term "vestigial" used on the previous page may be difficult to grasp for some readers unless I provide at least one easily identified example of what is meant by the word vestigial. As such, let me provide the widely known reference to the human body part called the appendix which many, including myself, have had removed with no seemingly ill-effect to body functioning (even though some may suspect that there is a type of phantom limb phenomena still in effect).
Identifying some of the vestigial changes is not too difficult and are mentioned in Julian Jaynes' book, with respect to an overlapping substitution of a god's word emanating from an icon, statue, or Pharaoh/King, etc., instead of being represented by some indistinct presence, shadow, movement in nature, etc... This activity of super-imposing (substituting) an ancient view on a socially acceptable reference in one's own time is clearly evident in those who participate in following "The Word" of someone like Mohammed, Jesus, Hitler, Buddha, Jim Jones, various singers, prophets, soothsayers, "magi" (in the ancient pre-Christian sense), teachers, politicians, judges, sales people, "authority figures," Team captains, Military commanders, seance' administrators (who frequently feign a trance in order to be a conduit for "The Word" of a dead person), etc... And with such an interpretation must come the attendant position of stating that the Bicameral Mind is still active today, albeit in modernized forms, and was not completely displaced by the advent of a mental perspective that many refer to as consciousness, but that I refer to as acknowledged awareness, with the development of a consciously acknowledged awareness yet to come.
One of these vestigial forms is, I believe, Jurisprudence. There are so many laws and judicial practices that are clearly out-of-step with an intent of finding the unbiased truth, (because of all the plea-bargaining, evidence suppression, misuse/abuse/disregard for Miranda rights, jury stacking, media manipulation, behind the scenes dealings, etc.,) "truth" is being used as a label to describe a court's outcome regardless of actual innocence or guilt. Whereas early man may have experienced a repeating sound "word" upon which personal complimentary, condemnatory, or instructive "god commands" were felt to be intimated, the present day repetitive phrase of:
This is like some numinous entity that is being individually defined to serve a particular ulterior purpose, just as the presence of a Bicameral minded person's god was used for a particularly individualized end result. In the case of the Bicameral person, "individuality" was frequently inter-meshed with group behavior, whereas today, individuality is dictated by many influences involving personal prestige, monetary compensation, strategic social positioning, etc...
3-patterned formula of American Justice system court ("sport") rooms as it is now practiced in the 21st Century:- Primary:Procedure- How the game is played and must be played...
Recall the old adage: "It's not whether you win or lose but how you play the game." - Secondary:
Facts- Interpretations/analysis of material (evidence) must conform to and confirm procedure or be labeled as inadmissible.
- Tertiary:
Truth- Must conform to and confirm interpretations (facts) or be disregarded as irrelevant to the overall game. Which in many cases is arbitrarily used to justify the court's right to assess fines in order to acquire revenue that in one way or another is linked to its own self-perpetuation; even though "truth" is a standard that the justice system was initially predicated on and is promoted to the general public for their continued acceptance of an [antiquated] judicial system that requires (enforces) dependency on it.)
It is a system of checks and balances with a primary goal of perpetuating its own existence irrespective of secondary and tertiary matters... just like the U.S. government, where such terms as altruism, magnanimity, and wisdom are used as auxiliary methods of linguistic manipulation when various types of threats, scare tactics (terrorism/ disease/energy shortages, etc.), intimidation, lies, double-crosses, double-dealing, back-stabbing, military-sanctioned-murder, "accidental" (collateral) killing, coercion, incarceration ("detainment"), financial ruin or brow-beating forms of "encouragement" (to-do-as-I-say-but-not-as-I-do), do not work.
In making a further comparative assessment between the ancient and modern forms of a Bicameral Mentality, let us perform a sort of substitution with the old "WORD" phrase from John 1:1 and newer courtroom "TRUTH" phrase:
| Actual | Substitution |
| In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was (a) God |
In the beginning was the Truth, and the Truth was with God, and the Truth was (a) God |
| To Tell the Truth- The Whole Truth- and Nothing but The Truth |
To Tell the Word- The Whole Word- and Nothing but The Word |
While some readers will quickly see the parallel forms of a dichotomous Bicameral mindset attempting to emerge into a trichotomous perspective through repetition, others may not, and will need another parallel reference. For some, it is not in their nature to make the immediate psychic connection with the duality of repetition presented in this format with the often-used formulas of duality (dichotomy) used in a courtroom setting in which a judge or lawyer wants to force a jury (or judge) into a one-sided perspective by asking polarized questions requiring a yes or no, this or that, true or false response. In other words, modern courtroom proceedings are based on a (dichotomous) Bicameral Mindset and not a (trichotomous) form of logic. It is like the binomial (0,s and 1,s... off/on) underlying present-day computer software programming, which is not conscious (like Bicameral Man) in a human biological sense, while in contrast, much of our underlying physiological architecture is based on a trinomial formula such as triplet microtubules, DNA's triplet coding system, and the very many triadic structures in physiology.
For examples of triadic structures in physiology:With respect to the word, language, speech trio of considerations and the link to a god-like presence, take a look at the following paragraph:
...The recognition that man played a part in creation was not necessarily associated with the sex act. An early concept recognized that God the creator breathed into the nostrils the breath of life and man became a living soul.1 Pythagoras was of opinion that seed constituted "vapour". Ra, the Egyptian sun-god, was considered to possess the power of creating by thought, or breath, or speech, in the shape of a command. The original supreme god of the Hindus was termed "the Breathing Soul".
1Genesis ii. 7.
Page 35, Phallic Worship (A History of Sex & Sexual Rites), George Ryley Scott, ©1966, First published by Luxor Press, London. ISBN 1 85958 195 1.
[This reference to "breath" with or without denoting "soul," may be an indication when the human mind began to make a correlation between one's breathing and life...H.O.B.]--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
In presenting another comparison with the usage of the notion of "word" in a spiritual context, we need to make the connection with the usage of the label "logos," simply for the purpose of a generalized identification. The reason for this is that the label "logos" is frequently used by some writers when speaking of "The Word" and its attendant association with meditation. Some forms of Meditation, as many readers are surely aware, are sometimes accompanied with a vocalized chant, hum, or song-like expression.
In terms of a Bicameral frame of mind, the alphabetized label know as "Word" is interchangeable:Additionally, we might venture to include the once popularized primal scream therapy as an alternative form of getting in touch with one's basic inner "soul," through the usage of a repetitive sound to awaken a form of personalized consciousness that is thought to be suppressed by the various forms of indoctrination "to be civilized" (in a sense, to be domesticated) in our present era.
The above two highlighted phrases which interchange the words truth/word, are three-patterned repetitions that are not (in their own context) necessarily viewed as meditative chants uttered in succession by a group of people in a collective effort to obtain some form of personalized spiritual cleansing or enlightenment, though they are used in specific contexts that suggests a usage of such a repetition will provide some degree of superior form, whereas a singular vocal utterance thereof would not. For example, a residual influence of a Bicameral mindset to create the presence of a god-like quality associated with the repetition of a sound, (word, voice), is evident in the usage of a repetitive "truth" measure that forms a semblance of a chant that is heard over and over.
The numerical value of "three" repetitions has achieved a modernized quality of an ideal (that may be a substitute for an identification with a concept of a religious trinity), though the ideal quantity of repetitions for ancient Bicameral Man may have been less or more than three, if indeed there were such repetitions and not merely a conglomeration of a variety of voice-sounds. While the use of (three?) repetition(s) (called a "hook" in modern song writing) is said to enhance a song's ability of being memorized (and thus repeated,) a single word or phrase has also been used in various contexts as being representative of some superior quality.
Take for example the usage of a word or phrase for magical incantations, philosophical meditations, intimate conversations, political debates, etc... The so-called "power" of knowing (and expressing) a certain word or phrase is evident in the old Rumpelstiltskin fairy tale in which a character has three days to figure out his name. Hence, the (eventually acquired) knowledge of his name gave the other person the power over him and his power over them to do his bidding. Such "power plays" occur on a daily basis in the form of specialized workplace jargon. Such a specialized jargon is our present-day so called Truth, which is customarily expressed with one or more words.
With respect to the influence of a repetitive (three-patterned) sound towards inducing a meditative (hallucinatory-like) mental state that might said to be somewhat comparable to that trance-like state of early Bicameral people, it is of interest to note that there are other types of three-patterned formulas that have been used:
It has been indicated that the neophyte of the Ephesian mysteries had to grasp the meaning of the "logos" (Word), that this world-creating Word revealed itself concretely through its 3-fold intonation of the vowels: I~ O~ A, vowels which were the subject of meditation.
It is important to observe that in the Middle Ages there was a Christian equivalent which was commonly used as a symbol of the "WORD." This was the Siglum which was quite wrongly compared with the words 'Ave Maria'. In fact, this Siglum, pronounced in Latin with a sound similar to the Sanskrit AUM, meant "Alpha & Omega," 'the beginning and the end' (Revelation 21:6), and hence the evolution and involution of the cycle of manifestation. The Siglum gains added significance by its frequent association in medieval iconography with the Swastika, an emblem of the cyclical evolution of manifestation expanding from its immovable primeval center.
 Om, in Hinduism and other religions chiefly of India, a sacred syllable that is considered to be the greatest of all the mantras, or sacred formulas. The symbol Om is composed of the three sounds A-U-M (in Sanskrit, the vowels A and U coalesce to become O). Om is uttered at the beginning and end of Hindu Prayers~ Chants~ Meditations, and is freely used in Buddhist and Jaina ritual also. From the 6th century, the written symbol designating the sound is used to mark the beginning of a text in a manuscript or an inscription. The syllable is discussed in a number of the upanishads, which are the texts of philosophical speculation, and it forms the entire subject matter of one, the Mandukya. It is used in the practice of yoga and is related to techniques of auditory meditation. In the puranas the syllable is put to sectarian use; thus the saiva mark the lingam, or sign of Siva, with the symbol for Om, whereas the vaishnava identify the three sounds as referring to a trinity composed of Vishnu, his wife Sri, and the Worshipper. A - U - M are said to represent several important triads: 3 major Hindu gods: Brahma~ Vishnu~ Siva3 sacred vedic scriptures: Rg~ Yajur~ Sama 3 powers: Action~ Knowledge~ Will 3 time periods: Dawn~ Noonday~ Dusk 3 manifested states: Gross~ Shapeless~ Subtle 3 elements: Fire (agni)~ Sun (aditya)~ Wind (vayu) 3 states of being: A. Wakefulness (jagaritsa-sthanta, corresponding to Vaishvanara). B. Dream (svapna-sthana, corresponding to Taijasa). C. Deep Sleep (sushupta-sthana, corresponding to Prajna). 3 worlds: Earth (Bhu)~ Heaven (Svar)~ Atmosphere (Bhuvas) 3 modalities or guna: Expansive (rajas)~ Cohesive or Ascendant (sattva)~ Destructive or Descendant (tamas) etc... thus: Om mystically embodies the essence of the entire universe. OM is linguistically represented in such words as omnipresent, omnipotent, omniscient, Amen (ahh-m--en), omnivorous, omnibus, omega (as in Alpha and Omega) etc., and perhaps even ominous, omelet, and the 17th & 18th century European card game called ombré. |
As humanity's connection with a Bicameral mindset retreats further from substituted forms of expression, laws, social structure, educational directives, technology, etc., will change accordingly. Yet many readers may insist upon taking the view that such a change will take place gradually over thousands of years, and not entertain the thought that it may occur abruptly in some people who "wake up one morning" and find themselves feeling that they no longer belong in their day and age, because they see the world quite differently from friends, relatives, family, co-workers, neighbors, etc... Some may try to suppress such an acknowledgment by way of drugs, alcohol, participating in extreme activities, self hypnosis, suppressive self-denial, etc., while others may be fortunate enough to discover there are others who are like-minded. Such a group may try to develop an organization that may or may not be viewed as threatening to the status quo, with the intent of trying to live in a state of mutual acceptance of differences, or they may in fact engage in activities with the intent of trying to change the minds of others (to help them see the light), when in fact it may not be possible to do so, because such a change would require an internal change of proportions they are not capable of making at the time.
To label them as being schizophrenic (in the Bicameral sense of hearing and talking to the voice(s) of an unseen god), is a label that Julian Jaynes used in assisting the reader to identify differences in comparison to modern behavior and defined uses of the word in the mental health field, may be another modern imposition of characterization that limits an appreciation of how to move oneself and perhaps help others move beyond their own individualized instances of Bicamerality.
In some cases, an individualized Bicameral mind experience might be the visual (pictorial) representation of a sound heard by way of the ear or vibrations to the jaw, in the form of an alien, Big foot, gremlin, fairy, monster, dragon, ghost, etc., or some indistinct form that makes a person shiver, feel ill, get a headache, whistle, run, scream, or any number of other responses. Such "creatures" are very real in terms of a Bicameral perspective. You may hear them, feel them, smell them, and even have some form of communication with some of them. At other times, there is no auditory accompaniment which might distinctly (or vaguely) represent human speech, or there might not be any smell/feel to them. They may only appear in a wispy type of semi- luminous form of aura that can pass through walls, glide up and down stairs, or disappear from one location only to appear some distance away at another location.
Some appearances may present themselves in the form of a lost love one, personal self-importance, an angel, an animal, a surreptitious "thing," or even some manifestation interpreted as being evil. It must be noted that many such appearances can be drug, alcohol, and nutrition-deprived induced, but I am not talking about these forms. I am speaking about those beings which appear to individuals who can rightly rule out the influence of excesses or deprivations, in a customarily accepted measure of this sense. I am also talking about those who are free from what might be described as a mental illness. In short, a so-called normal, healthy, common-sense person by today's standards.
From a Bicameral perspective such experiences are real, and from a Tricameral perspective such experiences are seen as real to the Bicameral perspective, but a Tricameral perspective can not experience them in a Bicameral sense of reality, unless the Tricameral perspective slips into a Bicameral frame of sensibility. An individual with an active Tricameral perspective can only assist a person with an active Bicameral perspective to try and distinguish the differences in perceptual reality. However, if a person is too intoxicated with the experiences of a Bicameral reality, they may refuse to acknowledge or even consider the reality of a Tricameral perspective.
In describing definitions of what is meant by Bicameral and Tricameral perspectives in the present context:-
Unicameral is related to a pre- music/art/literature brain functioning that may, in this instance, be called a whole brain structure characteristic of early pre-civilization hominids.
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Bicameral is related to the two brain hemispheres with the right hemisphere "attributes" (aptitudes) that may not be fully realized, functioning, nor exercised in a particular era, but nonetheless predominantly affect the perceptions of most people.
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Tricameral is related to the acknowledgment of three brain structures (Reptilian- Limbic system- Cortex) as incremental stages in brain development, but that there is also a developmental difference in attribute (aptitude) functioning between the right and left hemispheres.
These developmental differences are expressed in transitional changes of human cognition which can be misinterpreted, because the attributes (aptitudes) of one hemisphere can impose its own criteria on the other, resulting in a "mis-translation" of what actually occurred and in what form perceptions were rendered as well as defined. One example of this is to view the on-going left hemisphere tripartite categorization of biblical passages that are more closely related to a Bicameral (right hemisphere) form of perception that is crudely rendered with abstract symbols (numbers/words) primarily used by the left hemisphere and place into the medium of what we call a written text. Yet, no one (to my knowledge) has created a version of the Bible with attributes made solely of right hemisphere characteristics, and the further removed we get from a Bicameral perception, the more difficult such a task will become.
Whereas many biblical readers are adamant in saying that the three-part notion of the Trinity is an in-born quality of scripture, (while others are just as adamant in saying that it is not), neither of these groups are acknowledging that the emergence of an appreciation for a Trinitarian perception is an example of a fundamental change in human cognition in terms of our species brain development. In other words, the brain of humanity is changing. Those who are clinging to what they believe is a "traditional" "real" "truthful" "accurate" interpretation and translation of the original Biblical text, are those who want to retain some semblance of an ancient form of atmosphere in which to practice an exercise in their belief. (Hence the reference of a church, parish, temple, synagogue, etc., as a type of gymnasium for particular mental exercises... or a respite there-from.)
The "mood" within a place of "religious exercise" is an ambience that is certainly strange to those who are not brought up within a particular religious culture, and may be abruptly introduced to a language, "dress-up"/ or "dress-down", innuendoes, intimations, intonations, behavioral rituals etc., they have long ago dismissed as caricatures of things that dominated various perceptions in antiquity. For someone to accept a Trinitarian concept is, to the traditionalist, like having one's favorite old chair, couch, shoes, hat, goat, shirt, car, etc., re-upholstered, painted over, or thrown out.
In terms of development, the human brain is becoming further removed from the Bicameral mentality from which the original views of the Bible began, many of which were only roughly hewn into a usable form as a sort of crude translation by way of a primitively designed tool called writing in which words were made up to give some "sort-of-like" approximation in sound and graphic rendering intermixed and portrayed in a context and with materials that were likewise in a primitive stage of development.
As the brain develops, just as when a child begins to mature, lapses from one stage to another can occur on occasion, either abruptly, smoothly, with or without traumatic or criminal consequences. In analogy, it is similar to lapses in memory. For example, we can have momentary lapses in levels of awareness and consciousness such as forgetting were we placed our keys, some tool, a phone number, etc... Generally speaking such items may shortly be found, but not always. Such may be similar to a Bicameral frame of mind experience. For some it is of short duration, for others it is prolonged and may be somewhat life altering. With respect to a short-term loss of memory during a daily activity, we can cite the commonplace occurrence of driving along a road towards a destination that is reached after awhile, yet the familiarity of particular individualized parts of previous attention (distraction?) are not recalled, such as a house, herd of horses, bridge, etc... For whatever reason we come to accept as why we were for a time oblivious of surroundings that we had on other occasions taken notice of, we still acknowledge (afterwards) having not "conscious" of ourselves, our surroundings, or the amount of time elapsed. We may even refer to the extended duration as an act mindless driving or as day dreaming, though it might be of value to label it a temporary lapse into a Bicameral frame of mind.
A generalized rendering of hominid brain development along a Unicameral- Bicameral- Tricameral (1-2-3) development can be seen in the following image:
Ancient Egyptians believed the heart was the center of intelligence and emotion. They also thought so little of the brain that during mummification, they removed the brain entirely from bodies.
Vestigial appearances of a Bicameral mentality can occur in any one of us. It is a possibility that criminals are those individuals, who are sometimes referred to as reptilian-minded beasts of prey, are those who experience more frequent or longer durations of a Bicameral frame of reference, (or perhaps a sort of Reptilian- Bicameral- Medieval Ages interplay of perceptions.) Whereas many of their acts are judged as being criminal by present (majority non-Bicameral) standards, in another day and age such behaviors (if expressed in the context of another era), may have been deemed normal, excusable, acceptable, agreeable, justifiable, tolerable, etc... Nonetheless, what makes such individuals experience a Bicameral form of mentality while others around them remain in a transitional stage towards a dominant Tricameral reality?
| Awareness | Acknowledged Awareness | Consciously Acknowledged Awareness |
| Basic responses to light, heat, cold, geomagnetism, etc... (mistakenly referred to as basic consciousness) | Development of Me- Myself- I (mistakenly referred to as common consciousness) | Sometimes labeled God, Genius, etc... (mistakenly referred to as Super-consciousness) |
| Viruses, bacteria, microbes, plants, insects, amphibians, reptiles, mammals... | Humans (and some claim primates, horses, porpoises, dogs, etc...) | Future humans? Hybrids? Aliens? |
| Bicameral Mentality era Û Tricameral Mentality era | ||
| Singularity "1" Orientation | Duality "2" Orientation | Triplicity "3" Orientation |
| Predominantly- (not exclusively) Negroid races |
Predominantly- (not exclusively) Mongoloid races |
Predominantly- (not exclusively) (I.E.) Caucasian races |
| Self- survival Self- procreation Self- preeminence |
Development of duality awareness: (hot/cold, yin/yang, right/wrong, good/evil, rich/poor, self/other, etc...) | Development of triplicity awareness: (trinity, triads, triune, 2 + 1 Unity, non-duality, etc...) |
When describing examples of a 1- 2- 3 sequence, it is interesting to make note that such an occurrence may take place as a composite of the item(s) itself to the extent the transitional development arose in a past era specific to the example in question. Other examples take place over longer periods of time such as the development of Germ layers, with single layers occurring with the development of simple organisms, double layers with more advanced life forms, and three layers being found in the more advanced animal forms such as ourselves. Hence, a 1-2-3 maturational development sequence took place over an extended (overlapping) period of time.
Here are a few examples of the single- dual- triple occurrence, without an effort to provide approximations of overlapping occurrence. Some occurred over relatively short periods of time, while others take place over much longer time periods. I simply want to reveal the existence of a developmental 1- 2- 3 patterning, with the "2" (in many cases) being closely aligned (vestigial) to the era of a prominent Bicameral perspective as it transitions into a more modern form of mentality, though some examples (or parts thereof) are lost in historical obscurity and temporary regressions into an earlier form of world-view may take place as a short-lived fad for a decade or so. This list also does not include examples of the 3 to 1 ratio:
| Single (1) Oldest Mono/Uni |
Double (2) Old Bi/Di |
Triple (3) Newer Tri |
| Endoderm | Mesoderm | Ectoderm |
| "Monality" | Duality | Triplicity |
| God | Adam/Eve | Adam/Eve/Progeny |
| Singularity due to an absence of duality or triplicity? |
Mind/Body duality | Mind/Body/Soul triplicity |
| Unicameral mentality? (early hominids?) |
Bicameral mentality | Tricameral mentality? |
| ? | 2 X 2 (Noah's ark) | 1 + 1 + 1 (modern zoo) [endangered species conservation] |
| ? | Yin/Yang | Yin/Unity/Yang |
| 1-prong electric discharge | 2-pronged electric outlets | 3-pronged electric outlets |
| Uni-verse | Di-versity | ? |
| Unicameral government | Bicameral government | Tricameral government? |
| Chair/Stool = 1 seat | Loveseat = 2 seats | Couch = 3 seats |
| 1 point basketball | 2 points basketball | 3 points basketball |
| Single atom | Dual particle atom | Triple particle atom |
| Atoms | Atom particles | 3 Atom particle families |
| 1-site model for tRNA? | 2-site model for tRNA | 3-site model for tRNA |
| 1 ear bone (reptiles) | ? | 3 ear bones (mammals) |
| Multiple (singular) gods | Satan/Jesus(or God) duality | Triadic/Trinitarian concepts (3 in 1) |
Some readers may be interested in the following related link:
Previous page Update: Thursday, 22nd-March-2018... 7:31 AM
Latest Update: Tuesday, 14th Jan 2020... 7:47 AM
Herb O. Buckland
herbobuckland@hotmail.com