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Comment by beagle3 | Hacker News Reader

Recommended reading:

"The origin of consciousness in the breakdown of the bicameral mind" by Julian Jaynes

"Left in the dark" by Graham Gynn and Tony Wright (and apparently, 2nd hand recommendation - "Return of the brain to eden" from the same authors)

Consider both science fiction rather than science; Jaynes is much more scientific and grounded, though it is still incomplete. Wright is much looser with facts and interpretations,

Still, both are thought provoking and worth reading in my opinion.

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Are you familiar with Dennett's take on it?

His paper, The Self as a Center of Narrative Gravity - http://cogprints.org/266/1/selfctr.htm

Was not familiar with it. Thanks, an excellent read.

Former consciousness neuroscientist here.

Julian Jaynes is really only of historical interest. For starters, he's more about meta-consciousness than raw awareness per se. Most of his ideas are intriguing, but has the feeling of a Just-So Story.

To quote Dawkins: "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."

I read "Left in the Dark" and second the recommendation. It's quite an elegant hypothesis even if it doesn't seem to cover all of its bases, but it's a good jumping-off point for those interested in rationalizing phenomena related to consciousness.

For example, the book's theory that the dormant (but incredibly powerful) right brain (or subconscious or what have you) is responsible for our immune systems neatly explains things like the placebo effect, faith healing, miraculous lucid dream healing, etc.

If we assume that the Buddha's enlightenment was a total coming together of his mind, then all the seemingly supernatural abilities attributed to him, such as immunity to disease, start to make sense.

Also:

The Master and His Emissary: The Divided Brain and the Making of the Western World by Iain McGilchrist

If you want to read a book that has the potential of radically changing your perspective of things, give this a shot.

Also relevant: "Neurons gone wild" by Kevin Simler. https://www.meltingasphalt.com/neurons-gone-wild/

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