Hi Gabriel,
It’s been years, decades really, since I read Julian Jaynes book. It struck me as interesting and possibly significant at the time, but this was before I became familiar with PCT, and I don’t remember much now about the “bicameral mind” theory.
Can you define “command hallucinations” for those of us who aren’t up to speed on the Jaynes book and describe in more detail what you see as the connection between his work and collective control?
Off the top of my head, it seems to me that in thinking about this it might be important to remember that the effects of collective control are entirely mediated by the physical environment. Collective control happens when two or more people try to control similar perceptions regarding the same piece of environmental real estate. If their references for controlling those perceptions are similar, the effects of their actions on the variable in the physical envinronment are additive. If their references are different, their actions interfere with each other. But in either case, the action all takes place in the physical environment.
That’s why I’m initially dubious when you talk about hallucinations. But maybe you’re talking instead about some kind of collective control that occurs within a person’s perceptual hierarchy (by the two halves of the bicameral mind, perhaps?) Please explain a little further. Thanks!
Kent