Archaeologica.org

Hello all. Just joined recently but have been reading the forum for quite some time now and wanted to say I really enjoy a lot of the posts and info found here.
Along with that I also wanted to post the following in reference to the bicameral mind topic but didn't want to step on anyone's topic nor detract from it so posting it here - hope it's not too long. Enjoy!

Let me see if I have the basic understanding of this:

Allow me to use the great mind and skills of Michaelangelo to illustrate what appears to be emerging. Below is a link to his painting of the creation of Adam.

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Image ... Chapel.png

In it we see Adam reaching out to God while God stretches forth his hand to Adam. At first glance seems ok. Then we see a deeper meaning - sort of a message from (or depiction of) the bicamarel mind (?) - God is within a curtain or drape in the shape of the human brain along with the angels (messengers), and his arm around the future Eve (or is it the Eve "mother" since she is only in the mind so far?). Correct so far?

So anyways I examined further and found time can alter things - such as perspectives - - -

As we examine further we see the angels have looks of fright on their faces and seem to be trying to pull or nudge God away or at the very least they appear to be trying to escape their predicament before the disaster. Also Eve is looking as "oh no - they are not going to blame me for this". This is all encased in the brain and is darker than the rest of the image so our attention is brought back to the center of the picture again to see the cause of this concern - hmmm.

Kinda makes me think it should have a caption written below it as - - oh - - And God said to the man he had created - "Give me relief - pullest thou my fin---".

Hmm - I wonder if they had that saying back then too and if Michaelangelo was getting even with not getting paid on time? Or did whoever came up with the joke have this painting in mind?

By thus we are given to understand the fear of accessing our darker base instinks! For hell is understood to have the foul smell of brimstone and when God is angry he shows us his backside.

But in all seriousness, what I am trying to say is that we all use the bicameral mind in one way or another - be it for insight, music, art, dance, engineering, war, training our bodies, inventing, science, poetry, learning, and hundreds if not thousands of other purposes. But we all lose focus at times from the "shock and awe" of everything around us - the routines of everyday living.

The problem appears to be refocusing it in whatever direction we would like it to go in and so we "rely" on methods of meditation to bring us back to it in odor - uh - order - to refocus it where we want to.

It's not that we have lost it but merely lost focus of where to use it. I think it actually hungers for something to do and urges or drives us on in its own way.

- - - Or is that just a brainfarht?

The cartoonist who draws Dilbert, Scott Adams, in one of his books noted that life has become so complex that the majority of people spend the bulk of their day being completely stupid about the world around them. As I recall the analogy cavemen were not smarter than us but they did not have as many things about which to be stupid. A spear, Adams opines, is a fairly simple device. It has a pointy end and a dull end and it is fairly easy to understand how it works. Contrast that with your TV, car, Xbox or refrigerator. How many of us truly understand how these things work? Could we build one? Could we even repair one?

So, I wonder if people lack the will to think "deep thoughts" or if they are so busy trying to survive amidst all the technological necessities of modern life that they simply do not have time. I imagine that a tribesman in New Guinea has plenty of time to sit around and contemplate....once he has found something to eat.

Welcome aboard, Rich. Where in NY? I spent 55 years on LI before escaping to the desert.

Rich

Glad to have you in the mix. I thank you for this insight. I will never be able to look at the Sistine chapel the same way again.... Somehow my European Art History professor missed it. Now that you've pointed it out, I can't go back...and don't wanna!

Encourage you to copy and paste into the "Bicameral" thread, its too juicey to be left on this side of fence.

Come on in, the waters fine.

Thanks Min and Woodrabbit.

Actually Min, I think they still do get into deep thoughts when they get interested enough - or even in their sleep, but most of the time I think they're just living in frustration (or fascination or joy) and trying to make everything fit the day.
I live in a small village just a little north of Woodrabbit actually - Wappingers Falls. It's about 10 minutes south of Poughkeepsie.

Woodrabbit - I didn't put it in that thread because I didn't want to sideswipe the thread - find it interesting. But if anybody else wants to they could I suppose. Just not sure if it's entirely appropriate - lol.

Anyways, hope everyone has a good holiday - I 'specially like the bunnies. Darn - sure wish I was Mr. Hefner!

I've heard of Wappinger's Falls. Never been there, though.

You're not missing anything - lol.

I went to college in Oswego. It can't be worse than that!