I just recently skimmed through "The Breakdown of
the Bicameral Mind and the Origin of Conciousness",
It did seem amazingly relevant to Glorantha, as others
pointed out sometime ago. However it raised several
questions.
- It seems to violate some of the Game Fun ideas advocated
on this digest (us modern humans don't think bicamerally,
making roleplaying more difficult)
- Many human cultures in Glorantha are modeled after civilations
that existed on Earth long after bicameralism went out of style
- My cursory examination of the book gave me the impression
that bicameral minds had trouble with lying, deception and
long-range planning, things we take for granted.
- Do non-humans share this same mental organization?
- Is the integration of the bicameral mind the same as Illumination?
If so, can non-humans be illuminated?
It did reveal a basic assumption that most of us make when thinking
about Illumination - we assume that non-illuminated minds are like
our own minds, when it may be the reverse
End of Glorantha Digest V2 #437
WWW material at http://hops.wharton.upenn.edu/~loren/rolegame.html