What exactly makes us conscious beings? How did humans develop the mental tools that allow us to think abstractly, reflect on our inner lives, and imagine the future?
In his book The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind, Julian Jaynes suggests that consciousness isn’t biologically hardwired but culturally learned. He identifies seven core elements of consciousness, including metaphorical language and an internal “mind-space.”
Keep reading to learn about these fascinating elements of consciousness and discover how they shape our everyday experience of being human.
Elements of Consciousness
As newly conscious humans began recognizing their internal lives, they also developed new mental skills and tools that expanded their conscious awareness and gave them new ways to navigate the complexities of the social world. Jaynes argues that consciousness itself emerged, not through biological evolution, but as a product of human culture—it’s not innate, but learned and passed down through generations within specific cultures.
Jaynes identifies seven elements of consciousness: metaphorical language, an internal “mind-space,” an “analog ‘I,’” narratization, the ability to concentrate on or suppress thoughts, the “spatialization of time,” and the ability to use “conciliation” to integrate our experiences.
(Shortform note: Jaynes’s view of consciousness as a cultural construct rather than a biological adaptation represents a break from mainstream theory. Most scientists, following Darwin’s theory of natural selection, view consciousness as having evolved gradually, through biological processes, to help organisms survive and reproduce. For instance, evolutionary scientists Simona Ginsburg and Eva Jablonka (The Evolution of the Sensitive Soul) argue that consciousness emerged when organisms developed the ability for “unlimited associative learning,” a capacity to learn new patterns and change behavior based on experience. This ability, they argue, required the evolution of specific brain capabilities through natural selection.)
#1: Metaphorical Language
One crucial tool in this cultural development was metaphorical language, where words and expressions generate mental images in the mind (like, for example, describing a challenge as an uphill climb). Such language helped people to understand and express abstract ideas. Jaynes proposes that as language evolves and becomes more complex, so does consciousness. As humans began using language to express abstract concepts and metaphorical ideas, their consciousness evolved to interpret and internalize these linguistic constructs. In other words, Jaynes contends that consciousness emerged from our ability to create metaphors to represent and understand the world.
(Shortform note: While Jaynes focuses on how metaphorical language helped us develop abstract thought, some cognitive scientists suggest metaphors are more than just linguistic devices and might actually influence how we think about reality. According to the theory of embodied cognition, metaphors help us reason about abstract ideas by mapping these ideas onto familiar experiences we relate to physically—like by associating the feeling of affection with the sensory experience of warmth. Our brains process metaphorical statements automatically and directly, rather than first interpreting them literally. For that reason, some experts believe we need metaphors to think clearly: They make abstract ideas more concrete and understandable.)
The shift from concrete to abstract thinking through metaphorical language marked a significant step forward in human cognitive development and contributed to the emergence of other crucial elements of consciousness, including the following.
#2: An Internal “Mind-Space”
Our ability to introspect involves looking at a metaphorical representation of our mind. Jaynes uses the term “internal mind-space” to describe this mental space where consciousness occurs. In the internal mind-space, inner experiences like thoughts and feelings play out, and we can reflect on these experiences. Using this metaphorical space enables us to examine different mental activities separately, like distinguishing between a memory, an emotion, and a plan for the future. In this way, metaphor plays a crucial role in helping us think about our own consciousness.
For example, when you see a beautiful sunset, your mind-space allows you to not just perceive the colors, but to transform that external sight into internal experiences: memories of other sunsets you’ve seen, feelings of awe or peace, or thoughts about sharing the moment with someone else.
(Shortform note: Other experts agree with Jaynes that we construct our consciousness through metaphor—and that our ability to experience an inner “mind-space” shows us how this works. In This Idea Must Die, psychologist Susan Blackmore writes that consciousness is an illusion. She thinks this illusion is generated, quite convincingly, when we think of our abstract thoughts and experiences as physical objects and spaces that our metaphorical “self” can perceive and examine. This squares with Jaynes’s idea that consciousness emerges as we use metaphors to model our inner world of thoughts and ideas as physical objects and spaces.)
#3: An “Analog ‘I’”
The “analog ‘I’”—another element of consciousness—is a sense of a self who acts as a protagonist observing and moving through a person’s mental space. This is Jaynes’s term for the metaphorical “self” that a person creates in their mind, allowing them to imagine themselves in different situations and to make decisions based on imagined outcomes. In other words, the analog “I” enables people to understand their place in the world, envision the likely consequences of their actions, and make choices. That means it’s an essential part of conscious decision-making and self-awareness.
(Shortform note: While Jaynes uses the analog “I” to explain how humans develop the ability to make conscious choices, some critics think this metaphorical self might be a core aspect not just of human consciousness but of any consciousness—even animal or, potentially, AI—with the ability to make decisions. The ability to decide for oneself is key: Consider how the titular protagonist of The Truman Show starts the film unaware that his life is playing out on a soundstage and being broadcast for others’ entertainment. Truman then develops self-awareness and free will. As he breaks free, he makes genuine choices for the first time—illustrating how an ability to act with autonomy is fundamental to being conscious.)
#4: The Skill of “Narratization”
Narratization is a process that enables people to string their experiences into coherent stories in their minds. Jaynes explains that this involves consciously bringing together various elements of past experiences into a coherent, consistent storyline. Having this narrative helps people to make sense of their experiences within the bounds of their worldview and beliefs. In other words, narratization helps us understand our reality by creating a consistent mental explanation of the events we experience and the ideas we have over time.
#5: The Ability to Concentrate on or Suppress Thoughts
Concentration is focusing attention on thoughts, and suppression is ignoring unwanted thoughts; both are tools for people to direct and control what they’re thinking about. Jaynes contends that, as people first became aware of their inner thoughts and experiences, they learned to concentrate on some thoughts and suppress others. They also learned to distinguish between their own thoughts and the presumed thoughts of others. This element of consciousness played an important role in enabling self-awareness and helping us to differentiate ourselves from others.
(Shortform note: Jaynes isn’t the only psychologist to hypothesize that the ability to intentionally focus our attention could be key to—though distinct from—consciousness. The attention schema theory proposes that just as our brains construct a model of our bodies to help control them, we also develop a model of our attention so that we can better monitor and control it. When our nervous systems evolved the ability to selectively enhance certain signals over others, we gained the capacity for focused processing of important information. Then, we developed the ability to control what we’re paying attention to with each of our senses—and to shift our attention just by thinking about it.)
#6: The “Spatialization of Time”
The spatialization of time is the ability to visualize time as a spatial dimension to move through. Jaynes explains that this ability enables people to mentally time travel, imagining things that have happened in the past and things that might occur in the future. This helps us to think about time in an organized way, which makes it easier to understand and remember events in chronological order.
(Shortform note: As Jaynes explains, we often use the spatialization of time to visualize and reason about time. We think about this metaphorically and consider time and space to be different things. But some philosophers of physics suggest the distinction between time and space as separate dimensions might not really exist. Instead, this distinction arises from the particular vantage point of the observer. Different observers could carve up the world into time and space differently—as in the film Interstellar, where beings who live in a five-dimensional reality conceive of time and space differently than do humans in our three-dimensional reality.)
#7: The Ability to Use “Conciliation” to Integrate Our Experiences
“Conciliation” is Jaynes’s term for the ability to weave together different mental experiences—what we perceive through our senses, what we think about those perceptions, and how we feel about them—into a single, coherent understanding of reality. For example, when you’re at a party, conciliation lets you simultaneously process the music you hear, your memories of similar gatherings, your emotional response to the crowd, and your thoughts about what to do next. He argues that conciliation is a crucial element of consciousness because it allows us to make sense of both our internal and external experiences, create meaningful narratives about what’s happening to us, and make decisions based on this complete picture.
