"Where am I? I don't know where I am!"

Discussion of Julian Jaynes's second hypothesis - the bicameral mind, specifically the subtopic of schizophrenia and schizophrenia as a vestige of the bicameral mind.
Post Reply
Obdurately Conscious
Posts: 18
Joined: Mon Sep 11, 2006 2:08 am
Location: NYC

"Where am I? I don't know where I am!"

Post by Obdurately Conscious »

When I got to the chapter on Schizophrenia, a memory entered my mind as clear as day as being a parallel to what Jaynes explained. This has to do with a marijuana smoking experience with someone about ten years ago. Those of you familiar with smoking and experimenting with different ways of smoking will appreciate this. A friend and I made a gravity bong out of a 2 liter soda bottle and a bucket. Another friend came by with great weed. The first friend smoked an entire 2 liter volume of smoke of the strong weed and soon realized it was a bit much for him. So, in his own apartment, he paced back and forth with a terrorized look on his face saying the words in the subject of this topic. At first I had always though he meant he didn't know he was at home, in his apartment, in his living room. But now I see that he meant he didn't know where HE was, where his conscious self had gone, and his mind was crumbling between losing consciousness and making sense of what to do in his world of appointments and pending engagements while his self suddenly stepped back and was becoming invisible!
If you look around the table and can't tell who the sucker is, it is most probably you.
SteveBall
Posts: 1
Joined: Sat Apr 18, 2015 11:18 am

Re: "Where am I? I don't know where I am!"

Post by SteveBall »

Obdurately Conscious wrote:When I got to the chapter on Schizophrenia, a memory entered my mind as clear as day as being a parallel to what Jaynes explained. This has to do with a marijuana smoking experience with someone about ten years ago. ..... The first friend smoked an entire 2 liter volume of smoke of the strong weed and soon realized it was a bit much for him. So, in his own apartment, he paced back and forth with a terrorized look on his face saying the words in the subject of this topic. At first I had always though he meant he didn't know he was at home, in his apartment, in his living room. But now I see that he meant he didn't know where HE was, where his conscious self had gone, and his mind was crumbling between losing consciousness and making sense of what to do in his world of appointments and pending engagements while his self suddenly stepped back and was becoming invisible!
VERY interesting, in view of an experiment on myself I conducted two days ago. I deliberately overdosed on an edible. About 5 hours later I started experiencing "location" issues. I could see the room, the street, and the buildings around me... but I suddenly realized that I did not know WHERE those things existed in relation to the rest of the world.

Shortly thereafter I found that this location problem also extended to MYSELF. I literally felt that I was "no place." This is perhaps what Maureen Dowd experienced in her famous "Dead and No One Told Me" OD experience. I went to the bathroom and vomited... and the problem "magically" disappeared.

Scientists have determined that we have many more senses that the traditional five, and that one of those senses is a "location" sense, similar (they think) to what migrating birds use. This is, perhaps, why your friend was saying "Where am I? I don't know where I am!"

Damn! This drug needs to researched. The potentials are mind-boggling.
Obdurately Conscious
Posts: 18
Joined: Mon Sep 11, 2006 2:08 am
Location: NYC

Re: "Where am I? I don't know where I am!"

Post by Obdurately Conscious »

Great experience and explanation! That sheds even more light on the exclamation, the questioning of where one is.
If you look around the table and can't tell who the sucker is, it is most probably you.
Post Reply

Return to “2.5. Hypothesis Two: The Bicameral Mind | Subtopic: Schizophrenia”