Can we purposely create second personalities?

Hey all, I am new here to the boards. Got my 20 posts in and now I pose this question to you all. I THINK this is appropriate for this particular part of the forum. I was going to post in health and wellness, but it didn't seem to fit. So all of that said on to business then...

I have the stigma of recently reading the novel "Fight Club" and as it is one of my favorite movies the idea of DID/split personality has become one of my favorites. I was wondering if it is at all possible to create another personality by choice through meditation or some other form of heavy concentration? The entire idea is kind of taboo, especially with the skeptics who believe that DID is a fake disorder in the first place.

Wouldn't it be cool though to create/manifest yourself as new person all together? Anyone ever give this thought? If so any advice on how to do this?

reply to post by misfitsquid


Read the rules, your not allowed to have multiple personas on the board as some people would abuse it to push aggendas. It's one of the automatic banning crimes.

People with split personalities have suffered some kind of trauma, like an abused child. The actual splitting of the personality is a coping mechanism. I don't know how you would create a new personality through your means. Split personalites are just different aspects of our whole personality.

reply to post by misfitsquid


My question is why work towards creating a second and separate personality to be the avatar for what you wish yourself to become?

Why not just become it?

~Heff

Originally posted by Night Star
People with split personalities have suffered some kind of trauma, like an abused child. The actual splitting of the personality is a coping mechanism. I don't know how you would create a new personality through your means. Split personalites are just different aspects of our whole personality.

That is true...

I hate to keep referencing movies, but in Youth and Revolt he creates a second persona that takes control of his body. My thinking is that perhaps through guided meditation once can achieve this. Just a curious idea I have based on fiction though.

Originally posted by Hefficide
reply to post by misfitsquid

 

My question is why work towards creating a second and separate personality to be the avatar for what you wish yourself to become?

Why not just become it?

~Heff

Just for the sake of experimentation. To challenge ones mind etc. To dip into the pools of insanity and come back unscathed.

you are confusing identity with personality

i am not exactly sure why but MPD multiple personality disorder is no longer recognized by the shrinks
and is automatically diagnosed as schizophrenia which is kinda BS given that back in the 60's the big book of mental disorders that the shrinks use as their bible was rewritten so as to lock up many young black men in the civil rights movement [thinking the government was conspiring to keep black people down could get you permanently locked up]

identities are actually quite easy to create
by signing up here and creating your user name you have already created another ID [your online persona]

the book of shadows method= keep a special notebook and list all of your personality traits,yeah i know confusing,
[this is about self analysis] mark the traits you do not like in yourself, cross them out, and write what you'd like

for more details look up Metamorphosis in Peter Carrolls Chaos magic writings
be warned that this is also a method that can drive you insane or open up repressed memories or traumas playing with your own mind can be dangerous don't let anybody even know about your book of shadows

another method which is the one i prefer is a sort of free-form method acting, i winged it thru college and the only person to ever catch on happened to be a guy with pretty good telepathy who studied at one of maharishi mahesh yogi's ashrams this guy was also the the only person ever able to hypnotize me

remember this stuff is dangerous but also a valuable tool for recreating oneself

Originally posted by DerepentLEstranger
you are confusing identity with personality

i am not exactly sure why but MPD multiple personality disorder is no longer recognized by the shrinks
and is automatically diagnosed as schizophrenia which is kinda BS given that back in the 60's the big book of mental disorders that the shrinks use as their bible was rewritten so as to lock up many young black men in the civil rights movement [thinking the government was conspiring to keep black people down could get you permanently locked up]

identities are actually quite easy to create

the book of shadows method= keep a special notebook and list all of your personality traits,yeah i know confusing,
[this is about self analysis] mark the traits you do not like in yourself, cross them out, and write what you'd like

for more details look up Metamorphosis in Peter Carrolls Chaos magic writings
be warned that this is also a method that can drive you insane or open up repressed memories or traumas playing with your own mind can be dangerous don't let anybody even know about your book of shadows

another method which is the one i prefer is a sort of free-form method acting, i winged it thru college and the only person to ever catch on happened to be a guy with pretty good telepathy who studied at one of maharishi mahesh yogi's ashrams this guy was also the the only person ever able to hypnotize me

remember this stuff is dangerous but also a valuable tool for recreating oneself

Thank you very much, I will definitely be looking into this.

Originally posted by misfitsquid

Originally posted by Hefficide
reply to post by misfitsquid

 

My question is why work towards creating a second and separate personality to be the avatar for what you wish yourself to become?

Why not just become it?

~Heff

Just for the sake of experimentation. To challenge ones mind etc. To dip into the pools of insanity and come back unscathed.

ahhh ok that tells me you're quite young i was about 15 when i became interested and read a lot of books on MPD like sybil, the five of me and others i will point out that you need a firm foundation identity/persona to begin with unless you want to become a Face Dancer, steal others ID and wind up with ultimately no real identity at all

you cannot dip into the pools of insanity and come back unscathed. take it from someone who's been there and back and never got caught.

Originally posted by DerepentLEstranger

Originally posted by misfitsquid

Originally posted by Hefficide
reply to post by misfitsquid

 

My question is why work towards creating a second and separate personality to be the avatar for what you wish yourself to become?

Why not just become it?

~Heff

Just for the sake of experimentation. To challenge ones mind etc. To dip into the pools of insanity and come back unscathed.

ahhh ok that tells me you're quite young i was about 15 when i became interested and read a lot of books on MPD like sybil, the five of me and others i will point out that you need a firm foundation identity/persona to begin with unless you want to become a Face Dancer, steal others ID and wind up with ultimately no real identity at all

you cannot dip into the pools of insanity and come back unscathed. take it from someone who's been there and back and never got caught.

I am 23 and feel that there isn't much for me here in this realm, plain or whatever. I am very interested in trying this. The true reasons as to why may be over my head, but there is a drive for me to do so.

Many people do this to get through bad situations. Very interesting. I grew up with someone who had several personalities, it is amazing the way the mind works and works with your body to survive.

This is actually an interesting concept and I've thought about this before. When conducting mind control experiments under the project MK Ultra, the CIA used a combination of electroshocks, drugs, and hypnotism to get a person to dissociate from their normal conscious awareness. This essentially left the CIA with blank slates that they would program.

The programming could be something very simple, such as a basic command or task, or deeply complex such as a full personality that could function independently for an extended period of time, all the while being totally separate from the person's normal awareness.

You should look into MK Ultra, Dissociative Identity Disorder, Ritual based Mind Control, and Hypnosis.

reply to post by misfitsquid


you can also look into the concept of the "secret identity" which is a part of our modern mythology [comics]

Superman
Batman
and Spiderman

all these series have excellent stories about the psychology of the secret identity and the pitfalls

in a superman story in the late 70's he uses self hypnosis to change his personality and a machine to alter his body for .. i think it was 100+hrs in order to infiltrate an interplanetary organization of super villains, oh and the body was a reptilian alien, when the time was up he reverted back to Kryptonian and a post hypnotic command restored his normal personality/identity and the intel he picked up unconciously.

have you ever read The Invisibles? very recommended. the character Mr. Six is into this and on one ocasion in order to generate the power to seal a gate, he sacrifices one of his identities in exchange for that energy.

in magic sacrifice is the destruction of a form/pattern in order to release the forces/power/energy contained in it.

in your case I'd advise The Book of Shadows as it would not only give you more control over the process but requires a lot of preliminary introspection to create the book in the 1st place.

you wouldn't want to jump into the seas of Khaos without a preserver

Apart from trauma, look at what MAKES a person the way they are, some may say genetics, which is entirely plausible, however it is primarily an environmental factor.

Your surroundings, make you, that and your interpretation and how you handle events. ie: You and a twin may be treated poorly as children, exposed to regular violence. The twin handles the violence by reacting in turn, to protect themselves, with violence. Maybe you interpret the actions as "nothing personal" and reach the conclusion that you should just avoid your parents, and never act in turn by returning violence.

You and the twin are very much the same, exactly the same upbringing, same environmental factors, yet a small change in perception and awareness can create huge divides in personality.

I believe, minus trauma, your alternate personality would have to have some kind of altered perception. Some who have formed a personality through trauma may have an alternate with less barriers to violence, so they may react protectively. ie: The normal personality is pretty subdued and submissive, unable to react when in a threatening situation, so the mind does what it needs to do, to protect itself. In comes personality number 2, highly defensive.

My question to you is, why not change yourself? If you come to a few outlandish conclusions, nothing sets those in concrete. Explore your mind, your psyche, your soul if you will. It is only to your benefit.

In answer to your question, I suppose it's possible but I wouldn't recommend it. Just do some fine-tuning on who you are now, until you come up with the "one" you like and can enjoy living with. No need for two. It invites fantasy and instability, and I dont' think you really want that in the long run. People with multiple personalities are very unhappy, dysfunctional people for the most part.

reply to post by ladyinwaiting


I have to agree wholeheartedly.

I know somebody with MPD, he is quite dysfunctional and has to write everything down, for he may "switch" at any moment, leaving him standing virtually anywhere, with no idea what he was doing. When dealing with this person, nobody knows "who" they are talking to, and often have to come back later when certain personalities are dominant.

Not a good thing.

reply to post by misfitsquid

Can we purposely create second personalities?

Ah you just read fight club, and now you think it would be cool and fun to have a second personality. My answer is yes it can be done, and not only that but on a unconscious subconscious level everybody creates a different personality mostly as a way to deal with certain things in there life or events, and they are not even aware of it. So really whats the point of it? Because there has to be a point for doing such a thing.

Just for the sake of experimentation. To challenge ones mind etc. To dip into the pools of insanity and come back unscathed.

Going into insanity however is really quite simple and there are many ways to go there, there is no secret to it, going insane is going into sanity, and getting a clearer view on what exactly, you or others consider "sane" or the sane. Like some people with there threads on this site which they write and argue about, especially in politics section now a days, ah the finner points of the sane, become quite insane when looked at closer. As time passes we all go insane in some ways, as in what was sane at one time is no longer so sane to us now. The only difference is mass sustainability of sanity, and synchronicity of focus points, or host bodies, or believes, or systems, or hierarchies, the names change depending who you ask, but really it's all the same thing in different guises.

But if you want to go farther then that. If so then like the other poster said it, and its true. You can not dip into the pools of insanity and come back unscathed, it is an impossibility. It's like wanting to jump in water in your swimming shorts, but you don't want to get wet. So if you really do end up getting a closer look at the abyss and a more broader view of reality, you will not come out unscathed, thats guaranteed. Because if you do come out unscented, then you have failed in getting a closer look at reality and the abyss. You see how that works.

And depending how far you go, you wont come out alive..period, nothing more to say on it. It's just the way it is, if you have to ask "why", you really shouldn't try it in the first place, and wont grasp it to begin with. Because the reason and ultimate finality of doing such a thing is to escape this reality, or to ascend, or to phase to a different reality, all of which lead to a whole different world if successful, so hence your death in the world you left behind, both physically and metaphysically. It's all fun on paper and in stories, but alas in reality it's a whole different thing because reality is what you would be transgressing, and reality always has penalties for transgressing on it's reality.

As you can see thats why traumatic events lead to split personalities, and you can say that those personalities life in two different worlds, in which one personality is not aware of the other personality, or that there worlds don't coexist peacefully or in balance, thats why two personalities were established in the first place. And you wouldn't be far off, in saying that they live in two whole different worlds or dimensions, because reality is ultimately in the mind, and its all one thing ultimately, in different expressions and manifestations of energies.

Originally posted by misfitsquid

Originally posted by Hefficide
reply to post by misfitsquid

 

My question is why work towards creating a second and separate personality to be the avatar for what you wish yourself to become?

Why not just become it?

~Heff

Just for the sake of experimentation. To challenge ones mind etc. To dip into the pools of insanity and come back unscathed.

If you walk through hell you are bound to get burned. But if you insist upon such madness, or dare I say manifestation of borderline suicidal tendencies; try making yourself schizophrenic first, as a test run to see how "strong" your mind really is. Either way if your serious about this, draw up a well organized plan and take it with you to a visit to your local doctor. On the one hand throwing your life away is a lousy thing, but on the other at-least it would make the doc's job all the easier when they find you flinging poo at walls.

The human conscious is a terribly weak thing. Easily damaged, easily fractured and often never truly heals. In order for a person to have a very strong mind they often have to deep six their hearts. In order for people to have strong hearts they often have to drop their level of awareness. And like everything in nature the mind screams out for balance. But it is a balance that can only exist on a tight rope.

In-case you missed the meaning behind the previous paragraph let me spell it out more clearly. All that is going to happen if you manage to succeed(the stress levels required I feel are beyond what a person can do to themselves through mental strength alone) is a pulling of some of your tendencies into a new persona. They could be some borderline gay tendencies making a gay persona, or maybe somewhere along your genetic lines your predisposed towards extreme violence. Either way, waking up next to a person of your respective gender(if your main,original persona is straight, if your naturally gay you could end up with a straight persona in theory) or waking up covered in blood are unappealing outcomes to say the least.

And the thing that get's me about alternative or multiple personalities is that they seem to know more then the main or original personality.

I think it'd be an interesting experiment. How dangerous it is would depend on how hardcore you are about it I suppose. It seems like you could somewhat accomplish this goal by creating a character in the same way you would for a story and then gradually becoming that character with the help of meditation and intentionally (later reflexively) thinking like him/her and acting accordingly when you're "in" that personality. That takes some real flexibility though to change your natural mental reflexes that you have been developing and tweaking, for the most part unconsciously, since you were born. Or you could go all out and create a traumatic event that may cause another personality to manifest itself, which seems much more likely to have unpredictable effects and severely harm your mental state for the rest of your life. Either way I'd take a good look at how you are now in case you need a backup plan to attempt getting your "normal" self back when this inevitably backfires somehow.. It's an interesting concept, but I think it's foolhardy at best to actually try restructuring your entire personality for no good purpose.

And if you reached a level such that one personality was not aware of the other (I'm not completely sure how all this works) wouldn't that defeat the purpose of the experiment as you would no longer be able to observe the results?

But, maybe I just say that because I like to argue with myself.

reply to post by misfitsquid


Well of course anyone can create a persona much like an actor or actress. Once the persona is created it can seem to manifest as a new personality but it lacks the depth and more likely is just an overlap of your main eixsting personality.
As a pyschology major my answer is a person can create personalities are a means to cope with stress this is not intentional. Multiple personality disorder or dissoactive idenity disorder is where a person who has suffered tramua compartmentalizes themselves into different personalities. This protects them from reliving or remembering those tramuatic events.
Each personality has depth much like a seperate person; of course these personalities are a spilt off of one person but at the time the person with MPD or DID does not realize that. Most people do not wish for this because you do not remember when you switch between personalties generally speaking. A person will go into a fuge stay; if a person where to remember when he or she is the other personality that would defeat the purpose.