Gonna do the whole intro thing

[angelusstrigoi.livejournal.com]

Well today I came upon some new info. Something that helped to explain a lot about me. I was thinking I had a soulbond because I didn't quite understand the multiple stuff. But someone led me to a site that explained it. And I can definitely say I am a multiple. I am also a median and currently am hosting one very old soul named Lilith. Also one of my multiples is an otherkin. So this is Angelus, Kim, Tiger, and The Child saying hi to everyone for the first time as their own separate recognizes entities.

Comments

[iamshadow.livejournal.com]

Medium: Host to spirits
Median: Midcontinuum system

Though some people experience both...I mean everyone's experience is different, right?

Some people refer to old souls under the blanket term 'walk-in', along with system members who weren't initially with the body at birth, and turn up with their own history/memories.

[nematoddity.livejournal.com]

Right, which is where I thought I had a place in my brain for it. Then Angelus said that their system is pretty much comprised of a spirit who came in and the body that spirit is now within, and frankly, that falls back on possession. Or extended mediumship, if you will. And fails to fall under your definition, astraea's definition, of 'median' at all.

Hence the confusion. :)

[angelusstrigoi.livejournal.com]

yeah I should have said medium or possesion

[nematoddity.livejournal.com]

Okay...what? You were the one who said 'median' in the first place.

I give up.

[angelusstrigoi.livejournal.com]

well I was thinking medium and mediam were interchangeable but after all the debate on here I see they aren't. I am a medium...which as I understand it is someone who hosts a old soul of someone that has died. Sorry for all the confusion

[nematoddity.livejournal.com]

Err, no--unless that term has changed too. "Medium", called by the New_Age-y "channeler", is one who contacts the dead. Period. Not hosts the dead, not lets them hang around--not intentially, at least, or not in my experience--just has the ability to talk to dead folks.

Astraea? Has that changed too??

[angelusstrigoi.livejournal.com]

Okay then I don't know what the hell to call it. Posssession?

[ksol1460.livejournal.com]

Oh, yes it has. By a country mile as Gabe would say.

A medium is someone who contacts the dead, but back then (let's say 1860s to about the 1930s) mediums and spirits did all sorts of things together. Spirits collaborated with live people on writing (some of the best guides to mediumship were co-written by spirits), on art projects, and in public speaking.

(In fact, any woman who gave a public address of any kind in the 1800s (like antislavery, women's rights, health issues) was assumed to be channeling, because people believed that women weren't physiologically or psychologically capable of public speaking. It was generally assumed that a male spirit entered her body and spoke through her, or at least contacted her mind and told her what to say. This was called trance speaking even though most of these women didn't go into a trance. They were perfectly conscious and wrote their own material, but contemporary thought demanded that they must have had help from beyond.

Mediumship came in several flavours -- one could merely converse with the dead, which was called mental mediumship. But there were plenty of people who allowed spirits to move right into their bodies and take temporary control. For instance, if a mother died and her children got in touch with her through a seance, she might want to hug and kiss them and she could do so through the medium's body. Temporary possessions of this nature -- physical mediumship -- were and still are very routine.

Generally a medium had one or two spirits that she related best to. While it's a mistake to refer to this in terms of a "guide", these spirits would usually help facilitate contact between the medium and other spirits who wanted to come through. Sometimes a medium and a spirit were extremely compatible and friendly to the point that the spirit would move right in and coexist with the medium, exactly like a walk-in today. For a few days, or a few years, or forever. The term for this activity in those days? "Multiple personalities."

New Age channelers behave in the same way. They don't just talk to the angels, Atlanteans or whatever -- they often let them take physical control.

In Spiritualist terms, angelusstrigoi is engaged in physical mediumship by hosting a spirit.

[angelusstrigoi.livejournal.com]

you got to love words with multiple definitions. Thanks for helping clear up all the confusion. Now I have a term to use that hopefully others can understand.

[nematoddity.livejournal.com]

Well, I'm not so much challenging what Angelus is saying--what's true for you is true for you, as the saying goes--as much as I'm trying to figure out what sort of conversation we're having.

I still feel like I'm lost in the shoals somewhere. I've never felt 'multiple personalities' equals 'hosting spirits'. One thing's one thing, the other thing's the other thing. Maybe I'm being intransigent, but words have to mean something or they have no value.

I also don't quite buy that muses are soulbonds, either, but then, maybe that's me, too. I have muses, and they nag me, but they are not real. I know they are not real. Any power they have over my actions--which is mostly in the realm of, getting me to write things--is power I've given them. So I don't understand that term either.

Maybe I'm at the point where I just smile politely, and back away slowly out of the conversation.

[angelusstrigoi.livejournal.com]

I meant that I am multiple as well as a host to spirits. I wasn't equating them. Just saying that I had an array of things going on.

[nematoddity.livejournal.com]

No, not at all, I got that. And it's good to identify terms, to identify who and what you are--I mean, ultimately, that's your call, your answer, but it's also nice to have terminology that supports your conclusions.

It's just, the various terms in this thread have been all sorts of confusing. :)

[angelusstrigoi.livejournal.com]

yea they sure have been

[sethrenn.livejournal.com]

I still feel like I'm lost in the shoals somewhere. I've never felt 'multiple personalities' equals 'hosting spirits'. One thing's one thing, the other thing's the other thing. Maybe I'm being intransigent, but words have to mean something or they have no value.

I also don't quite buy that muses are soulbonds, either, but then, maybe that's me, too. I have muses, and they nag me, but they are not real. I know they are not real. Any power they have over my actions--which is mostly in the realm of, getting me to write things--is power I've given them. So I don't understand that term either.

I have to say that you appear to be confusing our and ksol1460's personal beliefs with the beliefs held by other people which we are reporting and describing. I can tell you that we, at least, certainly don't necessarily believe that mediumship equals multiple personality, or that characters you talk to are muses. When I say "some people call it this," I'm not saying "this is what I believe." In fact, in some cases, my beliefs are quite divergent.

All I'm doing is telling everyone what I've discovered other people believe, or the terminology I've noticed them using. I have no idea how people came to associate the concept of muses with talking to characters. I can't tell you why, so don't ask me "how do you figure"! You would have to ask the people who use the term that way if you want to know how they use it. This is not me giving my personal beliefs here. I'm just telling you what I've seen.

I apologise if this is a little curt, but I do get pretty annoyed when I'm trying to explain what a certain group of people believe, and have it automatically assumed that these are my beliefs as well. I do understand that you're trying to get all the terminology straight, but as far as terminology I don't use personally, I honestly do not know why it was chosen by others. Again, you'd have to ask them.

[nematoddity.livejournal.com]

*blinks*

Look. I'm not assuming any people here believe in the validity of the terms that are under debate, because not a one of you--save for Angelus, who has since changed terminology--has said "I believe this". And almost everyone has referred me to some article or other, ksol1460 going so far as to email me their definitions page because LJ was apparently coughing that day.

Since I'd never heard 'median' before two days ago, and had an entirely different definition for 'soulbond', I think my confusion is understandable. And I think I've been as polite as possible when folks are tossing me words that don't mean what I've held them to mean for more than ten years.

I will grant you, this phrase:

Okay. Take three. Muses are soulbonds? How the hell do you figure?

was a tad abrupt, but you answered it calmly, it gave me more to think about, and I thought that end of the thread had tapered to a close.

So, what, you thought about it and then got upset? Why?