multiplicity_archives | (no subject)

My girlfriend is a multiple-- so am I, but that's a different situation entirely and one that I haven't come here to discuss... yet. (Heh.)

She's rather shy sometimes, and I'm a regular lurker on this community, so I was hoping I could post this question here. This summer, the beings inside her mind (collectively called the Pentacle) attempted integration. Currently, we have reason to believe that the attempt has failed. This integration was not prompted by any therapist but was a conclusion that was reached by a majority of them. I say majority because apparently one of the Pentacle was not consulted as to her opinion, the decision was foisted on her by the other four, and the integration was therefore more forced than harmonized. It took this long to figure out because their internal communication isn't exactly... the best. The Host is human, and the other four are Otherkin: a demon, a fae, a wolf, and a phoenix. Because of this, they all have difficulty understanding each other. The demoness particularly seems to create conflict and misunderstanding within the Pentacle, and was the being who had been forced by the other four.

I myself am neutral on the integration controversy, since we can integrate at will for short periods of time when a situation calls for it. However, most of the Pentacle believe that integration is their ultimate longterm goal. I've suggested that they need to work on communication, but with their different backgrounds, goals, and not to mention species divide, they're finding this kind of difficult. We've been attempting to mediate between some of them, as some of us get along with some of them. It's our opinion that they need to concentrate on opening a channel of communication, or appoint one being in the Pentacle to understand and mediate between the rest so that the decisions won't be a matter of force, but a matter of general accord.

Do any of you have any other suggestions, please? I'm only experienced in dealing with my own internal problems, and this is the first time I've ever dated another out multiple.

Thank you for reading.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Is there effectively a difference?

I'm constantly thrown back and forth between my belief in science and my belief in the divine. Are the Gods and Goddesses real or are they simply mind constructs? Are the parts of me just compartmentalized thinking, or are they real, do they have souls?

I don't know, and I cannot give myself the faith to keep to one way or the other.

The best I can offer is that in the end, either way is essentially different ways of trying to state the same thing. That and one of Murphy's Rules of Combat, "If it's stupid but it works, it's not stupid."

Those are metaphysical questions, with which many people have struggled who have neither soulbonds nor multiple selves.

I've had the same questions all my life and have tentatively concluded this: One can only proceed from one's own experience. Science grants us wonderful things, but many have used it to say that anything which cannot be explained is a delusion, a misperception of the mind, a misfiring of neurons. This line of thought liberates us from overly restrictive dogmas, but one quickly finds that the "purely rational" approach to life and reality is equally restrictive.

Occasionally, one comes across a fact which seems to embrace or at least not to negate the existence of an unseen, nonmaterial factor. For instance, it was discovered not too long ago that the part of the brain that processes religious experience is also that which handles the immune system. This could account for many instantaneous, spirituality-related healings such as at Lourdes (which are, often, of immune-system-related problems). This does not imply that spiritual experiences are illusions, only that they have discovered (or think they have discovered) the part of the brain which perceives and processes the event.

As a person in a multiple system, and an outworlder (walk-in) at that, I can tell you that I believe I have a soul. I was certainly raised to believe in the soul's existence as well as its care and feeding, if you will. ;) Faith is often a matter of going by the evidence of one's personal experience. And the spiritual experiences that are of the most value are often the most personal.

Ah, I'm rambling.

Perhaps you're rambling, but it's a ramble I'd like to hear more of.

As for spiritual experiences, I've had many, but it seems I'm incapable of pure belief. Of abandoning my doubt and believing fully.

*sighs and closes his eyes*

The closeest thing I've been able to come up with for a belief system is that all things that are believed are real, and the more believed they are the more "real" they then are.

Or to put it as I heard it once before (don't remember the source), "Is the thought of a Unicorn a real thought?" I think it is, and I think Unicorns are real, even if they aren't physical because they "kick back" when pushed. Maybe I need to read some Jung.