Mooooooore skeptism

[withfangs.livejournal.com]

Please bear with me. My boy, Max, posted here a while ago, in regards to me, and he's trying to push me more into having conversations with others about my own doubts with multiplicity.

When I was young, I began studying other religions, and I really became interested in spirituallity. Along the way, I discovered two others living within. Really, this is just background information, so no know thinks I'm trying to troll or rag on the community. I've been aware of my own multiplicity for a number of years. I also see my multiplicity as a means to my own personal spirituallity. That is, I don't have a set religion, but I see the presence of and communication with my system as being a self-enlightening, holy experience.

I see this huge resurgance of multiples on the internet, and it makes me skeptical. NOT, because of the fact that their multiples. I wouldn't call someone out on being a "fake". But, the way some of these systems carry on, it makes me wonder how they can reasonably function.

I'm going to point the finger at soulbonding, because it seems to be the means of multiplicity that houses the greatest number of loonies. I can accept, per se, that another has entered your system, and is a bad influence, and perhaps is forcing your body and system down a bad path. I can not, however, accept that this entity causing harm is, say, Sephiroth from the Final Fantasy games. That, is insane. Final Fantasy is fiction. It may very well be an entity that projects images OF Sephiroth into your mind, but part of gaining some feasible aspect of functional control over yourselves, is seeing through the bullshit.

I have trouble with people who play INTO that bullshit, by extension. Not only do they seem to be the loudest group of loons, but they're also impossible to have a reasonable discussion with. Everything boils down to "it's different for everyone", which is great for upholding any kind of deluded fantasy that you might have, but really, isn't productive for conversation.

Especially...if you're attempting to learn something, or see if they have a reason to act the way that they do.

Are there any rational, sane soulbonds, here? If so, do they honestly believe that they're fictional characters? This seems to be the most levelheaded community about plurality on LJ that we can find, so I figure it would be the best place to start.

Comments

Part Two

[pengke.livejournal.com]

This brings us to the issue of multiples who claim to soulbond and soulbonders who claim to be multiple. Now of course, members of a multiple system and groups as a whole are just as likely to have imaginary friends as the next person. You also have the possibility of members of a system starting to express themselves through writing or role playing as a character and getting pigeon holed into being that character. You can also have people who convince themselves or others that they really are this character because they've never had to opportunity to build any real identity of their own. Or maybe when the person was being created the other system member used a fictional character as a template. You can't really tell someone that doesn't have a physical body that they can't see themselves as a fictional character any more than you can tell someone that they can't identify as a dragon. Believing or claiming that they were channeled into the system is a way for them to validate or reaffirm their identity. Adding in that it is an alternate reality gives them the freedom to ignore the real character. Plus we’re making the assumption that these people really are multiple when the possibility that you’re talking about someone who is confused or making things up is equally likely.

Similarly, not all of the soulbonders who claim to be multiple really are. They’ve either jumped the bandwagon or gotten confused by terminology that sounds similar but really isn’t. It’s very common to hear people talk about their soulbonds fronting when a lot of them describe very different experiences and fewer seem to really grasp the concept. Anyone who wanders into this community looking to explore the possibility that they could be multiple will always find an affirmative answer. Sometimes the soulbonders are really multiple but they’ve been using the concept of soulbonding and the image of fictional characters to relate to their system members. Sometimes it’s hard for those people to let go of the fictional characters because it would mean losing membership in the soulbonding community.

The bad system member causing problems is a common multiple stereotype. It’s an easy way for soulbonders to seem more multiple. It adds to the whole separate person image because the soulbonder would never want anyone to act out, or so people would assume. It’s also a way to avoid responsibility. So-and-so just happens to do all of the bad things that the soulbonder (or the multiple) wants to do but can’t. Plus it’s the type of thing that spreads and feeds on itself. No one is ever questioned and there’s always a waiting excuse. When others see the validation that this person gets, then others want to have the same experience. Eventually it becomes a community norm.