Couple of questions...

[interfaceleader.livejournal.com]

How do you feel the physical body impacts upon the conciousness? Particulary in cases where the gender/species/age is radically different, I imagine this can have some quite profound effects on the way you interact with, or view the world?

Would you say there are degrees of 'seperateness' (can't think of a better word)? Or is just one person, two people, three people etc? If there are sort of grey 'blendy' areas, where do you consider the line between the different roles one person plays, and their being a whole seperate person should be drawn?

With regards system members that are much younger than their host bodies, do you ever find it difficult dealing with the lack of adult-free space? (I have a friend who is bedridden, and her parents are constantly around. This means she can never really establish any kind of independence, which I think is really important for younger people?)

Have any of you ever found positive models of multiplicty in the media? That is... not the whole good side/evil side stuff that seems to dominate the fiction I've read.

Danke :)

Comments

[tej-agni.livejournal.com]

We're getting ready to head out on holiday, but I'll take a moment to answer some questions for us.

How do you feel the physical body impacts upon the conciousness? Particulary in cases where the gender/species/age is radically different, I imagine this can have some quite profound effects on the way you interact with, or view the world?

I think an important factor in this would be 'how long has an individual been fronting?' Someone who isn't that experienced at performing tasks while using the body may notice certain things that a more experienced fronter may already be used to. Like: gender differences, body appearance differences. That in itself could take a long while to be accustomed to and be very distracting while trying to do whatever it is they may be wanting to do. At the other extreme, one who fronts very often or is one of the only solo-fronters, may have made the body so much their own in their mind that they want the body to match themselves (since they are using it so often). And there are various other instances along the middle.

In our group, we try to go with the notion (lately) that the body is a costume. We don't view it as carelessly as a costume, and actually view it as very important for us to reach this realm, but if some in our group have a difficult time at first adjusting to the body's appearance or lack of talents they may have in our realm, it does help to remind them that it's a mask or a costume. That way they can feel comfortable doing whatever task they want to do without worrying that the body is really them. We got the idea from Halloween. Put on a costume, but you are still you underneath.

Would you say there are degrees of 'seperateness' (can't think of a better word)? Or is just one person, two people, three people etc? If there are sort of grey 'blendy' areas, where do you consider the line between the different roles one person plays, and their being a whole seperate person should be drawn?

Our group has separate individuals who are very separate from the others. We also have smaller groups within the group where there are a small handful who are connected to each other, but can also be separate from each other. There are also a few who are very connected to each other as to be almost indistinguishable. Some also visit our realm to stay with us, and some come and go whenever they wish.

When one in our group has identified themselves as being separate (as has happened with us yesterday) and they discover themselves as their own person wanting to make their own decisions, we make sure that they aren't too overwhelmed and support them in any way we can. It can be exciting, freeing, and frightening to realize that even though you are part of the whole group, that suddenly you are separate, yet not alone.

A big initiation in our group is being named. Names are very important to us. Names are our strength and we proudly display them because it both empowers and protects us. Some in our group feel as though they aren't alive or real unless they have a name they can share with the world. It's embarrassing sometimes during times when we do become "smooshed/blendy" to not know what our name is. It might not be embarrassing for others, but we become embarrassed by that. It took alot for us to create an Anonymous journal (kasiya_pickles) for those of us who want to type something but aren't sure who they are at the time. It's a cultural quirk for our group.

With regards to system members that are much younger than their host bodies, do you ever find it difficult dealing with the lack of adult-free space?

Kalli: I'm 9 most of the time. I like who I am and I like being a mage and I like my dragonfly wings. I like being here to do things like playing Pokemon and watching anime and watching Pokemon but I don't like doing most those things if some one else is around me that doesn't know. Most no body knows. I don't like people to look at me weird and I always watch to see if any one is watching me. Ashley doesn't care. She's 4 and will do her normal things and Ian does to but we hardly ever are our selves with other people around. We really get to scared to do it I think.XOXOXOXOXO Kalli

Pepper, Amalah, Jenilee, Kasia

[eridanusus.livejournal.com]

lol I miss pokemon! I am going to ask someone to download an emulator and the files for me so I can play later, but it'll be after Kei finishes her writing and after Datharin makes some icons I think.

[kangetsuhime.livejournal.com]

How do you feel the physical body impacts upon the conciousness? Particulary in cases where the gender/species/age is radically different, I imagine this can have some quite profound effects on the way you interact with, or view the world?

In the short term, reasonabley little. Anybody who's fronting has to 'deal with' in some way, the body's cheistry and neural wiring and everything, but it doesn't seem to impact on them much. In the long term (eg, me) it seems to impact a lot. I'm still the grumpy aggressive and withdrawn person I always was, just, now with added Mature Young Adult. As if I needed any more of that (long story).

I think if you're using the body constantly, it does rub off. If you're only using it every so often, all that *really* seems to cause trouble is drastically different hard to avoid things. Like this body apparently has AS, so no matter what, anybody who fronts properly has to deal with that. Whereas from what we can gather, gender and age take more time to have an impact. But I might be wrong, maybe I'm just not noticing.


Would you say there are degrees of 'seperateness' (can't think of a better word)? Or is just one person, two people, three people etc? If there are sort of grey 'blendy' areas, where do you consider the line between the different roles one person plays, and their being a whole seperate person should be drawn?

We generally hold that, no matter how blendy we get (we're not sure at this point whether Lu and I *could* function seperately, though we probably could if we could get through the initial breakdown), we're still 'seperate people'. Even if we end up such that we can't seperate, we'd hold to that.

We've never had someone for 'a role' so we wouldn't know. I think I would probably draw the line at the point at which said role individual could turn around and say "This fucking sucks." That seems a fairly decent way to do it to me :P (disclaimer: not meaning people who have severe psychological difficulties and/or like their job aren't people etc etc)


When it becomes an issue, adult-free space may be created here. I personally have nothing against attached kids.

[duckbunny.livejournal.com]

I seem to cope reasonably well with having a female body - though I do get a little freaked by period pain because it's utterly unfamiliar. The pain is in muscles that in my mind I don't have.
Actually it's age that't the unavoidable thing for us. We are aging with the body and always have. ('We' here being the two main fronts, not all three of us.)
As for the role/person question...We have a member who is ten, tops, it's a bit fuzzy, and he is sitting right on that boundary. Sometimes he seems to be an individual, other times he's more like a subset of instinct. But because he is sometimes a person, we think of him as one all the time - just one who sleeps a lot.
I don't think he has a problem with being constantly in adult company, partly because he tends to be most...focused...when there's something for him to do. In between times all the adult stuff doesn't bother him because he doesn't really notice.
We've never found positive multipliciy in the media, but we haven't been looking for it either.

[matrexsvigil.livejournal.com]

I'll let everyone answer for themselves, at least those that feel like talking.

Me: Since I'm in my body fronting 99% of the time, it's a big deal for me. I'm also the original (is that the right term?), so no matter how I pretend I'm different on the inside, I'm always going to be me outside. Being a therianthrope complicates things, as when I shift, I tend to expect scales, killing claws, a tail, and different set of senses (Utahraptor ftw!).

Andre: Despite being a expectation shape-changing lust demon, I am still incredibly male. I have been here for a very long time and done the most 'fronting', so I have learned to accept the female body and it's size, shape, color, hair, eyes, etc., etc. Although, I admit that I sometimes 'take advantage' of the fact that this body is female. -grins.-

Seth: Uh, yeah, the few times I've fronted, its been very strange. As a guy, its odd to find out I have bewbs and a lack of equipment downstairs. Its disturbing to say the least.

Matrexs: I find the fact that the body is overweight to be the most disturbing. Inside, I am physically fit, highly attractive, and very strong. This body is...weak.

Dragon: I find that Pam's mind--her phobias and what she has been taught in school (and taken to heart) affects us the most. Take the way most of us type (with a few exceptions); we all use correct puncuation, grammar, and spelling. Pam considers herself to be an English major, despite no longer going to college.

Also, Pam's phobias seem to affect us, at least on a basic level. I am a dragon, but I am leery and jittery around needles and sometimes spiders. It doesn't make much sense, but I believe these emotional responses have been hardwired into her brain. Since we use her brain and body to interact with the world, we must enure her physiological responses.

Most of the Totems, including myself, have shaped a human form inside our shared mindscape/astral realm. This is something we did gradually, in order to get accustomed to behaving like a human. It is difficult to be taught how to drive, if you are so used to flying or swimming for example.

Red-Tailed Hawk: I front only when asked. I cannot deal with the inability to fly for any length of time. Inside I am free to fly as I wish.

Dolphin: Im glad there are no blendy times with us. Merging with Andre or Matrexs would be a prety bad time Id think. I like fronting because I love to talk. Pams body is only a problem when guys hit her (or her fiancay) cause it really creeps me out.

-P.C.

--"Off the Pink."--

[posywink.livejournal.com]

Well, gender has a huge impact on us. When our males drive, they're often not as assertive or direct as they'd like to be. Strangely, the physical aspects of the female body don't impact us that much. It's the fact that as a female, we are perceived as kind-hearted, sociable, and not all that competent. For those of us who are used to commanding a bit more respect, this part of fronting can be difficult.

As for age and species, well, as of this writing, we're all humans who are within four years or so of the body, so that part of your question really doesn't apply to us.

Blending? Yeah, we do have our blendy moments. But we consider this an aid to fronting because it's very hard for one of us to occupy the driver's seat all by himself/herself. Even if we're presenting a group identity to the world at large, we're still separate people in headspace.

And we did have a couple of teenagers on board not too long ago, but they wound up leaving - the lack of adult-free space was getting to them. They had to act thirty while fronting, which didn't work out. Also, having a teenaged presence in the system wasn't having a positive impact on us. We found ourselves rehashing some immature ideas and habits, which was definitely not good.

-- Jerry and Eugene

[mylittlebox.livejournal.com]

Race and gender play a big role. I'm a short white girl, and Auroch is a huge, muscular black/middle-eastern man. We could get ourselves into a LOT of trouble, if we weren't as careful as we are. But then again, Auroch involves himself very little in African American culture or history, so it's much easier to avoid conflict alltogether.

[sethrenn.livejournal.com]

Degrees of separateness. Totally degrees of separateness.

In fact, we had to get out of the "everyone takes turns being singlet" model because it was causing so much stress on people, both from having to stay at front alone all the time, and because of people flipping out and worrying that they "might not be real after all" if things got too blendy or unorthodox or people overlapped in a way they never had before. Which seems pretty silly, in retrospect, to worry about it like that, but when you still can't quite shake the "nobody knows about anyone else" model, maybe understandable.

Physical body affecting us individually --> that's a much longer reply, so I'll, uh, get to that later tonight, as we're not up to it right now.

[ridetothesea.livejournal.com]

I think the physical body impacts upon consciousness because everybody has to deal with the restraints of the physical body, and different people chose to do this in different ways. I'm not certain that it has profoundly changed anyone here, but it has given them a different view of the world, because it's seen from a different perspective than they are used to it. But it's still up to the individual to decide how much this will effect them. Some people here see it as a nuisance, some people see it as an opportunity to learn.

For us it's definitely degrees of separateness, especially when it comes to the main frontrunners. Most of the time, those at front are in that grey blendy area, and it can be a little hard to tell where the lines are. But we are still separate people, and can step back and separate. It's just seems to be natural for us to front in groups, and that almost always leads to blendiness of one degree or another.

As for the media, the first positive one that comes to mind was a multiple portrayed in Terry Pratchett's Thud!.

Vimes stared. "Are you telling me you're two people? With one body?"

"Yes, dear. It's supposed to be an illness, but all I can say is we've always got along well."

[rabbitsystem.livejournal.com]

I'd forgotten that. He also wrote Agnes and Perdita, and I'm sure there's another example, too.

[lydiabutterfly.livejournal.com]

we live alone so if you wanna be alone in the body its ok but if you wanna have frends your age thats harder.

[liliana-warsaw.livejournal.com]

How do you feel the physical body impacts upon the conciousness? Particulary in cases where the gender/species/age is radically different, I imagine this can have some quite profound effects on the way you interact with, or view the world?

With us, the main co-fronter here is male. He can disassociate himself enough from the body that he can ignore the physical differences. However, if he tries to speak with the body it makes him feel odd because of the higher female voice. The first time he tried it he nearly jumped out of our skin it startled him so badly. He's also noticed that since I'm about 4 inches shorter than him, he feels like a midget if he's doing something like driving where hieght is very noticable.

Would you say there are degrees of 'seperateness' (can't think of a better word)? Or is just one person, two people, three people etc? If there are sort of grey 'blendy' areas, where do you consider the line between the different roles one person plays, and their being a whole seperate person should be drawn?

With us we're all separate people. We do get blendy at times. Whoever is strongest will be the one saying who they are, but we'll always say we're feeling blendy. Mostly because we worry that we sound strange, and want people to know why. We don't worry too much about roles here. We have a system guardian and we all have different things that we're good at that we try to take care of, but that's as extensive as it gets for us.

[ex-pinkmonk.livejournal.com]

We don't run into too many problems with House's body - we've made our peace with what it is and have learned to work with it (wasn't always that way). I'm the only sexually active alter, so that's where things go all wonky. When I'm fronting, I can tell there's supposed to be a penis there, but there's not. Being penetrated any way is distressing to me, so I try to be careful about being "out" when House is having sex. I would love to have a boyfriend, but it's not so easy...House's boyfriend is sympathetic, but not gay. I don't think anyone would take me seriously if I tried to find someone in this body. :p

~Joely

[ikeru.livejournal.com]

it is strange, to be in a wrong body with a wrong brain. there is much muscle memory, and emotionalmuscle memory, which i have to notice and be careful of because it is not Me, it is only The Body. many times i must ask, is this an ikeru thing to do? or is this only a thing which the body has done for years without me? and many times i have an instant reaction to something, and regard it with sadness, because it was not my true reaction, only a quick Bodyreaction. there is often a feeling of being betrayed by the body. i must practice a level of dissociation from what i see in the mirror, or it alarms and frustrates me. sometimes i am so dismayed at my reflection that i do not want people to see me, it is work to split off those feelings, and often i am still insecure.

we are fully each different people, mostly, except i have my own people who are me but in a "we" sense. there is also blendiness all around, with the people who are not ikeru, and there is cofronting, but still we are are fully individual. our preferred method is to front singly when with outside people, and to be blendy or single as we please when we are alone.

we have not found good plural media models, aite.