Dissociative identity disorder and religion

[The Gopher]

Just a bit of background



[FONT=&quot]“What is dissociative identity disorder?[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]Dissociative identity disorder (DID) is a mental illness that involves the sufferer experiencing at least two clear identities or personality states, also called alters, each of which has a fairly consistent way of viewing and relating to the world. Some individuals with DID have been found to have personality states that have distinctly different ways of reacting, in terms of emotions, pulse, blood pressure, and blood flow to the brain. This disorder was formerly called multiple personality disorder (MPD) and is often referred to as split personality disorder. “[/FONT]


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Wasn’t sure if I should put this in religion but as I don’t want a religious debate it is here.


I was looking at (DID) and I wondered what would happen if one Identity believed in Christianity and one was an atheist and one Buddhist or something. What would happen in a Christian or other religion point of view when they died? (I didn’t ask for an atheist view although you are welcome as it is obvious.)

*manic laughter fades out*

edit my view is it can't happen

 

[cheese]

Well, a certain brand of christian would believe these 'other personalities' to be the result of demon possession, and therefore not actual human souls - so only the original person would go to heaven.

 

[The Gopher]

odd branch but cool.

 

[wadlez]

LOL, Awesome thinking.
Answer that resident intpforum religious nuts (da blob etc).

I like to ask Christians questions like this, if only to annoy them. I like to ask if dogs go to heaven or if someone who has been genetically modified with the arm of a monkey would go to heaven, then build up their monkeyness to see at which point they lose there soul.

Remember that the rules which govern these religions are perpetually changing and arbitrary

 

[fenofeno]

Wow, that's a very very interesting thought, I actually wonder the same thing, now.
I think you'd be alright in Catholicism if you had MPD, but I'm not sure about regular Christianity.

 

[Wizardry]

Interesting thought. But it would sort of depend on the rules I imagine. Main rule of the Chrisitian God is to put no other gods before him, accept him in your heart...yada, yada. Perhaps it would depend on which personality was expressed/active the most?

Anyway, in olden days the notion of God was simply the great "good" the higher voice in your mind. It was believed that everyone had a sort of personal god of their mind that they could actively talk to that was uniquely theirs (or something like that, interesting stuff about the bicameral mind and early consciousness). But as people evolved so too did their religious beliefs.

 

[mke2686]

Just a bit of background



[FONT=&quot]“What is dissociative identity disorder?[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]Dissociative identity disorder (DID) is a mental illness that involves the sufferer experiencing at least two clear identities or personality states, also called alters, each of which has a fairly consistent way of viewing and relating to the world. Some individuals with DID have been found to have personality states that have distinctly different ways of reacting, in terms of emotions, pulse, blood pressure, and blood flow to the brain. This disorder was formerly called multiple personality disorder (MPD) and is often referred to as split personality disorder. “[/FONT]


[FONT=&quot]
[/FONT]
Wasn’t sure if I should put this in religion but as I don’t want a religious debate it is here.


I was looking at (DID) and I wondered what would happen if one Identity believed in Christianity and one was an atheist and one Buddhist or something. What would happen in a Christian or other religion point of view when they died? (I didn’t ask for an atheist view although you are welcome as it is obvious.)

*manic laughter fades out*

edit my view is it can't happen

ok let me start by saying im not very spiritual but im open to anything that being said WHAT IF? multiple personality disorders are really more than one soul (if there is such a thing) inhabiting one body and each soul takes control at a different point of time??? lol i love being able to dream up crazy ideas =)

 

[Chimera]

I had a friend with DID; two alters are agnostic/athiest, one is christian (I don't know what specific kind), I don't know about the others. It's definitely possible.
As an athiest (of a sort), I'm inclined to say their consciousnesses will fade and their body will decompose.
Really since I was friends with 4 of them, and to me they were completely different people, the question is the same as if you'd picked a handful of "normal" people who believe different things and asked what happens when they die. Even if I were still christian, I would say that according to how they lived, some would go to Heaven and some would go to Hell. Now, if the different deities of religions and afterlifes and such existed, I would say that they would be judged according to whichever religion they ascribed to and go to the respective afterlife.​

 

[The Gopher]

Thats an interesting thought. How did you tell which alter he was though? It must have been confusing.

 

[Chimera]

I have ridiculous intuition. There were a few times when I couldn't say for sure who I was talking to though, and at that point I just asked.
As a side note, they were biologically female, though 3 of the alters I knew identified themselves as male.
​

 

[Melkor]

I'm going to be honest...

I've never really liked Melkor....

 

[Glordag]

Since only one personality can be active at a time, is it possible that only one "soul" would be active at a time? In this case, maybe whichever soul were active at the exact moment of death (whatever that would be) would win out. Perhaps they would have an epic battle to the lack of existence at the final hour. Someone needs to make a movie or anime out of this concept. GO!

 

[Jennywocky]

Since only one personality can be active at a time, is it possible that only one "soul" would be active at a time? In this case, maybe whichever soul were active at the exact moment of death (whatever that would be) would win out. Perhaps they would have an epic battle to the lack of existence at the final hour. Someone needs to make a movie or anime out of this concept. GO!

Which could really suck if you didn't know the rules and you were one of the souls who missed the Final Battle...

 

[Trebuchet]

Since only one personality can be active at a time, is it possible that only one "soul" would be active at a time? In this case, maybe whichever soul were active at the exact moment of death (whatever that would be) would win out. Perhaps they would have an epic battle to the lack of existence at the final hour. Someone needs to make a movie or anime out of this concept. GO!

I'm not convinced that only one person can be active at one time. Astraea is a group that has a great website covering the subject, and that doesn't sound like their experience. They also disagree with it being necessarily a disorder, and in their own case say that it is their natural state. While I haven't met them personally, they sure come across as different people on their various websites, and I take them at their word that they are different people.

On the subject of how people's souls will be judged, if you believe in God, wouldn't you also believe that God created the situation, and could handle a bunch of judgments instead of 1, and that the final judgment is way out of our league as humans? I'm not Christian, but it always seems to me that if God is mysterious and infinite, then we can't possibly predict or understand divine intentions or judgments. We can only understand the Universe based on what we can observe, and we can't observe heaven. Maybe someone who is Christian could show me what I'm missing.

 

[Glordag]

I'm not convinced that only one person can be active at one time. Astraea is a group that has a great website covering the subject, and that doesn't sound like their experience. They also disagree with it being necessarily a disorder, and in their own case say that it is their natural state. While I haven't met them personally, they sure come across as different people on their various websites, and I take them at their word that they are different people.

On the subject of how people's souls will be judged, if you believe in God, wouldn't you also believe that God created the situation, and could handle a bunch of judgments instead of 1, and that the final judgment is way out of our league as humans? I'm not Christian, but it always seems to me that if God is mysterious and infinite, then we can't possibly predict or understand divine intentions or judgments. We can only understand the Universe based on what we can observe, and we can't observe heaven. Maybe someone who is Christian could show me what I'm missing.

Interesting. You're right, I suppose that there's nothing keeping more than one personality from being active at once.

I asked my Christian friend about this, and she said the following:

i would lean towards the person would go to heaven because i would say the other personalities besides the christian one would be demonically influenced.. so when they are in their right state of mind so to speak.. they were a christian. and sinning and whatnot does not keep you out of heaven.

 

[cheese]

"sinning and whatnont"

But yeah, demonic possession - that's where it's at.

Trebuchet, I agree with what you said about our capacity to understand God and the Divine Decision-making Process being extremely limited. It's always bugged me that people use their own disagreements with whichever God's way of doing things as a reason to discard him. I've certainly been wrong, misguided or even completely blind enough times in my life to suspect that, if there truly is a Greater Being, I'd be way out of my league in understanding and subsequently judging it. Not to mention that they judge God's 'morals' on their own system of morality which in their own experience has hitherto only been applied to peers, ie not heavenly beings who are presumably perfect and therefore not limited by the same safeguards against hypocrisy and other imperfect-being failings ["don't judge because you yourself aren't perfect" is an example of something that simply wouldn't apply]. Who knows if human morality has anything to do with divinity? [much longer argument that became irrelevant] In conclusion, I really do believe McDonald's should be forcibly driven out of business, and the unused cows trained as circus assistants.

 

[echoplex]

I've never known anyone with DID but I've known people who are full of doubt about what they believe and I've wondered the same thing. What about the self-professed Christian who appears to hold contradicting views within the same conversation? What about those who believe in things by faith they simultaneously view as scientifically impossible/unlikely? What about those who avoid certain topics in order to keep feelings of doubt at bay?

Regarding DID, wouldn't it be that a sufferer cannot possibly believe anything (in the traditional sense, at least) and thus couldn't be judged by criteria designed for those capable of 'true' belief? Surely a god who's worth anything would realize that. Or maybe there are common threads the multiple personalities share that would be judged. The unfaithful/sinful/etc. aspects of the varying personalities would be forgiven so long as the commonalities meet a certain criteria.

Or maybe I'm silly to expect such a thing to work like a court of law, as if it can be measured by human logic. Things like belief and faith are hard to quantify anyway. What does it mean for anyone (let alone DIDers) to believe anything?

 

[cheese]

chimera: Were the alters significantly different in personality from each other? (Not just what beliefs they held/gender.) Were mannerisms different? Speech styles? Intelligence? General behaviour? Body language?

I've never personally known anyone with DID.

echoplex, very interesting questions. No answers as of yet.