Those who dissociate have several factors in common that do not exist in the population as a whole. This constitutes a large group of people. No one really knows how many people dissociate; however, we know some of the factors that people have in common who suffer from Dissociative Identity Disorder, also called Multiple Personality Disorder.
Inherent Personal Factors
All people who dissociate have the hereditary ability to dissociate. This characteristic therefore runs in families. It is not uncommon to find whole families who dissociate to the point of dysfunction. To dissociate means that these individuals are able to separate parts of their personality from the whole. Usually these parts are traumatized in some manner. The trauma memories are assigned to the separated part and are hidden from the dissociating person himself. It’s out of sight and out of mind. That part continues to exist and function, but in the sphere of the sub-conscious. However, that dissociated part can be triggered into the person’s consciousness by similar events and situations that split off the parts in the first place.
The split off parts are called by two names: alters or personalities. These are used interchangeably. When these alters are triggered up, i.e. into the person’s consciousness, they manifest just as they are. Most of the time, the alters manifest in discreet, subtle ways and are not noticeable to most people. However, inside the body, the change is quite marked. There are reasons for this.
Why Inner Changes Are So Marked
When a personality is formed for him or her, the moment is frozen in history. The alter that is formed stays that same age from then on. If the trauma occurred as a child, the alter will think, act, and feel like a child. The chronological age of the person may be true to their birthdate, but the child will not get older, mature and change. Everything is fixed in place. If the child in an adult body is triggered up, whoever is interacting with that person will be dealing with a child.
In the person who dissociates, there will be both male and female personalities. The most plausible understanding of this is that the alters are formed from the X or Y chromosomes. We all have male and female chromosomes in us. Without this fact, we could not procreate male and female offspring. The man and woman are enough like each other to relate physically, and enough difference exists so that the male produces sperms. The female ovulates so that the two may conceive a child of either gender. In the vast majority of humanity, maleness and femaleness follows the physiological aspects of the person. It is statistically true that about 50% of the population is male and the other 50% is female. The exceptions to this do not make the rule.
Programming of Personalities is Ongoing
Alters are often abused and brainwashed to the point of gross antisocial behavior. This brainwashing results in programmed behavior that is always dysfunctional and disruptive to the person’s life and psyche. The programming follows closely to the traumas of verbal, emotional, psychological, sexual, physical, satanic and religious abuse. There are whole groups of people who are motivated to abuse others, split off alters and program them to antisocial behavior These people seek out children to abuse through social institutions that are used as a covering for their evil behaviors. All of this has been well documented in many court cases.
At a Deeper and More Hidden Level
There is also abuse going on at a very deep and hidden level. This is where treatment modalities cross over into the spiritual. All dissociated people seem to be intelligent and very spiritually attuned. Many are also very artistic. Many of the dissociated make known to their counselor the existence of spiritual bodiless beings that hurt and force them to do evil and wicked things. These bodiless beings are called variously demons, Satan, spirits of the dead, and alien human spirits. These work in the spiritual, non-material levels of reality. It is for this reason that this counselor uses the Bible as the basis of truth and reality. Biblical reality based on the Scripture of the Bible allows the counselor to work at the spiritual level. The counselor does not designate the atypical descriptions of the person’s life as hallucinations, but real and true descriptions of reality. As Pierre Janet, the first to document Multiple Personality Disorder, has said, “These people are to be believed until what they say has been disproved.”
