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Originally Posted by Ken G
I was acting on the assumption that a self-described "demonic possession" is generally a mental construct of someone who could not face the reality of their own behavior. A cynical view, perhaps.
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Ah, I see what you mean. One wonders to what extent that manoeuvre would be successful, internally: if the continuity of self would acquire a retrospective break, or if the denier is still aware of continuity at some level.
At a more mundane level, does everyone who behaves appallingly when drunk really "remember nothing" in the morning?
Quote:
Originally Posted by Ken G
I was thinking more of situations where the psyche might intentionally break its concept of continuity for self-preservation of a perceived identity, as in, perhaps, a multiple personality disorder.
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Yeah, MPD; or to give it its new name,
dissociative identity disorder. It's tricky example, since it's extremely rare and of dubious status as a clinical entity. There are arguments (which I find fairly convincing) that it's iatrogenic, or at least built up in a sort of collusion between patient and therapist.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Ken G
A fascinating (albeit horrendous) condition, one wonders why you would associate "yourself" with something other than the "original" you. One wonders how you managed to reunite without seeming like an "invader" to the original you.
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Well, I can shed no light on the first question. It's just the experience I had, a strong component of which was the sense that I was outside myself: that the original "me" was still in charge of things, and that I had slipped out of register with "me". I've spoken to a couple of other people who've had similar experiences after long periods of exertion and sleep deprivation in endurance sports. But they both describe "out of body" experiences, without any sense of "lost self": they just drifted along while their body did the work, unsupervised. Both found it rather pleasant, since they were isolated from the pain and exertion.
My own experience involved four days in the Scottish Highlands in which I climbed a lot of hills in horrible weather, got very wet and tired, missed a lot of sleep, didn't eat very well, and finally had my tent shredded by the wind. So I set off in a moderate storm to walk to the nearest town. Initially I struggled through deep heather in the dark, falling frequently, and promising myself a rest when I got to a path several miles away. Eventually I stepped out on to the path, thought "Right, I'll sit down" and just carried on walking. That (of course!) was the point at which I had the very strong sensation of having come unstuck from myself.
I "got back in again" as I approached the lights of the road, when I began to panic that the "I" in charge might just walk straight out into such negligible traffic as there might be on a Highland road at four in the morning. There was a bit of a psychic lurch, and there I was again, with tarmac hard under my feet, the road lights very bright, and the sound of the river very loud. My legs were
very tired.
I don't see this as any sort of mystical experience, and I wasn't in any sort of "do or die" survival situation: it would have made much more sense to find a bit of shelter by the path, brew up a hot drink and eat the last of the chocolate before starting off for the road. It seems like I just got hit by a variant of the more "usual" out-of-body experience reported by tired people who are still exerting themselves.
Grant Hutchison