Artwork by Viktoryia Kryvanos
Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID, formerly called Multiple Personality Disorder) shows us the true power of belief.
People with DID have at least two distinct personalities. That means completely different people can occupy the very same physical body. When one “takes over” from another, often the difference in personality is discernible to his or her loved ones not only personality-wise, but also physically.
There was a case in which one personality was allergic to orange juice and the other was not, both in the same body. When the immune personality was inhabiting the body, there was no reaction at all to orange juice. However, when the allergic personality would consume orange juice, his body would break out into hives. Further, if the allergic personality would take over even during digestion of orange juice, not having consumed it himself, his body would break out into hives. And then if the immune personality took over, the itching and even the hives would subside. All in the same physical body.
In some cases one personality is colorblind and the other is not. In other cases two or more personalities require different prescriptions for their glasses, and sometimes their eye color is even different. These are all documented cases, and there are thousands more if you care to research them. (Sources noted at the bottom.)
The point is that within one body, two or more distinct personalities can directly alter the body’s physiology depending on who is “in charge”. This is proof that our minds control our bodies. Proof that it is possible to change our physiology with our thoughts and beliefs. Proof that we can cure ourselves of ailments if only we can change our beliefs. The multiple personalities who believe they have a certain allergy do have it, even though their bodies alone don’t necessarily react to the allergen.
Of course, it’s easier for someone with DID to display these physiological changes than it is for the average person who has only one personality. Those with DID easily, necessarily, and immediately switch their core beliefs by switching their personalities, whether or not it’s voluntary. It’s not so easy for us (assuming we don’t have DID) to make such a switch, but it is possible.
People with DID don’t just believe they do or don’t have an allergy. They know it. Knowing something is the deepest level of belief, and it’s not easy to change, sometimes even in the face of evidence to the contrary of that supposed knowledge. You can believe anything, no matter how ridiculous it may seem to others, and if you believe it to the point where you know it’s true, it will be true for you. Reality is subjective. But the subconscious mind is tough to change, even tougher to fool, so if you consider a belief like elephants can fly, or two plus two equals five, you won’t be able to convince yourself of it no matter how hard you try. You’ve never seen evidence of it or even a valid supporting argument, and every shred of evidence and logic you’ve ever known has shown that it is impossible for elephants to fly, and impossible for two plus two to equal five.
So it is with your allergies, eye color, or any physical manifestation you can think of. They’re all deeply ingrained in us to the point that we know we have or do not have them. Thankfully, with allergies and other physiological issues, the belief of their existence is not on as deep a level as the very obvious, basic beliefs that elephants cannot fly and two plus two equals four.
Hopefully after reading this your deleterious beliefs about your physiology will be even less set in stone.
In this post about the placebo effect, I discussed a few cases of patients who rid themselves of terminal diseases by changing their thoughts. If patients with terminal cancer have cured themselves via thought alone, and people with DID can change supposedly unchangeable physical characteristics, that means we, the fortunate ones whose main worries are allergies, sicknesses, or whatever less severe ailments we may have, are fully capable of healing ourselves by adopting beneficial thoughts and beliefs.
And if this is the case, imagine how much easier it is to change the harmful beliefs given to us by society and/or the media: the economy is collapsing; global warming will end life as we know it; you’re not successful unless you’re married with kids in a house with two cars; being gay is good/bad; abortion is good/ok/bad/murder; you need to get a job and work until the age of 65; and others. For each of these types of beliefs, there are plenty of valid arguments for each side, so all we have to do is determine which belief would be most beneficial, then adopt the belief. Or, with regard to current events, ignore them altogether. That’s always an option.
There are deeper, more far-reaching beliefs that affect our very being which we can either shun or embrace. I’ll use my favorite example, materialism, which is the belief that physical reality is all there is to life, consciousness arises from physical matter, and when we die our consciousness is extinguished. I held that belief very strongly for most of my adult life up until perhaps two years ago. I can say definitively that I am generally much, much happier believing, knowing that we are eternal consciousnesses temporarily, willingly immersed in this physical reality. It makes life more of a game, removes the fear of death, diminishes the sadness of loved ones lost, makes one more courageous, kinder, more empathetic, and more loving. These are all good traits to have both for the individual and the world.
How do you go from believing, or knowing one thing to knowing the opposite? By reading and immersing yourself in literature written by intelligent, sane, respectable people. That’s really all you have to do. When you read books and articles written articulately and coherently by authors with certain beliefs, and you keep pounding your mind with their reasoning and beliefs, while keeping an open mind, it’s perhaps impossible not to at least question your beliefs or even outright change them.
So, for example, if you’re a materialist, if you read the books/blogs/articles below, I defy you not to at least question your materialistic beliefs if not outright jump ship:
Proof of Heaven (This one will blow your mind – the story of a neurosurgeon’s near-death experience.)
Seth Speaks
Steve Pavlina’s Blog’s Spirituality Category
Amazing Near-Death Experience: Mellen-Thomas Benedict
www.erinpavlina.com (this one may seem really wacky if you don’t read the others first)
There are thousands of other reputable books and articles you can search and read. Imagine just for a minute if you truly believed, you knew that this life is but a chosen dream of sorts. Imagine how much more fun and less fear you would have as you went through life.
Materialism is just one example, but it ties together closely with DID. The fact that those with DID can immediately and literally change their eye color or their allergies with their beliefs is a testament to the power of belief. Consider how much better you can make your world, your life, by changing your beliefs. It’s much easier to change the belief that you’re not worthy, or that you’ll never be successful, or that you’ll never be good enough, than it is to change the belief that your eyes are blue. And the latter is possible.
Of course, it takes work. But no work is more worthy or more rewarding than this kind of work. It is the work of happiness.
__________
Sources:
Probing the Enigma of Multiple Personality
Multiple Personality Disorder: an alternative theory
Dissociative Disorders: Splitting Consciousness
Header Photo Credit: http://ashish2013dotcom.wordpress.com/2013/08/13/19/
Comments
35 responses to “The Power of Belief: Dissociative Identity Disorder”
Found your blog via r/redkings, and I’m glad I did. This is a very interesting article.
Thanks man, glad you enjoyed it. There’s so much proof out there of how powerful we are. We just need to believe it and make use of the power. It’s in all of us.
In the movie “Lucy”, where Scarlet Johanson gained 100% of her brain, Morgan Freeman made a profound statement:
“It seems we care more about having then being”
When you consider what we’ve done to the planet & the wars that are going on in the world, you have to ask, have we really evolved?
One cannot HAVE without BEING.
If one’s possessions are acquired through personal achievement through honesty, then the care one places in his possessions are directly proportional to the care one places in being. They are one and the same.
If, however, one’s possessions are ill gained, unearned, mooched for (guilted out of), leached (stolen), etc., then value placed upon those possessions will destroy his being.
That’s the part Morgan left out.
Be damn proud of EVERY possession you have earned!
Reality is Objective.
Please don’t misuse ‘True for you’, for subjectivity. DID’s and Placebos ONLY affect the 1st person. They cannot alter external entities by silent belief. Believing or ‘knowing’ that another Black man is White, will not make him White. Believing that gravity will throw a DID patient up will not alter Reality’s objective truth – that he will fall down.
Furthermore, if a DID patient knows that he has a certain physical ability under one personality but not under another, then it is objectively true should the personalities, in fact, render his biology just so. No different to the placebo effect which has been proven to be objectively true.
This may seem like philosophically insignificant chatter, but it is as important as death and life. Plato and Aristotle. Kant and Rand. Communism and Capitalism. Collectivism and Individualism. Enslavement and Freedom. Each tuple mentioned is based upon the polarized effects of Objectivism and Subjectivism.
Our society, in which we enjoy our individual freedoms today (what’s left of them), is only possible due to the rejection of thousands of years of Old World Collectivism by our Founding Fathers.
Please credit me for my artwork. The drawing you are using at the start of your article was created by me, the article you linked didn’t credit me either. Please link to ViktoryiaKryvanos.com.
Done. Sorry about that.
[…] and Its Effects How to Skip a Stone The Power of Belief The Game of Life The Placebo Effect How to Control Your Emotions This Is the Golden Age The […]
Thank you for citing your sources <3
Agreed. Sources were pathetically debunked ages ago
Link(s)?
[…] all, since individuals with dissociative identity disorder can change their eye color and their allergies by sw…, the door to less drastic, belief-influenced physiological changes is wide […]
[…] the body of someone with multiple personality disorder can change its eye color, eyeglass prescrip… immediately depending on which personality is inhabiting it (i.e. depending on the beliefs […]
Here’s a case – my own case – unlike any other I’ve read about (and I’ve searched, believe me – oh, how I’ve searched).
I always knew, somehow – perhaps from birth, for all I know – that everything and anything was possible.
I knew it without a doubt.
Moreover, I lived it: I actually did things that affected my life, my physical environment – including my physical body – in ways that conventional “wisdom” would consider impossible.
Then, something happened. I cannot pinpoint it, but it was probably more than one thing, anyway. Something that made my feel powerless.
Something that, to make a long story short, broke my back, as it were. Almost literally, my “spine” – the spine of my former all-powerful (or close) self – is broken.
I do know, and this is essential, that it has to do with my feeling that I’ve run out of time (on account of my age – not that I am exactly ancient) – that desiring anything for the future is of no use anymore.
And of course, the supreme, and supremely bitter, irony is that I KNOW, without a doubt, that I can change whatever I wish about myself or about the exterior cirumstances of my life.
Yet I cannot make myself do it again. I KNOW I could – yet I do not believe in myself or my own power anymore.
Seeing (or having lived it) is NOT believing, in my case.
It’s as if something had invaded my mind – some parasite.
(I don’t mean it literally, of course – but it does feel that way.)
Do you have any advce for me, please?
Focus as strongly as you can on the memories of the times that you KNEW anything and everything was possible. Remember the specific instances in which you lived that knowledge, re-experience those times in your mind, and dwell on the feelings you had at the time. Within a short time of doing this practice, the knowledge will be yours once again.
Don’t feel bad about losing the knowledge – everyone has doubts sometimes. Understanding and believing in the power of the human mind, and on a higher level, human consciousness, is something we all have to continually work on and remind ourselves of. It’s not as simple or easy as it might seem.
Out of curiosity, can you give examples of those seemingly impossible things you did? I love hearing stories like that.
And as for your desires, the fact that you aren’t doing anything to improve your situation is simply an indication that your desire is not strong enough. And a desire can only not be strong enough if it is the wrong desire. Take some time to think about what you really, truly want, and when you find what that is, inaction will be impossible.
Meditate on what your true desires are. You have all the answers in you. You just need to spend a little time coaxing them out into your conscious mind so you can act on them physically.
H
Have you looked into hypnosis? There really is no better way to get into your subconscious…
I have not. How would I go about it? See a specialist?
Nice article! What can do people with DID is fascinating. I agree with everything you said in your article. I also used to believe that this word was physical, but I don’t really buy into that anymore 😉
[…] Image credit : dingtwist […]
[…] Dissociative Identity Disorder (or split personalities) can be so extreme that one personality can show severe allergic to a substance and the other one will not show any reaction at all.. Ref: http://www.dingtwist.com/power-of-belief-dissociative-identity-disorder/ […]
One of my favorite things to do is introspection. I enjoy studying myself and my ways of thinking, and always work to perfect my state of mind to be as logical as possible. I dissect my thought processes and analyze them. I will use both my (rather limited) knowledge of human psychology and my own observations of both myself and people around me to understand why, say, a certain thought came into my head at a certain time.
Over the years, I’ve come to believe that emotions are, more often than not, obstacles that come in the way of logic and learning. As I value an accurate understanding of the world around me over an emotionally comforting one, I constantly challenge my own emotions whenever they might arise, and work to suppress them however I can to favor a more logical mindset. This, in part, is how I’ve come to accept a nihilistic perspective on life, as I’ve come to understand that the desire for meaning is just that, an emotionally-driven desire holding its grounds in deep-rooted human centrism. I would rather focus on understanding the world around me logically rather than allow an emotional understanding of life to grow inside me and perhaps even take precedence over logic by asking loaded questions (like “what is the meaning of life”.)
As you might have expected, this emotional denial slowly chipped away at my own identity, as over the past few months, I slowly lost more and more of my emotional drives. I used to be able to manage this, as I somehow maintained a loose self of myself, despite almost completely barricading my own emotions away to favor logic and rational inquisition (and even then, I still had the emotional passion for knowledge and the drive to continue inquiring.) Slowly, even that turned into a purely pragmatic desire for understanding. I had managed to turn myself into an emotionless automaton dragging itself through life only for fear of death, constantly analyzing itself and the world around it. I barely managed to hold on to my sense of self.
Given a certain person (other than myself), I will (almost subconsciously) use my understanding of human behaviors to build my own model of understanding of that person’s personality, intelligence and way of thinking based on their external behaviors, essentially performing my own psychiatric evaluation of them. I often contrast my own way of thinking to what I believed was theirs, and if there was ever a difference in personality between them and myself, I would identify what aspect of personality was responsible and try to reconcile the difference by imagining how I could change myself to think like them.
A few weeks ago, I made a realization: so blank was my identity, so fragmented had I become, and such was my understanding of myself and my behaviors, that I could now will myself into being virtually whatever combination of my own cognitive capabilities I wanted to be. If ever a I felt like understanding how, say, my mother thinks, I would almost subconsciously rearrange my mind into thinking/being like her appropriate model (the one I had created based on her external behaviors and my understanding of how they correspond to how she thinks. For the sake of brevity, I will be referring to these simply as “models” from here.) I could do this for virtually anyone. It was like I had a superpower, like I was the absolute master of my own mind. There was no concept I couldn’t understand, no mental task I couldn’t achieve by re-purposing different aspects of my mind and/or rearranging my mental state. Or, so it felt.
But with this came a price. I had been completely fragmented, and was more or less, just a loose, ill-defined mess capable of taking on any mental shape. I had no core beliefs, no core opinions, no personal integrity and no emotional drives. Rather, I could become anything, hold any opinions or beliefs, and take on any personality. I could modulate my own intelligence, but had no desire to either allow it to flourish or decay. To combat this, I began creating a “catalyst” persona. Upon invoking it, I would immediately revert to a select form of mine from which I could then revert to my “true” self. Whenever I felt myself slip back into my mindless, selfless state, some part of me would invoke the catalyst, and the catalyst would invoke “me”. This, of course, stunted my personal mental growth, as I would constantly revert back to a certain mental state rather than evolve from it.
With each passing day, I would fragment myself further. I would constantly analyze every part of my mind, adding on to this “superpower” of mine that could enable me to mentally become anything.
By now, my true identity had been almost completely lost. I started noticing a strange phenomenon: I began turning into more of a recipient rather than my own person. Upon being presented with a certain character, I would begin to mimic their mind as I subconsciously believed it to be. I would temporarily be filled not with my own identity (which was too loosely defined for me to hold on to), but rather by this new, “fake” identity my mind had just created that would mimic that of the character I was presented with. It went to such an extent where I wouldn’t be able to access certain faculties of mine that I believed the other person wouldn’t be able to access (for example, if my model of the person I was mimicking implied they would have poor critical thinking skills, my own critical thinking skills would be compromised.) It felt like somewhere deep within me, my true self would expel me to the outermost surfaces of my conscious mind, and make me “play” a certain character, denying me of my full capacities. It was almost like my mind had taken its own fragments (which I had spent so many months separating and controlling), and labeled them as “belonging” to certain personas (rather than there just being one mind in control of everything.)
Because my grasps on both myself and reality are so weak, I can no longer tell the difference between the “real” me and these models which I’ve created. It even goes as far as feeling as though these made-up personas ARE me. You’d think that I’d be able to tell a fake persona from the real me, because only the real me would fully understand all my thoughts, experiences, and the fact that I’m just imagining these people.
But I can’t, and I believe this is ultimately because I’ve become dissociated from myself and reality. It seems I’ve now completely lost the ability to differentiate between reality and my thoughts/imaginations. Whenever presented with some given externality, my mind normally brings up all the associations I have with said given. But now, it’s like my mind has been wiped clear of all preconceptions or associations; like I might as well have just been born right now. The same goes for my memories; I can’t re-associate myself with the person living all my memories (the “real” me.) It’s like the person writing this now and the person who’s been living in my body all my life up until just a few days ago are two completely different people.
I understand that the person writing this isn’t the real me, or the “full” me. I’m living on the edge of my conscious mind right now. I also understand that any impression of being possessed by someone else (which I now constantly struggle to fight against) is also fake, and isn’t the real me. I’ve found that these “possessions” are the result of me believing that these “models”, who’s presences were once only limited to my imagination and could immediately be terminated by the real me, ARE me. The fact that I can’t reconnect with my real, past self, and that I’ve been wiped of all preconceptions and associations, means I’m now open to not just believing, but experiencing the presence of other entities in my mind. But I can’t convince myself that there’s only just one mind anymore. I can never manage to get over these possessions; like I’ve just become a recipient for whatever mental shape feels like manifesting itself in and occupy my head.
I honestly don’t know who, or what, is writing this right now. I know it’s definitely not the real, fully unified me.
Never have I seen anything written that describes what I’m going through so perfectly.
[…] Chaki Kobayashi sums up these anomalous occurrences: […]
This is a fascinating article. I have long believed through personal experience that the mind is possible in creating physical changes. The problem is that I am unable to control it.
About 12 years ago I fell pregnant with my daughter and within the first couple of months suffered excruciating back pain. I was told that this should improve after I had given birth but it didn’t. Now this back pain is the pain some women get during labour and also a milder form with their period. I had always suffered back pain with my period. I have asked countless of doctors what causes the pain and not one of them can agree or give a definitive answer. They don’t really understand it.
In order to try and get rid of the pain I have tried everything – and nothing really works.
This has caused a long bout of depression and anxiety. That’s when my period starting coming on within hours or evenue sometimes minutes after a stress full situation. Once relaxed it would subside but this was also irritating my back so I told the doctor. The doctor said it is impossible for me to have a period that quickly from stress – although she admitted it can affect the cycle it is not usually that quickly.
So when I get stressed my body somehow brings on my menstrual cycle.
Now over the past year I have been suffering with a panic disort and my panic attacks have been very physically challenging. I do not have issues with my breathing but I will instantly start to sweat – and I don’t mean a little, I mean it looking like I’m under a showEr. I shake uncontrollably and violently vomit. There are a bunch of other symptoms that are embarrassing to say but physically I am 100% affected by my mental state.
Even worse, I had been pregnant with twins (up till a year ago when I lost them). Obviously it was very upsetting but still now I am lactating. Even though the doctor can’t understand it (my hormonly tests came back fine) and yet my breasts just start leaking whenever.
I think it’s possible that my feelings towards the pregnancy are somehow affecting my milk production. I haven’t been pregnant for a year so this should not be happening.
I’d be interested to know anyone’s thoughts on this.
Sorry to hear all that Dawn. Personally, I really can’t relate, so I’m hesitant to give specific advice, but I do have some thoughts…
One thing I always want to know when people have unusual mental issues, especially with regard to anxiety and depression, is: what’s your diet like, and are you exercising? I know it sounds SUPER simple and stupid, but I believe 90%+ of depression/anxiety-related ailments can be vastly improved by eating a healthy diet (especially avoiding sugar at all costs, and perhaps trying going gluten-free for a while), and stressing your body with exercise, which will cause it to release all kinds of beneficial neurochemicals, and also positively influence your hormones.
If your diet is poor and you’re not exercising regularly, that’s always the best place to start. You might be blown away by the results, and if you’re not, at least you’ll be healthier and happier. Good luck!
You can lactate for literallyyears after being pregnant. He’ll you can cause yourself to lactate without having been pregnant at all.
[…] seems like a ridiculous concept, but this disorder proves that reality is suggestible. These people with DID don’t just think that they have these attributes, they know it, and […]
I really enjoyed this article! The idea that somebodies mental / emotional health disorder can result in a change in their physiology is new to me and has blown my mind completely! The change in eye colour and allergy response particularly stunned me. Also I hope you don’t mind me saying I found your writing style really easy to follow and nice to read. Thanks man 😊
[…] [6]: http://www.dingtwist.com/power-of-belief-dissociative-identity-disorder/ ; zuletzt aufgerufen am 1. Mai […]
I find it quite fascinating . But the problem is that if you really want us to believe what you said is true . Then give us the source of your information plz . I said this to my friends about this awesome DID patient but they didn’t believe me . I even showed them your blog but they doubted the authentications of the information . Plz share with us the source of your information…
I don’t care what you believe. And the sources are at the bottom of the article.
Someone commented that the sources have been debunked, but didn’t respond when I asked for links.
Oh..sorry…I was in a hurry and i didn’t see the sources you provided on the bottom…
May21,1985 article about DID see it …..it is also awesome…….it is really surprising that our mind possess this kind of awesome abilities…..this is a slap in the face of those who do not believe in God…. because God is also created by our beliefs…… Gautam Buddha did say that world is a mere illusion…it is created by us …..
Article is in ny times
I’m a college student with a double major in psychology and biology. Recently I have been looking into the theories concerning biological dark mass, ‘dark DNA’ if you will. Essentially, it’s like dark matter: scientists have deducted that we have found roughly 2-3% of our DNA, or about 20 thousand genes, with the rest deemed ‘missing.’ Do you think the differences in these personalities (whether it be allergies,or being colorblind) could lie withing this ‘missing’ 97-98%? If not, how exactly do these differences emerge?
I don’t know, but it’s an interesting theory. I’d never heard of “dark DNA” until your comment, so thanks for the info. Gonna read up on it.