Astraea’s Comments (group member since Mar 16, 2013)

Astraea’s comments from the Plurals in Pages group.

There was a time when homosexuality was supposed to be caused by the examples set by a dominating mother and a weak or absent father. Autism was once believed to be a flight from reality caused by unfeeling or inexpressive "refrigerator" parents. Schizophrenia was supposedly rooted in early childhood trauma or caused by parental abuse or neglect. Modern psychiatry is just emerging from a forty-year phase of belief that all mental illness is caused by chemical imbalances and can only be cured or maintained with medication.

They are just beginning to understand that human cultures should be acknowledged and respected on their own terms instead of applying a certain circumscribed set of mainstream western standards to everyone.

The truth about human mental conditions, including multiplicity, is still not known and is barely beginning to be addressed. Modern psychiatry must acknowledge that reality is a great deal more than their limited definitions.

A. Temple

Kerry Connelly's Banned/Controversial Book/Film Group is gearing up to discuss When Rabbit Howls. Anyone who wants to participate is welcome to join the group. I think we are the only multiple currently in that group right now.

Jay

I twitted it, let's see if we get more readers.

John

We (mostly Andy) have been working on a review of Katherine, It's Time. We need to finish it up and post it on the book's Goodreads page. Bookish is right, it's awful.

Molly

We read Nobody Nowhere when it first came out and Somebody Somewhere, also saw Donna on CBS' 60 Minutes with her Irlen lenses.*

Donna has corresponded with us several times to advise us on how to present her books on our books page. (That's why it says to buy them straight from the publisher, especially Like Colour to the Blind: Soul Searching and Soul Finding.)

We've never talked to her much about her multiplicity, but she talks about her multiplicity (and everyone else's) here. (She's apparently been told that an autistic couldn't be plural. Ha!)

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* Irlens are not just for autistics but for anyone who has trouble with migraine headaches, dyslexia, or even just plain old eyestrain. Amorpha have been wearing them for several years now and describe them as radically normalizing their visual perceptions so they don't have to use up energy figuring out what they are actually seeing.

You're welcome. Although Andy and I found the book (at least the first part of it) somewhat more lively and informative than you did, mostly because of the historical background, we were extremely annoyed by Stacy's attitude on multiple personalities. Her attempt to frame Mollie & co.'s experience in modern terms, along with her attitude toward Spiritualism, was laughable at best. Gave us the distinct feeling that she didn't really know beans about this subject and (some researcher!) didn't want to find out.

Andy has pointed out repeatedly the fallacy of trying to historically diagnose anyone with a mental illness or condition of any kind. In view of the medical treatments (some of them brutal) and medications (try poisons) in vogue at that time, the side effects alone might cause paralysis, blindness, deafness, memory loss and so forth.

You might also be interested to know that the Lily Dale Spiritualist Assembly acquired some of Sunbeam's tapestries and two of them are hanging up in Lily Dale's Maplewood Hotel today.

Abram Dailey's book on Mollie & co. is downloadable in its entirety as a PDF from Google Books...

Jay

You might want to update that link: it's http://www.dissociative-identity-diso...

The People's Almanac 2 printed a lot more about Mollie's selves, which you can read here.

Also, there is a lengthy document on Mollie here.

I have always felt there was a lot more to Mollie's story than meets the eye.

Jay

Bookish wrote: "The Three Faces of Eve was 1950s, I am reading a book from before that time but not recommending it (its dull)."

Which one is it? I'm curious.

Jay

This topic was suggested by a discussion in the "Books about multiples" topic.

I think the older books and studies on this subject are important, not just because they can be used to explain things to people who think this didn't exist before Sybil. Views and attitudes on multiple personality have changed over the centuries, and it is still seen differently in non-western cultures.

What are some of your favorite older books on multiplicity?

Jay Young

Iamshadow wrote: "I still think the Victorian era accounts that are all mixed up with spiritualism are my favourites, probably because I like Victorian literature."

You'll be pleased to know that Survival After Death is back up (for good this time!) with Myers, Prince, James, McDougall and all the rest. I love that site.

I wonder if your book was Here, Mr. Splitfoot -- I have it, but it's in the other room and I'll have to page through it later. We had it and many other books on the occult and ESP in our high school library, oddly enough as it was in a very Christian Fundamentalist community.

Jay

Bookish wrote: "found an interesting list tday http://www.astraeasweb.net/plural/boo..."

Thank you, we are continually updating and adding new books to that page. We invite people to pay particular attention to the older, historical books showing that multiplicity was known and studied pre-Sybil, Eve etc.

I might write a separate entry for this group just covering those older books.

Jay Young

Eep... I added the wrong Thomas Smith for author. You can take that out. Sorry. The one who wrote Which One Am I? is Thomas S. Smith

Jay