How Many Of You Are In You?

You probably think of yourself as singular. Not even your identical twin is you, your clone, but someone else. There is only one you, past, present and future. Not so. Quite apart from those abnormal psychological multiple personality disorders, I suggest there is a normal psychological multiple personality state of affairs. In a very real sense, you (and every one of us) are a quasi Jekyll-and-Hyde character.

By the phrase “how many of you are in you” I suggest something akin, and I stress akin, to the extreme mental conditions of dissociative identity disorder, dual or multiple personalities housed within the same mind, a split personality that’s sort of like a Jekyll-and-Hyde character. Only, by using the word akin, please now remove the word ‘extreme’ and substitute ‘normal’. In other words, have many of the normal you are in the normal you?

Here are some obvious examples of the multiply personality present and accounted for, albeit still with respect to, the normal you.

An angry you is not the same you as the you who is cool, calm and collected. Two differing personalities housed within the same mind.

A you that is wide awake isn’t quite the same you as the you who is sound asleep. Your little brat throwing a very vocal temper tantrum isn’t quite the same as your little darling sawing logs.

Clearly the five-year-old birthday you isn’t the same you as the twenty-five-year-old birthday you which isn’t the same you that’s identical with the fifty-year-old birthday you. In fact you don’t just change the status of your inner you year-to-year but moment-to-moment as all those chemicals part and parcel of the food you eat, the liquids you drink, the air that you breathe, are constantly adding to and rearranging and replacing those bits and pieces that make up your brain and hence your mind and therefore what makes you, you. It’s not just your bones (and other body parts) that get replaced bit-by-bit over roughly a seven year cycle.

But presumably, despite that and the above examples, you’d expect that there should still be only one you, one mind set, at any given moment in time, like right now, this very second. Presumably there is only ever one you, perhaps, but then again, perhaps not.

All of the above are of course representations of a different you at different times, but is that always the case? Can there be more than one normal you in you (your mind) at the same time?

I sometimes get mad at my body because it wants to do one thing as a matter of priority, but I (my mind) have more pressing priorities for it. This usually ends badly as way less than a case of mind-over-matter than what-the-body-wants-the-body-gets - the body wins. However, the body isn’t an alternative form of you, so getting pissed off with your body’s demands isn’t quite the same thing as getting mad at yourself. However, now and again I’m sure you do get mad at yourself. Come again? Surely one you that is mad at another you, both housed within a single (your) mind implies two separate and apart versions of you. How else can you be mad at yourself?

Or, how often do you have an argument with yourself? One part of you is having a go or debate with another part of you. In fact every time you make a decision you have a mini debate or argument with another version of you that inhabits the same body and mind as you do. Presumably one or the other version of you wins and a decision is made and acted upon. Things get even more complicated if there are three or four or more possible choices! But the bottom line is that if you and an alternative you have an argument, then there has to be a split personality involved since it takes two to have two differing points of view. One you, one point of view, can not have a debate! 

If you’re like most normal people, you’ll sometimes hold a conversation with yourself, and therefore the popular phrase ‘talking to yourself’ (which is often said to be the best way of having an intelligent conversation). But who are you talking to since it takes two to have a chinwag?

Or you might hold an imaginary conversation with a known other – like what would Mr. Spock (Star Trek) or Dr. Spock (baby doctor) or Joe Spock (work colleague) say or do if in my shoes in this situation. Of course Spock in this situation is just another version of you, an alter-ego of you that substitutes as an authority figure, an authority your alter ego doesn’t actually have. That’s why it’s called ‘make believe’ and ‘let’s pretend’. But is that you who ask questions put to your alter-you (Spock) any more real than that alter-you that provides the answer? Both of you, IMHO, are equally valid versions of you.

Many, maybe even most children have imaginary friends, a product of their minds, just another version of themselves manifesting. That even extends in some cases into adulthood. I’ve seen many an adult hold a conversation or at least talk a monolog to some imaginary other. The usual impression being that there’s something not quite right with that person. We might say they are a bit of a mental dingbat or touched in the head. Still, why is it okay or normal in kids but it’s a mental case if an adult?

Many people over the millennia have claimed to have heard voices in their head, oft attributed to a deity (or a demon) since there’s nobody else around to account for the audio ‘hallucination’ – or perhaps it was really just some other version of you, inside you all along, trying to get your attention.

The same might be true if you are seeing visions that nobody else can see. It’s just an image of some other you (in clever disguise perhaps) generated by your mind, again trying to get your attention to convey something of importance residing in your subconscious.

What about your dreams and your daydreams? You or your mind, whether asleep or wide awake, can dream of an alternative you that can boldly go where no you have ever gone before. In that sense, there are a near unlimited number of an alternative you housed within you. It’s akin to the you that is controlling your daydreams or night dreams being sort of like a puppeteer, and the you featured in your dreaming the puppet.

Each you within you is equal, but some are more equal than others. That is to say there is a dominant you. The you who will get pissed off at you is the dominant. Ditto that you who initiates conservations with another inner you.

What does all of this say about the reality of out-of-the-body experiences (OBE) or near-death (NDE) experiences? Talk about split personalities! Actually that you within that you scenario says absolutely nothing about the reality of an OBE or NDE. Your mind, dying or otherwise, has just generated another internal version of you which has all the outward appearance to you of being an external event, but isn’t, anymore than your dreams, however vivid, put another you outside of your body, or a child’s imaginary friend has any external reality. Your OBE, NDE, dreams featuring you or a child’s imaginary buddy can’t been seen, photographed or otherwise documented by any external observer. It’s all that you within that you scenario.

The upshot of all of this is that the question is what’s normal (psychology) and what’s abnormal (psychology) when it comes to split personalities is almost splitting hairs. The dividing line is a very, very fine one.

In summary, if you get mad, talk, argue, or debate, then you are mad with, talk to, argue with or debate some sort of significant other. If it’s you that you are mad at, talk to or argue/debate with, then that significant other is yourself, albeit another version of yourself.