Multiple Personalities are NOT Demons
Dissociative Identity Disorder is Not Demonic
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Christian HelpMultiple Personality Disorder & Evil SpiritsDissociative Identity Disorder & Casting Out Demons |
Enormous psychological damage has been inflicted on people by well-meaning, but tragically mistaken, Christians who have confused Multiple Personality Disorder (also known as Dissociative Identity Disorder) with demonic activity. It is like a surgeon blissfully supposing he is doing wonders by amputating the leg of the wrong patient. When some little children suffer severe trauma, such as sexual abuse, part of their mind splits off from the rest of their consciousness in a desperate attempt to retain their sanity in the midst of unspeakable distress. This enables part of them to live in denial so that they can limp through life relatively free from conscious awareness of their inner pain, while other parts of their mind continue to reel in unresolved agony over what they suffered. Their mind becomes so rigidly compartmentalized that parts of their mind get left behind, while other parts mature. We commonly speak of the “inner child” or the “unconscious.” With some victims of childhood trauma, these naturally occurring parts of the human mind become so strong that they act as if they were a slightly different part of the same person, often differentiated by “age” and awareness. Some might even have assumed demonic-sounding names such as “Pain” or “Evil.” The first type of name reflects the current agony of that part of their consiousness. The second type reflects the fact that little children believe adult abusers, who commonly try to break their victims by labeling them as evil, and so on. Multiple Personality Disorder is not some theory dreamed up by non-Christians such as secular psychologists who are unaware of the reality of the spirit world. As Jesus said he did only those things he saw the Father doing (John 5:19,30), so I take my lead from Jesus himself. I have had deep personal interaction with many Christians who have multiple personalities and I have frequently known the Lord Jesus to reveal himself in powerful, loving ways to various “personalities” (often called alters or insiders) within people. I have also had close dealing with people with multiple personalities who have had demons. The evil spirits had, of course, to be commanded to leave in Jesus’ name, but the people’s alters were very different, even though the surface similarity could fool an inexperienced person. Most people with Dissociative Identity Disorder have done their utmost to despise and suppress their alters, leaving that part of them not only unhealed of intense inner pain over past suffering, but cut off from social interaction and from knowledge of the Gospel. Consequently, alters typically act like bitter, angry non-Christians, just like we would if we were rape victims condemned to years of solitary confinement, denied awareness of the Gospel, and told to the point of brainwashing that we are unredeemably evil. Once someone has sufficient insight to explain to alters the power of the cross, they fall in love with Jesus and undergo a remarkable transformation which, of course, would be impossible for demons. To be frank, I have met many alters that have a relationship with Jesus so real and intimate that I’ve found it hard not to be envious. My extensive experience has confirmed over and over that, like all hurting children, alters are very dear to God’s heart. We Christians often talk about the huge difference between head knowledge about God and heart knowledge. It is by teaching their alters that a powerful transference of head knowledge to heart knowledge takes place in someone with Dissociative Identity Disorder. The spiritual benefits are enormous. Child abusers normally do all they can to crush their victims’ self-esteem. With this happening in one’s formative years, it is the norm for people with multiple personalities to be exceedingly fragile, which makes it even more damaging when over-zealous demon chasers try to “cast out” a huge part of who they are. To reinforce an alter’s dangerously false self-image by declaring them demonic could be the final straw. At the very least, any attempt to drive out an alter will succeed only in driving the alter into deep hiding, giving the person temporary peace in that the person is no longer aware of the alter, but making healing of the person’s inner pain, false guilt and so on, impossible (unless the damage is somehow reversed). It could even result in the person’s suicide.
Related Pages Healing Your “Inner Child” / Inner Pain Understanding DID
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