How to harness the multiplicity of you

multiple man I've never really believed in the singular notion of identity. I've always embraced the multiplicity of identity: That it's possible to be multiple people at once. When I was 18 I was diagnosed with Multiple Personality Disorder (MPD), likely because I was telling him about I was talking with faeries and spirits. Yet when I heard about this diagnosis, I was intrigued. Could I really be a multiplicity of me? Was I more than the singular perspective I had of myself?

In the years since, I've embraced the multiplicity of myself, recognizing I didn't need to settle for one version of myself. In fact, I found that by purposely setting up multiple versions of myself, I could actually learn more and do more than if I stayed as a singular unit. Now I haven't yet mastered bi-location in the physical sense of the world, but a person's mind can be so much more than just the perspective of a singular entity.

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I found that the identity of a singular self is largely an illusion anyway. Whether we realize it or not, we really have multiple versions of ourselves within us. One version of yourself might come out for work to help you interact with co-workers and draw on your knowledge and skills. Another version might come out when you come home to spend time with your family. Yet another version will show itself when you hit the bar with your friends, or when your actively pursuing an interest. And when you're alone, yet another version pops up.

Now you can tell yourself that all these versions are the same person, and you're right they are, but all these versions are also distinct, created in part to help you navigate the various situations you find yourself in. They operate on a subconscious level, like a program running on your computer in the background.

What you can do is purposely choose to interact with these versions of yourself and put them to work in your favor.

One of the ways I've done this is to create a version of myself that focuses on a specific subject area, such as neuroscience, or ceremonial magic. That self is responsible for cataloging and organizing all information about that topic area. When I need to draw on that information for writing or presenting or experiments, its immediately available.

Aside from having versions focused on specific subject areas and disciplines, I also have versions of myself that are responsible for specific tasks, such as cleaning or driving.

And over all of it, I have my identity, what faces inward and outward to the world. It makes sense to me and it allows me to process a lot of information quickly.

So how do you do it?

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Go into a meditative state, where you then visualize a temple. In temple are rooms. Each room is about a specific topic, subject, discipline, or skill. In each room, visualize another you at work organizing and handling all the information in that room. That version of you is always present but only interfaces with the main version of you when information is needed. You can, of course, go back and visit the temple and individual rooms at any time. Every time you read a book or do an activity or whatever else, the appropriate version of you catalogues the experience and information and then makes it available whenever you next need it.

There's really not much else you need to do. It's not complicated and you may find that you already have versions of yourself at work in the rooms in your temple. What you're really doing is organizing your mental space more effectively, and putting part of yourself to work so that you have the information you need, when you want it.

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