Ok this sounds like a strange question....
but I am courious,...  as Most of us here are more self aware than 99% of the rest of the population, I am wondering How many people or things reside in your body !
...
Ok let me explain a bit.... I am one person, not 3 or 4 just one... but within that one
there are 2 distinct thinkers.... if you will...  and one little one way down in the depths
that likes to remain undisturbed<grin>  these 2 thinkers make up ME, Myself... this one unit is comprized of 2 thinkers that usually work togather(not alwayse mind you) and I go about my daily life mainly thinking with only ONE thinking proccess going on, most of the time....   I call that thinking my Concious Self... but at times when i run into a problem that i cannot solve I get my Subconsious self involved to help answer the question.

  Now i realise my Subconsious self runs this body so to speak... but is a very logical thinker as well, and rarely gets tripped up on fine details....
its Still me.... but its a diferent part of me  that I enjoy very much. alowing the subconsious to "get through" to my wakeing thoughts Brings a refreshing Order of thoughts to a messed up world and a Anilitical view point with  a detached prespective. a extreamily Handy thing .....or way to look at something.
....
So thinking along these lines  how many "Thinkers" do you have with you ?

I count 2 for myself .

Bob.........

For me, there ate two thinkers inside.

The Irish side is quite emotional.  She responds to the highs and lows in my life.  It's what lets me laugh and cry - both alone and with others.  I think it is this side that is the decision-maker.  The Irish considers the options and does what is best.  THis is the side that would make the occassional leap to "THe needs of the one outweigh the needs of the many."

The German is the counter-point.  Very logical - thinking through alternatives and courses of action.  She stays very much on an even keel.  The German has thought through the possibilities and ramifications.  It's on rare occassions that the German overrules the Irish, but she will if disaster is lurking close by.

For me, the internal struggle between these two counterpoints has always been difficult.  It has sometimes made me come across as distant and withdrawn.  Indecisive.  Unable to move forward.

In male-mode, it has often taken a crisis to get me to decide on a course of action.  I always wanted to better the odds of success.  Probably because of the inner conflict I was devoting so much energy to, it was hard for me to look outward.

Now, as Chaunte, I find myself much more decisive.  I am more willing to live with longer odds because I accept the consequences of my decisions.  No longer do I need a "sure thing" before I decide - 70/30 odds are plenty good enough. 

I am much more focused on living in the Now than in the Future.

Chaunte

Hmmm, I'll have to think about that.

I feel like there is only one thinker inside of me.  If there were more before, they have merged.

Melissa

 Maybe this will help explain what I mean...
...
  While working on my Gyrocopter a bit ago, something i realy like doing... I was confrunted by a problem ,  I had made a part that I could install with no problem but the part that attached to it, couldn't be installed AFTER the new part was installed...
so I thought about it... I could try putting the two pieces togather and then installing the group.... or istall one end and see if that will work.....then somewhere in the back of my head at a softer volume I thought, cut off the tip of the rod and then install just the new part and the other rod will then fit.
....  this is what i am talking about... don't get me wrong its me thinking it. but its a little diferent .
its that lower volume thinking... is my subconsious... its as if the information given came from a diferent source, and had to stand in line till it could use the "Thinking device"
that "thinking device" is definately ME...but the way its used differs sometimes.
its Never as radical as a Split personality or anything like that , its just how I have alwayse operated.... I some times call them the Anilitical and Emotional sides, though this doesn't realy do justice to them.... one without the other just wouldn't work for me
and the two are truly just one individual... 
  I have spent many hours thinking about how we think... as I have a burning desire to create a truly Artifical inteligance program. to do this you have to know how to think.
... and needless to say I have been thinking about it every sense and what began as a Basic program on a vic-20 gravitated to a much larger computer, till i finally got left behind in programming technology... so it never was completed.  and I am still surching on how a person thinks.... what their inner most being IS... its certainly not just the Flesh but much more complicated than that.
  So here I am 40 years later still learning about thinking ! HEHEHEHEHE
 
It is usually easiest to think about a duel thinking proccess as Seperate People inside ones self. but I think in reality  its closer to two memory banks useing one proccessor
.... and what a proccessor it is !
... perhaps that will help explain my thoughts !

Bob......

You have a gyrocopter?  Cool!  Does it fly yet?

BTW, I understood what you are saying.

Melissa

In my opinion, learning how you think is is far different that what you think.  And I am not sue if how you think ever changes.  Maybe the mix of inputs gets altered a little with experience (& hormones?), but I don't know if the root method ever changes.

BTW, there are several pilots here at Susans.  To keep this thread from being shanghi'ed, you might want to consider starting a gyrocopter thread.  It's taking a lot of won't power to not ask make, powerplant, cost, construction time, how the devil can you afford avgas with regular being over $3 a gallon, etc...

Chaunte

How many people inside me?

Just one Bob!  me!

tink

Tinkerbell !
   but if i may pry into your thoughts is there no inner conflect
or duel thinking going on inside there ?
or have you actually sealed him off for good ?
  because I know you can do that with alot of hard mental efort !
....
... You see, I believe all people have these 2 minds inside them,
( technically I think its the right and left himisphers of the brain  at work... though i have no way of knowing if that is true or not....)
.... so in your case it would be present but concored or subdued to a very low level as to be non exhistant ... am i right ?
thank you for posting!.
Bob......


Last edit: By Tink
Reason:  Removed my legal name from Bob's post 

One now Bob. I put the information that the other thinker had into my own computer and use it as I see fit. He is no longer wanted or needed.

Jillieann

Oh now that IS interesting..
  You see as a comparason, I have alwayse... had those 2 sides of me within
and at times I admit I struggled with the who am I  thing.... but instead of
cutting it off or tuneing out so to speak I ( over a long period of time)came to accept and embrace it as an intrigal part of who I am. I even enjoy it.
it never ceses to amaze me how I may have learned something in my subconsious mind  and never realised it in my Consious mind... and then to have it handed down in an "I told you so sort of fashion".. it is quite amuseing !
....
  So now the nagging question in the back of my mind says ok which is better ?
is it better to have ALL of your attention focused into one thinking mode
or one thinking mode with a random gosub routine running in the background !?!?
....

I suppose  anyone could point out good and bad to both ways of thinking, but it is an interesting thought !   

thank you all !

Bob......

Generally, there's just me and my squirrel. Those are the two with personalities. But there are times when I can set a drone or two to work on separate tasks.  I sometimes will watch TV and read at the same time. I always do computer work with the news on.  I'll be working on finishing, solving a telescope problem, and work on a poem, as well as reslove some other problem.  I don't think in series. I think in parallel.  Wierd huh?  I feel like I've lived 5 lives in my short life span. I can never really rest or just be lazy.  My idea of being lazy is writing at the moment.  Sometimes it is practice on my cello or guitars or arranging music or processing celestial images or calculate material stress for a new part for a new design that I'm working  in my mind.  Yea.  It's crowded in there.

I do not have mulitple personalities.  I'm always fully aware of squirrel and drones.  I hope that after I die, someone studies my brain to see what is so odd about it.

Cindi

Odd Cindi ?  Gifted is more like it !
I have on an odd occasion been able to pull off multitasking but not very often... and with mixed results. so I tend to do everything with my complete attention.
it sounds as if you have a fanasateing life INDEED ! how i would love to tinker with one of those teliscopes !  hehehehehehhe
anything mechanical i just have to know how it works and why ! i just can't help myself its like candy for my brain ! ... i think i know every engine ever designed and most of the therotical engines as well... it just fanasates me so!
....
Good name Squirrel... and I can amagon why the name heheheheh !
but You seam to be doing fine with your Squirel part of you awair and comunicateing freely... no doubt that is what makes you so special !
You are an exceptionaly bright person Cindi  and I bet that is because you have come to terms with yourself early on,  at least in the thinking
proccess...
  I think the Drones as you call them are simple sub routines.. that work best on repetive tasks and such... something you can put on auto pilot and more or less forget about ! ...I doubt I would call a Drone another person inside me  because its as if its just an extension of myself not another one
if you understand me.
Thinking in Parallel is a gift that not all people can do. you are amazeing!
no doubt you should will your body to science when you die ! HEHEHE !
......

Bob.......

Oh Bob, you are way to kind.  I think you are very cool building your own helicopter.  I've thought about doing an ultralight.  In any case,  I wrote a piece in my blog called The Two of US.  It's for how many people live in my head and whoever may care.

Cindi

I thought some more about this and I realized there are 2 thinkers... My mind and my heart.  Whereas they used to be somewhat conflicted, they now think in unison, hence it only feels like 1 thinker.

Melissa

Exactly Melissa !
that is great ! because you don't want to  hide or disown that part of you ... i mean it is You after all... it is part of what makes You YOU !
comeing to terms, acepting it, and unifying with it  is by far a better path to take.... I say this because I know that no matter how hard you try to shut out part of yourself that part will resurface at some point in time...
you cannot get rid of what makes you Uniquely You.... Thank God !. or i would be half tha man i am today...
  Accepting yourself is better than fighting yourself... and that even goes for the thinking proccess.

I have seen on this forem a tenancy to Styfle or Excomunicate ,kill off or how everelse you want to call it ... the other portion of you.... almost every TS person has mentioned this ... and in my mind this is not good at all...
although i KNOW the reasons... and they seam like very good reasons to the TS
it is Still  "Cutting off your nose to Spite your face"  its going to be harder on you doing it that way than accepting you for who you are in the first place.
   this isn't a Small matter, infact it gets to the very hart of your misery very quickly.... TS folk have started out in the wrong body and have learned for the most part to hate it or resent it at the very least
so consiquently you look for something to do... you find the thinking proccess at odds in your mind so you tone it down, bottle it up or in effect lock it up so it doesn't bother you any more...
though this may work for a while it is NO cure.... like a festering wound it always comes back with a vengance, so you have to put it back in its place just as forcefully....  the eternal battle of good and evil goes on inside your mind....  because you won't accept the other part of you.   STOP THAT!
you are causeing yourself more pain and anguish than nessarry you don't have to hide that part of you.... simply Accept it. merge with it as Melissa Says
... and that battle will be over once and for all !
...
now no doubt that Mergeing with your self will not cure all your problems but it will REDUCE them a great deal....  all the conflict will Not be over by any means... but the bloodshed will be gone... votes will be taken instead.
you won't be hateing yourself anymore....And  Hateing yourself has to stop.
....
   As you can see by the Responces each person deals with themselves in a diferent way...
...
there is No right and wrong here , only better or worse...
i am just trying to get you to stop fighting yourself...
.....
When I stopped fighting myself i was about 25 yrs old...I had just read Psyco cybernetics, and Dianetics... and realised that all of my problems were self generated....accept money....and technically that was too.....
...I have been at peace with myself sense that time, i have accepted me for what I am, good or bad, right or wrong... its me, and dang it, I love me inspite of it ! .... that little afframation soon grew into a full complete acceptance of myself
  don't get me wrong now ...I am not problem free by any means... i have problems many of you would never even dream of.... but I ACCEPT THAT ! and I don't beat myself up for it !
......

so the Duel thinking Proccess is at the HART of the TS ishue.
its not a question of which side WINS the battle... because the package contains you both.... Accept yourself the Male and female part, the good and the bad... the intelectual and emotional You...
and I realy think you will be better off in the long run !

Bob......

Did you ever see the movie THe Dark Crystal?

At the end of the movie, the evil Skeksis (sic) were reunited with the gentle Mystics to form a single being. 

What I am finding is that my personalities are merging into one being.  The Irish & German.  The male & female.  Dr. Jeckyl & Ms. Hyde.  All are one and are becoming at peace with one another.

It's nice not being in conflict with ones self anymore.

Chaunte

My name is Legion for we are many!
   

Very wise Bob. Very wise. I agree completely with:

Quotenot hide or disown that part of you.

My male personality has been around and mostly in control for over 40 years of my 55 years. He got married raised a family and now has grandchildren. He has been married to the same woman for over 35 years and is a leader in the community. Then my inter-self the part of me that is female came out, took over and wanted to destroy the male side. Because of fear he had put me in his prison and keep me that way for most of the 40 years. But I realized with the help of my counselor  that the male personality was very important part of me. So we, to make a long story very short, both personalities, made peace and have become one in thinking, most of the time anyway.
Let me clarify what I said in an earlier posting about being one not two.
And that is true in that we, both personalities, work together as one no longer fighting each other as we did before, hating and fearing one another.
So rather than duel thinking I now just bring up difference ideas and than make a choice.
It's great to finally be at peace with oneself after so many years of war.
I am female with a male heritage.

Jillieann



Posted at: August 19, 2006, 12:07:04 AM

---

That's great Chaunte.
Some peace and sanity at last.


Posted at: August 19, 2006, 12:08:43 AM

---

Bob, have you check out another topic here at Susan's that is dealing with teh same issues. Topic: Split personallity at https://www.susans.org/forums/index.php/topic,5604.0.html

 Thats Grate Chaunte !
Yes I have seen Dark chrystle a few times, I thought it very good !
...
  the Older I get, the More important small details of my life become.
Fighting among my mind was a bother but not unsurmountable, i pushed it aside
and forged onward... never realiseing how important it was to accept that other part of me... when I realised I had done this to myself I was preplexed !
I thought well, now how do i undo what i have so badly messed up ?
lickily I was reading Dianetics at the time and he laid it out step by step for me .... and I never missed a beat... I took him at his word and trusted him with blind fathe something I would never do under any curcumstances! but I realised how messed up I was then... With man made religon swirling arround in my head, terror of crouds, truble getting along at work,raising a Kid "Properly" and all kinds of stuff I had serious problems inside.
it was desperation that made me turn to that book... and desperation that actually saved my bottom !  I studied the book from cover to cover and even ordered all his other books, another thing I would never have done.
and it still took a while , but the pieces started falling togather.
more and more I became ME...a complete person... still messed up but at least I was at peace within myself.  ITs actually Working I thought because the war is gone.... well, if that works then what about these other things !!!!!
and I dove into them, and uncovered a can of worms that scared me whitless !
bringing back the original fear of being lost in a christmass croud on christmass eve in an L.A. department store....  I wasn't ready for that !
but it came anyway... the whole experience replayed through my mind down to the tinyiest details... running scared, hands reaching out to grab me , nothing but legs as far as I could see... I was terrorified !
then the memory was through... and it hit me .... THATS IT ! My fear of crouds ! ....because the same terror would well up inside me when in a croud  and if I didn't get out of the croud I would explode.... I shook like a leaf
and sweated profusely... it was serious !....
  then about a weak later we went to the maul in Reno and it was near christmass time ands shoppers were thick as barn flys ....
the terror started to well up inside me as it alwayse had done before... but it was diferent.... less potent... the fire was out of it... though it was still uncumfortable it wasn't life threatoning to bystanders <grin>
I endured it... we did our shopping and we talked about it on the way home
and the wife was supprized that i did so well in such a croud... I thought it odd because I didn't think I did so good... but i took her compliments to hart and left it at that.... following the instructions in the book I dug up that terrable memory time and time again untill i could think of it whithout
being full of fear. it was about a month later we went into town again and was in a very crouded store and it dawned on me that I was not afrade... I was anoid.... there is a big diference!  I wasn't ready to kill someone that looked at me crosseyed .... I was just trying to get through the mass of bodies.... I burst out laughing it was so comical to me and I had to explain to the wife why I was in histerics !  I explained and a fella standing next to me patted me on the shoulder and gave me the biggest smile as if to say "been there Done dat" and walked off.  I was so releaved to be rid of that fear and anger that had been ruening my life and was just getting stronger as I grew older that I was almost in tears.
That is how I got rid of one of my problems.... although to this day if i suddenly find myself in a thick croud I have to get ahold of myself... so it does haing with you to some extent... but its almost laughable in compairison to what it was.

the very interesting part of this was in the beginning I had no idea what it was that bothered me about crouds.... I couldn't see the memory... it was sealed off from my consusness,  I had no idea why I hated crouds I just thought it was a Parainoid thing.... don't want to get trampled or something
... Not untill I surched many hours over a few days did the memory becomed freed up so i could experience it once again in its full terror !  when it did I was realy shocked...  I went to bed and woke up the wife and told her about it at 3:00am  and I couldn't sleep for hours still rambleing on while she had long sense fallen back to sleep. hehehehhee
....
Strong emotions can lock a menory away from you so you cannot see it but it will still effect you just the same.... More so even, because you have no idea where it is comeing from .
Strong emotions can be Anger, fear, Love ,Sense of loss... Pain, pleasure... you name it... if its strong it can hide an event from you... and mess you up badly... 
  and you want some more good news ?  they don't even have to be that strong
it depends upon you ! every person is diferent in that.
So no doubt everyone has these Anomalies in their minds that we pave over and around with our daily lives... so if you find yourselve doing something you don't like pay attention.... you may have one too !
hope this helps
Bob.......




Posted at: August 19, 2006, 02:15:19 AM

---

Also Dianetics by L.Ron.Hubbard made a statement that i memorized many years ago... it went something like this...
"  A man gets hit on the head with a hammer" later he goes into a hardware store... he is nervice...he doesn't know why he just is , he goes to the hammer isl and is so nervice he panics and runs out of the store"
this is the senerio that we all play out with minor changes
to this day... its a family joke to say "a Man gets hit in the head with a hammer... and we all say in unison "and he doesn't know WHY !"  hehehehe
so you'll excuse the pun if I say it made an IMPACT on me ! HAHAHAHAHAHA
<HUG>

Bob.......

I have been thinking on this for a while and just figured out how to put it into words. At least, I think so!

There are three who make up the current me:
1. Ye olde concious self.
2. Ye olde subconscious self.

Now, #1&#2 are pretty stereotypically human and not really worth special mention; As far as I know these are the standard issue selves.

However I am aware of another:
3. #3 is the interesting behind the scenes, quite possibly just a gateway for that matter because I only know this part of me is here because I have seen the results, and I can feel the 'curtain', but I have no solid idea of what is going on back here behind the scenes, behind that 'curtain'.  If I am right my concious and subconscious selves are an (imperfect) reflection of this self.  I am also certain this part of me 'taints' (not in a bad way) my concious and subconscious selves.

For 'amusement' and what it is worth.