Stephen Braude, PhD, is an emeritus professor and former chairman of the philosophy department at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County. He has also served as president of the Parapsychological Association. He is author of First Person Plural: Multiple Personality and the Philosophy of Mind, Crimes of Reason, The Gold Leaf Lady, Immortal Remains, The Limits of Influence, and ESP and Psychokinesis. He is the recent recipient of the prestigious Myers Memorial Medal awarded by the Society for Psychical Research for outstanding contributions. He also serves as editor of the Journal of Scientific Exploration.
Here he points out that eighteenth century mesmerists discovered that, during trance, individuals could exhibit two simultaneous and independent states of consciousness. Many variations of this type of experiment were performed over the coming century. In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, clinicians began reporting instances of what was known as multiple personality disorder. Patients reported that their various sub-personalities were sometimes unaware of each other. Many other unusual characteristics of this condition are described, including physical changes that are observed between different sub-personalities. Braude maintains that paranormal explanations are not required to understand multiple personalities.
(Recorded on February 13, 2016)
Published on February 14, 2016