Hey, it's Daniel. I'm running the video today.
Wyn wrote a script for me but I'm gonna use it more as an outline.
She likes to go super word-for-word, but I'm not...
I feel like that's a little too fake, so I'm not going to.
A lot of people ask us questions like what is it like when you're inside?
What does switching feel like? Stuff like that. So I'm going to talk about that today.
I want to start by saying what we feel and the stuff that I'm about to describe...
Some of it could apply to other systems, but
D.I.D. is such an individualized experience. No two systems are ever exactly the same.
If you're a system and you have different experiences with co-consciousness
leave a comment. Maybe expand on something that I said
and, uh...
Yeah. Yeah, let's just spread awareness.
Educate.
Break stigma.
Ready, set, go.
So the most obvious thing that people think of...
when they think of me being out front and Wyn being inside is
a blackout period. They don't remember anything at all. It was black. They have no connection to
what happened while one of their headmates--
Headmate is our preferential term to alter
just 'cause
'alter' sounds very clinical and headmate
fits kind of the way we feel like a family.
They black out and that is called
time loss. Or most people call it time loss.
um...
Which is pretty much exactly how it sounds. It means that the person--the host--the person who was inside
can't recall any events. Sometimes they don't know how much time has passed
and sometimes you don't even know that any time has passed at all because you just have no
frame of reference. So like if you're sitting at home
messing around on the internet and
someone comes out and thirty minutes passes
everything's just so much sort of the same that when you come back out
you don't even know that that thirty minutes is gone.
You're just like "Oh wow! I really lost track of time didn't I?"
Time loss can last anywhere from just a couple minutes all the way to months or even years at a time.
So, if option 'a' is time loss then what is option 'b'?
Well, that is something we call co-consciousness. That is when one or more alters
basically is aware. Co-consciousness comes in a varying amount of degrees, and we kind of refer to it...
you know, in lack of a better term...
So here's the front, right? We've got the front. So we've got
further back and closer to the front
Here's time loss. Say you're here. You're pretty far back. You're still co-conscious, but you're pretty far away from the front.
So to explain that I kind of
think of, you know, like when you're in a class, and you're in a really boring class, and than all of a sudden
the bell rings and you realize that you have no idea
what that lecture of the day was about.
You remember hearing words coming out of the professor's mouth,
but details are gone. You are borrowing notes from a friend.
It can get kind of confusing, though, when you're right up close to the front.
Where you're so...you and at least one other headmate are so close to the front together
that you don't actually know
who's out front at the time. That sounds really bizarre, but okay, so picture
you and a friend
each have a game controller in your hand and there's video game on your TV
but only one of the controllers is plugged in. Now, if this is a complicated game
and both of your gaming styles are different,
it's going to become apparent very quickly, even though you can see and hear everything
that's going on in the game, that your controller is not plugged in. But if it's a very basic game and
you would instinctively start out, say, walking forward it can take a while to be like,
"Okay, so we're both kind of wanting to do the same thing.
Which one of us is actually doing the thing?"
Let's say one of our cats comes up and rubs against our leg.
Wyn's instinct would be, you know, to be down and "Ooh, baby!"
you know, and scratch her little ears and whatever.
Kit, who hates surprise touches even if it's a quick brush against the leg, would instinctively
jump away and look down and say "Oh god, what was that?"
They're both gonna have that instinct at the moment. They can see, hear, feel everything,
but what the body actually responds to tells us, oh!
Okay, so Wyn was actually up front this whole time.
Yeah, it can...it can seem confusing and, trust me, it's confusing for us, too.
That's co-consciousness. Switching is a whole 'nother batch of feelings.
And again, this is what it feels like for us.
This is not universally applied to every system.
This is just our experience.
So switching, um...
Like the sensation...it kind of...if I had to describe it, it's kind of like a wave almost,
and the body...the body chemistry physically changes.
Wyn gets tired a lot easier than me or than Kit.
If she is out front
and she feels sick or tired one of us will come up and
this energy will sort of wash over the body. That feeling of stress or
weariness is just instantly like...
Bloop! It's gone.
Like you threw off a jacket.
The mental part's a little harder to describe because it's like..you fall back...
...and just watch someone drive.
I can't...I can't describe the mental process very well.
Yeah, so that is co-consciousness.
If you have any further questions about it, please please please share in the comments.
We would be happy to expand upon these topics
that we're already doing in different videos if you guys have more questions or if these
videos inspire questions. Our goal is to educate.
Yeah, so that's co-consciousness. I am Daniel. Let me know if there's anything else I can explain.
And..uh...yeah.
Peace.