Split personality is a phenomenon well known to psychologists. Despite numerous observations, the mechanism by which two or more different people live in one body is still not entirely clear. Besides, "additional" personalities sometimes turn out to be quite real. It is, in particular, about such a thing as reincarnation.
Son of a brahmin
So, in 1926, his three-year-old son Jagdish Chandra turned to the lawyer Kikai Pandan Sahei from the town of Bareilly (Uttar Pradash state, India) with an unusual request - to buy a car. I must say that in India at that time, cars were very rare.
When the father said that he did not know where to get what he wanted, the boy said: "Take mine, he is standing in Babuji's house in Benares." Benares is located on the banks of the Ganges, more than three hundred miles from Bareilly. Sahei inquired who Babuji was and heard in response: "He is my father."
Then Jagdish said that his name was Jai Gopal, and his father was Babuji Pandi. According to the boy, he belonged to the highest caste of Brahmins. He described the house in which he lived in Benares: a large gate, a living room and a basement with a steel fireproof cabinet embedded in the wall. Also, according to Jagdish, Babuji owned two cars, a phaeton and a pair of horses. Babuji had a wife and two sons, but they died, he added.
It turned out that a man named Babuji Pandi actually lived in Benares. And he actually had a son, Jay Gopal, who died a few years ago … True, Babu Pandey did not own cars, only from time to time he rented them.
When a month later Sahei and Jagdish went to Benares, the boy unmistakably pointed the way to the house of Babuji Pandey, recognized him and other household members by sight.
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Interestingly, Jagdish Chandra perceived Jay Gopal as his "second self", which is typical for people with multiple personality disorder.
Somnambulist life
Episodes of splitting of consciousness are much more common, when a person simply experiences different states, in each of which he behaves like a separate person. So it was with a woman named Felida, whose case was described by L. Levenfeld in the book "Hypnotism", published in Saratov in 1903.
At the age of 13, Felida began to have hysterical seizures, which a year and a half later began to give way to somnambulistic states. By the time she was 32 years old, such conditions could continue in her for several months. At the same time, in a somnambulistic state, she remembered what she was doing in both incarnations, and normally she did not remember what she was doing when she was a somnambulist …
In her usual state, Felida was a melancholic, withdrawn, silent woman, often complaining of various ailments and was more absorbed in herself than those around her. As a somnambulist, on the contrary, she was cheerful, sociable, fond of outfits, but at the same time showed more attention to her loved ones.
Perhaps the emergence of a second personality was caused by the fact that Felida, in her normal state, “did not give herself up,” that is, she would like to be more emotional, but she could not afford it. As a result, in a state of altered consciousness, her secret desires came out, and she could allow herself to be as she dreamed of.
Adventure in the vineyard
A split personality can be "organized" under hypnosis. One such case was described by the French psychologist A. Binet. A sixteen-year-old boy saw a snake while working in a vineyard. From fear, he lost consciousness and his legs were paralyzed. In addition, he fell into childhood, imagining himself to be nine years old, began to read and write poorly … The last seven years have completely erased from his memory.
The cripple was sent to study tailoring, he again mastered the letter and received the profession of a tailor. A few years later, the young man again experienced severe stress, like the last time, which ended in fainting.
When he woke up, he suddenly remembered what had happened to him from nine to sixteen, including the meeting with a snake in the vineyard. The paralysis of the legs also passed without a trace, but the following years were erased from his memory, along with all the skills of tailoring.
Binet conducted several experiments with this patient, during which, under hypnosis, he induced in him the features of one of two personalities. The first remembered his work in the vineyard and his legs were healthy, and the second perceived himself as a teenager who could not walk, but at the same time excellently owned a needle …
But if the situation with Felida and the young man from the vineyard can still be explained from the point of view of psychology, then with reincarnation everything is much more complicated. It is not clear where the “second person” can get information about his “previous incarnation” inaccessible to her. Or is transmigration really taking place?
Margarita Troitsyna