Neurodiversity, Part 1: Two Souls in One Body with Annika and Tristan

Annika and Tristan are two distinct persons occupying a single body. To our knowledge, their case is unique and neither understood nor even described in the psychiatric and psychological literature. They believe that their case sheds light on the nature of consciousness and mind-body interaction. Here they describe how, after years of struggle, they have learned how to coordinate their activities and live in harmony in the body they share. The interview concludes with a duet in which they play guitar and sing together.

00:00:00 Introduction
00:04:47 There was a struggle at first
00:10:24 Coordinating body control
00:19:45 Jumping through time
00:25:53 Rapid switching control
00:30:28 Dissociative identity disorder
00:37:30 States of consciousness
00:40:06 Activities together
00:50:56  Guitar and singing
01:04:44  Conclusion

My first thought on this is that it is an extraordinary phenomenon that raises the bar greatly (in fact intolerably) for any attempted physicalist explanations for human consciousness. Here is a case where two distinct apparent selves and corresponding personalities and memories, etc. occupied the same brain and body. The obvious first most likely explanation (barring outright closed-minded denial by materialists) is that it is what it very much seems to be. This is along the lines of interactive dualism, where normally the soul or spirit inhabits the brain and body during physical life, but the intricate interaction of soul with physical brain can in this unusual instance happen with two souls at once.

I'm not sure to what extent this is just the use of language and terminology to describe things in a certain way, as opposed to a factual description of something. Certainly the guitar/singing was to my ears at least, underwhelming and less pronounced than I'd perhaps expected. What is true is that there are many unknowns about the mind, such as how memory works and also memory loss too. I mention memory loss since it does impact people sometimes unexpectedly, and plays a significant role here as well.

In the past I've heard of cases but without direct evidence from the source like this. Often it is described in terms of integrating and blending the characters into a whole so they are still represented but not necessarily separate.

To an extent I can relate from my own experience, not in the sense of having multiple souls, but of awakening a part of myself seemingly from a past life and with quite different personality and behaviour. For a while in my younger days I would find myself living out these different aspects depending on where I was and with whom. I never regarded the other aspect as separate, merely an unexpressed and dormant side of myself.

I'm not sure to what extent this is just the use of language and terminology to describe things in a certain way, as opposed to a factual description of something. Certainly the guitar/singing was to my ears at least, underwhelming and less pronounced than I'd perhaps expected. What is true is that there are many unknowns about the mind, such as how memory works and also memory loss too. I mention memory loss since it does impact people sometimes unexpectedly, and plays a significant role here as well.
In the past I've heard of cases but without direct evidence from the source like this. Often it is described in terms of integrating and blending the characters into a whole so they are still represented but not necessarily separate.
To an extent I can relate from my own experience, not in the sense of having multiple souls, but of awakening a part of myself seemingly from a past life and with quite different personality and behaviour. For a while in my younger days I would find myself living out these different aspects depending on where I was and with whom. I never regarded the other aspect as separate, merely an unexpressed and dormant side of myself.

It might just be applicable to look at this case from the psychotherapeutic standpoint as being some strange form of multiple personality disorder, which admittedly also doesn't have a good materialist neuroscientific explanation, and which also points to dualist concepts of consciousness.

I agree that the singing/guitar playing was underwhelming and unconvincing of there really being two separate and distinct personalities sharing control of the same body and having to work out protocols to decide who controls what in different circumstances.

This seems like something that could be faked, as such not sure what to make of it.

There are a lot of people in the comments saying the person has perpetuated a long con, but OTOH many of these same people say the evidence of said fraud is on Reddit...hardly a reputable source...

I'm not particularly suggesting fakery. Though I may be a bit caught up in more conventional psychiatric terminology where terms like soul tend not to be used and such occurrences are described using other words.

I do recall the case of Lurancy Vennum (the Watseka Wonder) which has some similarities. At the same time the ability for one or both or even none of the personalities to be present in the body, seemingly at will, could offer possibilities for study - akin to conventional OOBE research. I'm not sure much was said about this aspect (or perhaps my attention wandered).

One of the things I found strange was how it was said that using human words and sentences was a better way of communicating than simple direct telepathy. That is at odds with for example communications during an NDE which can be rapid and comprehensive with no room for misunderstandings. Certainly human language, and for example mathematical language, can be valuable in engaging in rational discourse, such language often proves inadequate to express emotions or to describe a problem or difficulty in a way which allows others to comprehend our point of view.

I had this idea as a small child, probably just after I'd received a scolding for something, that if the other person understood all the steps in my life leading up to that point, they would not have scolded me, but instead have understood me. That's perhaps where my mistrust of words and desire for telepathic sharing began to be something I considered necessary, but missing from this world.

[Laird]

I think this is the most fascinating video that I've ever seen. Wow. 🤯

This seems like something that could be faked, as such not sure what to make of it.

I don't think that it is a fake, but you're right that it's theoretically possible. Even if it is a fake, it's faked to perfection, and the fake story and fake characters are so compelling.

There are a lot of people in the comments saying the person has perpetuated a long con, but OTOH many of these same people say the evidence of said fraud is on Reddit...hardly a reputable source...

Yep, worried that a few minutes of googling would easily and convincingly show this to be a con job, I took a little time to try to follow up on those comments before posting the pretty glowing sentiments that I have in this post so far. I didn't find anything that seemed to seriously call into question the essence of their claims. There was plenty of mean-spirited criticism, and there were various specific negative claims which I found hard to research and substantiate, for example, of Annika (as "Jessie") being involved in webcam sex work, of Annika ("Jessie") having defrauded people on a website she ran, of Annika-as-"Jessie" having misused a lover, etc, etc. None of this seems to bear on the core story, and it seems like unnecessary nastiness and unpleasantness that makes me feel dirty for even starting (staring) down that rabbit hole given how positively and lovingly Annika and Tristan presented themselves in the video.

Based on other comments under the video (I read them all), it seems that Jeffrey has done his homework in speaking with family members, and accessing extensive documentation, including medical records, with which he was provided, so I'm going to go with "due diligence on Dr Mishlove's part" over "spurious muckraking on Reddit".

I eagerly await the next installment in this four-part series, which drops tomorrow (15 May). So many questions! I will patiently wait until the end to see how many are left unanswered.

[Laird]

I eagerly await the next installment in this four-part series, which drops tomorrow (15 May).

It's just as fascinating as the first:

Neurodiversity, Part 2: Annika's Life Story

You guys really need to scroll down her reddit and read some of the material.  It's very telling.  On one occasion she has posted a barmy video of herself rubbing her tummy while patting her head and claiming it is because there are two people.  I don't believe a word of the OP video.  I think it is a very bad joke!

https://www.reddit.com/r/twosoulsonebod/

You guys really need to scroll down her reddit and read some of the material.  It's very telling.  On one occasion she has posted a barmy video of herself rubbing her tummy while patting her head and claiming it is because there are two people.  I don't believe a word of the OP video.  I think it is a very bad joke!

https://www.reddit.com/r/twosoulsonebod/

I am not convinced that the phenomenon is real, why I mentioned potential fakery.

However even trying to get a clear indication of what this person has done gets woven into claims that are very hard figure out. As Laird notes it feels like a bizarre cesspool.

I take it as a curiosity worth keeping in mind, but hard to see how one goes about proving this isn't faked. Probably further research...