So I found Aaron Bushnell's reddit and went through his comments/posts. That young man was well read and stable as they can be. Nothing in his writings pointed to someone who was "unstable" or "brainwashed".
He held leftist and anarchist ideals. He belong to the ACAB subreddit. He recognized the evil of the US Military even though he himself was a part of it. He hated TERFS and called out fatphobia. He understood the dangers of white supremecy and the evils of capitalism.
He had a cat. He liked the show fleabag and played elden ring.
Apparently in his will he wants to leave any money in his name to palestinian relief funds. He was trying to find a new owner for his cat.
Rest in peace Aaron Bushnell. The world won't forget & we sure as fuck won't let the media paint you out to be some crazy conspiracy theorist who had no idea what he was doing.
Think of the levels of consciousness like a line shown below
(NOTE: These are just examples of how things/CAN/ be, this will not be universal to every DID/OSDD system, this is just a visual aide to help you visualize how consciousness may work)
(Note: the headspace and co-con can overlap, this is just to simplify it)
On one end we have "Fronting", where one or more alter is fully experiencing the external world, and can take executive control of the body. On the other end, we have "unconsciousness" and dormancy, where an alter is essentially in a state of hibernation.
Between these two points, we have "co-consciousness" where one or more alter is conscious, but not fully in the front, and we have the "headspace" or inner world, where alters exist when not in the front (not every system has an inner world)
Alters can exist in and move around multiple different places on this line
Our first example:
The pink dot shown, an alter, is conscious, not fronting, but very close to the front. From this point you may be able to hear very clear thoughts or speech, and experience passive influence on emotions, actions, and thought patterns. They may be able to see what is going on in the external world from this point
Then we have the next example:
The purple dot, an alter, isn't very close to the front, but close enough to perhaps be able to hear their thoughts or speech. They may or may not be able to give passive influence, and may be able to see and/or hear what's going on in the external world, but likely not to the extent as the previous pink dot.
Next:
The blue dot, an alter, is barely co-conscious. Their presence may be able to be felt, and vague emotions/thoughts may be present, they probably wont have a big idea of what's going on in the external world, and communication may be very minimum
The headspace can be a very large place for many systems, and accessing the front or co-consciousness could be difficult depending on where they are in the headspace. A line will not accurately represent this, so keep that in mind.
The green dot, an alter, is at the very front of the headspace, this may make it easier to access co-consciousness or the front. An alter who "hangs around" this area, may be a frequent fronter, or someone who accesses co-consciousness frequently
While someone in the red dot's position may have a very difficult time reaching the front or co-consciousness. They may not be a frequent fronter, an alter that doesnt have access to those areas, or even an alter who isnt aware that they're part of a system. Systems themselves may not even be aware that this alter exists, as they're in the back of the headspace, or a very obscure location. There may be barriers keeping them back here, and they may not be able to travel freely throughout the inner world or into higher levels of consciousness.
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This is not meant to be accurate to everyone's experiences, and it isnt a perfect representation as systems are an extremely complicated and diverse thing, but if you're able to draw from this regardless, that's great!
If it DOESN'T fit any of your experiences, that's also okay! We dont have a known inner world so our line looks more like this
We don't know what happens behind co-consciousness, there is no memories behind that from anyone, and there is just no access to it if it exists, it's like the others just go to sleep unless they're conscious, in a sense. There could be barriers there.
We also can't clearly communicate in the co-con category, I, the host, can feel emotions, vague thoughts, and passive influence, but there is never clear voices or any good communication
So basically, it's okay if none of the above fits your experiences
a common misconception i see in the community is that polyfragmentation refers to having a high alter count, and id like to talk about what it actually means
polyfragmentation is characterized by a complex system structure, complex splitting patterns, a large number of fragments, a lack of non-dissociative coping mechanisms, and often trauma that began at an early age and impacted all areas of life
COMPLEX SYSTEM STRUCTURE - often involving layers, subsystems, or other divisions within the system that keep alters separate in groups
COMPLEX SPLITTING PATTERNS - this involves splitting in groups, splitting multiple alters to hold different parts of the same trauma, etc
LARGE FRAGMENT COUNT - polyfragmented systems will have a high fragment count, fragments are alters who lack a full sense of identity
LACK OF NON-DISSOCIATIVE COPING MECHANISMS - where splitting would typically be a last resort for most systems, polyfragmented systems can be pushed to the point of splitting much easier, even from daily life stressors
EARLY LIFE TRAUMA - according to richard p kluft, polyfragmented DID is often caused by longstanding severe abuse beginning early in life
- hund