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Controversial Issues in Multiplicity We welcome your comments! Please click here to email us. Offsite links open into new windows. Sybil Please don't base your judgement of multiplicity, or these pages, on Sybil or on the real-life Shirley Mason. She was not a typical multiple personality, and many aspects of her case are controversial. We carry this information only because so many people have written to us asking for it. Due to high viewer demand, a 30th anniversary edition of Sybil has been released on DVD in North America. Please try to keep in mind that what you see in the film is only very loosely based on the real events in the life of Shirley Mason. The novel by Flora Schreiber is not a psychiatric case history. It is a fictionalized narrative, exaggerated for shock value, and the film even more so. For a sneak peek at the Sybil remake with a couple of photos, click here. Sybil Remake: U.S. Release Indefinitely Postponed Please do not email us with inquiries, but if you have news about what is happening with the remake we want to hear from you. Everything we find out will be announced on this page. Keep checking back here. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0499260/board is the IMDB discussion board for the Sybil remake. You might look for more information there. If you are a member of Netflix, you can rent the Sybil DVD now -- also Three Faces of Eve, if you're interested. The Women's Entertainment Network occasionally shows Sybil, apparently uncut. Oxygen also shows Sybil uncut. Keep an eye on the schedule. Dr. Cornelia Wilbur's personal papers -- letters, diaries, etc. -- were to be opened in 2005. However, here is no reason to believe that the general public will be allowed access to these papers. This is primarily for the use of researchers like Peter Swales. There is still no word on when or if her professional records will be opened, and it is likely that this will not happen anytime soon due to issues of client confidentiality. Additionally, it is our understanding that Dr. Wilbur kept very incomplete records, and sometimes did not keep charts or records on her clients at all. Any information we gather on Sybil will be posted here. Sybil: The Hidden Gallery A new book and an exhibition of previously unknown paintings by Shirley Mason. Prints now available. Sybil's Friend Nancy Preston, Shirley Mason's friend and student, created this loving tribute to the woman& she knew. Sybil's Identity Revealed Sybil was Shirley Ardell Mason of Lexington, Kentucky. A documentary film is to be made about her life. (Again, Sybil is not a documentary. It is a heavily fictionalized adaptation which was made deliberately to resemble a horror film.) Kentucky art teacher was 'Sybil,' scholar confirms From the Detroit Free Press. Was "Sybil"'s Story Bogus? New evidence or just somebody trying to make a buck? Unmasking Sybil Just gives a few more facts about her life. Stranger In Our Midst How Shirley lived peacefully in Lexington, Kentucky with almost no one the wiser. Sybil: The Making of A Disorder from the New York Review. Was Shirley really multiple? Or did Cornelia Wilbur just talk her into it? Decide for yourself. Who was the real Sybil? From the New Yorker, January 4, 1999. Natural History of a Myth By Dr. Robert Rieber. Talks at length about the tapes he heard, and his version of the MPD scandal of the 80s and 90s and how the misreporting of Sybil's case contributed to it. Mistaken Identity There is some stuff about Shirley in this BBC Horizons report. Warning: A British friend tells us, "Horizon is a show about taking the subject of a scientific paper and making it into a 'story'. They use the expression 'sheer drama' which means that they can't tell you about the discovery of a new particle without giving you 50 minutes of the amazing chance discovery and people struggling to persuade their doubting collegues of its existence." Anyone who remembers Greer Garson sitting up in bed and gasping "Pierre! What if that stain is radium?!" should be familiar with this phenomenon. A brief statement by Linda Massey, who was filmed in the Horizon documentary. Who Was The Real Sybil? From the New Yorker, focuses on Shirley Mason's art. Billy Milligan A Statement from Billy Milligan We spoke with Alan of Billy's system in the fall of 1996. This is his take on the overdiagnosing of MPD/DID in the 90s. This is what he saw happen. Is Billy Milligan a Natural Multiple? A very brief astute observation by an anonymous writer. We invite Mr. Milligan's response. Other Controversies Confused about "empowered" multiples? Click here... Otherkin "Otherkin" is a word used mostly online to refer to people who feel that their souls or spirits are other than human; they could be animals, or creatures usually considered mythological, or angels, or aliens. Until the advent of the internet, such people were recognized and acknowledged only by New Age and Theosophical doctrines, which referred to them as elemental spirits incarnating in human bodies, or persons on a "deva" evolution path. Online beliefs about otherkin are largely pagan or secular in nature and in any case partake of much more free thought, unencumbered by dogma. Wikipedia's Otherkin article Soulbonding "Soulbond" is a word used mostly online for people who feel they are in touch with fictional characters or the real persons on whom said characters are based. It is also called having imaginal or fictional presences -- or just having presences. Click here for more on soulbonding and its possible relationship to multiplicity. ... but click here to see why some groups think soulbonding should not be seen as a form of multiplicity and describe the experience in more rational terms. Soulwhispers Formerly Inner Voices. A thoughtful set of pages with a nice layout. This explains it all without getting preachy, and links soulbonding to multiplicity. Imaginary This is about "fictional people who share space in one's head". It's up to you to decide whether this can or should be counted as a kind of multiplicity. The Courts have some articles on soulbonding: http://www.karitas.net/courts/writings/essays.html You may also be interested in this: Wikipedia's Article on Walk-Ins home : faq : glossary : page top Back to where you were

Created on ... September 14, 2007
Thank you Wicks