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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. Likewise, please do not judge all multiples by what you've seen on The United States of Tara. This show is a comedy, it is being played for laughs, it is distorted, inaccurate, and insulting to many multiples. 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. Films such as Three Faces of Eve and Sybil and shows like The United States of Tara should not be viewed as educational: they are not representative or models of "how a real multiple acts". Click here to read more about this. Among the many untruths perpetuated by the remake, one of the worst came at the end, with the statement that Shirley Ardell Mason ended her life as a "recluse". She was an artist who exhibited her paintings at local galleries. She taught art for years, designed toys, and owned her own business. She was a devout member of the Seventh Day Adventist Church and was well known and liked there. Only a very few people knew Shirley was Sybil. Shirley's friend Nancy L. Preston has written a book called Life After Sybil which will be offered for sale on this page as soon as it becomes available. Miss Preston was interviewed for the DVD and that interview is included in the extras. Miss Preston's website, Sybil's Friend, has lots of personal reminiscences about her art teacher, mentor and friend. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0499260/board is the IMDB discussion board for the Sybil remake. You might look for more information there. Due to high viewer demand, a 30th anniversary edition of Sybil has been released on DVD in North America. 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. Beware, a lot of this is bullshit. Bifurcation of Self A review of Dr. Rieber's book on Sybil, pointing out his obvious misinformation and half truths. On Being The Proper Multiple By Sara Lambert. Even if you actually have the psychiatric MPD condition, it is completely unnecessary to behave like Sybil in order to be believed. Please don't use the film as a role model, and please do read this article if you have or think you have MPD. 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. Cornelia Wilbur, Richard Kluft and Frank Putnam on MPD Interrogation methods developed and recommended by the foremost "experts" on this condition. One can see how a non-multiple client could become coerced into pretending to have MPD just to get the hell out of there. 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 mostly by New Age and Theosophical doctrines, which referred to them as elemental spirits incarnating in human bodies, or persons on a "deva" evolution path. Non-theosophical ideas about otherkin evolved before the internet, and were mostly associated with belief systems such as the Faerie Faith or groups like Elf Lore Family (not Wicca). Wikipedia's Otherkin article Fictives/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. Some people refer to soulbonding as a non-serious connection with an imaginary character, and use 'fictive' to mean a serious connection to a real presence with a fictional source. 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 Astraea's Site Search by PicoSearch....Help Like This Site? Help fill the tip jar! Amazon.com cancelled their paybox service. We now take donations through Paypal. Be sure to set your adblocker so you can SEE powells.com searchboxes. home : faq : glossary : page top Back to where you were Created on ... September 14, 2007 Thank you Wicks