We are multiples of "Self". With the non-material mind model, vast new possibilities open up for describing the nature of Being. The idea that we are a "mob" of conscious entities is far from new and offers a novel insight into many mental and spiritual phenomena. Descriptions of it go back to ancient texts and even early Christian gnostic writers, such as Basilides and Valentinus, were very familiar with the model.

Buddha referred to the "fleas" we carry around and Gurdjieff wrote of multiple "I"s. In more modern times, we have the dissociation model of Ernest Hilgard, and Dick Schwartz's "Internal Family Systems". But typically, these ideas revolve around the supposition that there are "aspects" of self that "behave like" separate conscious entities.

The model I am introducing is that we are truly a "cloud consciousness" of beings, in various degrees of independence. But the model is less than pathological. In fact, it's very liberating. We all have moments of insight into this phenomenon, when we use expressions like "A little voice in my head says…" and "A part of me is telling me that…"

We are taught to dismiss these as imaginary or metaphorical messages. Such a model is not "correct" because it couldn't be! We are, after all, just a brain, say the reductionist scientists. Haha! We are NOT a brain. I will introduce a series of hundreds of individuals who have no brain (or less than 2% of brain tissue), yet they think and behave normally.

We are a non-material mind and therefore the complex of self is almost a given! Others taking over and broadcasting through your brain momentarily is not to be feared. YOU are still the prime consciousness. And wouldn't schizoid patients be less distressed if told they are not "crazy" -- that normal people can hear voices too!