I first became acquainted with Multiple Personality Syndrome (hereafter referred to simply as MPD) in the early part of 2001 when I met an American multiple (someone suffering from MPD). Claudette (not her real name) believed herself to be someone entirely different from whom she actually was and unconsciously played the part she was acting almost to perfection. My suspicions would not have been alerted to the fact that something was wrong had it not been for the fact that she was very coy about sharing things about her personal feelings. I initially put this down to shyness and went ahead for her to visit us here for some weeks in the summer both to get to know us, and learn more about Christian discipleship (as she was a relatively new believer).

Some two or three weeks before she was to fly over from the USA, and just as I was waking up and going into my morning prayers, I saw a particularly vivid and frighening vision as I brought the question of Claudette before the Lord. I saw a swirling mass of light that was violently rotating on an unstable axis. All of a sudden is swooped down into something I could not see and as it did so it acquired layer after layer of putrid filth, growing progressively in diameter as it did so. There would be brief pauses and it would again resume this very agitated and violent activity. As I watched the scene I was aware of the presence of great evil, and specifically sexual impurity, which made me shudder.

From that moment on there wasn't the slightest doubt in my mind that there was something seriously wrong with "Claudette" and that there was a satanic connection. I wrote to her saying that I thought we should talk a little more before she bought her air-ticket to come and see us as I knew relatively little about her background, esplaining that in view of our circumstances it was important that we not admit complete strangers into our home unless given very clear direction to do so from the Lord.

Over the next few days I became aware through prophetic dreams that Satan had intended to infiltrate our family with this woman with the sole purpose of destroying it.

This was my first introduction to MPD and to deliverance ministry.

In the autumn (fall) of the same year I was to come to get to know another multiple and her circumstances very well indeed, thus plunging me headlong into a new and fascinating spiritual territory which has both stimulated new questions as well as answering old ones in wholly unexpected ways. That MPD is a real and serious illness I have no doubt whatsoever, but as to its actual mechanism I have come to some rather unusual conclusions which are not entirely in agreement with the views of either secular psychologists or all Christians involved in deliverance and/or MPD Recovery ministry. I hope this series of articles will shed some light on this phenomenon and be a blessing both for multiples themselves as well as for those trying to minister to them, be they husbands, wives, friends, family or pastors. For part of the problem is that not only are there churches that do not believe that MPD exists but there are those who do but who haven't a clue how to handle it. It is easy to dismiss MPD as simply demonisation, and whilst there is no doubt that demons play a major rôle in the condition, it cannot be entirely attributable to them. Please bear in mind that I do not, at the time of writing have all the answers, but am an explorer myself, and what follows in later essays may not agree with earlier material in the light of further experience. With this in mind, I welcome you to this study.