Pavilion: Purpose

Pavilion is a meeting spot for those intent on active work in promoting positive views of healthy multiplicity, and the equality of all persons -- singlet, multiple or median, unsure, in-between, etc. The goal is to change public perception of multiplicity by encoouraging positive presentations of multiplicity in the media -- both dramatizations and news. This will be the first time the public hears from multiples, speaking for ourselves -- not from therapists or other non-multiples speaking for us.

As such, it is primarily a projects list, an ongoing news update, and a place to keep track of actions.

Since being founded in June 2002, Pavilion members have worked on projects ranging from brochure mailings to community discussions. Many of our members and contacts are extensively experienced in dealing with various topics relevant to multiplicity and social awareness. Pavilion updates and content are organized by Pavilion management, but are open to contributions and feedback from members of Pavilion, and from the public at large.

Our Statement

Our objective is to emphasize the experience of living as multiple, median or singlet; and to educate the public regarding misconceptions about multiplicity and helping multiples to protect their rights through education and awareness.

We are using a small number of catchwords merely to clarify differing types of experiences. These are not carved in stone; if you have your own words for these things, we'd love to hear them.

We believe that it's not the label that matters, but the commonality of experience between plurals -- whether they experience plurality in the form of hosting, aspects, "parts of me," or what have you. We who have more than one person in our body -- no matter what the origin -- have struggles in common, and desire to be perceived as equal with any singlet in society - no more, and no less.

Plural people experience themselves in a variety of ways. Some groups have only one person who ever uses the body in the everyday world, with guidance or comments from others who never take the body. Others have fluid changes, with many people who may take the body, and many others who speak to them from "inside". Many of us have had the experience of simply managing, interacting with and balancing a group along with ourselves. Overemphasis on distinctions may serve only to focus on differences, leading some to believe we have no common ground.

Plurality is the experience of more than one person sharing a body. That is all. Whether you do or do not front for many others, or whether you are or are not a bonder within a body, with a few or many speaking to you, or if you are a group of few or many, the experience of being more than one, and the considerations of daily life faced by those who are more than one, are exactly the same.

In emphasizing our common ground, we hope to take positive action for mainstream acceptance of life-as-many -- the fact that healthy, well-balanced people can and do live with more than one voice, with more than one mind.