Magical Realism and Telepathy: Persons with Multiple Personality May Believe in Telepathy due to Anonymous Thought-Transference

In yesterday’s post on magical realism in literature, I mentioned that persons with multiple personality, like novelists, may be familiar with telepathic (mind-reading) kinds of experience, because one of their identities may be co-conscious with another of their identities, and so can read the other identity’s mind.

But what if the co-consciousness between two identities is one-way (which often happens)? Suppose identity A can read the mind of identity B, but B doesn’t even know that A exists (and A wants to keep it that way). In that case, A could communicate with B anonymously, in either of two ways. First, A could speak to B audibly, in which case B would “hear voices.” Second, A could transfer thoughts or information directly into B’s mind, which B may interpret as having magically learned something by telepathy.

Thus, when characters in a magical realism novel experience telepathy, it may reflect the author’s experience with multiple personality.