Restoration in Christ Ministries seeks to bring into focus the spiritual dynamics that stifle the psychological process of healing from the dissociative disorders.

Updated August 2024

The field of dissociation is relatively new, and confusion about terminology exists on all sides. This website is an introduction to concepts and ideas that are still being developed.

To further this communication we have included some definitions of terms. Usage determines meaning, and we are constantly updating and clarifying our terminology.

Because we are committed to the final authority of the Scriptures and seek to bring greater understanding and increased communication to the Christian community, including Christians in the mental health field, we use biblical concepts where appropriate together with terminology that will be understood by those with formal training.

ABREACTION—The conscious experience of a previously buried, traumatic memory which emerges in its original, unprocessed, sensory and affective form, with the vivid replay of sight, sound, touch, taste, smell, and emotions, making it seem like a re-occurrence of the actual event.

ACCESS (verb)—To make direct or indirect contact with a programmed subject through physical, electronic, or possibly spiritual means; may involve predetermined signals or programmed triggers.

ACTING OUT—Demonstrating unhealthy, non-productive behavior related to one’s unresolved psychological issues.

AFFECT (noun)—A psychological term referring to emotions or the facial expression of emotions.

ALTER—Abbreviated form of “alternate-identity” or “alter-identity.”

ALTER-IDENTITY—A completely dissociated (separated) projection of the person’s true self formed under extraordinary distress to enable him to cope in the midst of overwhelming trauma; a more accurate designation than “alter-personality,” as each of these parts has a distinct identity but not always a completely developed personality. They are much more limited in function and awareness than primary identities, which carry the strongest essence of the person’s true self.

ALTERED STATE OF CONSCIOUSNESS—Any shift of consciousness that separates the person’s awareness from a clear connectedness to his physical environment.

AMNESIA—The absence of memory for some or all past events or the inability to recall pertinent, personal information that is too extreme to be explained by ordinary forgetfulness.

ASTRAL TRAVEL—Intentional, out-of-body travel not initiated by God.

BLACKOUT—A loss of consciousness experienced by a particular identity while another is in executive control of the body.

BODY MEMORY—The temporary re-appearance of bruises, abrasions, burns, or other wounds from a past traumatic event or the re-experience of the pain or physical sensations of such an event as the memory is being recalled or stimulated by something reminiscent of the trauma.

BONDAGE—A state of being under the negative control of another individual, spiritual entity, or addiction.

BUFFER IDENTITY—The pain-buffering primary identity that is situated between the Function Identity and Pain Identity, separating Function from Pain so that Function can be pain-free; experiences a muted degree of pain and depression.

CO-CONSCIOUSNESS— The phenomenon of more than one identity sharing an awareness of life at the same time; usually refers to the Primary Presenter maintaining an awareness of events which transpire when other identities take executive control of the body.

CONDITIONING—The process by which a consistent, behavioral response becomes associated with a particular stimulus.

CORE—Commonly used to refer to the part of a dissociated person that represents the original, non-material self, created by God as a singular unit, from which the other identities originate; the identity most representing the true essence of the self. This designation has been replaced with “Original Self” by this organization

COSMIC BEINGS—An all-encompassing term referring to the spiritual entities in higher echelons than demons, such as cherubim, seraphim, principalities, powers, authorities, dominions, celestial beings, world-rulers, spirits of wickedness, cosmic elemental spirits, etc.

COVERT—Hidden, secret, undeclared, or unrevealed.

CULT—An organized group of people devoted to beliefs and goals not shared by the general population and contrary to a biblical worldview; used in the context of ritual abuse to refer to any organized, covert perpetrator group devoted to a highly secret agenda which serves the ultimate purposes of Satan and uses some form of mind-control programming to exert control over innocent subjects.

CULT ALTERS—Alter-identities indoctrinated and programmed by an organized perpetrator group for their own purposes; may exhibit varying degrees of cult-loyalty.

CULT-CONNECTED PRIMARY—See PERPETRATOR-CONNECTED PRIMARY.

CULTIST—Any member of an organized group devoted to beliefs and goals contrary to a biblical worldview; used in the context of ritual abuse to refer to a perpetrator in such a group that is specifically involved in the secret, programmed control of innocent, dissociated subjects.

CURSE—Any form of harm, injury, or misfortune coming to a person due to the deliberate invoking of evil against him or her by another person or as punishment for iniquity from God.

DARKNESS—Associated with Satan and his realm.

DECOMPENSATION—A breakdown of psychological, emotional, and/or functional stability.

DELIVERANCE—The process of freeing a person (or identity, in DID) from personal connection to demons and evil cosmic beings.

DEMON—An evil spirit; apparently the lowest rank of unseen, evil spiritual beings.

DEMONIZATION—A broad term to refer to the association of one or more specific demons with an individual (or identity, in DID) and able to exert a varying degree of influence or control over the person (or identity).

DEPERSONALIZATION—A psychological condition characterized by feeling a loss of identity and/or detachment from, or unreality about, one’s body, emotions, or behavior.

DEREALIZATION—A psychological condition in which one feels detached from the environment or that the environment or what is happening in it is unreal.

DESYNCHRONIZATION—The disturbance of the normal functioning of interrelated parts; used by Jim Wilder to refer to the disruption that trauma causes to the smooth flow of data through the five levels of the emotional/relational control center of the brain; used by Tom Hawkins to refer to the process by which primary identities become slightly separated from the Original Self and each other as opposed to the more marked separation that occurs with the alter-identities formed through dissociation.

DIMENSIONS—Used in the context of DID and ritual abuse to describe levels of existence, consciousness, or domain among which dissociated or desynchronized parts of a person’s soul and/or spirit can subtly shift to escape the realities and limitations of our three-dimensional physical world, some of which connect with the evil spiritual realm or the heavenly abode of God.

DISSOCIATION—A temporary or prolonged state in which consciousness, identity, memory, and/or perception of the environment may be altered or separated from their usually integrated state. This phenomenon lies on a continuum ranging from normal day-dreaming and “highway hypnosis” on one end to the pathological formation of alternate-identities (DID) at the other end.

DISSOCIATIVE IDENTITY DISORDER (DID)—The official term for what was formerly known as Multiple Personality Disorder; the psychological phenomenon of having two or more distinct identities within a single person, which demonstrate a consistent perspective of, and pattern of relating to, self, others, and the environment, with at least two of them recurrently taking executive control of the person’s behavior and having some degree of amnesia between some of them.

EXECUTIVE CONTROL—The ability to control the actions of the body.

FALLEN SON OF GOD—A fallen angel; part of God’s highest creations in the spiritual realm that followed Lucifer in rebelling against God, thus losing their exalted positions in the heavenly realms.

FAMILIAL SPIRIT—See Ancestral Spirit.

FAMILIAR SPIRIT—A demon attached to a family line over several generations that has the potential to portray itself as a deceased ancestor.

FLASHBACK—The brief, intrusive, vivid, visualization of a past traumatic event in the mind, often triggered by a reminder of it.

FLOODING—The rapid and overwhelming release of memories that may compromise the person’s functionality.

FOOTHOLD—The established right of attachment of a demon to a person or identity (in DID) through a specific sin or free will bond, enabling the demon to have some degree of influence in the person’s life; generally differentiated from a “stronghold,” which can involve multiple demons or cosmic beings.

FRAGMENT—An identity with a very limited life history or job description.

FREE WILL BOND—The act of a person’s will that provides the right for a demon or cosmic being to attach to the person (or identity in DID); formerly called “legal grounds.” This may be a significant personal sin; a habitual pattern of sin; participation in an occult activity or a ritual to a foreign deity; or a vow, oath, or covenant made with the realm of darkness by the person, an identity (in DID), a parent/caregiver, or an ancestor.

FREEMASONRY—A worldwide group of fraternal organizations that traces its origin to the local fraternities of stonemasons in the fourteenth century that regulated their qualifications and interaction with authorities and clients. The Freemasons outwardly purport to share a belief in the fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of mankind. In truth, they are built on the principles of the Babylonian Mystery Religions aimed at creating through secret rituals an elite group of people who are able to connect with the divine enlightenment promised by the Serpent to Eve in the Garden of Eden. Much ritual abuse is connected to the secret activities of the higher-level Masons.

FUNCTION IDENTITY—One of the pain-buffering primary identities that is situated farthest from the pain-bearing alters so it can function as if the person has no pain.

FUSION—The merging of two or more alter-identities so that they become one, differentiated from “integration,” which occurs when alters merge into a primary identity.

GATEKEEPER—An identity that controls which identities are allowed to present at a given time or restricts access to certain identities or parts of the system.

GENEALOGICAL MAP—A flow-chart showing the chain of creation of the various identities in a system.

GENERATIONAL CLAIM—A legal right established by one’s ancestors for Satan/Lucifer to take a part of the person into satanic custody immediately after creation.

GENERATIONAL INIQUITY—A grievous sin or deeply established pattern of sin that results in consequences occurring in subsequent generations, according to Exodus 20:5.

GENERATIONAL SATANISM—Satanism which is propagated through succeeding generations.

HANDLER—A person who is responsible for directing aspects of another person’s life within the cult agenda; may remotely operate manipulated molecular inserts and life forms within the person.

HOST—The primary identity that has executive control of the body the most in living daily life outside of trauma situations; often a direct representation of the Original Self; may also be called the “Presenter” or “Primary Presenter,” which is the preferred term used by this organization since in its biological usage “Host” implies the attachment of parasites. The identity serving in this position can change from time to time over the course of the individual’s life under situations of great duress.

IDENTITY—A person’s distinct sense of self; used in DID to refer to a separated part of the soul created through either dissociation or desynchronization. These identities can be further differentiated as primary identities or alter-identities.

ILLUMINATI—““An amalgamation of powerful occultic bloodlines, elite secret societies, and influential Masonic fraternities, with the desire to construct the framework for a ‘New World Order.’” Ritual abuse survivors are often used to help accomplish their agenda. Ron Patton, “Project Monarch: Nazi Mind Control.”

IMPLANT—A material or immaterial device inserted into a person in order to monitor, influence, or manipulate him in a remote control, or wireless, manner. Immaterial implants can be power entities or manipulated molecular structures.

INNER SELF HELPER (ISH)—An alter-identity who is devoted to the good of the person and works to maintain internal stability and well-being; may provide helpful information to guide the therapist; rarely participates in external life.

INNER WORLD (or INTERNAL LANDSCAPE)—A mental imagery construction of the mind where some identities may interact with each other when they are not participating in external life. In ritual abuse survivors, especially, this realm can apparently be constructed in a level of consciousness that intersects with the spiritual realm, enabling the visualization and interaction with spiritual beings as well.

INTEGRATION—The process of rejoining the alter-identities back into the Original Self or one of the other primary identities, reversing the process of dissociation.

INTROJECT—An inanimate object or spiritual entity (demon or cosmic being) that is incorporated, usually by the perpetrators, into the system of identities for a specific purpose.

LAYER—A group of identities that are loosely related and aware of each other and may have participated in life together at one time. Multiple layers of identities may exist in a system. In ritual abuse survivors these are often strategically positioned to provide sequential defenses against therapeutic intrusions.

LEGAL GROUND—Previously considered to be the specific action that gives a demon or cosmic being the right to establish either a foothold or a stronghold in a person’s life. We now prefer to call these “free-will bonds” in order to differentiate man’s own acts leading to bondage from the legal rights, or grounds, that Satan himself gained in the Garden of Eden to hold dominion over mankind, which Jesus Christ has totally abolished.

LITTLE ONE (or LITTLE)—A primary identity that gets frozen at a young age for some reason; usually one that is exposed to, and frozen in, a trauma before dissociation occurs.

LOSS OF TIME—The phenomenon of time passing for which the Primary Presenter or another identity is not aware, or amnesic; also called “time loss” or “lost time.”

LUCIFERIANISM—The higher levels of Satanism that are devoted to Lucifer’s original goals for supremacy over God, world domination, and a New World Order; includes the Illuminati.

MULTIPLE—A person with more than one identity; someone diagnosed with Dissociative Identity Disorder.

MULTIPLE PERSONALITY DISORDER (MPD)—The former title for the psychological diagnosis now known as Dissociative Identity Disorder.

NEPHILIM—The offspring of a fallen angel and a human being.

OCCULT—Hidden or secret; often associated with supernatural powers, or a secret knowledge of them, coming from the satanic realm.

ORIGINAL SELF—The primary identity representing the original, non-material self, created by God as a singular unit, which is the ultimate source from which all the other identities originate and into which they will all return for complete healing to occur; the part most closely connected to the person’s heart and spirit as well as to the identity center in the brain, thus carrying the strongest sense of identity; may also be referred to as the “Original Person,” “True Self,” “Core Self,” or “Core.”

“OUT”—Participating in life experience.

OTHERWISE SPECIFIED DISSOCIATIVE DISORDER (OSDD)—This lesser state of dissociation produces a subtle separation of the primary self into three pain-buffering primary identities that usually shift seamlessly between themselves, along with additional primary identities serving special purposes and/or internal identities (self-states) that do not take executive control of the body.

PAIN-BUFFERING PRIMARIES—These are the three main primary identities of Function/Denial, Buffer, and Pain. They serve as a triple-layered pain buffer between alters and the Original Self.

PAIN IDENTITY—One of the pain-buffering primary identities that is situated closest to pain-bearing alters, thus feeling the greatest degree of pain leaking from the alters but not understanding the source of it; usually quite depressed with difficulty functioning.

PERPETRATOR—A person who abuses another person.

PERPETRATOR-CONNECTED PRIMARY—A primary identity that is more strongly connected to the perpetrator(s) and exhibits varying degrees of loyalty to them.

PERSECUTOR ALTER—An alter who, for the sake of safety, has identified with the motives and agenda of the abuser and punishes other alters, internally (torment) or externally (self-harm), in the absence of the abuser when they do not measure up to the perceived expectations of the abuser.

PHENOMENOLOGICAL—Pertaining to the language of appearance; that which seems to be true but may be deceptive or a creation of the mind, devoid of objective or cognitive reality (such as the inner world or system map).

POST-TRAUMATIC STRESS DISORDER—A psychological syndrome that often occurs after a highly distressing event; usually characterized by such things as emotional deregulation, flashbacks, recurrent nightmares, and efforts to avoid reminders of the event.

POWERS—Cosmic-level, spiritual entities that lack distinct embodiment and basically represent supernatural, “intelligent energy;” they carry unique abilities related to electromagnetism.

PRENATAL—Referring to the period of existence between God’s creation of the soul/spirit just before conception until birth.

PRESENT (verb)—To emerge into consciousness and participate in life; used of an identity coming “out.”

PRESENTING SYSTEM—The group of primary identities handling normal daily life for the person apart from the trauma; usually have no knowledge of any overwhelming trauma.

PRIMARY IDENTITY—One of several identities, including, and closely related to, the Original Self, that carry the strongest sense of self within the person. These parts, formed through desynchronization, remain close to the identity center and subjectively “feel like me,” as opposed to alter-identities that are formed through dissociation, “don’t feel like me,” and are anchored in the rear of the brain. The primary identities were protected from overwhelming trauma while the alter-identities were formed to cope with it.

PRIMARY PARTS—Previously used to refer to primary identities other than the Function/Denial, Buffer, and Pain Identities.

PRIMARY PRESENTER —The Primary Identity, usually Function/Denial, Buffer, or Pain, that is in control the most in living daily life; often a direct representation of the Original Self; often called the “Host” by others. The identity serving in this position may change from time to time over the course of the individual’s life in situations of extreme duress.

PROGRAM (verb)—To establish a predetermined response to occur automatically within a person when triggered by a specific stimulus; may be established through trauma-based conditioning or through the insertion of any kind of material or immaterial device within a person; loosely, to establish any kind of indirect control over another person.

PROGRAMMING—Various mechanisms of control deliberately established in the lower levels of consciousness that are designed to set off virtually automatic, predetermined responses to specific triggers in order to direct a person’s thoughts, emotions, body processes, and/or behavior. More advanced forms of programming can involve the direct, wireless operation of material or immaterial, implanted devices within a person by an outside handler or the direct communication of subliminal messages to a person through various forms of electromagnetic and/or spiritual dynamics.

PROJECTION—Used in DID to refer to the extension of the self, or one’s sense of identity, into remote alter-identities.

PROTECTOR—An identity whose purpose is to protect one or more other identities from any further abuse and/or perceived danger, including, at times, access by an outside individual.

PTSD—See “Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder.”

REPRESSION—A mental process by which a person persistently resists the recall of a painful memory or the expression of an emotion to the extent that the brain eventually blocks it from consciousness. Some researchers define this differently or totally deny the existence of this dynamic.

RITUAL ABUSE (RA)—The systematic and deliberate infliction of trauma for the express purpose of causing dissociation, which is exploited for a covert agenda involving the use of some form of mind-control programming to direct the thoughts, emotions, body processes, and/or behavior of the dissociated parts while leaving the main primary identities completely unaware of the hidden agenda the dissociated identities are carrying out. This term encompasses Satanic Ritual Abuse (SRA) as well as similar forms of abuse conducted by groups that may not appear to be overtly Satanic but ultimately serve His agenda. Because of its all-inclusive sense, it is the preferred term used by this organization.

SATANIC CULT—An organized group of people with an established belief system involving the direct or indirect worship of Satan and/or evil cosmic beings and the seeking and exercising of occult powers; usually connected to a worldwide network involved in traumatizing, programming, and controlling dissociated subjects to be used in covert projects that advance Satan’s kingdom.

SATANIC RITUAL ABUSE (SRA)—The deliberate, severe traumatization of children by a Satanic cult to cause dissociation into multiple identities so some of them can be indoctrinated, programmed, demonized, connected to evil cosmic beings, and brought under the control of the cult and the kingdom of darkness to serve Satan’s purposes, generally without the knowledge of the outside presenting identities; included in the designation “Ritual Abuse.”

SATANISM—A highly secretive network of committed Satan worshippers that are strategically organized at multiple levels with increasingly strong devotion to Satan/Lucifer and increasingly more complex engagement in exerting control over other people and using them in covert ways for Satan’s agenda being carried out in both the physical and the spiritual realms.

SELF STATE—As used by this organization, an isolated traumatic memory with a separate sense of self attached to it, which can interact with the person or counselor but does not take executive control of the body.

SHELL—A primary identity through which other identities can present in a hand-in-glove fashion that serves to maintain an appearance of constancy to the external world and a continuous short-term memory for the individual, thus minimizing the sense of time loss; usually has no developed personality of its own but reflects the personality and perspectives of the identity filling it at any given time; may also refer to an identity fragment that serves only to house a demon or cosmic being.

SHIELD—An identity that is positioned in front of a critical identity or system and serves solely to block access to it; may attempt to counterfeit the identity it is hiding; usually knows nothing of significance and relates with little of the person’s history; may be designed by the cult or created by the psyche to block access to overwhelming information.

SHIFT—The subtle transition that occur between primary identities when they change who is in executive control among themselves. These are differentiated from the more obvious “switches” that occur when changing executive control between the primary identities and the alters and amongst the alters.

SPECIAL PURPOSE PRIMARIES—Primary identities created to perform specific functions in daily life or to isolate seemingly unacceptable traits or emotions; previously called “function alters.”

SPIRITUAL WARFARE—The efforts of the entities of Lucifer’s Kingdom to attack Christians and to impede Christian ministry or a Christian’s effort to engage the Most High God and His heavenly host, along with the authority of the risen Lord Jesus Christ and the power of His shed blood, in combat against them.

SPLIT—To form a dissociated identity; sometimes expressed as “split off.”

STRONGHOLD—The entrenched establishment of a group of demons and/or cosmic beings in a person’s life due to significant free will bonds having been made by the person, identity (in DID), parent or caregiver, or past generations, resulting in significant bondage.

SURVIVOR—A person who has lived through severe abuse; a preferred term to “victim”; usually used to refer to a person with DID.

SWITCH—The process of changing executive control of the body from one identity to another, excluding the more subtle process referred to as “shifting,” which occurs between primary identities.

SYNCHRONIZATION—The smooth, coordinated flow of interrelated parts; used by Jim Wilder to refer to the unhindered, harmonious operation of the five levels of the emotional/relational control center of the brain or to the matching of emotional states between two individuals; may also refer to the process by which desynchronized primary identities are merged into each other in the healing process.

SYNTHETIC—An apparent identity that, in reality, represents a fused union between an identity fragment and a demon, allowing it to pose as an identity and to override the will of the identity to which it is fused, thus gaining significant influence in the system, especially when it usurps the role of a primary identity. They are primarily identified by their total lack of relational ability and absolute resistance to rationality or change.

SYSTEM—The entire group of identities within an individual who has Dissociative Identity Disorder; can also refer to a sub-group within the system that has a distinct authority structure and functions more or less independently within the whole.

SYSTEM MAP—A unique, mental imagery depiction of some or all of the identities within a person, seemingly created by the unconscious mind to provide a sense of order among them; usually includes a specified line of authority, a means of presentation to participate in life, and other operational dynamics; may utilize any kind of imagery (house, castle, carousel, forest, solar system, etc.); may be manipulated by cult perpetrators to establish cult control. See definition for “Inner World.”

TALK-THROUGH—The technique by which an outside individual addresses identities who are not in control of the body but are able to listen to what is being said.

TRIGGER (noun)—A specific stimulus which consistently causes a given response, such as an emotional or physical reaction, the emergence of a buried memory or a specific identity, or the activation of an established program; may occur naturally or be deliberately established through programming.

TRIGGER (verb)—To activate a specific response, especially a consistent or programmed response.

TRUE SELF—Another term for the Original Self.

UNGODLY GENERATIONAL INHERITANCE—A curse that has come down a generational line because of grievous iniquity committed in a previous generation (see Ex. 34:7).

UNGODLY RELATIONSHIP BOND—An ungodly spiritual link between two people or between a person and a fallen angel that connects their souls/spirits and opens a spiritual conduit between them through which evil and ungodly entities can flow from one to the other; often called a “soul tie” by others.

VOW—A solemn promise which a person binds himself to fulfill.

WITCHCRAFT—The use of supernatural powers through sorcery or magick to manipulate, dominate, or intimidate something or someone.