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Jim
Bunkelman, Producer, Interviewee
Oure Gaiya^Jazz,
Interviewer
Aynetal3^Corey,
Transcriber
Astraea^Bluejay
Young, Editor
Jazz: Hi and welcome to Multiplicity 101. This is the official podcast
of the Plural
Activism Awareness Group. My name is
Jazz, a proud member of Oure
Gaiya, and I will be your host for today.
This podcast’s focus is on Multiplicity, but with a twist – from the
viewpoint of what many Multiples refer to as a Singlet or non-Multiple. Our definition of being Multiple is: Many minds that share one body. As always, if you have a specific question or
comments you would like to address feel free and send them to us at our Podcast
site, Aspenpatch.com. That’s “aspen,” as in the tree, “patch” as in
mending dot com. “Aspenpatch” is all one
word.
Our guest for today’s broadcast is Jim Bunkelman, who is
also our producer. Jim is a free-lance
audio and video producer. Jim, could we
begin this by you telling us a little about yourself? We really want people to see you’re honest to
goodness, real-life breathing person.
Jim: Ok, well I don’t really like to talk
about myself much, but I do want the listener to know that I’m just a regular
person. I was born and raised in a small
town in central California, and I have wonderful parents who are still living
in the house that they built themselves when I was born. I have a brother and a sister, and I had a
great childhood with lots of friends. I
played football, ran track in high school, and was student body president. My family went camping a lot especially at
the beach by Santa Barbara. I started
surfing when I was a teenager and still surf today.
I have a degree from the University of California, Santa
Barbara in physics and math. And, I went
to graduate school at UC – Berkley and I got my teaching degree in science and
math. I taught Junior High School for
four years in Ventura, and while I was there, I started making educational
films and selling them to school districts while I was teaching. I then moved to Hollywood – started working
in film and photography. I worked on TV
commercials and now produce motion graphics and shoot and edit video. I have my own company, so that when I am not
on a job, I have time to work on projects around my house. I live in Hollywood about two blocks from
Hollywood Bowl in a fun house that I’m constantly working on.
Jazz: Oh goodness, that sounds like fun. Math, oh I can’t even tell you [muffled
laughter] if you’re a math -- Jim, if you were to say three things that you
would like to convey to our listeners, what would it be?
Jim: Oh first of all, it’s real. That’s – that’s just how I really feel.
Jazz: Yes.
Jim: And, second of all – it’s not a disorder.
Jazz: Correct.
Jim: And, third, I had the richest, most
wonderful experience being married to a Multiple.
Jazz: Oh.
Typically people become very involved in the movement when they have a
personal experience with what the movement is all about. Are you a Multiple Jim?
Jim: No, I’m not a Multiple, but I do believe
that everyone has a potential to be a Multiple. And, I myself have a large
number of interests. I love many types
of music. I like to do a lot of things
like rebuild car engines and sewn clothes, and I’ve built additions onto my
house, and I’ve created works of art. We
all have within us different ways of seeing and appreciating the world around
us. The human brain is truly an amazing
thing.
Jazz: Oh, indeed it is. Who was a Multiple in your life then?
Jim: My wife of fifteen years was a Multiple. She just died last year from a stroke. Shortly after we fell in love, I found out
that she was a Multiple. It didn’t seem
strange to me at all. I loved her and I
came to love all her insiders as we called everybody in her group. Rhonda’s Multiplicity made my experiences
with her so much richer. I mean, I had
kids, I had friends, I had partners, I had lovers, I had companions -- we
really had such an amazing life. Yeah,
it was.
I have become involved in this movement because I had such a
great life with her and her insiders. I
see that most people are unfamiliar with Multiplicity, and there is prejudice
against them by both the public and the medical profession. A lot of people – a lot of times people are
just prejudiced against things they are not familiar with.
Jazz: Right.
Jim: I just want to educate people about what
my experience has been. There is no
reason that a Multiple cannot have a wonderful, happy life like my wife
did. We did all kinds of things
together. We went to a lot of concerts
and we saw everyone from Sarah McLachlan, Van Morrison, Massive Attack, Crystal
Method, Depeche Mode, Bob Segar and on, and we saw so many concerts. Every year we went to the Burning Man Art
Festival. We created art together, we
collected all kinds of things -- we collected all kinds of things. We worked on our garden, we worked on
decorating our house, we talked, we laughed a lot together -- we had an amazing
outside group of great friends together.
I just -- I really got so much love back.
Jazz: Oh, that’s wonderful. I’d like to ask, how do you now Multiplicity
is real -- because your wife was?
Jim: You know I don’t know how anyone can say
that Multiplicity is not real. I mean
first of all, just because a person has not had any experiences with it,
doesn’t mean that it does not exist. The
human mind is an amazing organ.
Jazz: Mmhmm.
Jim: It’s capable of so many things. I spent fifteen years with Rhonda. We were best friends and we spent most of our
time together. I can unequivocally say,
that there were Multiple people sharing one body. It’s as real as anything I’ve ever
experienced. You know, like my training
is as a scientist and I’m very logical, and I believe insightful, and there is
no way that Rhonda is acting or pretending.
I mean, I would – I could recognize who was out without them saying or
doing anything. I mean body language,
speech patterns, voice, facial expressions, and many other indications. They were unique to each individual and they
didn’t vary.
There [muffled laughter.] were even a few occasions where
one insider would pretend to be another one because she thought she could get
me to say yes to something better than the other one. [laughter.]
I could tell who it was, and I could tell if they were pretending to be
someone else. That always surprised them
when I recognized who it was. You know I
have many greeting cards from different members of my Rhonda family, and the
signatures are all different, and they are all consistent. You know Multiplicity is as real as anything
I know.
Jazz: Ok, I asked what you and Rhonda did
together, what about others in her system?
Did you have a relationship with any of them? What’s it like living with a Multiple?
Jim: Oh, I had great relationships with all of
Rhonda’s insiders. You know each person
is an individual, and I treated and experienced them that way. I can almost always tell who was out just by
looking at them or hearing them. I had
so much fun with all of them. I had a
lot of special interests that were unique with each one of them. For example, Sarah was this beautiful little
girl who loved having her hair brushed.
And, Nicholas and I shared this love of cars together. I called him “Car Guy.” [muffled laughter.]
And, when I first met Abigail, she hid in closets and stuttered so badly she
couldn’t communicate, but she learned how to speak so we could talk with each
other. And, then there was Jimmy, and I
occasionally called him, “Chip” because he was the chip off the old block. My name is Jim and he was Jimmy junior.
Jazz: Ohh [smile.]
Jim: He was [muffled laugher.] funny and
outgoing. He was always one of the first
to talk to people. Ruby was the badass
protector of the group. Most of the kids
were really afraid of her. But, she had
a heart of gold and loved the kids she protected so much. And, Natalie was this little girl who always
believed that somehow everything would work out ok. And, we decided that her middle name was
Hope. Her favorite expression was “Keep
Hope alive!” Melissa and I would try to
surprise each other every night by being the first one to say, “Plah!” to the
other one just before bedtime.
[laughter.] It kind of started,
because I would – when I spit out my tooth paste, I would say, “Plah!” So, she
would come and surprise me [laughter.] It was so much fun. I could go on and on, but that’s just
scratching the surface of all the beautiful relationships I had with each
member of my family of Rhonda.
We worked through a lot of emotional or relationship
problems, but that’s just like any other couple.
Jazz: Oh, right.
Jim: The important thing is that none of the
things we worked through had anything necessarily to do with Rhonda being
Multiple. It had to do with the
emotional difficulties of each individual and the things that they had gone
through. Multiplicity per se was not the
problem. The way people deal with it is
really the problem.
Jazz: Bingo.
In closing Jim, what would you like our listeners to really, really hear
you say?
Jim: Well, I think it is that last thing on --
Multiplicity is not a disorder. There is
nothing inherently wrong with being Multiple.
Some people and even medical professionals will say if you are Multiple,
you have a mental illness or disorder.
You know, it’s true that Multiples often have emotional problems and
it’s true that Singlets often have emotional problems. I - I’ve really found that a lot of the
emotional problems are very similar in both Multiples and Singlets. The problem is not, per se with being
Multiple. And, I want to make this
really clear. There is no inherent problem
with being Multiple. The problem comes
up when there is a lack of communication among the individuals, or when a
member of the group is going through emotional problems. The emotional problem is with the individual
within that Multiple group.
Jazz: Yes.
Jim: If that individual in the Multiple group
or a Singlet – the problem would still be there.
Jazz: Mmhmm.
Jim: Therapy for the individual in the group
is a solution. That is what any
individual needs whether a Singlet or part of a Multiple Group.
Jazz: Indeed.
Well thanks again for joining us Jim.
And, thank you our listeners for tuning in. If you would like more information, you can
go to the blogcast site given at the
beginning of the broadcast. You could
also join us on our online activist group at Plural_Activism
on Yahoo.com.
Thank you so much.
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