Do alters ever go away?

I feel like I might have asked something similar to this at some point, so I apologize if it's a repeat.

I'm not talking about merging. I mean, like...can an alter die? Be killed or commit suicide? Or just sort of...vanish with no given explanation? I understand that they can go dormant if the need for them is unnecessary, but what if they just...disappeared altogether with no warning?

I ask because some of you may recall a while back I mentioned two demon alters. Rather, a demon and a fallen angel; Ka'el and Dante. Johann and I got into a fight and didn't speak to each other for a few days a couple of months ago. When we got together after those few days, I was told that one night they had just poofed into thin air. "As though they were sucked into a void." HIM says. None of them ever bothered to look into it further.

Well, I was going through my laptop files and I came across a picture my best friend drew for the guys and I, and Dante was in it. I asked HIM about it again. HIM refused to say much other than, "They're gone." and that he believes that Dante and Ka'el were somehow splits of Jack (who is a darker split of HIM), but would not elaborate further.

Is it possible that Dante and Ka'el really are gone? Or do you think they went dormant or...something else? Like they're back inside Jack? I haven't spoken to Jack about it. What with Jack trying to deal with our friend's demon-like personality...(though personally I feel as though finding Dante and Ka'el would help more than Jack trying to help him himself, but that's another matter entirely).

According to my T alters can integrate and then be gone even without therapeutic work going on. My ISH, Genesis, has confirmed for me that I had a significantly larger system when I was younger, but alters have either gone dormant or integrated. The best examples I can think of are Jay and Tom, the two comforters who would come in the night and tell me stories and talk about Pokemon and other things that were interesting to a child (and randomly, make jokes about the weather, especially Jay). There is no need for them now even though they were there everyday for years, so I have assumed (and Genesis has confirmed) that they are no longer around. Personally, I wouldn't call them dead because that has such a negative connotation and they were a very helpful part of my life, but I suppose that could be one way to think of it. I'm not sure that helps you much. :-/

They can't just die or leave. They can sort of dissolve and let multiple people pick up their traits, but thoughts and feelings can't just leave. It all belongs to one brain, and no one part of that brain can just die.

So it's possible that Jack integrated with them, but they weren't strong enough to affect him much.

I hope this helps some?
~Rage

LittleRedDogToo wrote:The best examples I can think of are Jay and Tom, the two comforters who would come in the night and tell me stories and talk about Pokemon and other things that were interesting to a child (and randomly, make jokes about the weather, especially Jay). There is no need for them now even though they were there everyday for years, so I have assumed (and Genesis has confirmed) that they are no longer around.

I understand disappearing because an alter is no longer necessary to the system or to the body's survival. My problem is that I never knew why Dante and Ka'el existed to begin with, therefore I don't know when or why their purpose ended. =\

Personally, I wouldn't call them dead because that has such a negative connotation and they were a very helpful part of my life, but I suppose that could be one way to think of it. I'm not sure that helps you much. :-/

I'm sorry. :c I don't mean to add negative connotation to it. I was speaking generally because the alters in Johann's system (with good reason) speak so freely of death. Like Luke used to think he was dead when he wasn't. And Jack 'died' and was revived once. I guess it's relative to the system itself.

DemonLillith wrote:They can't just die or leave. They can sort of dissolve and let multiple people pick up their traits, but thoughts and feelings can't just leave. It all belongs to one brain, and no one part of that brain can just die.

So it's possible that Jack integrated with them, but they weren't strong enough to affect him much.

That makes perfect sense, Rage, thank you! Perhaps I should speak personally to Jack about it at some point.

An alter can "go away" in several different ways.

Already mentioned is integration (fusion).

Another way is to go into stasis. It resembles death except that resurrection always is possible and can happen at any moment. Some psychologists even call this state of stasis dead, and put it on a continuum: active, awake, asleep, dead. An "asleep" alter is one that is not aware nor responsive but is "findable" by other alters. A "dead" alter is one that is unaware and cannot be found by other alters. In the year I have been on this forum, several posters have reported that in their system a dead alter has returned.

An alter can also go inactive for days, weeks, months, even years. To the host the alter may seem to be gone, but if the host asks around inside another alter may report that this alter is merely having some quiet time in her room, or sleeping.

Well, I decided to ask Jack what was up last night, specifically after HIM and I got into an argument about the fact that HIM claimed that the other night a piece of Dante 'attacked' him with false images and feelings (I won't go into specifics because that's neither here nor there). Jack explained that HIM hadn't exactly told me the entire truth about Dante and Ka'el 'disappearing', and that HIM had come to the realization that Dante was their embodiment of envy and Ka'el was the embodiment of lust, and in fear that one would out of nowhere accuse me of being unfaithful out of jealousy for my spending time with other people or that the other would force me into a situation I wasn't prepared for, he decided to get rid of them.

Jack went on to claim that the Dante and Ka'el that HIM 'erased' were not the same as the ones I had been in love with. That Dante, over time, specifically after HIM first revealed himself to me (on our one year anniversary), was getting worse. And that Ka'el had only been erased as well because the night HIM and Dante fought over Dante's existence, Ka'el tried to defend Dante and more or less 'got caught in the blast', you could say. As proof of it all, HIM brought Ka'el back, who was rather indifferent to having been erased and claims all he remembers was "A flash of white light and a lot of pain."

Ka'el agreed with HIM that it had been Dante's fault they were 'erased', because Ka'el had realized he wasn't able to exist without Dante, so he had tried hopelessly to defend him. Ka'el claimed the Dante I knew had been corrupted. I argued with him that the 'Dante I knew' had saved Johann's life the night that the former host went suicidal because none of the others had been able to reach him, they were all blocked. Ka'el didn't really want to argue that one but claimed that Dante had saved him out of second nature convenience. That wasn't the impression I got of Dante at all.

We finally resolved the whole thing agreeing on that 'Dante' Ka'el and HIM were talking about and the 'Dante' I was talking about were two different people. That the Dante they were talking about and the piece that had attacked HIM were IT, and not Dante himself. Therefore I don't know what is going to or has become of the Dante I knew.

I thank everyone for your response, I'm glad we got most of this mess cleaned up. c: