Our inner personas appear on different levels of consciousness. Therefore, they have different ways of appearing in our lives. We can visualise this fact with the help of a three dimensional horoscope or live stage. The level in the center shows those personas whom we are aware of, the top and bottom level show unconscious parts of our personality. The unconscious levels do not need to be limited to two, and, of course there can be different degrees of (un)consciousness.

From a psychological point of view, it makes sense to distinguiush four levels of consciousness on which the inner personalities can appear in our lives:

1. Personalities with whom we identify ourselves
There is a consensus between them and our conscious self. They are endowed with energies and take part in my conscious encounter with the world. This means they are honoured, polished and sent into world as representatives of my will and self-image. They are what we call "ambassadors" in diplomatic language. A country sends a representative to another country in order to be represented there with dignity. The ambassador's task is to make an impression.

2. Personalities with whom we do not identify, but whose appearance and manner we know nevertheless
They do not receive identifying energies from me, they are no ambassadors, because I treat them as "persona non grata". They are unwelcome participants in my (life) drama. I know that they exist, and I even know that they are right in what they say. I also know that they have a right to take part in my play, but whenever they appear on stage, I try to get rid of them as quickly as possible. They have fallen out of favour as representatives of my country, and I refuse to give them enough energy to enable them to realise their intentions (they often appear as "admonitory or reprimanding voice").

3. Personalities whom I do not know, and whose real mission is "secret", i.e. it is unconscious
They never confront me openly with their true views and attitudes, but work quietly and inconspicuously towards their own aims and interests, and these are not the interests of the conscious person. In our example of diplomatic language, this means: They are the special agents of our own secret service, who work within our own embassy, but for a different ministry, and about whom the ambassador has not been informed. These personalities serve different masters, and this is what confuses me deeply. Since I am not allowed to know about their secret mission - and do not want to know as I dislike the secret service for reasons of honour and moral cleanness - there is a conflict of interests.

4. Personalities whom I do not know, whose mission is as secret as that of the third kind of personalities, who do not confront me directly, but who are actively working towards my destruction and ruin
Figuratively speaking, this means that they are members of a foreign secret service within my embassy. They appear to come from a hostile secret service, and to collect material against me within my own walls. This material is designed to lead to my physical ruin. They want to occupy my country.

Personalities of the fourth kind can be considered the core of the MPD-syndrome as described by psychiatrists. Insofar it seems clear that "multiples" are always in great danger of self-destruction through suicide. Even more, the phenomenon of suicide on the whole appears to be initiated by a personality of the fourth kind. The reason why they are rarely successful is that personalities of the third kind try to prevent self-destruction. There is, just like in any good spy thriller, a fight within the own embassy between agents of the home country against the agents of a foreign country. And the ambassador is usually unaware of it all.

The transfer of inner personalities to the outside, for example to a psychotherapist makes the issue of the so-called psychological "transference" (and "counter transference") plausible. A personality is indeed "carried over" ("trans-ferred"). But this "release" mechanism does not only work with a therapist. If a personality (of the third or fourth kind) is not allowed to come to light, it is possible that it manifests itself in the outside world, in the projection onto people surrounding me. The awareness that what confronts me in the outside world is part of my own inner self helps to promote these inner personalities into consciousness and grant them their proper place in my life.