Remarkably, "split-brain" patients have existed since the 1940s. To control epilepsy symptoms, these patients underwent a surgery to separate the left and right hemispheres. Similar surgeries still happen today.
Later research on this type of surgery showed that the separated hemispheres of split-brain patients could process information independently. This raises the uncomfortable possibility that the procedure creates two separate minds living in one brain.
When speaking with split-brain patients, you are usually communicating with the left hemisphere of the brain, which controls speech. However, some patients can communicate from their right hemisphere by writing, for example, or by arranging Scrabble letters.
Split-brain patients have also reported "alien hand syndrome," where one of their hands is perceived to be moving of its own volition. These observations suggest that two separate conscious "people" may coexist in one brain and may have conflicting goals.
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