#coconscious

This led to realizing they've been having fun messing with me by randomly sing loudly or do a tiktok dance (I don't have tiktok) and the feeling of embarrassment I get is because of them oh my goddd

Question, is this called co front or co consciousness? I couldn't tell the difference between them cus I'm new to this plurality stuff.

hey, so we’re pulling these definitions from our glossary (<- link) where we’ve defined these terms and more in our own words.

for us, cofronting is when two or more headmates are fronting at the same time. in our system, this can often result in blending, when we are more or less combined temporarily into a single entity (steven universe style).

coconsciousness, on the other hand, is when a headmate is able to perceive the world and potentially influence decisions, but does not have the agency to interact directly or make concrete choices. for example, being coconscious may be perceived as sitting in the backseat while someone else drives, or otherwise being able to witness the world without interacting with it directly.

there is also passive influence, when a headmate is able to influence fronters or the body without fronting themselves. we don’t think a headmate even needs to be coconscious in order to have a passive influence on other system members.

these experiences are all immensely internal, so ultimately it will be up to y’all to determine whether or not your headmates were cofronting (aka fronting at the same time as you), coconscious (aka being conscious of your actions and environment without having much agency to act) or using passive influence (aka influencing your thoughts or actions without fronting or interacting with you directly).

I don't know if there is already a specific term for these types of switches, I just like to call them Hard or Soft switches. Sometimes it comes in the form of stepping back and letting another alter make the controls work, other times it's a straight up replacement.

[ID]

Panel 1: Atom is talking to someone, and Jak is tapping him on the shoulder, asking "Can I tell him something?" To which Atom responds, "Hm? Sure, go ahead." At the top it reads "Soft switch: Passing control of the front."

Panel 2: Jak now has the front and Atom is standing right behind him coconsciously. Jak says to the other person, "Okay, I've got one for you. An investment banker, a retired sea captain and an emu walk into a bar..."

Panel 3: At the top it reads, "Hard Switch: Taking control of the front" and it shows Kyra kicking Jak into the void. He shouts "Aww come on! Five more minutes!" To which she responds, "Nope, you're done, tonight is mine!"

Panel 4: Kyra is now in the front, she puts her hair up in front of a full-length mirror. She says to herself "Ahh peace and quiet. It's been too long since I've had a night to myself." To the left of her is the void popping closed, with an arrow pointing at it (at Jak who had been sucked in) simply saying: Gone.

Ah, we are not sure we entirely understand. Our own system has those moments of “seeing” someone else front, but it usually is indicative of coconsciousness or some degree of dissociation. We believe that viewing yourself, or someone else, in your body moving and acting on your behalf may have something to do with an active imagination… however, our opinion is that it more likely is a symptom of depersonalization or derealization, and experiencing a general disconnect from your body and the world. In this case, it may not be a plural thing at all - some people do dissociate or experience depersonalization or derealization without being a system. Many systems do indeed experience dissociation and DPDR, though.

Each system is unique, and many of us do have our own special ways of functioning. For your own system, this may be a dissociative symptom, or it may in fact just be an active imagination at work. And for some people, this sort of thing may not be an indication of multiplicity. We’ve found that many things that may be signs of plurality for one person, may just be ordinary, non-plural facts of life for another.