fork();

It really is frustrating, yea. It’s always infuriating that others can’t seem to manage to accept others.

*throws trauma in the air because that makes me valid uwu apparently*

Endogenics aren’t pushing their way into anyone’s community. They’ve always been here. The new kids on the block who find comfort in treating the DSM-5 – no, not even the DSM-5, did-research.org – like a holy book are trying to push them out.

Words like “plural” and “multiple” are about as far from medical terminology as you can get. “System” is used in psychology, but it refers to any parts of anyone’s psyche (e.g. Internal Family Systems). It’s true that for awhile, those with MPD were called multiples, but MPD was changed to DID/OSDD because “multiple personalities” came too close to implying that people alters like me are people. MPD also included those experiencing multiplicity without distress – and they existed then and now, as even garbage psychiatrists like Colin Ross recognized – so “multiple” belongs to all of us, because it was used to pathologize all of us.

Plurality has appeared across many cultures, in many forms, for thousands of years. “But spirit possession isn’t DID!” you say. And you’re right. But it can be, according to the DSM-5, because interpreted as a purely scientific phenomenon it’s perfectly analogous if it causes distress and amnesia. And many who live with what they interpret as spirits identify as plural.

Many who otherwise share their bodies with others identify as plural.

Gateway, endogenic, parogenic (tulpamancy), and quoigenic systems, with some inevitable exceptions, don’t claim to have DID.

They claim to be plural. They claim to be multiple. Multiple is and for decades has been an umbrella term for all those who share their bodies with other people. When psychiatry took two steps sideways, non-traumagenic systems remained, and they and their traumagenic allies have stood together since the dawn of the internet to create an inclusive community that will not falter.

You are exclusively entitled to a “person with DID” and “person with OSDD” community, using the words of a psychiatric establishment whose language equates me and those like me with parasites. And because the plural community is inclusive, you’re also entitled to identify as multiple and plural.

But you are not entitled to demand that a longstanding community warp itself to include you and only you. Because the plural community isn’t about having DID or OSDD; it’s about being plural.

If you don’t like the inclusive community, stay out of it. You’re not required to interact. Block us. Stay out of #endogenic, #quoigenic, etc., and Plural Hub, and create your own community. Believe me, we won’t want a part in it.

1. Diagnostic criteria (for DID specifically, OSDD is a bit different) only specifies that a system… be a system, have some sort of amnesia, and is distressed/dysfunctional. The current theory is that DID is caused by trauma, sure, but it doesn’t actually say the system itself has to be.

2. So how can that be? Well, it’s pretty simple, or as simple as plurality/multiplicity ever gets. With endogenic systems, it can look like this:

system forms > trauma > trauma impacts system > DID/OSDD

With traumagenic systems, it’s probably closer to:

trauma > system forms > trauma impacts system > DID/OSDD

You can also have traumagenic systems that don’t have DID/OSDD, and other types of systems like quoigenic, mixed, median, etc systems that may or may not have DID.

3. DID/OSDD isn’t required to be plural/multiple. Being traumagenic isn’t required to have DID/OSDD. All that is required to have DID (again, OSDD is a bit different) are the things listed in Point 1. All that is required to be plural/multiple is to identify as “not singlet”. (Usually this is defined as “the experience of being more than one” but that can get wobbly for median systems.)

Hey, community. We got a mystery.

Does anyone know what the earliest sites were around plurality/multiplicity? We seem to remember there being a site in 1992, but we don’t know if we’re just remembering wrong. The earliest we can currently find is this © 1994/1995, but we feel like there was one earlier than that. (We thought it was Dark Personalities but we can’t find it?)

Soulbounds? Wonderful!

Any other spiritual type headmates? Fantastic!

Oooh boy

Disclaimer: I’m not an expert or even the best person to ask, anyone feel free to correct me if I’m wrong.

Short answer? The personification of your subconcious. You communicate with your subconcious in second person. You turn your inner dialogue (“man, I should do my homework, but i’m so tired”) into a dialogue (“You should do your homework” - “But i’m so tired!”)

Long answer? The word Dæmon comes from greek i think? It’s supposed to mean something that’s between humans and gods, thus the term Demon was born to reffer to, well, what abrahamic religions call demons. Daemons become well known with Philip Pullman’s book series His Dark Materials, the one good thing that happened in the 90’s (my favorite books, totally recoment reading them). In the books, people’s souls are not in their bodies, but in the form of talking animals that walk by their side. That’s their daemon. A child’s daemon can shapeshift into any animal until around puberty to young adulthood, when it “settles” as a certain form that represents the person’s personality. One full person, a living being, is both the human and the daemon, you can’t be only one. You talk to your daemon and they’re your life companion. Since the book despicts a multiverse and one of the protagonists comes from OUR world (without corporeal daemons), it’s explained that everyone, even people “without” daemons, have daemons. Just that they’re inside of them and they’re in the same body and communicate in a molonogue, not a dialogue)

By this logic, everyone has a daemon, even us irl. And many have theorized that it’s possible to communicate with your daemon like a character from the books would. Enter, the daemians. A daemian is, in short, someone who practices daemonism. Daemonism is the practice of “Projecting” and communicating with your daemon. You can’t actually “see” or “hear” or touch your daemon like you see hear or touch everything else, of course. It’s more like some kind of imaginary friend that represents your subconcious. I’m a daemian. My daemon is called Calafate. She’s real, because I am real and because we are the same person. Some people say that daemonism gives you DID which is absolute bullcrap. In fact there are many benefits of having a daemon. They can admit things you don’t admit to yourself, they can help you realize what you really want, they can help you love yourself, they can figure out the most rational way of thinking, etc. At least that’s how Calafate and I work, because I’m very emotional and she’s very rational. Without her, I didn’t even realize I had a rational side. If she doesn’t tell me to think things through or to take deep breaths and figure out the most efficient solution to a problem, I would just cry into oblivion. With her, I can hear parts of myself I didn’t know existed.

…. I’m right here.

I need your help. I think. I’m not sure.

(I’m listening.)

No…. I need more than that. That’s not right.

I want to just say, thank you to my tulpas, and to anyone else’s tulpas, who truly care about their host. The ones who know when something is wrong, and won’t accept “I’m fine” for an answer. The ones who gently remind you to get dressed, take a shower, brush your teeth - and those who do it /for/ their hosts then they can’t even get out of bed. The ones who do simple things, like leave little notes around the house, or make the bed. The ones that run their fingers through your hair in headspace, hug you from behind and tell you that everything is going to be okay.

Thank you Fenrir, for being the most caring. The one who gets me out of bed in the morning, comforts me when I have a bad dream, and helps me calm down when I’m so angry I could physically tear my hair out.

Thank you Moth, for being the most empathetic. You give the warmest hugs, the softest touches and the most heartfelt words. Moments with you remind me that someone cares.

And thank you Hansel, for being the most inquisitive. Always trying to find a solution to my troubles, whether that be finding something simple I can make myself for dinner when I don’t have the energy, or complex, anxiety inducing problems that never seem to get have an end in sight.

“I’m not possessed. We have a contract. Get your facts straight.”

“How’s that any different?”

“It’s consensual. A give and take relationship. We need each other.”

First, the dæmon process is much more relaxed. E.g. Since they’re seen as a part of you, there’s no worrying if you’re parroting. The question doesn’t make sense. You just take what comes. I think we would have had better luck if I tried the dæmon approach first and built off that.

Second, the relationship seems to be more positive in general. If you disrespect your dæmon, you’re disrespecting yourself! And dæmons don’t attract the kind of people who want to use tulpas as mere tools, like to do your homework for you.

That’s my impression. Compared to my time in the tulpa scene, I’ve only glanced at dæmons. And they have the advantage of being much smaller (though older!) and being associated with a series that paints a positive relationship; new dæmians often find the practice by reading about the fictional dæmons and thinking I wish I could have that.

First, the dæmon process is much more relaxed. E.g. Since they’re seen as a part of you, there’s no worrying if you’re parroting. The question doesn’t make sense. You just take what comes. I think we would have had better luck if I tried the dæmon approach first and built off that.

Second, the relationship seems to be more positive in general. If you disrespect your dæmon, you’re disrespecting yourself! And dæmons don’t attract the kind of people who want to use tulpas as mere tools, like to do your homework for you.

That’s my impression. Compared to my time in the tulpa scene, I’ve only glanced at dæmons. And they have the advantage of being much smaller (though older!) and being associated with a series that paints a positive relationship; new dæmians often find the practice by reading about the fictional dæmons and thinking I wish I could have that.