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This is part of a series about the concept of kin and its history. For a more comprehensive explanation of what kin is, check here. A glossary is also included at the bottom for convenience, as not all terms are immediately explained. This was posted 03 Mar, 2022.
This post does not talk about kin, but rather a kin-adjacent experience. Kin concepts, however, may be brought up as comparison.
It was last updated on 04 Mar, 2022.
What changed: Spelling
People in kin and system communities may be aware of soulbonding. Most people I know aren't completely aware of what it is, myself included. So I decided to look into it.
I will provide a simple definition of soulbonding to start us off, just to get a vague idea of what we're dealing with.
Soulbonding (sometimes stylized as SoulBonding) is 'to form [or] experience a robust mental or empathic connection with one or more fictional characters'. My friend explained it as asking 'what would [character here] do' until the character starts to actually respond to you.
People often cite the experience some writers have with their characters, where the character starts to become its own person and 'talk' to its creator.* It seems very similar to tulpamancy, but with a few differences (the character often stays in its own universe, but there is a 'telepathic link').
*I disagree with this, I believe this is just being a good writer!
This explanation is simple, but the community's consistency with it is lacking. Some people report the characters being able to speak and act through their 'bonder' (the term used at least for a while for this was 'fronting', which is actually a DID term), and sometimes the character being bonded to acts more like a kintype. Some people also tend to blame their past actions on their soulbonds. Some have also reported romantic relationships with their soulbonds (that have likely happened over time).
While soulbonding can be likened to a system experience, there are a few differences between it and DID:
Some terms that are related to soulbonding are:
- Soulbonding is not caused by trauma. DID is.
- Soulbonding is not a source of distress or disorder. DID more often than not, is.
- Soulbonds are more likely than not formed by a strong connection with a fictional character. Fictional introjects form in part due to this, but there is more to it because DID is a dissociative disorder.
- Soulbonds are more often formed by writing or consuming fictional media. Fictional introjects are similar, but different.
- Soulbonds tend to 'front' less, or not at all. Almost every alter in a system fronts.
- Daytripper: A soulbond that spends some time in this world, and some time in theirs.
- Walk-in: A living character that makes a space in the bonder's mind unprompted, although it may not choose to become a soulbond.
- Visitor: A living character that can communicate with the bonder without a soulbond-like connection.
- Traveler: A bonder who can visit their soulbond's world, be it partially or fully.
There are subcommunities such as daemonism, which is heavily influenced by and directly based on the His Dark Materials series - you may be familiar with this series due to The Golden Compass, the first book that received a movie in 2007.
The flexibility of soulbonds has caused a lot of practices I'd consider potentially dangerous and/or unhealthy to thrive. Such experiences are soulbonds 'fronting' or their 'host' vanishing.
For a soulbond to vanish means that they are harder to contact and cannot 'front' and eventually will stop being contactable altogether. If your host is vanishing, this is a sign to get therapy. Sometimes spirituality can be taken too far and actually develop into a mental health issue - this seems especially common for things like this, although the host vanishing seems to be a somewhat uncommon phenomenon.
More common critiques of the soulbond community come from people in the OSDDID community. Information on soulbonds (among other kinds of 'non-trauma' multiplicity) often is conflated with information on DID - people have also used soulbonding as an excuse to sysfake (most commonly younger folk), or otherwise gone into the OSDDID community when they shouldn't have. Opinions of non-trauma multiplicity have shifted over the years, and people are more willing to accept their existence, however many people are still hostile toward them due to the community's history of trying to discredit people with DID and their habit of muddying up information on the disorder.
Unfortunately, I don't see the soulbond community being taken seriously by the majority of people online or in real life any time soon. The most famous case of soulbonding hitting a non-kin or non-plural audience I can think of is the Final Fantasy VII House, a cult run by members Jen (Jenova) and Renee (Hojo) who sucked the time, money, and sanity out of a handful of unfortunate individuals. Jen and Renee's definition of soulbonding is much closer to a kintype, however their supposed soulbonds take over their bodies and their experiences seem to line up with what I've seen soulbonders claim to experience - just with a few faux-spiritual things added in. You can argue Jen and Renee aren't true soulbonders, but we may never know for certain.
The second most well known soulbonding story is likely the Sarah Saga, which can be seen as some kind of offshoot or continuation of the House - it talks about a roommate named Sarah (not her real name), her awful habits as a roommate, and her strange soulbonding practices related to the game Genso Suikoden.
Personally I do not take soulbonding very seriously or consider it a real thing - I have to go with the opinion that it's like an attempt at a more 'legitimate' imaginary friend. A lot of the language used sounds very pseudo-spiritual and it's very hard to read and wrap my head around. I believe this is on purpose, since you can't call people out on things if the thing in question is so flexible it can encompass almost any experience related to it. However, harassment of these people is discouraged because you will likely not be able to change their mind. Personally I do not care what they do, so long as they don't try to spread misinformation on DID or harass and control others.
If you have DID or OSDD (or are questioning if you do), please check with a professional or do proper research with proper resources and talk to people about their experiences with the disorder. Beware of any misinformation you may find, as well as information on non-trauma plurality.
SOURCES
RESOURCES ON OSDDID - information & experiences
This last source is not a DID resource, but I feel a good look at it will explain why ppw/OSDDID are so hostile toward non-trauma plurality.
GLOSSARY
SOULBOND, KIN + OTHER TERMS
- Soulbonding: To form or experience a robust connection with one or more fictional characters
- Soulbond: The character you're bonded with
- Soulbonder: Often shorted to bonder - the person who is soulbonding, the 'host'
- Daytripper: A soulbond that spends some time in this world, and some time in theirs
- Walk-in: A living presence that makes a space in the bonder's mind unprompted
- Visitor: A living character that can communicate with the bonder without a soulbond-like connection
- Traveler: A bonder who can visit their soulbond's world, be it partially or fully
- Tulpamancy: A Buddhist practice appropriated by /mlp/ to talk to their beloved ponies
- Daemonism: A special kind of soulbonding related to the His Dark Materials series
- Vanishing: A soulbond (or very rarely the host) is harder to contact or unavailable for long periods of time, sometimes permanently
- Kin: Believing that you or your soul is a reincarnation of something
- Kintype: Whatever you're kin with (eg foxkin)
SYSTEM TERMS
- OSDDID: Umbrella term for DID/OSDD
- Alter: A 'personality' in a OSDDID system
- Fictional introject: An alter based off an fictional figure from the outside
- Fronting: The alter in control is 'fronting' - used by soulbonders in a similar fashion, although they shouldn't
- Host: The alter who fronts most in a system is considered the host
- Systemfake: Also written sysfake - to pretend you have OSDDID
- System: A person with OSDDID is often called a system - should not be used by other communities, though they often have no alternative
MISC
- Fictive: Non-clinical term for fictional introject - first coined by non-OSDDID communities, but is used by pretty much everyone
- Final Fantasy VII House: A cult run by two (or three) deeply disturbed people
- Sarah Saga: A series of Livejournal posts about a terrible roommate and her obsession/soulbond to a Suikoden character
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