There are some very interesting and lucid views on soulbonding, what it is or is not, and as many definitions of it as there are to multiplicity, it seems. (Links to follow, if I remember to collect them.) Then there are the debates about whether soulbonding is multiplicity, or vice versa.

We can't speak for what soulbonding is or is not, as it is not our experience. Instead, perhaps I may use it to draw a parallel, to explain a variation of what our experience is.

Suppose, instead of a writer reaching out to other worlds, finding and making soulbonds, suppose instead that the ones who would be seen as soulbonds find their own way to the portals, to the body. And suppose that they find it uninhabited. Perhaps there is no one here, no "author" to tell their stories to. This space for rent. And so they take up residence, sharing a body as an interface, and they tell their stories themselves.

A soulbonder may often be accused of role-playing, of acting out their characters or soulbonds. We don't believe they necessarily are, but it seems to be that the soulbonder retains some kind of executive control. It's still their body in the end, and they have (by our understanding) the decision as to how much of their mindspace and/or physical space they're going to share with the soulbond.

For us, on the other hand, running the life is the responsibility of whoever is here. There is no "author" to bail us out, to deal with the hum-drum of daily life and just tune into our adventures (or whatever) when they want to.

(We thought there was such an author, once, but it turned out that she was just another displaced spirit, desperate to find a way home. Which she did, finally.)

We call our experience multiplicity because we came at it via the multiple personality model. We tried for a long time to make everyone fit that model, to figure out who split from whom and what memories each carried (barf.gag.). But that is NOT our reality. Maybe if we'd managed to avoid that whole mess, we might have come at it from a soulbonding perspective. It certainly makes a whole lot more sense.

But we're not characters taking over somebody else's life any more than we are a creative coping strategy for dealing with abuse.

We're people, plain and simple, who just happen to like coming here and telling our stories. We're not harming anyone or anything. We, collectively, maintain a well-balanced, well-organized life, that, to all outside appearances, is lived by one person.

Complaints against our lifestyle and/or opinions, and/or cries of concern about the state of our mental health, can be filed with Dept. 4-C, Noneofit Division. Thanks.

~*~*~
07.01.02