Promoting a "Headmate Creation Guide"
I went looking for this document after watching this tiktok.
This is under the "Community Research" category of Rainbow's Resource Hub, which is claimed to be "crowdsourced by members of the plural community with no clinical backing." At least this is clarified, but the promotion of what is inside, especially with someone with a tendency of delusional thinking, is abhorrent and dangerous.
Going into "the technique"
(I will note that the writer of this document professes that this is their own anecdotal account. They also claim to be "cisDID", which unfortunately the "cis-" and "trans-" disorder stuff does not make logical sense to me so i can't properly comment on that.)
They start off with making up an alter they wish as if it were an original character, creating a simplyplural profile and their preferred system focused discord bot and selecting triggers to associate with the "soon-to-be alter" (positive triggers, but nonetheless triggers.)
Next, do this... (sorry, I have no way of putting this into my own view of it.)
(All i can say is forcing yourself to dissociate based on a trigger (and in general) is not a good idea, for the both the present and especially the future)
Then, have this "soon-to-be alter" talk about other alters, and "esp talk about YOU." This, according to the document, is to seperate you and "soon-to-be alter" and "helps w/ setting up those amnesiac and dissociative barriers" (but could sound like something a "delusional narcissist" would do to the idiot layman. [Later Note/Clarification: My phrasing here is not to be correlated to Narcissistic Personality Disorder as the disorder itself, but rather how it is seen through conventional, and incorrect, thinking. I added quotations to further emphasize this. I am very sorry for any confusion.])
While doing that step above, use subliminals... and make sure during the "manifesting" to do this (this is the part that scared me, personally, but it's not the worst of the doc):
The writer of the document goes on to give extra things those that do not have DID can do. (paraphrase)
Create a headspace using guided meditations with affirmations. "Write about it, draw a map of it, make lore for it, all of that."
(This tip unfortunately has a lot of things out of my comfort zone. From what I know, conabuse is a term used first in BDSM and then later was picked up by radqueers. Eitherway, it is a roleplay of abuse and not an actual traumatic experience. I would have more to say on this, but I would rather talk about things that can be properly sourced with academic backing here.)
A Tulpa (or sprul-pa) is a manifestation created through intense mental concentration and visualization practices found in traditional Tibetan Zen Buddhist practice. They are temporary mental projections made given autonomous form through sustained meditation and focused intention. Creating them is seen as an advanced spiritual practice that requires significant spiritual development and proper guidance from qualified teachers. The goals of them isn't to create permanent companions or entities, but rather to deepen understanding of consciousness and the illusory nature of perceived reality. Alters are unable to be tulpa, especially because alters are not visual manifestations you can see in the light of day. You hear them, not see them in the real world/what you see with your eyes. Tulpa's, however, can be seen alongside the real world/with your eyes as visual manifestations, and their purpose of existence is very different.
(This just sounds like promoting Factitious Disorder[1][2]... )
5. "WATCH PLURAL MEDIA. OR CHARACTERS YOU HEADCANON AS / THAT ARE CODED AS PLURAL" (I have no problems with this one, though it's unfortunate that pool is small. I will say though the reasonings behind thinking some characters can be headcanonned as plural are very off [the movie Split is a better example than raph from rottmnt "turning savage" after extreme stress and abandonment, and it isnt even good representation either.])
6. "Interact with the plural comunity" (If this wasn't for the purpose of creating a system, i wouldn't have minded this.)
7. "Avoid fake claiming yourself" so you don't "reverse your manifestation." My general advice when it comes anything about fake-claiming is talk to a professional or look for professional/academic resources about what you are worried about you are faking. Ignore social media on both sides of the isle, a random guy without credentials of what they may be talking about doesn't know your experience, and professionals that are not people you have worked with for a long time anyway often say they won't know your experience either so they can't deny what you say. I guess we are manifesting here though.
(A little nitpicky, but 1. we moved on to talking about systems, we are not on the headmates topic right now. 2. "character." I was right to think we were just making an OC? especially if we are worrying about "external-"memories and "external-"trauma. )
I am not a fan of this being promoted to people seeking out resources for mental health (yes its "plurality" but that still revolves around mental health.) I understand that this is seen as a "community resource" but that doesn't mean scrutiny for safety should not be involved in what you promote. The constant affirmations and manifestations can conservatively be called self-persuasion and liberally be called delusional thinking. A very similar term (or maybe the middle ground) for self-persuasion is self-deception. The 3 of the key mechanisms of self-persuasion (repetitive rumination, selective attention, and emotional investment), were all found in this document, and they can all escalate delusional thinking. No matter which it is, both/all three can cause you to harm yourself (physically, psychologically, and neurologically) and potentially others. Here are a few academic documents to read more on this if you want to look more into it for fun (at least the first one):
Self-Deception (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy)
The relationship between cognitive biases and psychological dimensions of delusions: The importance of jumping to conclusions - PubMed
Self-Deception, Delusion and the Boundaries of Folk Psychology - PMC
Delusional ideation is associated with social imagery: Felt presence, social anxiety, empathy and loneliness - ScienceDirect
My recommendation for people that think that they need to create a headmate or system as a whole is to possibly write it down your reasoning in the first place and later take it to a therapist or support group (cheaper and what i personally prefer, maybe focus on depression and anxiety focused ones if lost). You also don't need to have a disorder to have a headspace. It is just that the headspace for someone with multiple alters will function differently than one ran by one identity. And, if you genuinely need an alter, they will come... or have come already.
Seek help before playing with your brain like this. Don't program/brainwash yourself into something that won't actually help you in real life.
