What Does Plural-adjacent Mean?
[PT: What Does Plural-adjacent Mean? / end PT]
I and other blogs have mentioned this concept multiple times, or at least used the term, but I don't think any of us have ever actually sat down and talked about or given a definition for it, so I'm going to do that today. What does "plural-adjacent" mean? Where does it come from?
"Plural-adjacent" is a term meant to encompass all experiences that are, well, adjacent to plurality. Experiences that may not neatly fall under plurality, or be personally identified as such, but still mirror, echo, are similar to, or are reminiscent of plurality in some way. Plural-adjacent may also be described as when you aren't plural yourself, but hold some strong connection to plural experiences or the plural community through your own lived experience(s). Some examples of plural-adjacent experiences are voice hearing, some forms of deity work, and imaginary friends. Of course, this isn't an exhaustive list; there are lots more examples (and experiences) that can be considered plural-adjacent out there in the world, and whether one considers themself/ves to be plural-adjacent is up to them.
[PT: "Plural-adjacent" is a term meant to encompass all experiences that are, well, adjacent to plurality. / end PT]
To understand plural-adjacency, it may help to think of it less as looking for experiences that are strictly like the definition of "more than one self-aware self in a single body" or even just "more than one", and more like experiences that are similar to what plurality is like, includes, or involves. Taking from a personal example – the reason our occasional delusion of being a doll is plural-adjacent isn't because this particular delusion is like our systemhood; it's plural-adjacent because the experience of temporarily being or becoming someone/something else is very reminiscent of switching in plurality, especially since it often occurs in times of high stress. Another example would be how things like talking to spirits, having imaginary friends, or being POSIC are similar to internal communication and the specific experience of being able to communicate with entities that others do not know are there/cannot sense.
Our system was the one to coin plural-adjacent, although we've never made an official post about it before. I believe the first time we mentioned it online was in an anonymous ask to @sophieinwonderland,* who has also taken to using the term. Since then, the term "system-adjacent" has also appeared in discussions where it would be applicable. We use this term as a system specific synonym to plural-adjacent. There's also, as you may have noticed, the term plural-adjacency, which is just the same concept as a noun. Occasionally, we use "adjacents" as shorthand to refer to those who are plural-adjacent.
The term "plural-adjacent" itself was inspired by our studies into Judaism and Jewish academia; in Jewish communities, the term "Jewish adjacent" is used to describe those who may not be Jewish themselves, but still hold some connection to the community or Judaism as whole, such as through marriage to a Jewish person. While plural-adjacent is not used in the exact same way, we still try to use it with respect to its origins.
To us, plural-adjacency means that although you may not share our exact identity, you are still free to consider yourself part of the community, and you are welcome to contribute to the conversation where you feel you may have something worth adding. To hold a community of both plurals and plural-adjacents means we celebrate both our similarities and differences; that we help and support each other; that we are united to forge our own paths even when the world tries to silence or stamp us out. At the time of writing this, there have been a number of recent posts about pluralphobia (the discrimination of people for being plural, whether assumed or actual). It's our hope that all plural and plural-adjacent folk can work together to combat pluralphobia, educate others, and at the end of the day, live happy lives as who we are without fear. We are stronger together, and our lives become that much richer when we embrace the variety and diversity of both plural and plural-adjacent experiences. It is a sharing of experiences, stories, lives, community, and common goals.
Of course, I'm not requiring anyone become a hardcore activist to use the term, or anything. I'm merely expressing a hope I have for all of us.
I suppose you can think of this post as the official coining post for plural-adjacent. I hope this helped explain the term and its origins!
* We've done our best to find the ask in question, since it was answered, but despite our best efforts, we can't seem to find it. We'd also like to add the disclaimer that it's completely possible others came up with this term on their own in other situations; however, we were unaware of any others using the term at the time of our first public usage and unofficial coining. Due to not remembering the exact time this ask was submitted or answered, we cannot be sure which usages were as a result of our idea spreading, and which were original. However, we can say for certain it's been a few years since our term was first put out there, since we starting more openly using the term starting in at least September of 2021, as you can see it in our pinned post on our @pluralprompts blog, which has remained largely unedited since it was first written.