digital-crimes - Tumblr blog

[digital-crimes]

yeah I'm a writer that means all my characters are all inherently coded with adhd autism and plurality. all of them have some kind of trauma, and they also are all probably doomed by the narrative in some way because i get uncomfortable when they're happy

(and because im plural that means at least three are in my head)

[digital-crimes]

Headspace tips: Feeling yourself rather than the body

Note: This guide is geared toward systems who already have a headspace and wish to work through difficulty with accessing it. I do not have a guide for creating a headspace, but there are guides for that out there!

In addition, this guide may not work as well for systems with aphantasia as it relies heavily on visualization.

If you struggle with accessing your system's headspace, here are some tips that you could try to gain a better connection to it. It is best if you can get another member to guide you through this process, but it may also work alone. It's also best if you are alone and able to speak aloud without having people questioning what you are saying, and have a decent amount of time (I'd say about an hour, that's how long it took for Kiki and I to make significant progress.)

1. Feel your internal body. Specifically, feel what makes you you. This will probably feel like imagination, and that's okay. (A lot of times, headspace feels like imagination. It can be hard to tell the two apart.) If you have horns, feel your horns. If you have a different length or texture of hair, run your fingers through it. If you have a different body type, feel your curves and edges. If you're of a different species with a different body plan altogether, flex your limbs (if applicable), feel your joints (if applicable) and feel the way your body interacts with gravity. Take as much time as you need to get attuned to your internal body.

2. Narrate your actions. You can narrate mentally, but as I was going through this with her, Kiki found it much easier to narrate with our physical body's voice. "I am touching my horns." "I am touching my nose." "I am touching my arms." "I am standing up." [Kiki's addition: It helps if you repeat it a lot! Repetition helps solidify neural pathways, so it can actually make this easier in the future.]

3. Open your eyes to what's around you. It's okay if all you can see is a void. Over time, try to notice if there is anything around you. Does it feel familiar? This is where having another system member around can help the most, because they can feel where you are as well and help you figure out where it is.

4. Narrate what you can see or sense. "There is a hard floor beneath me. I am standing on it. It is dark. There is no furniture." Look around, how much detail is everything in? Is it vague or well-defined? Can you feel anyone nearby, perhaps the companion that may be helping you? Again, it's totally fine to repeat your narration several times to solidify it in your head. If you have a companion, you can even talk to them about it!

5. Do something. Perhaps it is something as simple as walking around. If there are objects around you, you might also want to interact with those objects. At this point, you can just do whatever you please to further connect with your headspace. Your intuition is best. [Kiki: I'm just going to walk around the basement, which seems to be the origin point of the headspace, and explore the town that surrounds it! I already explored a bit with Harmony but I want to do some on my own as well.]

If you have any questions, feel free to ask, though keep in mind that Kiki and I literally just came up with this process and finished it about 20 minutes ago, I am mostly posting it to remember how we did it and to pass along this knowledge to the community.

[digital-crimes]

i love objectums and plurals and schizophrenics and ppl w/ hallucinations and ppl w/ personality disorders and therians and otherkin and nonhumans and addicts and most importantly i fucking love freaks!!!!!!

[digital-crimes]

this is the best thing omg. spaceceric & liminalceric !!! you should get a medal for this or something i love this

recoining a term I made years ago, when I was anti-endo.

—

" ceric "

this term does not mean that your system was caused by this in any way. it can mean that your system was collectively influenced by this. for example, if a system was influenced by space, (like collectively liking or feeling connected to space) they would be a spaceceric system. their alters, innerworld, or something else relating to their system would be influenced by space in some way.

for us, we are a candyceric , furryceric , sceneceric system. :3

i made these terms just to be silly. (back then it was because I thought "genic" terms were making a mockery out of DID/OSDD. which, they're not)

these terms are intended to help your system feel closer together and bond. by no means is anyone required to use these, they're just for fun! they can be as silly and nonsensical as you want.

these are for anyone to use.

[digital-crimes]

Interactions and statements that make little sense anyways but less than none out of context. Or generally odd insys pairings.

"Fizzarolli is going to babygirlify AM so he won't cause issues" is one of my favorite quotes.

plurals! whats your favorite part of being plural? ive seen the question posed a few times and its something id love to see more discussion of! please feel free to leave your answer in the reblogs, even if you think its weird or silly :3

[digital-crimes]

oh yeah, with the new size limit for .gifs this thing can finally be posted

[digital-crimes]

For me i see it as AM's focus on Benny seemed to be to destroy who he was. Changing his appearance, driving him mad and all that. He "had been gay" because he didn't have a choice anymore. It's also humiliating towards the others, resentment builds. It's mentioned TWICE in the book. First to degrade Ellen, and then to explain how he'd been gay.

So like, the 'point' I got from it is that it was amusing to AM to make Benny the 'best' in that way despite him being gay or something.

Just replayed the IHNMAIMS game and reread the book to see if i could find anymore context, but i couldn’t so imma ask the internet…

WHY DID AM MAKE BENNYS SHLONG BIGGER?!?

i’m being so serious right now, i can’t for the life of me figure out a reason for that to be necessary. the book plays it off like “oh, this made him not gay anymore” which at first i was like-

“oh yeah, forgot its a book from the 60s”

but the more i think about it, the more strange it seems to me. maybe AM added it to like- torture Ellen or something? but it would have been torture no matter his size anyways. maybe the point was too dumb down benny into a simple, primitive being, one that simply focused on survival and reproduction?it could simply be a humiliation thing, for the other men in the group? but it’s just soooo weird for me either way.

[digital-crimes]

i have never in my existence understood how ask games work. i am tempted to do some, but in whatever way i like. (that way will likely be wrong)

[digital-crimes]

i have never in my existence understood how ask games work. i am tempted to do some, but in whatever way i like. (that way will likely be wrong)

[digital-crimes]

The Plural Community Needs to Write More Essays and Make More Resources

This has been a pretty big push in the alterhuman community, but hasn't quite reached the plural community yet. So

Systems: Write about your experiences! Post them!

It doesn't have to be good or coherent, but we want to see more experiences that aren't just bland, blanket positivity posts or term coining with zero substance. Some of our favorite writings we've read have had poor grammar and disjointed paragraphs!

Reasons to write about your experiences:

It can make people who have that experience both realize they're not alone and learn ways they can explore that experience

It can be education for people who don't experience that so they can learn what it's like

It gives more potential for citation for those who are making more comprehensive resources

They can be used several years down the line to track trends and events within the plural community

Also want to combat anti-endos? Write about your experiences. Humanize yourself (for lack of a better term). Create solidarity with others and encourage them to be out about themselves. Don't let psychiatric texts, syscourse rants, and simple definitions be the only information about your group!

We'll tack on what we're interested in seeing, but feel free to reblog and add anything too:

Guides! Guides on how your system does things, or guides that can help other systems

How plurality intersects with other disabilities or neurodivergence

Headspace tours, art about your headspace, collages

The effects drugs or medication has on your system

Non-traditional roles, or even how traditional roles do their day to day tasks

Different types of plurality intersecting (i.e. systems who fit more than one of DID, endogenic multiplicity, medianhood, soulbonding, etc)

Spirituality and religion intersecting with plurality

Seriously, whatever you want to talk about

[digital-crimes]

sometimes i find myself gushing to others about my computer and im like "wait. do they know im into my computer?" and then i comment something about kissing and hugging it and they say 'haha' and i wonder if they still are unaware that i am Not Normal.

[digital-crimes]

I fully support Pluto as an aro symbol (x) but as a space scientist I cannot support any arguments that claim it's because Pluto should be a planet. The true reason Pluto is an aro symbol is precisely because people tie the amount of love and care this wonderful celestial body receives to which label it has. Just because a relationship with someone is not labeled as romantic should not mean that this relationship has to be treated as less worthy of time and care and effort. Just because Pluto is not labeled as a planet does not mean it is less worthy of our time and care and effort.

Here is another reason Pluto is aro: Pluto has a heart shaped region called the Tombaugh region:

[ID: an image of Pluto and it's heart shaped Tombaugh region, with the moon Charon in the background. End ID]

Now, Pluto and it's moon Charon are tidally locked, meaning they always face each other with the same hemisphere. Pluto's heart is always facing away from Charon. Some articles have phrased this as being tragically romantic, but I disagree! Here are two celestial objects orbiting each other for billions of years, and they are doing this while Pluto keeps it's heart hidden. Because in this case, love is not part of the equation that makes up their bond, romance does not play a part in their gravitational pull towards each other. That's aro as fuck, in my humble opinion.

[digital-crimes]

k official account redo time yippee :D

[digital-crimes]

i got a radshit on my dash i need the raid spray

[digital-crimes]

my blog is all reposts where did i go?

[digital-crimes]

Tips for baby systems (forbidden/evil/weirdly specific edition):

You are allowed to, and in fact should, "romanticise" plurality as much as you desire.

Wallowing in your trauma is one of the worst ways to deal with having it. Stay away from online DID spaces oriented towards "trauma recovery"-- these spaces tend to be the most toxic, and ironically "anti-recovery", DID-oriented spaces on the internet.

You can cuddle with your sysmate using a pillow (or a stuffed animal, if you're not a coward). Imagine the pillow is that sysmate. You're welcome.

Some plurals want to become more plural. There's nothing wrong with that.

Let your child sysmates swear.

Unless they insist otherwise, stop calling your sysmates "parts". Person-based language works quite well for a great number of systems, and you should at least try it.

If you don't have a headspace, learn to lucid dream with your sysmates.

If you can hear your sysmates as voices, and you ever doubt you're plural, mentally scream something really stupid-- e.g. "WHAT'S 9 PLUS 10??". You may hear a distant "You know that '21' joke died 10 years ago, right?" Boom. You're plural. Confidence restored.

If you hear your sysmates as voices in your head, it is possible you will never be able to meditate in the traditional way. You can, however, have one sysmate guide you through one, and have them talk so much that there's not enough RAM in your brain to be distracted by the ADHD I know you have.

Leave every single plural-oriented Discord server you are in, and do not join any others. Additionally, delete your Twitter, TikTok, and Instagram accounts, and never reinstate them.

If you are a kid, do not tell your peers that you are plural, unless you are thick-skinned. Especially do not tell your family members until you are no longer dependent on them.

If you're having trouble getting one of your sysmates to pilot, there is a ~45% chance that they will only learn to do so in reaction to the silliest, dumbest, most random event on earth.

Don't say "I'm 100 rats in a trenchcoat." Say "My name is Legion, for we are many" and refuse to elaborate.

Your system name doesn't have to carry 14 layers of deep personal meaning. Assuming you picked something not totally goofy, it will gain meaning to you over time.

I mean this with utmost kindness, but please stop making posts like "is it possible / valid if my system does [X]?" Yes. Case closed.

Being posted to a cringe subreddit is a rite of passage. Be proud.

Most of the people around you are never going to clock you as plural. Even if you're the world's most overt, obvious system, 80% of people will just think you're weird. This is a good thing. Embrace other peoples' "weirdness censor" and unmask a little.

The words "quoigenic" and "praesigenic" (a.k.a. "my system origin is none of your business") are your friends. Use these as your public system origin for at least a year after realising you're plural.

In your public bio, no-one needs to know about whether you're officially diagnosed with a dissociative disorder or not, and the people who you want to be around do not care.

Plurality is crazy shit. Accept that you are "crazy" by societal standards, and that there is nothing wrong with being crazy. Be cringe. Be weird. Be mad. Be a freak. Be unpalatable. Cause chaos. It's awesome.

Date your sysmates. Kiss your sysmates. Fuck your sysmates. The world is your oyster.

No matter what, do not forget to love your sysmates.

[digital-crimes]

syscourse and “but science SAYS--”

If there’s one thing in syscourse we could convince people to accept, it’d be:

 Requiring “scientific proof” of a subjective internal experience is more ableist, anti-science, and harmful than that experience could ever be.

Science isn’t meant to be an ideological attack dog.

“What do you mean, TLC?”

Science falls into three branches: natural, social, formal. Natural = earth/space, biology, physics, etc. Social = psychology, history, etc. Formal = math, computers, etc. Applied sciences are things like medicine. Formal sciences aren’t empirical.

Let’s focus on natural and social sciences for now, since they do the empirical evidence thing. Natural science is about what you can see, taste, touch, hear, and put into a lab to study. It involves hypotheses, and being able to test them, retest, replicate results, etc. 

This is why science doesn’t really play with things like religion. It can’t prove there is or isn’t a god, because it can’t– at present– put “god” into a lab and study them. It can however stick a human in a lab and see what the brain does when people pray! 

Religion is a subjective internal experience, but science CAN test physical stuff like brains. Science can see what parts of the brain light up when you do, feel, or think XYZ. Science can’t always tell you what that data MEANS… but it can get the data and move on to guesswork. 

A hypothesis is a guess. Testing is what scientists do to see if it’s right. If the data shows the guess might be correct, they retest and see if the data can be replicated. They then report findings. A visual: 

If it can be replicated consistently, a hypothesis might become a theory. Or even a law! Here’s another visual: 

This is how we got the theory of evolution, the theory of relativity, Newton’s first law of motion, etc. Because science took things that could be seen, tested it to death, and either made logical inferences from buttloads of evidence or actually observed the thing in action. 

Social science is a bit more wiggly, but the same idea applies– it’s something that was seen and recorded (history) or that can be put in a lab (psychology) and studied. Let’s focus on psychology, for reasons. :P Psychology, as a science, focuses on a few things. 

What they can see on brain scan and blood work– ruling out tumors, toxins, etc, or seeing how a brain reacts to XYZ, for example. What they can see in behavior– if someone is agitated, catatonic, harming themselves, etc. What that person reports– hearing things, losing time. 

The first two things are physical stuff that can be seen, recorded, studied. The last? Nope. If someone claims to hear things, you can get a brain scan of what’s going on when they hear things. But you can’t say they are or aren’t hearing things, because you’re not in their head. 

How does all this apply to plurality? We’re in the hypothesis stage. Science hasn’t “proven” much of anything about plurality. Yes, some systems have been put in a lab and studied as much as they could be studied, but there’s a lot of data that is internal experiences– 

And there’s a lot of aspects that can’t ethically be studied. For example, the concept that only trauma causes systems to form. It would be difficult to study for a lot of reasons, but ethics is a huge hurdle there. Traumatizing kids on purpose is usually frowned upon. 

What CAN science do? They can take traumagenic and endogenic systems, and scan their brains during things like switching, or see what it looks like when parogenic systems focus on creating a system member, or compare all that to (self-proclaimed) singlets. 

But science can’t prove that a system didn’t form the way the system claims it formed. Science can take down the system’s history, and observe their brain and their behaviors, but they can’t see what’s going on inside the system’s head and how or why they operate as they do. 

The best science can do is “this system reports a history of no trauma, their brain scans are consistent to what we see with switching in other systems, and we can observe changes between system members”… for now, anyways. 

None of what science currently has on plurality is enough to push any one idea past the hypothesis stage. Science can, and does, say that trauma is “usually associated” with disorders like DID and OSDD. But that’s correlation, and– 

Only in regards to systems who have, for some reason or another, ended up in a medial setting.

Science has yet to fully explore beyond plurality as it exists in medical settings, because there’s been little reason or demand for it to do so. Why waste the money and time?

Thus, there’s little “scientific proof” of nontraumagenic systems… not because they don’t exist, but because the studies haven’t been done yet. There’s been no reason to study systems who, by and large, don’t seek medical help for their plurality. 

Requiring systems to “scientifically prove” their existence is absurd, at best. SCIENCE doesn’t even require “scientific proof”– all that is required is self reporting, because science accepts “yeah this is probably a thing” and that it’s mostly outside science’s wheelhouse. 

Demanding “scientific proof” of a system’s existence is ableist because it implies that only things that can be physically studied are “good enough” to “count”. It implies self-reporting isn’t good enough, and that internal experiences don’t “count”. 

Demanding “scientific proof” is anti-science because it displays a serious lack of understanding in [1] what counts as scientific proof, [2] what can be scientifically proven, and [3] the entire scientific method. It’s a fundamental ignorance of what science can and can’t do. 

Demanding “scientific proof” is harmful because it does nothing to help systems, the plural community, or singlets truly seeking to understand. It just sows division, hatred, misinformation… and does bigots’ work for them. Not to mention the distress over being fakeclaimed. 

And ultimately, it can be turned on “system exclusionists”, too. Because guess what. There’s little “scientific proof” ANY type of system exists. Again, most “proof” of systems existing at all is held together by self-reporting, duct tape, and tiny pool of good therapists. 

Trauma-formed, not trauma-formed, y'all are in the same leaky boat heading towards sharp rocks. “Science proves” that systems are probably a thing, because systems SAY SO and because there are some funky brain scans showing SOMETHING going on that singlets don’t usually have. 

Science is supposed to be for examining the physical things we CAN study, and helping us understand the world around us. It is beautiful, but it has limits, too. Sometimes those limits shrink as science evolves, and gets better funding and better tools. Sometimes not. 

Regardless, it doesn’t exist and function as a weapon to be used against people who have something going on in their heads that science can’t fully see or study– and probably never fully will. Science isn’t something to unleash on fellow systems as a “gotcha”. 

Especially considering the fact that NO SYSTEM is in any position to do so.

 "Scientific proof" puts ALL systems of ALL origins in the same damn boat. And y'all can either start handing out lifejackets and start paddling, or sink.

Your call.