Draft:Daemonism

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Revision as of 17:47, 5 May 2023 by imported>Vagabondsun (leaving some notes on things to talk about)

Dæmonism is the practice of creating mental thought constructs that have a symbolic animal form[1]. The word and all related ones may be written with 'ae' or 'æ'. Practitioners are called Dæmians or occasionally Dæmonists, and the mental construct is called a dæmon.[1] This mental construct is considered the personification of some part of the dæmian's subconscious.[1]

Experiences

The primary experience of dæmonism is having a dæmon. This mental construct can range from just being a mental 'puppet' to have a dialogue with to a fully autonomous internal agent.

Dæmonists generally hold that everyone has a daemon, you just have to learn to listen to it and talk back.[2]

Learning to hear the daemon

Most practitioners will need to learn how to hear their dæmon when first starting out. Many dæmonists have the experience of struggling to talk to and hear their daemon- especially at first.[2]

Part of the recommended process to learn to hear the dæmon is that the dæmeian convinces themselves that the dæmon is already there and sapient alongside frequent practicing and reinforcing of the internal dialogue to help the dæmon to speak up without prompting.[2]

Settling

Settling is when the personality becomes less subject to fluctuation, usually at the onset of adulthood at the earliest or later.[3] In the novel the practice is taken from, it refers to when a daemon takes on its permanent symbolic animal form around the cusp of puberty. Not everyone settles, and a previously settled person may become unsettled again in the future.

However, many in the community use settling to mean finding a specific form or handful of forms that the dæmon stays as.[4]

Both the validity and definition of settledom is hotly contested in the community and the general attitude towards it has changed over time.[3]

Form Finding

Form Finding is when one finds a form (or multiple) that a dæmon prefers to take.

Some dæmons never have a concrete form[5], others find one form and stick to it permanently. Many others have a few forms they cycle through for various reasons.

Form finding means different things to different dæmeans, and different dæmeans may have different standards through which form finding may happen. Some are very stringent, and others are more laid back on what counts as a truly settled form.

Other common experiences

  • Being able to 'impose' the dæmon on the world. Ranges from simply imagining them there to induced hallucinations.
  • Other plural experiences such as the dæmon being able to control the body.
  • Having more than one dæmon.
  • Being interested in the His Dark Materials series and participating in fannish activities surrounding it.[5]
  • Celebrating their CIEday, or coming into existence day.[4]
  • Celebrating their SFday, or settled-form day.[4]

Forms

Form finding and expression is a large part of dæmonism, and one of the most important parts.[5]

The form is how the daemon appears to the dæmian. This form is traditionally some kind of extant earthen animal. Mythic[6], extinct, and human forms are somewhat contentious in the community on if they are valid as a settled form.

Some types of forms that a daemon may take include but are not limited to:

  • Projected Form - Can be anything, its whatever the dæmon is right now.[3]
  • Analytic Form - Form determined through analysis of the dæmian's personality that matches of the behavior of that species.[5]
  • Symbolic Form - Also called a Pullman Form. A form matching the on symbolism surrounding a species.[4]
  • Comfort Form - A form taken for comfort of the dæmian.[4]

Relationship to the plural community

While daemonism could be considered a kind of created plurality in under the definition of such, not all dæmians consider themselves plural for their practice.[7]

As daemons can range in levels of autonomy and separate identity, some daemons may qualify as a headmate and some may not. Different daemians may also experience the same phenomena, but may consider themselves in very different places on the multiplicity scale- including as being singlet for additionally varied reasons. (locate nnp threads that talk about this to cite)

Relationship to tulpamancy

Tulpamancy and daemonism have a notable amount in common in terms of the methods used to induce the same experiences. They both encourage the practitioner to consider themselves as already experiencing the phenomena and to practice routinely to train the brain to exhibit plural experiences reliably. In addition, using a 'base' for their personality is the generally recommended method- be it your 'gut thoughts' and a name for daemonism, or a series of deliberately chosen traits for tulpamancy. In particular, the use of the practitioner's personal 'gut thoughts' is similar to the deliberate 'splitting' method that some tulpamancers use. (locate splitting tulpa guide to cite)

Forcing is also used by both communities to help work though rough patches in autonomous action and activity.

Relationship to other Alterhuman communities

Many daemonists do not consider themselves alterhuman for being daemonists because its an integral part of the lore that daemonism is an integral human experience (locate nnp threads or tumblr posts about some people saying this?) (1)

others do (1, 2, x)

for some people it's not inherently but it intersects (1)

discussion about how daemon forms relate to kintypes/theriotypes (1, 2, the othehearted coining thread had some talk on this, i think vyt has also talked about it somewhere?)

created otherhearted term in their community (link to otherhearted page)

History

Dæmons are patterned after the entities of the same name in the novel series His Dark Materials by Phillip Pullman, in which every human has a dæmon- a person's soul in animal form that shapeshifts until it 'settles' into a single form. [8]

should probably explain historical precedents here, the concepts that inspired pullman such as the greek agathodaimon, esp as those more spirital conceptions become relevant to people in the community again later

1995-2002 Pre- Community History

1995-2000 the books for his dark materials came out, the founder Okibi discovered the series and it inspired her to create an imaginary friend which became her daemon Rannock.

in 2002 the founder of the daemon page created the first website as she figured others may have daemons

2002- ??? early community history

building of the community as it was

modern era age of tumblr

plural community absorbing everything else, daemonism getting more mixed with it daemon timeline goes here, reference timeline [5]

not sure when this all happened, but strict ideas about settling, the role of mental illness in personality, and daemons being nothing more than 'glorified imaginary friends' lifted over time. also, when were pullman forms introduced?

References