What does it mean to craft a soul?

Essay , 3/20/26

this was written as a final for my soulcraft class. i'm not super proud of it but i think it offers up some interesting ideas at least.

The Law of the Conservation of Mass is a fundamental concept governing physics and chemistry in our universe. Matter cannot be created or destroyed, only changed. (Hall, 2021) You can convert mass into energy, or change it into something else, but in almost every case, it is impossible to destroy the physical matter. One could assume that this is the case of the creation of a soul. It would be immensely difficult for us to create a complete soul ourselves, but it’s much more feasible to think of us crafting a soul by chipping a part of ourselves off. To craft a soul, one must start with a part of themselves.

One must of course reckon with the end result of the sculpting and cutting of the soul. This can take many forms, but one of which is the consciousness continuing to inhabit the same space. The concept of multiple consciousnesses inhabiting one body has long since been a subject of debate in psychiatric circles. Many are aware of the very contentious diagnosis of Dissociative Identity Disorder. Recently, however, with the advent of the Internet, groups of like-minded people have been able to discover each other and form communities. With this, there has been an insurgence in people claiming to experience this multiplicity of consciousness in a nondisordered fashion. In general, the Plural community claims to experience multiple distinct consciousnesses/entities inside of one mind. (Isler)  Many of these Plurals claim that they were born this way, while some claim to have purposely partitioned their minds to become multiple in consciousness. One of the methods used to purposely become multiple is called Tulpamancy. Psychologist Jacob Isler states, “Tulpamancy is a collection of meditative techniques used to create and interact with tulpas, which are experienced as fully autonomous and conscious entities within the mind.” Many people may describe them as fully alive imaginary friends. Those who create these thoughtforms swear by their independent consciousnesses. Another form of this practice comes from a community that originated in the early 2000s of authors and fandom-minded folks. The term “Soulbond” was coined by an author in the “Just for Writers mailing list” to describe a phenomenon where writers would connect so strongly with a character they were writing that the character would manifest themselves as a voice in the author’s head. As an example, Author of Remarkably Bright Creatures, Shelby Van Pelt, wrote a blog post about hearing one of the characters from her novel inhabiting her mind as she wrote. She states, “It wasn’t the first time I’d noticed this acerbic voice in my mind, but now, it dawned on me that this was Marcellus. A snarky giant Pacific octopus. The narrator of my work-in-progress novel.” Some Soulbonders believe that their soulbonded parts were not created from themselves, but instead come from another realm and were independent entities before joining the Soulbonder’s mind. (Knight) Soulbonders became viewed as part of the plural community sometime in the mid 2000s as the community of Plural folks grew. (Dawkins)  

Soulbonds are often created unintentionally. This practice implies that even just the practice of writing itself is enough to partition one's soul. Imagination both becomes an expression of someone’s inner being, but a force in which to construct your own worlds and beings. The concept of self expression being used as a spiritual force/creation isn’t new to online communities. In John Keat’s poem Ode To Psyche, he states  “Yes, I will be thy priest, and build a fane / In some untrodden region of my mind.” Keats specifically describes this creation of an internal structure dedicated to an effectively fictional Goddess. In practice, Keats is the creator of Psyche in this poem. Every time someone writes something new, they are forced to participate in the crafting of a soul. Every time a character is given life by their author, or a blackbird is painted, or a speech is delivered, the soul is freely expressed and expresses itself. 

If the free expression of a human is enough to craft a soul, to share their homunculi with the world, then the question is to what extent this process can become intentional. In “Animating Statues: A Case Study in Ritual,” ritual is shown to function as a method by which meaning and agency are assigned to otherwise inanimate objects. Through ritual, objects are possessed with a robot-like essence, and are possessed by the souls of gods. A similar concept appears in “Fictional Practice: Magic, Narration, and the Power of the Imagination,” which presents fiction as a form of practice capable of shaping experience and perception. Through storytelling and continued engagement, imagined entities are reinforced and maintained over time. By combining these practices, one could ritualistically craft their soul into a world of their own making. Similarly to the example of created plurality, these tools do not create something from nothing, but instead make edits and rearrangements to the already existing soul.

Ultimately, the practice of crafting a soul is less an act of creation, and more of transformation. Our souls are ours to do what we wish with. You can partition your soul out, or grate parts off to give to others. The soul is not a tabula rasa, it is a being that has scarred and been dented and grown up alongside us. Through practices such as maintained and purposeful plurality, sustained imagination, and historical ritual, one could construct and sustain a new soul. Even in terms other than spiritual, the act of creation is a gift that parents give to their children. This gift takes from both parents to create something new. Internally, one must give equal value to get anything. To craft a soul, one must participate in their own construction.

References

Brooks, Eugene M. “Multiplicity of Consciousness.” Imagination, Cognition and Personality, vol. 24, no. 3, Mar. 2005, pp. 271–80, https://doi.org/10.2190/2151-efbq-5e8l-024c. Accessed 11 Mar. 2025.

Carls-Diamante, Sidney. “On the Multiplicity of Consciousness.” Philosophical Psychology, July 2024, pp. 1–24, https://doi.org/10.1080/09515089.2024.2374018. Accessed 11 Mar. 2025.

Christensen, Emily M. “The Online Community: DID and Plurality.” European Journal of Trauma & Dissociation, vol. 6, no. 2, Dec. 2021, p. 100257, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ejtd.2021.100257.

Chu, Cheney. “Another Occupant of Your Mind – Berkeley Scientific Journal.” Berkeley.edu, 11 Nov. 2024, bsj.studentorg.berkeley.edu/another-occupant-of-your-mind/.

Dawkins, Jack. “Divisions in Plurality, 1.0 | Ex Uno Plures.” Exunoplures.org, 2026, www.exunoplures.org/main/articles/divisions-in-plurality-1-0/. Accessed 20 Mar. 2026.

Greenfield, Robert M. “Trauma, Dissociation, and Multiplicity: Working on Identity and Selves.” Journal of Trauma & Dissociation, vol. 16, no. 1, Jan. 2015, pp. 132–34, https://doi.org/10.1080/15299732.2014.983849. Accessed 27 July 2020.

Hall, Nancy. “Conservation of Mass.” Nasa.gov, NASA, 2015, www.grc.nasa.gov/WWW/k-12/airplane/mass.html.

https://lb-lee.dreamwidth.org/profile. “Pluralwiki: Soulbonding (the Term).” Dreamwidth Studios, 18 Apr. 2019, lb-lee.dreamwidth.org/1020016.html. Accessed 20 Mar. 2026.

Isler, Jacob J. “Tulpas and Mental Health: A Study of Non-Traumagenic Plural Experiences.” Research in Psychology and Behavioral Sciences, vol. 5, no. 2, Sept. 2017, pp. 36–44, https://doi.org/10.12691/rpbs-5-2-1. Accessed 22 Mar. 2021.

Knight, Fenrir. “Soulbonding Faq.” Archive.org, 26 Dec. 2001, web.archive.org/web/20011226155411/childofmana.tripod.com/soulbondingfaq.htm. Accessed 20 Mar. 2026.

Luhrmann, Tanya M et al. “Learning to Discern the Voices of Gods, Spirits, Tulpas, and the Dead.” Schizophrenia bulletin vol. 49,12 Suppl 2 (2023): S3-S12. doi:10.1093/schbul/sbac005

Pate, Kaelyn D., et al. “Parts of Me: An Internal Family Systems Lens on the LGBTQIA + Coming out Experience.” LGBTQ+ Family, vol. 20, no. 3, Taylor & Francis, Feb. 2024, pp. 1–14, https://doi.org/10.1080/27703371.2024.2309175.

Pelt, Shelby Van. “Lessons Learned from a Year Listening to the Fictional Octopus in My Head.” Literary Hub, 3 May 2022, lithub.com/lessons-learned-from-a-year-listening-to-the-fictional-octopus-in-my-head/. Accessed 21 Mar. 2026.

Pietkiewicz, Igor Jacob, et al. “Revisiting False-Positive and Imitated Dissociative Identity Disorder.” Frontiers in Psychology, vol. 12, no. 12, May 2021, https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.637929.

Reuben, Katherine. “History of Dissociative Identity Disorder.” Did-Research.org, Dissociative Identity Disorder Research, 30 Jan. 2016, did-research.org/did/history/.

Sarah Iles Johnston. “Animating Statues: A Case Study in Ritual.” Arethusa, vol. 41, no. 3, 2008, pp. 445–77, https://doi.org/10.1353/are.0.0011. Accessed 19 May 2019.