hungryghosts | A Guide to Internal Signatures (Reply)

Mirror of this post on our website, any updates will happen there: https://feastingwithghosts.com/creations/essays/plurality/internalsignatures

(With thanks to Pax^Wonderbeasts for suggesting the word "signature", and the Otherconnect Discord for proofreading!)

So this is a guide on a thing that my system and several other systems do that helps us a lot with intentional switching, internal communication, and so forth. We kind of cultivate for every member of the system a "bundle" of associations and sensory impressions as a way for the rest of the system to reach them or as a way for them to reach out. For ease of discussion, I'll refer to these association-bundles as "internal signatures", or simply "signatures".

As a disclaimer, this technique works well for us, but your mileage may vary. You probably won't experience everything the exact same way that we do, and that's okay! No two systems are the same - take what works and leave the rest.

What exactly is a signature?

It's a little difficult to describe, so I'll try to explain it with a demonstration.

(If you have difficulty visualizing anything in your mind's eye, this exercise may be daunting. Let me reassure you that you do not need visualization skills in order to do this. You are not striving for clear mental images, but for feelings, vibes, impressions. Try exploring non-visual avenues of imagination, like imagining texture, sounds, the feeling of motion. You can also try putting together a moodboard or playlist!)

Try thinking about a person in another body that you know about. They can be a good friend, a favorite teacher, that one Youtuber you really enjoy... just anyone who you feel like you know enough about to have a feel for their personality.

Now, what energy would you say this person has? Bright? Dark? Bouncy? Calm? Would you say this energy is warm or cold? Does it bring to mind a particular animal, a song or an instrument, a color, a flame or the sea or the sky or some other element altogether?

Don't limit yourself to sounds and visuals. Maybe there's a scent you associate with them, or a texture. Or an emotion, a posture, the sensation of movement. Don't strain for perfect recollections - it's vibes that you want, not a photograph. Let them be fleeting. Let them flit through your attention.

Hold these associations in your mind, as many as you can at once without straining, and let them blur together. At some point, you might find that they condense into a difficult-to-describe sensation - one where you can still pick out the individual elements if you pay attention, but all together, they form an impression that is specifically that person's. This is what we call a signature.

How are these useful?

We use signatures both as a way of identifying headmates and as a sort of "anchor" or "body". For example...

If we want to talk to a particular headmate who isn't around, we conjure up their signature and visualize it as a kind of string leading off into the depths of headspace. We then kind of give this string a mental tug, and usually that's enough to get the attention of whoever we're trying to contact.
If someone drops by front to chat, their signature hangs around their presence, like an aura, and we know who they are based upon it. Their words or thoughts also tend to be "tinted" with their signature.
If we're blurry and want to unblur, each of us focuses on their signature and kind of pulls themselves towards it.
If we want to switch, whoever is switching in gathers up their signature and lets the sensation of it kind of fill up our body like a mist, while whoever is switching out pulls their signature back, out of the body. If someone is trying to stay at front, they focus on their signature and the feeling of it suffusing our body.
If someone wants to project themself onto physical space (so that the rest of the system perceives their presence as if they were an external entity) they gather up their signature and kind of visualize it streaming out of our body, floating wherever they want to project themself.

There isn't a set limit on what you can do. We strongly encourage experimenting and coming up with your own uses!

How do you develop a signature?

First, check if your system already has them. It's very possible that folks already have signatures, albeit faint ones that can be reinforced. If you can communicate, chat with each other and take note of how your and other people's words feel. Think of each other and note down what impressions and sensations come to mind. If you can switch or cofront, pay attention to what folks' presences feel like in the body. If you have headmate-specific moodboards or playlists, give them a look or a listen together, and try to notice the impressions or sensations they produce.

If absolutely nothing comes to mind, any headmate who doesn't have one can create one for themselves. Do the exercise I described in "What is a signature?" but for yourself. If you're unsure of your personality, then think of what you want to be associated with you. Pick a color, or an animal, or a fashion style, or a symbol, or a character you relate to, or anything else that comes to mind. And if nothing comes to mind for that, let yourself have experiences. Try foods, listen to music, look at art. See what preferences develop.

Remember: you do not need perfect mental recall or a clear mind's eye to do this. You're looking for vibes, sensations, and impressions, not perfect recall.

Once you've identified or drafted a signature, you can elaborate it if it doesn't feel distinct enough. Some ideas:

You can decorate a webpage, a PluralKit profile, or any other personal space with things that evoke your signature. Colors, images, fonts, poems - get creative! And as mentioned before, moodboards and playlists are powerful tools for capturing your vibes.
You can add additional elements to your signature. Again, don't limit yourself to visuals and sounds. If you were motion, what kind of motion would you be? Are you the feeling of cloth or fur or feathers or scales or something else entirely slipping through fingers? Have you heard a quote that captures your vibes? Would you describe your bearing as proud, as tired, as defiant? Does the body's heart beat a little faster when you front, or do its shoulders finally relax? Are you the dusk or the dawn, and where?
Take turns imagining each other in physical space, as if the projected headmate is in the room behind the body. Without turning around, feel for their presence. Do they loom over the body? Do they hover over your shoulder? What feelings does their presence evoke?
Get silly with it. Write tasting notes for each other's vibes as if you're a pretentious wine club: "Calm with notes of citrus, like walking through a pine forest on a crisp autumn morning." "Earthy, floral, and soft as fleece slipping through the fingers."

Keep in mind that it's okay for your signature to have overlaps with others in the system. "Distinct" does not mean "total opposites". Two people's signatures can be "cold," for example, but one person is the chill of a Halloween night, and another person is the unrelenting ice of a glacier. Don't force associations that don't feel right, and don't force yourself away from associations that feel right just because they resemble another's. Add, don't subtract.

In addition, keep in mind that signatures can change over time. A singlet's personality, aesthetics, and overall vibe can and will change over the course of their life; so too with individual system members. If some part of a signature no longer feels right, and a new aspect arises that does, embrace it. Don't overthink what it may mean - don't assume pre-emptively that there's something "wrong" or that the change corresponds to a new, unknown headmate. Trust that if there is someone new or something wrong, your brain will let you know through other means. Likewise, it's also very possible that each person in the system will perceive each other's signatures a slightly different way - this is also normal and fine!

You'll want to practice actively using these signatures. Train your brain to associate them with each other's presences. Take time to just sit quietly together, not doing or saying anything, and hold each other's signatures in your mind. Try projecting those vibes into your words when you speak to each other. Practice gathering up those impressions into a blob of energy, and push it around in your head. Push that energy into various parts of the body, then move those body parts, paying attention to how it feels. If a signature feels faint or gets confused with another's, don't fret - take a few steps back, run through a few elaboration exercises, and try again.

And above all else, don't fret about whether you're doing this "correctly." It's very possible that you won't experience things the same way that we do, and that's okay. You aren't trying to tick a bunch of checkboxes - you are throwing things at the wall until something sticks for your system specifically. Don't pay attention to whether something matches another system's experience. Pay attention to whether it works for you.

Some personal examples

Again, keep in mind that this is our experience and it's likely that yours will not match exactly. But in case it helps to have examples, here's a bit more about ours.

First of all, we vary on how clear our mind's eye is. I, Phosphor, struggle to visualize on purpose. If you asked me to visualize an apple, at most I would be able to imagine its silhouette. Instead, I imagine in movement, change, and energy. Lark has much more luck seeing and hearing things in his mind's eye (ear?). Bast, like me, imagines in motion and energy, with a side of touch: texture, weight, temperature.

This influences how we perceive each other's signatures. To use Lark's as an example, a few elements we've identified in his are: the moon in all its phases, silver and violet, playing quiet music on a clear night, all birds but especially cranes, a temperature that is cool but not cold, still and clear and deep waters, a particular kind of elusive grace. When I call Lark's signature to mind, I perceive flashes of sweeping motion, like seeing someone with a long coat turn the corner. I perceive the moon, bright and then dark and then bright again. I perceive the gentle energy of his voice, even if not his voice itself; I perceive his hand moving across the strings of an instrument. Meanwhile, Bast feels the cool light of the moon upon outstretched wings, the feeling of cloth slipping through one's claws as easily as wind, the feeling of flying through a night sky that is clear for miles and miles, a presence sitting calmly nearby. And Lark, focusing upon his own signature, perceives specific shades of silver and violet, the sensation of how he holds our body, looking up at the moon and stars in a clear night sky, a life lived in story.

(Compare and contrast with Bast's, who also has the night as an element of his signature - but while Lark's emphasizes the moon and clarity, Bast's night is an overcast one, one where the moon and stars are shrouded, leaving only the shadows of a deep forest, eyes in the darkness, the underbrush rustling underfoot. An example of the "add, don't subtract" principle mentioned earlier.)

If, say, I'm at front and Lark's away, and I want to talk to him, I'll reach for that sense of fleeting, around-the-corner motion first, as it's the part of his signature that's easiest to grasp for me. And like pulling out a chain of handkerchiefs, the rest of it follows, until I have enough of it in metaphorical hand to mentally tug upon, and get his attention. (If I didn't have it already - often, the act of conjuring up someone's signature is enough to catch their attention.) Same with any other use - switching, presence projection, etc.

Our signatures were developed primarily by identifying symbols and archetypes that we each identified with, and then exploring ideas and sensations associated with them. The sun once featured prominently in my own signature - from it, I derived the warmth of a golden day, sunlight through clear glass. And as time went on, some of those symbols lost relevance, and others arose. The sun no longer became something I associated with so strongly; in its place was the morning star. Some sun-like elements remained, such as the joy of green and growing things; some were decoupled from their context, such as the concept of sunlight simply becoming the concept of light; some were recontextualized, such as the warmth of the sun becoming the warmth of a sturdy traveling cloak.

And there you have it! Once again, this is only one example of many of how signatures can manifest. We wish you luck in discovering yours!