Terminology Information on Cobuds

Howdy! Here's a quick rundown on what a cobud is and some relevant terminology!

I am currently working on a general creation guide for cocreation and I'm building a dedicated site, but those won't be ready for a good while. This carrd will be available to fill the gap until then.

Made by RangerHippoLord
April 2025

The basics

What is a cobud?

A cobud is a person of varying independence you create in your mind. Cobuds can be created intentionally or unintentionally. Cobuds are created for a variety of reasons, but wanting a companion is the most common one.

While the term cobud is synonymous with tulpa, I prefer to use cobud. See here for why.

What is cocreation?

Cocreation, or comancy, is the practice of creating cobuds, but also related skills such as wonderlanding, parallel processing, switching, imposition, and so on.

A person who creates cobuds and/or practices other cocreation skills is a cocreator, or a comancer. This usually refers to the person who created their cobud(s), but it can also be anyone who studies and practices cocreation skills.

Cocreation and plurality

Cocreation is a form of endogenic plurality, but not all people who practice cocreation will see themselves as plural or call themself a system. While the cobud-specific terminology section will assume a cocreator-cobud context, terms such as borrowing, host, etc. can also apply to other headmates, regardless of origin.

Anyone can create cobuds, including other plurals. In fact, cobuds can also create other cobuds!

General cocreation terminology

Avising: Spending time developing your cobud. The base word is avise.

Cosystem: The collective of people/identities/personalities in one's mind. This includes all cobuds and their cocreator.

Host: The original person/identity, and/or the most frequent fronter.

Narration: The practice of getting into the habit of and effortlessly talking to your cobud.

Presence: The feeling your cobud is in the same room or space as you.

Sentience: While the base definition is a living being that is conscious and has emotions, sentience is generally used in a different way. Regarding cocreation, it means a cobud that appears to have their own thoughts, feelings, and beliefs that don't come from their host.

Thoughtform: An entity in the mind that has person-like traits and behaviors. Not all thoughtforms are people, some are NPCs, characters, servitors, etc. Cobuds are a type of thoughtform.

Visualization: Imagining images and scenes in your mind. This is not the same as visual imposition, which is controlled hallucinating.

Vocality: Your cobud's ability to communicate. This usually involves using a mindvoice, or the voice you hear in your head when you read.

Wonderland: An imagined place in the mind. You may also see this called a mindscape, parascom, mind palace, or inner world.

Other cocreation terminology

Borrowing: Allowing your cobud to control the body, but on the condition you can grab the body back. This is seen as either a synonym for switching or a less intense experience than switching depending on who you ask.

Dissipation: The process of saying good bye to your cobud. Sometimes it's in both the host's and cobud's best interest to carry out this process. At a certain point in a cobud's development, it is better to integrate than dissipate. Unsurprisingly, this is a sensitive topic for many cosystems.

Fronting: A headmate controlling the body. Switching and borrowing are types of fronting.

Imposition: The practice of creating on-command hallucinations of the body's senses. For example, you may have heard of prophantasia.

Let-in: A thoughtform that appears to be instantly sentient. For some cocreators, this is a side effect of achieving and/or making significant vocality progress. Some can become cobuds if desired, but if not, let-ins can always be let-out and/or claimed as a part of someone else. I did not coin this term.

Merging: Combining with your cobud, short or long term. You may sometimes see fusion and integration as synonyms, but in that case, it's usually referring to permanent merging.

Parallel Processing: The reported experience of a cobud being able to think and go wonderlanding more or less independently of their host's awareness. It likely isn't perfect multitasking as some claim, but it does appear to be a distinct dissociative and/or hypnotic experience.

Servitors: Thoughtforms designed to carry out tasks, like robots or automatons. However, if the creator deep down wants a person instead, they'll likely end up with a cobud or some other headmate. Clear expectations and self-awareness are important!

Switching: A variety of fronting and/or dissociative experiences that give a cobud more access to life outside of the mind.

Relevant plurality terminology

Endogenic: Generally a system and/or headmante who did not form due to trauma. Cocreation is a type of endogenic plurality. You may also see these systems refereed to as "endo".

Headmate: A catch-all for any person in the mind, regardless of origin.

Median: A headmate who identifies as part of a collective personality, identity, and/or entity. Cobuds can be median headmates.

Paromancy: The practice of creating headmates intentionally. While cocreation is essentially paromancy, cocreation is more general and includes accidental creation experiences. Paromancy is practiced by parogenic systems.

Paromate: A headmate created via paromancy. They may also be referred to as a paro, parogen, or other slight alterations of the term. Some cobuds may be paromates, but not all paromates are cobuds. Ultimately though, terminology boils down to individual preference.

Plural: A person who has multiple people in their head. Plurals usually refer to their in-head collective as a system

Plurality: The experience of multiple people sharing a body. Those who experience plurality are called plural.

Traumamancy: A term to jokingly refer to trauma-related experiences that are influenced by cocreation and/or paromancy mindsets and techniques. I was not the first to coin this term.

Why use cobud?

In short, the term tulpa is problematic.

The term is a byproduct of Orientalism, a type of racism that depicts Tibet as a "mystical paradise" for Western colonists while simultaneously disparaging the Tibetan people as "savage" and "uneducated". Alexandra David-Néel's book, "Magic and Mystery in Tibet", not only perpetuates Orientalist ideas and disrespects Tibetan Buddhism in general, it creates a completely unrelated definition of what a tulpa is and still calls it "Tibetan Buddhist".

In addition, Western media also perpetuates orientalist ideals about tulpas. Creepypastas, multiple TV shows, and those calling tulpamancy "black magic" all feed into this idea tulpas are mystical, mysterious, and dangerous.

Since the practice of creating headmates can happen accidentally and without knowledge of Tibetan Buddhism, it doesn't make sense to me to stick with a problematic term for a concept that's unrelated to Tibetan Buddhism in the first place.

I am currently working on a dedicated research essay that goes more in-depth on Orientalism and the history of the term tulpa. Stay tuned!

I coined the term cobud because I wanted an alternate term that was more general than paromate. I hope that others switch to non-problematic terms, even if they coin their own.

And no, creating cobuds, parogens, etc. is not racist. Only the term is problematic, not the practice itself.