Most people class soulbonding as a form of systems and plurality, but not everyone. You don’t have to already be a system to have a soulbond, but it does happen to a lot of people that soulbonds are part of their already existing system.

To know how you have a soulbond, it can be different for everyone, but usually soulbonds have a separate body and world they go to outside of the mind, and they interact with this world in a similar way to a spirit, but are stronger in their own worlds. Soulbonds can be an intentional thing, such as when you astral project to connect to their worlds and see them, but some actually come to you and it’s not always easy to tell straight away whether they’re a soulbond or not. Our best suggestion is to ask them if they know whether they are or not, or if not try to read their aura a bit if possible. They’re very similar to some types of alters, however soulbonds don’t usually front or cause dissociative amnesia, and rather than using your body most of the time, they have their own. Some soulbonds do use the host body to talk, but most of the time that is with the help of the host themselves instead of the soulbond being in control. That’s how it is with us at least