Anyone got a Tulpa?

[Vinderex]

My main persona was actually pretty tulpa-like before he fully fused with me and became entirely my own avatar, if that makes sense. :p This was also before I had even heard the term "tulpa".
But yeah. I've got a few of them now. Only one was actually made intentionally, and then two more started out as just RP characters and ended up becoming tulpas on their own. lol

[Sideromelane]

Aside from sexual fantasies though, i think at a basic level they are like highly sophisticated memory management devices. An appointment book that you can see and talk to etc to retain information you cannot normally keep track of yourself. Sort of an anthropomorphic memory palace.

I tend to have a mind that often contemplates computers, and I can imagine things in that way - essentially like programs in their own virtual world; where the parameters can be updated or reverted and such. makes for fun interactive simulations. like a step beyond daydreaming, but not quite real either. not sure if that's the same thing though haha

I try to maintain a small memory palace because my memory is truly abysmal. Being able to close my eyes and walk myself back through a set of steps to where I left a set of instructions for putting a machine back together or where I left my keys is really useful for coping with a memory that will cheerfully forget my own date of birth or where I left the cup of coffee I just had a moment ago.

[granblue]

Personally, I highly doubt it when certain 'tulpamancers' claim they are able to give themselves constant, consistent, and concrete audiovisual hallucinations 24/7 by willpower alone. Even among people with schizophrenia, visual hallucinations are rare, and generally infrequent, brief and abstract.

[EvangelineSkypaw]

]

Personally, I highly doubt it when certain 'tulpamancers' claim they are able to give themselves constant, consistent, and concrete audiovisual hallucinations 24/7 by willpower alone. Even among people with schizophrenia, visual hallucinations are rare, and generally infrequent, brief and abstract.

And you're basing this off of...?

I have a vivid imagination; what else can I say? I mean, no, she's not with me 24/7, since I'm focused on other things and tend to be forgetful. But she isn't my "puppet". She's very much her own being; and believing that is crucial to the development of any tulpa.

I say that at the risk of sounding like I have hallucinations or whatever; but I don't care. :p
Because I know that I don't. I'm aware that she's "fictional"; that won't stop me from believing in her existence~

[ChewDoo]

I'm not really into discussing the mechanics of tulpas and the like. Just ends up getting off topic and people arguing about pseudoscience and magic and reason almost every time. Heck, I don't even like that word.

I'm a novice neurologist, but I don't know enough to tell you anything about tulpas. Closest I can say is, neural plasticity is a thing, so maybe a brain could be reprogrammed and trained to have better control over the stuff that makes you dream and hallucinate.

Anyway, the point of this topic is just a callout to any other voraphiles--with an imaginary friend, hallucination, tulpa, demon, ghost, familiar or whatever floats your boat--cause I'd like to meet people with similar interests and experiences. If you know anyone like that, please direct them to this topic.

Here's a small album of drawings and animations of it: http://imgur.com/a/081Qx

[granblue]

]

Personally, I highly doubt it when certain 'tulpamancers' claim they are able to give themselves constant, consistent, and concrete audiovisual hallucinations 24/7 by willpower alone. Even among people with schizophrenia, visual hallucinations are rare, and generally infrequent, brief and abstract.

And you're basing this off of...?

I have a vivid imagination; what else can I say? I mean, no, she's not with me 24/7, since I'm focused on other things and tend to be forgetful. But she isn't my "puppet". She's very much her own being; and believing that is crucial to the development of any tulpa.

I say that at the risk of sounding like I have hallucinations or whatever; but I don't care. :p
Because I know that I don't. I'm aware that she's "fictional"; that won't stop me from believing in her existence~

Are you claiming to see them, clearly and concretely, with your own eyes, as if they're in the real world?

[minakotomoka14]

What is a tulpa anyway? Is it some kind of imaginary friend or made-up familiar conjured by someone`s mind? Because that seems to be what it is. And you can see them clearly, too? Is it some kind of hallucination or delusion?

[Miridium]

No but I'd kind of like to have one. I'm just too unmotivated to make one.

[freamen101]

What is a tulpa anyway? Is it some kind of imaginary friend or made-up familiar conjured by someone`s mind? Because that seems to be what it is. And you can see them clearly, too? Is it some kind of hallucination or delusion?

No one is 100% sure, but the most common and accepted description is an imaginary friend that by meditating; giving yourself a split personality. Then giving that split personality to the imaginary friend effectively giving it sentience. You are the only one who can see it and in your eyes it interacts with the world around you. and because it is a part of your mind it has a direct link to your subconscience.

[GeneralUrist]

Hell, I`ve never even heard of a tulpa until I came across this just today. I guess it`s some kind of imaginary friend? Seems like I`ve been learning a ton of new words since I joined this site...

Much like Bigfoot, homeopathic medicine, and the non-existence of global warming, Tulpas are one of those things that legitimate mainstream science recognizes as fiction but every other damn average joe swears exists.

So basically imaginary friend meets pseudoscience. Or maybe just a mundane mental problem. I'm not sure.

[nanakra]

This seems interesting. Never knew it had a name. Makes sense though if you strongly identify with your OC persona.

Here is a reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/Tulpas/

From the reddit, this is how they describe it and their answer to the "is it nuts" question.

What is a tulpa?

A tulpa is a mental companion created by focused thought and recurrent interaction, similar to an imaginary friend. However, unlike them, tulpas possess their own will, thoughts and emotions, allowing them to act independently.

So is this like schizophrenia/multiple personality disorder/dissociative identity disorder?

Not at all! Schizophrenia and DID (formerly called MPD, and still called MPD in some areas outside the US) are disorders characterized by clinically significant distress, dysfunction, or danger. Schizophrenia is a breakdown in perception of physical reality and consistency that has strong genetic influences, and does not always involve hearing voices. DID is a dissociative disorder caused by significant childhood trauma.

Neither disorder is "self-inflicted", and we recognize them as very different experiences from tulpa creation. The experience of having tulpas is much more accurately likened to the experiences of fiction writers whose characters come alive and begin talking to them; in fact, a great number of tulpa creators have formed tulpas that way!

[EnderDracolich]

Everyone calling it pseudoscience is missing the mark by a long shot. Pseudoscience pretends to be science, it uses fake data and jargon to fool people; belief in Tulpa is an openly supernatural belief that does not make any claim of being scientific. Calling it pseudoscience is like calling belief in God, angels, ghosts, demons, or sorcery pseudoscience. It's categorically incorrect; these are mythological and supernatural beliefs, not pseudoscience.

[Jayezox]

I wish I had one.

[Tetrahedra]

Seems dangerous. As for OP, that set of pictures you posted. "Ink" looks pretty scary with eyes and teeth like that. Is that your ideal companion that you created?

[ragnar]

Everyone calling it pseudoscience is missing the mark by a long shot. Pseudoscience pretends to be science, it uses fake data and jargon to fool people; belief in Tulpa is an openly supernatural belief that does not make any claim of being scientific. Calling it pseudoscience is like calling belief in God, angels, ghosts, demons, or sorcery pseudoscience. It's categorically incorrect; these are mythological and supernatural beliefs, not pseudoscience.

What are you talking about?
I'm pretty sure people can create their 'tulpas' in their mind, and I'm just as sure that there is nothing magic or supernatural about it. While the exact process hasn't yet been explored and explained in detail by neuroscientists, it is clearly a self-inducted psychic involved, you're just being delusional.
Considering that most people making tulpas tend to have social phobia or, in general, troubles socializing with other people (as they claim they did it for company among other things), it is not unlikely that it might have correlations with schizotypal disorder; a disorder characterized by social anxiety, hallucinations, and magical thinking.

[ChewDoo]

Seems dangerous. As for OP, that set of pictures you posted. "Ink" looks pretty scary with eyes and teeth like that. Is that your ideal companion that you created?

It's actually been around since I was little. It's not ideal, but I've grown to like it.

[Kamelagram]

As I understand things, there are two sides to this coin. Depending on which side holds more truth, there are very different repercussions for this.

On the more scientific, mundane side of the coin, while Tulpa's are commonly associated with schizophrenia, the way they behave and are created would put them as part of a different mental disease. I forget the exact name of it, but there is a disorder that can be developed by extreme loneliness/isolation from people. Basically, humans are naturally social creatures, and if put in a situation where they can't socialize they begin to attribute personalities or relationships with random objects. If you've ever seen the movie 'castaway' and remember the character 'wilson', you have a very good idea of what I'm talking about. As a broad generalization, a lot of people suffer from some level of this, and although the recent uncropping of 'waifus' is a bit concerning to me, it's nothing to lose sleep over. From what I can tell, the process of creating a Tulpa is just a way to accelerate this process, attributing a personality to themselves rather than another object. As such, these are incredibly easy to 'kill', as all you need to do is socialize normally for a few months, and your brain will stop running secondary personalities since real ones are readily available.

The real danger comes from how much you use this. If you just use it like a journal to keep important memories, it won't have any long term effects, and you can sustain it alongside a normal lifestyle. If you start spending every waking moment with one, or letting it decide stuff for you, your brain could potentially swap which 'mindset' is 'dominant'. You'll still have all your normal memories and stuff, but the personality quirks of the Tulpa may become permanent features... and replace some of your own. Or you could sink far enough down the rabbit hole that you become a danger to yourself and others... Staying in that perfect dream world can be so much better than being stuck in this one, right?

On the paranormal side, congrats, you've successfully created a familiar. While the new age name is... well... new, you've successfully done something the supposed witches of old have done for ages. Creating a small spirit to help you keep track of tasks and the knowledge you've gained is a handy tool. Just remember it is a tool... A hammer can build or destroy, depending on how reckless the hand holding it is. It's not really a friend, but merely part of you. Respect it, but don't let it control you.

At this point though, IF the paranormal side of things is true... ChewDoo, you honestly never made Ink did you... IF this is all true, Ink isn't a Tulpa...

...That thing isn't your friend. And as much as people like to play prey here, you need to get rid of it...

[coop500]

I don't know a whole lot about tulpas but I think I seen the OP before. Nonetheless the replies here are quite interesting.

[GeneralUrist]

Everyone calling it pseudoscience is missing the mark by a long shot. Pseudoscience pretends to be science, it uses fake data and jargon to fool people; belief in Tulpa is an openly supernatural belief that does not make any claim of being scientific. Calling it pseudoscience is like calling belief in God, angels, ghosts, demons, or sorcery pseudoscience. It's categorically incorrect; these are mythological and supernatural beliefs, not pseudoscience.

Ehh, both ultimately fall into the umbrella of "not real and you shouldn't pretend they're real" anyway.

[merlovinit]

Huh, never heard of Tulpas before until now. It doesn't strike me as particularly dangerous but I still have a strong degree of skepticism about having the ability to see or hear it in a way that is indistinguishable from real audiovisual sensation.

I have experimented with lucid dreaming before, but I get the feeling that lucid dreaming can be somewhat self defeating in the sense that in order to have really satisfying results you need to spend increasing amounts of time and effort to produce the dreams you're most interested in having. All that effort trying to develop your dreaming capabilities can be a distraction from real life.

As for Tulpas, I feel like it might be similar. Maybe I'll screw around with it.