So, the matter about Tulpas have been brought up in the confessions thread. We agreed it would be best to move that discussion to a new topic, so here we are.
The Tulpa phenomenon has been growing in notability over the past year. And with it comes many questions. Responses to Tulpas vary. Many people are scared by it, some sickened, some confused and other curious. But I like to think the reaction is more curiosity than anything else. We can probably agree that information about Tulpae is mostly unknown and mysterious
What the hell is a Tulpa?
According to Wiki: 'Tulpa' also translated as "magical emanation", "conjured thing" and "phantom" is a concept in mysticism of a being or object which is created through sheer spiritual or mental discipline alone. It is defined in Indian Buddhist texts as any unreal, illusory or mind created apparition.
According to Alexandra David-NĂ©el, tulpas are "magic formations generated by a powerful concentration of thought." It is a materialized thought that has taken physical form and is usually regarded as synonymous to a thought form.
In layman terms, it's kinda like an imaginary friend.
But instead of doing this as a 2 year old kid, you are doing this as an adult. And adult minds can create more powerful imaginary beings that seem vastly more real and sentient. Apparently this dates back as being an ancient Buddhist spiritual practice but the practice has seen a modern resurgence with anons across the internet giving it a try for themselves.
Turns out it is more than possible with plenty of accounts of people successfully making a little character in their heads that they can see and talk with and the character behaves autonomously and independently. There are also sites where you can learn how to make one
"Holy shit, isn't this like giving yourself dementia?"
Slow down tex, lets not jump to conclusions. Just because there's no actual research ever been done on Tulpa doesn't mean you can assume the worst here.
Nobody knows what harmful effects could be caused by making a Tulpa and that's not to say there couldn't be any. But so far there's next to no evidence that people take any kind of mental damage form having a Tulpa. So far all we have are peoples reports and that's it. Details are sketchy but most people don't claim any major negative effects, short of idiots making Cthulhu for a Tulpa and getting nightmares
A Tulpa is NOT a split personality. Go do some more research on what a split personality is. Think of Tulpas as more of an extension rather than a division. If a split personality is a mind dividing into co-personalities and fighting for the same body; a Tulpa would be a mind creating a smaller sub-personality and assigning that personality to a separate (imaginary) body
There's a few reports of people letting a Tulpa control their body with permission, but no evidence of Tulpas being able to forcefully take over the body away from a hosts control or causing any actual harm. So far, Tulpas cannot cause any more damage than an annoying person that follows you around.
Then again, long terms effects are completely unknown
"Oh gawd, how did this happen?"
Looks like /mlp/ is to blame for the resurgence of Tulpae. A vast majority of people I see who create Tulpas are using it to make their best pony real (to them) and live the dream. Some people are also using it to make Pokemon.
"How is this even possible?"
Well from what I know (and I don't know much), you start off kinda imagining scenario's. Imagine your favorite pony/Pokemon/eldrich abomination being next to you right now and start thinking how that would turn out in terms of how your character would react, behave, converse etc.
Basically you're setting up a character here. Then you start doing this automatically, applying your "if your character was here" scenario is most normal contexts. You keep practicing this until a fully fledged personality begins to form from these imagined scenarios.
Eventually your brain should start applying an independent conscience to this character and it behaves on its own without you having to think about it. You can start having real conversations with it. Finally at some point you begin to hallucinate it and bam you're in tulpa town
But I don't know the exact details. Like I said, this whole thing is under-researched and unknown territory
"The brain can do that? Why aren't scientists studying this shit?"
Well if enough people try it out and report back what they find, we might get some actual neuroscientists looking into it. And this is a field I'd love to see more research on.
Got any questions about Tulpas? Do you have one? This is the thread to talk about it.