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Categories of Thoughtforms


Scott Z

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In a different thread, I already mentioned the different categories of thoughtforms. After some consideration, I thought the idea deserved its own thread. These are the various different types of thoughtforms, including Tulpas, that we know.

 

I created some broad categories or types of thoughtforms which could be developed. I have started compiling a list of known categories of thoughtforms and some media references for each that illustrate some easy examples.

 

This list is just something I created for my own purposes. There is a good deal of crossover between categories, such as the Wonderlands and Memory Palaces for just one instance. You could easily argue that Memory Palaces are a type of Wonderland (or vice-versa if so pressed). Another issue is that I might have simply missed something. It would be nice if the community could reach some type of loose consensus on the list.

 

#1 Imaginary Friends (Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends)

 

#2 Tulpas (although there isn't a good example yet, I thought that the movies Harvey and Drop Dead Fred came very close)

 

#3 Wonderlands (Suckerpunch)

 

#4 Memory Palaces (Stephen King's Dreamcatcher)

 

#5 Mental Calculators (I cannot think of any examples)

 

#6 Operating Systems (Stranger Than Fiction, & the commentary track for that movie was the origin of the name for this type of heads up display servitor)

 

#7 other servitors (I can't think of any examples).

 

As a side note, I am still unsure whether to categorize the constructs in John Scalzi's novella Legion as tulpas or servitors.

my thoughtform = Isis

her appearance = stylized rabbit with dark fur and glowing eyes

her developmental stage = imaginary friend

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Reminds me of a list I once made of all the different "species" of thoughtforms I'd heard of around the forum

 

Well here's what I know about the other thought-forms based on mentions around the forum and such:

 

Daemons- A manifestation of your own soul, like in the Golden Compass. Essentially yourself. You don't have to make a daemon, just listen, as they're already there.

 

Soul-bonds- A fictional character that somehow "chooses" you to be their friend because of some special connection. People with soul-bonds tend to have hundreds of them. No freaking clue how that works, though I'm guessing they don't get as much attention as tulpae.

 

Succubi/Incubi- Manifestations of the desire for sex. Basically tulpae without any personality except horniness. All those people who make tulpae specifically to have sex with them? They probably have succubi.

 

Alter-egos- Split off parts of your own mind, embodying one aspect of you, such as your conscious, your self-depreciation, etc. They are extremely one dimensional, lacking any real personality.

 

Guardian angels- Don't really know, they're supposed to protect/help you or something.

 

Spirit guides/Spirit animals- These are the things that you talk to during a vision, and they give you advice.

 

Familiars- Again, don't really know. I think they're like tulpae only non-sapient for something.

 

Shadow- The embodiment of your unconscious, everything you don't know about yourself and/or have repressed or denied.

 

Opposite- Self explanatory, a tulpa with the exact opposite personality of you.

 

Self- Basically a mental clone of you.

 

And I totally forgot about NPCs and servitors.

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I thank you both for your input.

 

Flutterwonder, could you provide a link to that thread? Some items on your list of species are unclear to me, and I would like to figure out how they fit in the larger picture.

 

Dr. Faust, I simply forgot about egregores. I like this definition from the linked article:

It refers to the "spirit of a thing", usually referring to some organization humans create (clubs, states, fraternities, countires, etc.) that summates its principles, beliefs, and goals, and guides people in accomplishing them. A good example of such an egregore is when someone say a project has "taken on a life of its own".

 

I also like how the author of put the period outside of those quotation marks, but I digress.

 

I am not familiar with the term sigils in a thoughtform context. What does this mean?

my thoughtform = Isis

her appearance = stylized rabbit with dark fur and glowing eyes

her developmental stage = imaginary friend

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I thank you both for your input.

 

Flutterwonder, could you provide a link to that thread? Some items on your list of species are unclear to me, and I would like to figure out how they fit in the larger picture.

 

Dr. Faust, I simply forgot about egregores. I like this definition from the linked article:

I also like how the author of put the period outside of those quotation marks, but I digress.

 

I am not familiar with the term sigils in a thoughtform context. What does this mean?

 

 

Sigils are like magic spells. You charge the sigil with the desire, then forget the desire, you launch the sigil and let the desire manifest itself. The sigil is supposed to signal to your subconscious that you're ready to accomplish whatever your sigil is and you unconsciously accomplish whatever it was that you wanted. Since you've consciously forgotten what it is that sigil represents, you won't be able to think about why it can't happen allowing you to easily accomplish the task.

 

If I may use the analogy, a sigil is like fireball. A servitor is like a flamethrower. A Tulpa or egregore is a soldier with a flamethrower. A godform is an Army of Demons made out of fire.

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Resident Buddhist to the rescue!

 

Tulpas (including Imaginary Friends)

Wonderlands

Memory Palaces

Mental Calculators

Operating System

Servitors

Sigils

Egregores

Godforms (unproven)

Mantras

Yantra

Everything man-made (you had to think about it before, get it?)

The universe (unproven, Maya, etc.)

Ego

 

...along with others

Om Mani Padma Hung

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A sigil can also be used to power a servitor or a tulpa, if the desire it's charged with is to power the tulpa.

 

And you might even consider Tibetan prayer wheels to be a form of sigil magic. The idea is that spinning the wheel is equivalent to reciting the prayer inscribed on the wheel. They even make machines to spin prayer wheels automatically.

 

All of that makes me wonder if if would have an effect on your tulpa if you made a sigil for it, and then painted the sigil on your hubcaps and went for a road trip.

"'Real isn't how you are made,' said the Skin Horse. 'It's a thing that happens to you.'"

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I thank you both for your input.

 

Flutterwonder, could you provide a link to that thread? Some items on your list of species are unclear to me, and I would like to figure out how they fit in the larger picture.

 

The list was from a PM to someone trying to figure out if they had a tulpa or something else. It was based on a thread called "Are tulpae and Alter Egos the same thing?" Sorry if some items are unclear, I really didn't understand them all myself.

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  • 3 weeks later...

Just this evening, I learned something. Upper Class Twit informed me that the term "servitors" is used by both tulpamancers and practitioners of Wicca to refer to a type of thoughtform. The catch (and this is the part I did not know) is that the Tulpa.info servitor and the Wicca servitor are two very different things that just coincidentally use the same term.

my thoughtform = Isis

her appearance = stylized rabbit with dark fur and glowing eyes

her developmental stage = imaginary friend

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Allow to me to clarify. The occult term has a much border spectrum than ours does. To us a servitor is a non sentient being with no free will of its own. In Wicca and occultist that is not the case, and can encompass Tulpas. To them, from what I've been told, are used to accomplish things. IE feeding energy and the like.

 

Also Hobbes in Calvin and Hobbes for an example of Tulpa Scott.

"The Question is not who is going to let me, its who is going to stop me"~ Ayn Rand

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