Jump to content

Vividity of Tulpa Experience / Allegory of the Cave


Chupi

Recommended Posts

First, for those not familiar with the allegory of the cave: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allegory_of_the_Cave

 

I've heard from multiple sources that for a tulpa, the wonderland feels as real as reality is to us. It is also at least as real to them as reality is when they're imposed. In both cases, these environments are constructed by our imagination, either based on stable imagined locations (wonderland), or short-term sense memory (when imposed).

 

When a tulpa says the wonderland seems completely real, we've been taking that to mean it seems as real as our reality. Instead, it could simply mean that it's as real as the most real thing the tulpa has experienced. This doesn't tell us a whole lot. It could be that a tulpa's perception of the wonderland is the same as how we visualize it (less vivid than our dreams), but that their perception of everything else is no better than that.

 

As with the prisoners in Plato's cave, whose idea of reality is shadows on a wall, the tulpa's idea of "completely real" is defined only by experience, and may differ from our idea of reality.

 

Now, testing this could prove difficult to impossible, since it's basically objective measurement of qualia. But there may be some way to do it, like asking the tulpa to perceive many details at once, and see how many before they become overwhelmed and lose track of some of them. Another possible bit of evidence is if anyone's tulpa sends them mental images / takes them to imaginary places that are more vivid than their own visualization.

 

NEED: Further ideas on how to test this, and people with vocal tulpae willing to look around and answer a few questions. [My tulpa is not quite vocal yet as of me writing this.]

 

Totally non-objective personal observation, but maybe related: Lyra took me a few places that I'm pretty sure are imagined by her. They were pretty vivid but didn't didn't strike me as out-of-the-ordinary vivid. This morning though she was able to "enhance" my visualization when asked if she could. This temporarily made me see significantly more color and detail than usual, especially on her; possibly to the level of my dreams, minus the dissociation from my physical body. No idea how it worked, may have been a placebo effect, ymmv, etc.

Lyra: human female, ~17

Evan: boy, ~14, was an Eevee

Anera: anime-style girl, ~12; Lyra made her

My blog :: Time expectations are bad (forcing time targets are good though)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Can't tulpae see through your senses when you allow them? In this case, they would know how the real world feels like to you, and could compare it to how the wonderland feels like to them. Unless your sensory perception is somehow dulled or blurred on your way to her.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Ever had any vivid lucid dreams? Those feel very real, or more correctly, surreal. The physics may not work as correctly as in reality and it's more like a mentally controlled magical world, but the experiences sometimes feel more real than reality itself, simply because the brain can interpolate details really well.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Guest Anonymous

Very interesting concept. As with most cases with tulpa, I think it could be easily tested with neuroscience and neurochemistry if people took the idea seriously enough to get funding for experimentation. Assuming they've tested that the creator has no neurological disorders or chemical imbalances, and assuming they managed to isolate exactly which parts of the brain are being used for your tulpa, they could measure dopamine neurotransmitter levels in the synaptic cleft in response to being shown a certain picture or video. If shown something happy, calm, and relaxing there should be an abnormally high amount of dopamine neurostransmitters, and if shown something loud, scary, or disturbing there should be a higher amount of inhibitory neurotransmitters. The way this would work is that if the tulpa's reality is less vivid than ours, the part of the brain keeping them functioning should have a smaller change in dopamine levels than the parts processing the creator's functions. That also means that if their reality is more vivid than ours, then they would end up measuring the reverse. Seems simple enough.

 

But the chance of being allowed to use a lab for testing tulpa is pretty slim, so I suppose we'd need something more practical. I'm out of ideas for any less conventional methods, sadly. I'll see if I can come up with something later.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Conventional research is years away, at best. And to properly research chemical levels and the like, I would start by establishing the normal levels of the subjects long before tulpae creation. I wouldn't be surprised if creation generally tweaked dopamine neurotransmission, if even by a little. Without establishing a base line in the pre-creation stage it could throw off your numbers.

We don't get much in life. But we do have this.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I don't know if they way a tulpa functions is equivalent enough to how we function to compare them chemically.

 

I have something that may be relevant: A few days ago Lyra was trying to bring my attention to what seemed to be a blank spot on the wall. After she drew a couple pictures to explain (can't talk well yet), I finally realized she was seeing where the sun was peeping through the closed blinds and shining some little spots on the wall. It took me until I consciously realized that the sun's position lined up with that window and that wall before I could see anything there. When I opened the blinds she acted happy.

(Yeah, there could be some parroting involved here, so not conclusive. It'll be something to look into more when she's fully vocal.)

Lyra: human female, ~17

Evan: boy, ~14, was an Eevee

Anera: anime-style girl, ~12; Lyra made her

My blog :: Time expectations are bad (forcing time targets are good though)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...