Accidental Tulpa Creation Due To ARG?

[The_Unnamed]

I've been working on an ARG ('Alternate reality game') for a while that's based off one of the "three universes" as mentioned on my user title. But that's not the point. In the ARG, a character gets into the 'soil incarnate' account and threats the main character. I called this character Exos. The obsession with the ARG and character, however, I believe is causing an accidental tulpa. I usually fake paranoid twitter posts (they're part of the ARG). They seem quite believable, and because of that, I may be tricking my brain into thinking Exos is real.

The question is, am I causing a tulpa to be created due to obsession?

I need an answer. I am a bit worried for myself (and Celeste).

[tulpa001]

Yeah, tulpas created through story writing or roleplaying are usually called soulbonds. Which can be considered tulpas as well. Now, it is important to note that not all characters that behave independently count. Some of them are just characters. I think this is particularly true for a character who lacks any of the basic traits of personhood. Notably self awareness and self determination.

[Tewi]

You can stop potential-tulpas or tulpa-like imaginary friends from becoming real tulpas. You simply have to not acknowledge them - mentally, not just verbally - as independent. Reassure yourself of control over the would-be thoughtform in question. Also, imagine them immersed in their respective universe, meaning their awareness is only as great as where you're imagining them.

 

We have to do this from time to time, but it's relatively automatic and not a big deal. We're more or less capable of creating "insta-tulpas" if we wanted to, it is as simple (to us) as mentally acknowledging their awareness. Of course an "instant" tulpa would have to be a carbon copy of someone you already knew, as you can't create a well rounded person instantaneously and we never would do so. Despite Lucilyn being relatively similar to the Touhou character Suwako, Lumi still spent a couple of weeks in preparation for creating her  (Info on that). Which is also when we proved we were capable of doing so. And so, when it comes to imagining wonderland NPCs or simply pondering scenarios involving deep knowledge of a person's thought processes, all you have to do is keep them in the scope of your imagination. Once you give them outside awareness things get a lot more complicated.

 

It sounds like too easy of an "Oops.. tulpa." scenario, and I suppose it kind of is if you're messing with that stuff. But we've never had problems with it. And we have experimented with imagining in-depth conversations between people we know well without giving them awareness of anything outside the scenario, for knowledge's sake. To answer questions like yours really. Also, if that does seem like a problem to you, we also feel capable of creating wonderland NPCs that are aware their place is the wonderland and ours is the greater expanse of the mind. For all I know this could require even greater self-discipline than just nope'ing their sentience, I don't know. We ultimately decided against wonderland NPCs as we prefer keeping it to ourselves, but we know it's possible.

 

So, if it does seem like a problem, go for a compromise like that. A "tulpa" doesn't necessarily need to instantaneously share your level of awareness and control over the mind. At worst, you can tell them their place is in your imagination/imagined scenarios/alternate realities? or what have you. If the rest of the mind is none of their business, it's none of their business. I feel like this forum sort of forces people with in-between tulpas to treat them as fully-fledged separate individuals having an equal share of the mind. But we made all this up, with our imaginations. We forged these rules of our own to our liking. And they work for a lot of people, but they are not "the way", they're just a way. Your mind is under your control and you don't need to rely on preconceived ideas of how things could-or-should be in your mind to justify how you want it to be.

 

But in case you do, we try to provide alternative "justifying" experiences as I did in this post. Since this is sort of a post revolving around a lack of strong mental self-discipline. Otherwise I would strongly recommend creating your own path with these things, use others' as a guideline but don't be afraid to tailor your experiences to your liking.

[mayanightstar]

Here's my advice as someone who accidentally made a tulpa from an original character and has also had to stop other OCs from becoming tulpas as well:

I knew Rosty crossed the line when I started having emotions, random thoughts, and impressions to things outside of any story writing/roleplaying context that didn't seem like my own. If, however, this Exos guy just seems to have a very strong and well developed personality, but isn't invading your personal life, you probably don't need to worry.

If you want to try to prevent it, my advice is to give them enough to do within the confines of their own reality. One of the factors I blame for Rosty's ascension to tulpa-hood was that he didn't have a story, while the rest of my OCs did. So I have a handful of OCs that could potentially become tulpas easily enough, but they seem content interacting with their own stories instead of my own life.

Remember, tulpas are beings of the mind. If you believe you're making a tulpa, then you will make a tulpa. If you believe you can stop the tulpa creation process, then you will.

(I completely understand accidentally tricking your brain into thinking something you've created is real, by the way. Sometimes I have that problem with the world I created for my webcomic, I have to remind myself it's not how things actually work out here.)