Question About Instrusive Thoughts

[Drakaina]

It just seems like you want it to be Lucina and you don't want it to be you fooling yourself, so you're trying to convince yourself that it was actually her in the first place. You need to understand that it takes times and efforts to create a complex thoughtform capable of thought and emotions, do you understand the complexity of thoughts and the amount of effort that needs to be put in creating an entity that shares the same cognitive capacities as you? Try to have an in-depth conversation. A lot of people end up in self-deception without even being aware of it because they didn't bother checking if it was just them fooling themselves, of course you're going to hear stuff like that, you WANT TO BELIEVE IT.

 

This bit struck me as interesting and I feel I have to point out what came to mind when I read it.

 

Isn't belief a key part of a tulpa's creation?

I had to adjust to a big culture shift between this community and my therian home(s). Over there we're encouraged to be skeptical to the point where it's almost maddening, and told that through rigorous questioning of self our identities will eventually be clear.

Here I see much more of the idea that since tulpa are created by the mind they need not only attention, but your belief in their existence to become sentient and autonomous. Obviously we don't want to be so open minded that our brains fall out, but if someone's working on a tulpa and believes they are responding to things they either ask or say, doesn't that belief, that the tulpa is responding, reinforce the tulpa's existence; even encourage the forming tulpa to become more vocal since the host seems more ready to "listen"?

[J.Iscariot]

Belief could count as a motivation tool, in my own experience. People had accidental tulpas, they didn't have to believe in them or anything of the type and still got them. Belief isn't a magical tool that will create a harem of tulpas at your personal disposal, in the case your tulpa is sentient already then that's all fine and cool the tulpa will feel motivation and empowerment from that belief from your part, its creator, the belief in their capacities and future. I like the mentality of skepticism you spoke of, and the entire rigorous self-questioning thing. The belief in something does not make it true; it makes the creator more prone to working on it, it provides them with motivation, it makes them more patient regarding that stuff. But it doesn't make creation easier, I don't know why people have that misconception, it's probably because a lot of folks consider tulpas to be imagination and self-delusion, and in that case, belief would help out, but I never had to believe in my tulpa for her to perform simple actions, and at some point, wanted to entirely give up until she gave me something like 'If you really wanted me to be gone, I wouldn't exist in the first place. I'm stuck here with you', it had nothing to do with belief. I'm someone who highly opposes the tulpamancy phenomenon and I question it a lot on a daily basis, but it doesn't affect what my tulpa thinks of herself or how she functions.

[LaceyJoshua]

But it doesn't make creation easier

 

On the contrary, I believe that's going to be a very individual thing. I remember when there was one guy on here (it was forever ago, and I've been a lurker for about that amount of time) who had two tulpa, one of which he "believed" existed during the beginning of the creation, and the other he didn't. The latter (which was his first tulpa) took a much longer amount of time to reach the point where he could sense sentience.

 

As I said, though, I'm sure it's an individual thing. Like everything else with tulpamancy, what worked for you isn't guaranteed to work for anyone else--and what doesn't work for you is not guaranteed to not work for anyone else.

 

On a side note, I question if tulpa are truly sentient myself. So does Joshua. Skepticism is not a bad thing, and I'm not saying it is. :)

[Guest Anonymous]

On a side note, I question if tulpa are truly sentient myself. So does Joshua. Skepticism is not a bad thing, and I'm not saying it is. :)

 

You can believe in a tulpa without emphasizing or even once considering independent sentience. My host never even thought about "sentience" at all in over three decades. It's not really being a skeptic either if the possibility never even enters your mind. You can recognize a thoughtform as a mental trick, but still love and treat it like a real person. It really is suspension of disbelief rather than belief.