Anyone else struggling with sentience?

[mouse_]

It's been 5-6 weeks and I've got to be qt least 30 hours in, but I've yet to see any signs of sentience. The part that worries me is that he has moved in the past, but once I started using a variation of the prism thing, he stopped moving completely. So now I think I've been accidentally parroting the occasional movement. That also makes me think that I've somehow been confusing my emotional responses for his, especially since they never come when I'm not focusing on him.

 

I've gotten the impression from these forums that personality may speed up sentience but is not necessary.... So what would cause sentience not to come?

[Bluesleeve]

I can understand if you want to make an uninfluenced personality, but this usually takes longer than consciously forcing it (as implied by FAQ_man and Irish). If you want to get sentience you have to either narrate all the time and/or do personality work.

 

You could answer these questions and more people will be able to help you:

 

How long are your sessions?

How often do you have sessions?

Are you narrating? If yes, how long and since when?

Did you have any breaks in these 6 weeks?

[mouse_]

My sessions usually run for about 40 minutes, and I'll have at least one session every day, but I'd say half the days I get two sessions in. I also force during random quiet minutes during the day, around 2 10 minute quickies I guess.

 

The narration is kinda spotty. I feel weird telling him mundane things so usually it's like trying to start a conversation rather than straight up narration... Been doing this ever since I started.

 

There's only been one day where I missed a 40 minute session, and even then I was still narrating.

 

Also, for me, narration just doesn't happen when I spend more than an hour with my friends. I just slowly forget.

 

I think the skeptic side of me is really, really starting to nag me. Just need more stories from people other than the usual, what, 4 or 5?

[Phi]

Don't worry about whether this tulpa thing is real or not. Psychologically, it is very sound; you are essentially 're-wiring' your brain into observing a hallucination of a character you create.

I'm also interested in what you could possibly be doing wrong, though it could just be that it's taking you a little while longer to get to sentience.

Personally, I think back on some traits I've already tulpaforced during my wake-up shower and before I go to bed. These serve as reviews, since in all likelihood you'll forget some traits if you just go straight through them all. I also make side notes to myself during the day. For example, I was at Walmart buying some gold fish snacks when the cashier asked if I wanted to donate to a charity. I thought to myself that Haru would probably say that I should donate, but she wouldn't press me about it if I said no. Just little things like that I feel can really add dimension to personality, even if you aren't actually tulpaforcing it. In other words, they add up.

Besides that, I really can't say much about what may be going wrong, though I am curious since my sessions are also 40 minutes, 1 or 2 sessions a day.

[Citizen Anon]

Well I've done 21 or so hours total and haven't gotten any sign of sentience. Not too worried about it though, there's still plenty of time remaining for me to log, as with you

[PolitenessMan]

I wouldn't worry too much. I'd assume as long as you don't feel nothing you're still making some sort of progress. Remember, this is still a pretty new field, and everyone is different. Who knows how long it takes for certain people? Just don't rush things, that'll hurt more than anything I feel.

[Guest]

Today marks 8 weeks for me, 30 minutes twice a day almost everyday, spotty narration. Dont believe Ive had any movements or emtions that I didnt initiate

[Guest Guest2]

I'm in a similar situation.

There have been no signs of spontaneous movement, change in the wonderland, emotional response, or speech. The tulpa's form's changed a couple of times without my intent, though. Or so I believe. I started more than a month ago, and today, the time I've invested into tulpaforcing/meditation alone totals 57 hours. I spent over 30 hours of tulpaforcing on personality, which included about 70 traits and temperament characteristics, plus some preferences, dislikes, interests quirks, beliefs, impulses, habits, and moral principles, and I also shared some useful mental concepts and ideas with the tulpa. But, apparently, that's not enough. Or I'm doing it wrong. Or it just takes more time for me. Much more time.

Due to the lack of signs of sentience, I've been experiencing bouts of frustration and utter dismay lately. Yeah, it's pretty bad, and I'm losing hope, but I'll try to persevere. I'll keep going until I hit 100 hours, and if no progress has been made or no sign of sentience has occurred by then, I'll report failure, and If I still have some strength left, I'll continue for several more weeks until I realize it's absolutely hopeless and finally give up.

[Guest Guest3]

I'm in a similar situation.

There have been no signs of spontaneous movement, change in the wonderland, emotional response, or speech. The tulpa's form's changed a couple of times without my intent, though. Or so I believe. I started more than a month ago, and today, the time I've invested into tulpaforcing/meditation alone totals 57 hours. I spent over 30 hours of tulpaforcing on personality, which included about 70 traits and temperament characteristics, plus some preferences, dislikes, interests quirks, beliefs, impulses, habits, and moral principles, and I also shared some useful mental concepts and ideas with the tulpa. But, apparently, that's not enough. Or I'm doing it wrong. Or it just takes more time for me. Much more time.

Due to the lack of signs of sentience, I've been experiencing bouts of frustration and utter dismay lately. Yeah, it's pretty bad, and I'm losing hope, but I'll try to persevere. I'll keep going until I hit 100 hours, and if no progress has been made or no sign of sentience has occurred by then, I'll report failure, and If I still have some strength left, I'll continue for several more weeks until I realize it's absolutely hopeless and finally give up.

 

You need to narrate throughout the day, for about a month at least. There are guys on IRC whose tulpa took longer than that to talk, but there are also people who had a tulpa talk much sooner.

What do you count as sentience? Does your tulpa do nothing by itself in your wonderland?

 

In my case, I've had some strange feelings/emotional responses, but I've also had some quiet periods where the tulpa didn't interact much.

 

There was one case where someone's tulpa refused to talk to them until it was able to form coherent thoughts, which took quite a while.

[Guest Guest2]

Uh, sorry, it's actually 40 days and 70 hours. I mindlessly copied the wrong values from an old log file.

Although it's true that I probably don't narrate as much as I should, I think there should be some signs by now nonetheless.

As to what I count as sentience: Well, I don't know, but I believe that the tulpa is already sentient to some extent, but there aren't any signs of sentience yet, definite or vague. If I didn't, I'd go insane or give up. I surmise that she just can't reach me. She can't effect any change on the wonderland or herself that would be reflected in my mind, in my version of the wonderland. Perhaps she can even speak, but I can't hear her. The same applies to those elusive waves of emotion. Yeah, wishful thinking.

There is something, though. I can often feel really strange sensations in my head, usually in the back, but they could be nothing but a conditioned response. They feel like burning and sometimes pressure. They vary in intensity. Also, localized transient surges of pain and pressure aren't uncommon. I don't remember having these sensations before. I think they started suddenly after or during one session, but that was fairly long ago, 20 days, I guess. Nothing much has changed since then, so I'm afraid her development is stagnant.

As to your latter question, my tulpa doesn't move at all. She simply sits there, on the bed, and stares at the opposite wall.

Needless to say, I'm growing really worried, and this concern doesn't help at all.

Sorry for my writing style. I'm in no mood to take my time and compose coherent text. I hope it's intelligible.