Existence

[Fenrir]

One of the keys to making a tulpa is knowing it exists, how exactly can you do that?

Essentially willing it in to your own existence

[the wind listens]

It just exists.

 

Now go talk to it.

[Mister_Moniker]

It's a being that thrives off of attention. Give it some.

 

Just keep in mind that skepticism is unhealthy for it. It's natural to doubt that something you've never seen, heard, or felt before doesn't exist. That's why it's important to speak to it as if it does. The more thought and energy you put into it, the faster your tulpa will grow and show you that it's there.

[Lula]

Words of great wisdom have been spoken this day.

Words which shall be recorded in the annals of time and space.

Words which are to be passed down, from generation, to generation.

Words, which were.... sort of helpful.

[ThatOneGuy]

By forcing.

[Phi]

Try to imagine what was there before the universe came into existence. It's hard for humans to put words into it because the situation is outside what we know. You can't describe a place without time, because it would go against your foundations. But this is ok, because a tulpa, while difficult, isn't nearly as hard as those things.

Tulpa exist, but think of them as existing on a different plane. I'm not talking about different planes in the religious sense. A simple example would be a dream. You see it, it's there, but you are the only person who can see it and you can not prove to other people that you actually had the dream that you had. Hallucinations and tulpa are the same way. You can observe them, you can talk to them, but you can't prove to other people that you have them without some sort of scan done.

 

If that doesn't work for you, you can always think of it in another way. Sure, maybe tulpa don't exist, but can you prove that anybody else does? Whether they do or don't, you can observe them and so you may as well just agree that they do.

 

It's a little out there, but they work. I personally use the first one.

[Malix]

One of the keys to making a tulpa is knowing it exists, how exactly can you do that?

Essentially willing it in to your own existence

 

They'll exist if you believe they exist;

Therefore decide to believe they exist, then they will exist, and then you wont have any trouble believing they exists, because you can feel them all existing and stuff.

Deciding to believe something entails basically just acting as though it is true, repeating the fact in your head, finding ways it makes sense, and not letting doubtful thoughts reach their conclusion(Cut them off with "no, that's stupid" or some such thing).

 

Or just do personality thoroughly and you'll start feeling them at some point during or shortly after. Worst case scenario you end up with a really well fleshed-out character for something.

[FigN01]

Just think about it a lot. When I was discussing it with a friend earlier, he said that a tulpa doesn't exist apart from myself; it's my own imposed delusions that I interpret as sentience. I told him that my goal is to impose a being who appears to me as having true sentience. In order to begin to think that way, I have to believe the tulpa is sentient and more than just my own thoughts escaping me. Essentially, if I wanted the end result of having a tulpa, then I had to deny my friend's theories and believe my own convictions about my tulpa's sentience when I said them, even if I thought he was right. He really had nothing to say to that.

 

I think the best way I've heard a tulpa described, though, is that your personality is really just a particular pathway of neural connections in your brain that produce what you and others perceive as your distinct sentience. Since a tulpa is just another electrochemical pathway that you're enabling, it's existence as its own personality is just as valid as yours. Therefore, tulpas exist.

 

Also, they fucking hate it when you don't believe in their existence.

[mouse_]

Talking about whether or not tulpas are really alive is basically impossible. It's an extension of one of the many unsolved problems in philosophy, which manifests as the p-zombie debate, Strong AI/Weak AI debate, etc.

 

Here's my take: suppose it were possible for you to have a physical twin, who was identical to yourself (on the atomic level), acted in the same manner, but was not self aware. If you asked it: "Do you feel pain?" - you'd get a 'yes'. "Are you self-aware?" - you'd get a 'yes'. But in both cases, the 'zombie' was wrong. What, then, distinguishes you from the zombie? Behaviorally - nothing. Physically - nothing. So there are two cases -- the first applies if you believe in the metaphysical, the second, if not.

 

If the metaphysical exists -- perhaps the existence of a soul would allow you to be self-aware while your twin, the 'zombie' is not. Whether or not a tulpa has a soul would have to be further investigated by someone more...well versed in the matter. Can't help you here.

 

But suppose you believe in a purely physical reality. This leads to the conclusion that since you and the zombie are actually identical, a zombie that was not self-aware was not possible in the first place - since nothing really distinguishes it from you. And yet here you are. So, what's this all mean?

 

I would say that anything that displays sentience, is actually sentient - since, in my mind, sentient behavior is the only thing that is necessary for sentience to occur. Besides, how else would you define yourself? You're a college student, you like to browse 4chan -- but these are things you do. And you're assigning them to the mythical you. Perhaps you don't exist in the first place. Only your behavior does -- and your tulpa certainly has sentient behavior.

 

So, if it's any relief at all, I'm pretty sure your tulpa is as real as you. Whether you exist outside of a conglomerate of actions, though, is another matter. A little case-study:

A final characteristic shared by the feral children was that they seemed somehow to lack memory and self-awareness. As the detailed accounts of Bonnaterre, Itard and Singh make clear, the thoughts of Victor and the wolf-girls were limited to the world of the here and now. They could make simple associations and learn to recognise familiar people and situations. But they seemed unable to reflect on the past or the future, or to have any insight into their own plight.

 

I quoted this because I believe that we ourselves are tulpas created when our parents talked to us, treated us as if we existed, and gave us a name. Without this, consciousness never develops. And since tulpas are created in the same manner, their sentience has to at least match ours.