Tulpa Systems: Why Less is More (Essay)

[Apollo Fire]

The purpose of this essay is to warn new tulpamancers of the many possible consequences of allowing their system to grow beyond a manageable amount of members, we well as emphasize the positives of keeping their system small, with about 1-2 tulpas being the best possible range.

 

This essay is not meant to imply that systems that are currently large should not exist. It is only meant to dissuade newer hosts/systems from getting large themselves, or else they risk experiencing neglect and a variety of other troubling issues that take away from the quality of life for the system.

 

Additionally, the end of the essay has a list of points that a host should consider before adding new tulpas to their system.

 

Here is the link.

Tulpa Systems Why Less is More.pdf

 

(Submitted for Articles)

Edited July 14, 2021 by Ranger
Added PDF back-up

[OleGL]

Does Felight system experiences troubles described in this essay?

[Apollo Fire]

Does Felight system experiences troubles described in this essay?

 

 

It's not as bad as it was in the past (back when we had 5-7 tulpas), but yes, we struggle to make time for everyone, despite how much we want to, it's simply not feasible for everyone to get a decent amount of time. With each new member added, the more troubles we experienced. We value our current members too much get rid of anyone, so we just have to deal with it. We're definitely never going to make any others. We may have four, but we do not advise anyone else to have that amount, as it's just too many in our opinion.

 

If you want an explanation of why our system is at four, it's because we weren't smart about how our system grew. We didn't know all the consequences and risks of making more, and/or we were immature and just didn't care. This essay is, of course, to provide an explanation of exactly why adding too many tulpas is such a bad thing, so others will know the risks and not make the same mistakes we did.

 

I don't really want to go too much into our own personal experiences in this thread, though. Trust me when I say these issues were really prevalent when we had more tulpas than who we have currently.

[jean-luc]

This essay seems to repeat the same point many, many times in slightly different wording each time. I'm sorry, I couldn't get through it. You should consider shortening this significantly.

[Apollo Fire]

Mind pointing out some specific parts?

 

Perhaps get through the whole thing before making a post?

[jean-luc]

There are no specific parts to point out. Each piece (that I read) was fine in isolation. Together it's repetitive.

[Apollo Fire]

I just read through the whole thing again and couldn't find much that stood out as too repetitive and needed to be removed. Perhaps I'm blind to it because it's my own work. If anyone else wants to chime in with suggestions of parts that should be fixed, please feel free to do so.

[Ranger]

While this essay makes some good points, it is still very much a rough draft. I need more time to break it down, and so far I got through the first page and some other stuff: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1FOhFbm3z11r_8adSAWFVx_D-5dCNMD1B-4KhV-U0iIc/edit?usp=sharing

 

This is a very personal piece and it reads like a rambling rather than a structured essay. The other problem is the essay makes a lot of assumptions of what the climate of a 4+ member system looks like because they all directly come from your story. This is not a bad thing, but it just isn't okay to generalize that to every system. This essay also goes out of it's way to also make a lot of assumptions and put forward your opinions as fact, which only comes off as arrogant.

 

There are lessons that can be learned from your system's story, but your thoughts need to be revised.

[Apollo Fire]

You're speaking as though I implemented a lot of personal info into the essay, when I wrote the entire thing to be completely impersonal and not mention any of our experiences at all. It's not like these things were entirely baseless and only applied to us. We've seen people going through these issues time and time again.

 

As I stated in the essay, obviously there's exceptions to the things I say. I never once claimed that everyone with too many tulpas goes through the exact same thing. The purpose is to warn people that these things are likely to occur, not to say that everyone absolutely does. However, you are hard pressed to tell me that an 8+ tulpa system actually gives everyone adequate time and attention. While the limit of 1-3 might not apply to absolutely everyone, there most definitely is a threshold where the number goes from manageable to overwhelming, and the essay is meant to dissuade people from crossing that threshold and experiencing the negative consequences of doing so.

 

No matter which way you spin it, 4+ people in your head is just a lot to deal with. We're not talking about characters here, we're talking about people. 

 

I'll read through what you wrote, but I wouldn't call this a draft. I've already rewritten it a few times. I'll try making it more concise and organized, but I won't do something like add headers, not that you suggested that. It's supposed to read as an essay and not a guide (as you can tell by the transitional phrases).

[Ponytail]

Already on seeing this is 10 pages, I feel the title is going to be somewhat ironic.

 

They are not focused on solidifying the structure of their system if new members are needing to be developed and accomodated.

 

This is so abstract as to be useless. What does it mean to solidify the structure of a system? If it's something to do with what's already been said in the paragraph, you're safer removing this section.

 

They should be able to wait for their first tulpa to be developed, and take time to build a strong relationship with them, as well focus on skills and the other subjects mentioned.

 

by paragraph 5 I've noted one redundancy. You don't need to s-p-e-l-l o-u-t a point you've made every time it's related to what you're talking about. You've made your point it takes time, don't repeat the whole thing.

 

As I’m sure you know, tulpas are people and are not there simply to be an accessory to your life.

 

The clause at the beginning here comes off as so arrogant, probably because it's written in first person. You're better off without it though.

 

As a result, having too many tulpas in a system than can be reasonably managed can cause a severe lack of development and growth for some or all of the systemmates.

 

You've already said this

 

Tulpas deserve to be able to learn, live, and grow.

 

And this.

 

This inherently stifles development, delays goals, inhibits each individual’s potential, and adds needless discomfort to the collective lives of the system.

 

... and this. And these three are all in the same paragraph.

 

Additionally, if the host struggles with certain mental or emotional disorders...

 

Minor nitpick, there's no distinction between mental and emotional disorders. There are mood disorders, however.

That aside, this entire paragraph fails to really bring anything to the table to prove that somehow having more tulpas will enhance the stress and symptoms placed upon a host. Certainly, anxiety and stress related disorders brought into this community can be expressed through how someone struggles creating and relating to their tulpa, but it's anecdotal to say it enhances those problems and even more so to say it's a direct result from system size.

 

For now, I think diving 3 pages deep is enough to point out some of the flaws in this.

[Ranger]

You're speaking as though I implemented a lot of personal info into the essay, when I wrote the entire thing to be completely impersonal and not mention any of our experiences at all. It's not like these things were entirely baseless and only applied to us. We've seen people going through these issues time and time again.

 

As I stated in the essay, obviously there's exceptions to the things I say. I never once claimed that everyone with too many tulpas goes through the exact same thing. The purpose is to warn people that these things are likely to occur, not to say that everyone absolutely does. However, you are hard pressed to tell me that an 8+ tulpa system actually gives everyone adequate time and attention. While the limit of 1-3 might not apply to absolutely everyone, there most definitely is a threshold where the number goes from manageable to overwhelming, and the essay is meant to dissuade people from crossing that threshold and experiencing the negative consequences of doing so.

 

No matter which way you spin it, 4+ people in your head is just a lot to deal with. We're not talking about characters here, we're talking about people. 

 

I'll read through what you wrote, but I wouldn't call this a draft. I've already rewritten it a few times. I'll try making it more concise and organized, but I won't do something like add headers, not that you suggested that. It's supposed to read as an essay and not a guide (as you can tell by the transitional phrases).

 

 

When I mean "revise" I don't mean throwing your whole essay away. That would be ridiculous and a waste of everyone's time. By "revise" I mean that the structure of this essay and the language you use needs to be re-thought in order for this essay to better communicate your main points. My criticisms are not aimed at your argument itself. I was only trying to bring to light the methods you used to tell your argument have some issues and it comes off as very obvious that this piece is rooted from your system's strong opinions.

 

One of my criticisms was to point out that your story may not be the exact case for a lot of systems, and that's because as you said yourself, you were trying to generalize your arguments to everyone else. The problem is that goal put into practice came off with this philosophy, "this happened to my system, therefore it is every system's problem too." Maybe another multi-system's main problem is in-system fighting, and they would not talk about topics like walk-ins and dissipation because that does not apply to them. Therefore, it does not make sense to generalize your story's context to everyone else.

 

Since I can pull the motivation of most to all of your arguments from your system's progress report directly, I would prefer if you emphasized that you bring up these points because your system had to come face-to-face with them on a personal level.  It's fine to generalize your advice to the entire community and explain why you came across that advice. Since you did not clearly emphasize that this passage is your story, this essay's tone comes off as arrogant by trying to standardize your exact experiences.

 

When reading this, it also felt like an exposure to almost every philosophy you have about Tulpamancy in general. When the focus of your essay is on the problem of big systems, all of these extra points can come off as unnecessary unless you sum them up and directly connect them to your argument. For example, mentioning walk-ins and explaining that a host should have a basic understanding of this concept so they don't loose control and inflate the system population is a good argument. However, I don't need you to tell me a paragraph or two on how walk-ins work and what they "actually are", and on and on when you thesis is not focused on this.

 

Aside from all of that, the flow of the essay feels like it came directly from your stream of thought. For that reason, you get long unnecessary paragraphs with little structure and you end up repeating yourself a lot, ultimately getting a 9-10 page essay. This is where I want you to take your essay, write out which arguments you want to talk about in what order, make every argument 1 paragraph (no more than 6-7 sentences), and then wrap up the whole thing with 1 introduction paragraph and 1 conclusion paragraph. If you do this, your essay will shed a lot of the extra length and your essay will be much more concise and easier to read.

 

At the end of the day, you have a lot of good ideas in your paper and I want to see this essay get the revisions it needs to finally be approved. As of right now however, there's a lot of filler that needs to be taken out and the essay needs to be re-organized so a reader won't get lost, confused, and then uninterested when reading it.