Tulpamancy Glossary

[Apollo Fire]

Ponytail and I have written a glossary for terms commonly used in the tulpamancy community. 

 

Here is the link.

 

The Common Glossary of Tulpa and Other Plurality-Related Terms.pdf -PDF backup -Ranger

The Common Glossary of Tulpa and Other Plurality-Related Terms.docx -MS Word backup -Ranger

 

Comments, critiques, and suggestions are welcome.

 

Submitted for Resources.

Edited September 10, 2022 by Ranger
Added PDF and MS Word backups -Ranger

[GrayTheCat]

I think this can be really helpful and I like the resource. There are a few things going through it that I felt the need to comment about and a few things that I think the guide is missing.

 

With a bunch of the terms, an example or a deeper explanation could be helpful. However, I don't know if you would rather stick to the simple and quick definitons or go more in depth.

 

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Head pressure: A sensation brought about by long forcing. The feeling is unique to most people. Sometimes it is compared to the sensation you get when you learn an enormity of things all at once.

 

Head pressures don't have to be related to Tulpamancy, the only requirements are intense focus of some kind, but usually in the form of intense concetration, forcing, or visualization. I think it's worth pointing out that they can seem "spontaneous" or "random" as well.

 

The last sentence is a little vague, only because I have no idea what "learning an enomrmity of things all at once" feels like other than stress. A gneral description of a head pressure may be something like, "...generally described as pressure applied to a pin-point region..." or something; I know I am not the best with words though.

 

Dissipation: When a systemmate is snuffed out of existence through lack of stimulation and interaction. Usually occurs to underdeveloped systemmates or those who are ignored for a very long period of time.

 

"snuffed"? It's interesting word choice...

 

Eclipsing: When the thoughts of one systemmate unintentionally affect the thoughts/actions of another

 

With this definition, how is Eclipsing different from Parroting/Puppeting, Blending, or Merging? I thought Eclipsing is like soft merging, but that could be a myth.

 

Egocide: The shattering, fragmenting, or breaking of one’s identity. Commonly used as a term meaning “mental suicide.” Usually temporary, and usually induced somewhat intentionally by drug use.

 

I am no expert by any means on Egocide, however the definition contradicts itself. "Suicide" is commiting murder towards yourself. I would naturally assume "egoside" is permanent, resulting in dissipation.

 

Fronting: When a systemmate controls the body without switching, or simply generally remains in the vicinity of the body’s senses and the main stream of thought, and is more attentive and responsive than those who are not fronting.

 

Please exclude fronting from the definition of fronting. The definition itself is fine if "..than those who are not fronting" is replaced with "than other system mates". It may also be helpful to briefly overview the concept of fronting, in the sense that the one fronting takes "the front" of the mind and everyone else goes to "the back" of the mind.

 

Switching: The act of a headmate becoming the only fronter in place of another headmate.

 

"...the only fronter..." does not make a lot of sense, and I don't like this definition. I understand that the definition is keeping in mind multiple system mates, and that's good. I usually hear switching being described as taking the Host's position / role, but I understand why you may have wanted to avoid that explanation. I guess maybe something like, "The act of the Host and another system mate working together so the Host achieves a Tulpa-like status and the system mate achieves a Host-like status. This process can work in reverse or with another system mate acting as the Host."

 

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Here are some things that may need to be added:

 

• I think it's also important to point out that both emotional bleed and head pressures are common early signs of sentience.
  
• It may be good to add the "mind's eye" terminology with Visualization, since that term and Visualization are commonly said together.
  
• Proxying can also apply to posession.
  
• It may be necessary to add a definition for "Licid Dreaming" in the other category.
  
• The term "Daemon" is missing. (I believe it refers to a thoughtform that is not quite a Tulpa and takes the form of an animal spirit. I may not be correct on that and the definition could be broader than that.)
  

 

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As a stray thought, I have never heard of "Endogenic" before. Where did that terminology come from?

[Breloomancer]

 

[*]The term "Daemon" is missing. (I believe it refers to a thoughtform that is not quite a Tulpa and takes the form of an animal spirit. I may not be correct on that and the definition could be broader than that.)

 

From my understanding a daemon is a tulpa like thoughtform that represents a certain aspect of the host, and generally takes the form a an animal

[GrayTheCat]

 

From my understanding a daemon is a tulpa like thoughtform that represents a certain aspect of the host, and generally takes the form a an animal

 

That sounds about right. I would think a system with daemons would provide a more accurate definition (I don't remember if fall family has daemons or not...)

 

Ranger has a pet hippo thoughtform, but other than that nothing else really seems to fit the daemon definition. I have other thoughtforms (the Grays) I can't categorize with a term already out there, but oddly enough daemon is the closest definition minus the animal part.

[Lucilyn]

just looking at the things Cat pointed out really quick

 

"Sometimes it is compared to the sensation you get when you learn an enormity of things all at once."

... is it? I can't even imagine a feeling associated with that.. can't you just say something like, related to "head pressure"?

 

"Eclipsing: When the thoughts of one systemmate unintentionally affect the thoughts/actions of another"

kinda, but this is supposed to be associated with switching, merging or possession, not just in general, otherwise yeah that's hard to separate from parroting/etc.

pretty sure it is very similar/related to merging, but not on purpose

 

"Egocide: The shattering, fragmenting, or breaking of one’s identity. Commonly used as a term meaning “mental suicide.” Usually temporary, and usually induced somewhat intentionally by drug use."

shattering, fragmenting or breaking, all words that shouldn't be here ?_?

Egocide! Personalitydeath! egocide is basically self-dissipation that applies 99% of the time to the host/original owner of the body, and I don't think if they were "fragmenting" ie splitting themselves into multiple other entities it'd be egocide, it'd be splitting themselves into multiple other entities, so I don't think those words work here

 

"Fronting: When a systemmate controls the body without switching,"

... what, you're just gonna take that word away from us? like I get there's been some ambiguity but in recent years fronting has applied to both possession and switching, there isn't even a word for present-tense switching! no one ever says "I'm switching right now", I guess you could say "I'm switched with (host)" but it's no fair possessors get their own easy word and switchers can't use it..

 

"Switching: The act of a headmate becoming the only fronter in place of another headmate."

 

ASJKFOGnhdddddddd

[Abvieon]

There are problems with many of these definitions.

 

This is not correct: "Narration: A form of forcing where you talk about your surroundings or what is currently happening." Narration is used to refer to any type of talking directed at your tulpa in a way that resembles a one sided conversation. (Once your tulpa is vocal and able to respond to you, it stops being narration and becomes a conversation, which is why I say "one sided conversation") The topic does not matter. When people narrate, they might talk about their hobbies and interests, family and friends, how their day went, etc. I have never seen anyone use "narration" to mean specifically talking about their current surroundings.

 

This is another one: "Possession: The state in which a tulpa becomes the active thinker and is thus able to control the physical body. Can refer to either partial or full control of the body." What does being the "active thinker" have to do with possession? How does being the "active thinker" make possession any easier? Why is it required for possession? What does "active thinker" even mean in the context of tulpamancy? I have a vague idea of what you mean by this but many people reading this, especially newcomers, will have no idea what "active thinker" means.

 

"Fronting: When a systemmate controls the body without switching, or simply generally remains in the vicinity of the body’s senses and the main stream of thought, and is more attentive and responsive than those who are not fronting." Similar to the "active thinker" thing, most people won't know what you mean by "main stream of thought", nor is there even necessarily such a thing as the main stream of thought for everyone. Some systems may experience multiple streams of thought that each have equal prominence, none of which are experienced as the "main" stream of thought. Also, a system member who is fronting is not necessarily more attentive and responsive than those who are not.

 

"Co-fronting: When two members of a system are both ready to speak and move, both able to present themselves as the front." Just a tiny nitpick here, but it doesn't necessarily have to be just two system members, it can be more.

 

"Head pressure: A sensation brought about by long forcing. The feeling is unique to most people. Sometimes it is compared to the sensation you get when you learn an enormity of things all at once." It doesn't really have to be long forcing. Many experience it almost immediately after starting tulpa creation.

 

"Egocide: The shattering, fragmenting, or breaking of one’s identity. Commonly used as a term meaning “mental suicide.” Usually temporary, and usually induced somewhat intentionally by drug use." Citation is needed for that last sentence. It may often be temporary, but I wouldn't say it is usually temporary. The bit about drug use is just plain confusing. People often speak about "ego death" in relation to drugs, particularly psychedelics. However, "egocide" is usually seen as a different thing. "Ego death" is a temporary state of mind in which one feels disconnected from their personality, as if they are a blank slate, nothing but an observer. "Egocide" on the other hand is usually used as a way of describing the intentional destruction of your own consciousness, making it cease to exist. This is different from ego death in that the "observer" I mentioned before (your consciousness) doesn't exist anymore. With ego death your consciousness is still there, you just lose the association you once had with your personality and other self identifying factors. The term "egocide" isn't even really used outside of tulpamancy communities and certain hypnosis communities.

 

"Parallel processing: The incredibly limited ability for multiple systemmates to think at once, usually simply by rapidly swapping between them." What makes it "incredibly limited?" Most who read this will wonder what you mean by this. Also, the phrases "ability for multiple sysyemmates to think at once" and "rapidly swapping between them" are contradictory to each other. If they are swapping, they are not thinking simultaneously, and if they are thinking simultaneously, they are not swapping.

 

Other than those things, this is fine. I really do appreciate the effort to make a comprehensive glossary of terms to help unite the community's definitions, but there are so many problems with this one that it definitely should not be used as a reference widely throughout the community until it is revised.

[Ponytail]

Anyways, a lot of what you guys have brought up has been addressed, lol.

 

Most notable change is the completely new definitions to fronting and parallel processing. Seeing as how Lucid Dreaming has nothing really added onto it for this community, I'll pass on including it. The only thing that makes it special here is the ability to hug your waifus while you sleep.

[Lucilyn]

This is not correct: "Narration: A form of forcing where you talk about your surroundings or what is currently happening."

 

yeah, Narration is just talking to your tulpa as a forcing activity, back in 2014 it usually meant reading to your tulpa even, but it's just the act of narrating anything while intending for them to be listening (and sometimes responding)

 

This is another one: "Possession: The state in which a tulpa becomes the active thinker-

 

Whoah whoah whoah! WHOAH! No! Possession is NOT when the tulpa is the active thinker, that's SWITCHING! Possession is "remotely" controlling the body (or parts of it), where the heck did this definition come from ???? some people get so good at possession, or their system simply experiences it differently, where they have a much bigger part in the body's thoughts, but if at any point they've become the main person thinking that's like the definition of switching, at that point if the host is "sticking around, inactive but still in the front" or some weirdness like that, you're co-fronting I guess, but that still leans towards switching, possession never referred to thoughts in any way shape or form (except to exclude a change in who's thinking from its definition)

 

like the definition of switching is debated sometimes but this is way past what's debatable..

 

"Parallel processing: The incredibly limited ability for multiple systemmates to think at once, usually simply by rapidly swapping between them."

 

nope, you're confusing the theorized myth&explanation of parallel processing with what its actual definition is, if parallel processing doesn't exist then we are not calling multitasking parallel processing, we're just dropping the term - but for now, parallel processing still means processing two (or more...) streams of thought simultaneously, which is anything from host and tulpa paying attention to different things to tulpa doing their own thing in the wonderland while the host does IRL stuff (as opposed to the previous one being like, the "Tulpa counts red balls and host counts blue balls" test on deviantart)

 

anyways, you should replace "incredibly limited" with "purported" or "supposed"(an easier word to understand), because it's less that we've proven it's "kind of a thing" and more that we've observed it not being a thing in most people but some claim to still be able to do it, so yeah, it's a supposed ability

 

also make sure people know it's not the same thing as independence (is that on the list idk it's way late and I need to go to bed) so they don't try the probably impossible task of doing it to prove sentience tbh

 

 

 

 

 

also I officially felt bad about "ganging up" on your guys' submission roughly as I read Abvieon's post, don't take it personally pls this sort of thing just can't be done without community involvement no matter how hard only a few people work on it

[GrayTheCat]

Anyways, a lot of what you guys have brought up has been addressed, lol.

 

Most notable change is the completely new definitions to fronting and parallel processing. Seeing as how Lucid Dreaming has nothing really added onto it for this community, I'll pass on including it. The only thing that makes it special here is the ability to hug your waifus while you sleep.

 

Lucid Dreaming is not required for performing Tulpamancy, but Lucid Dreaming still has a strong connection to Tulpamancy and shouldn't be rejected from a general glossary. Some Hosts see Lucid Dreaming as an alternative to imposition, some Tulpae are born in Lucid Dreams, and there are enough Tulpamancers that have heard of it that it isn't hard to find conversation of it ongoing. A glossary assumes the reader may not know what the term is and that the reader may not have the best definition for said terminology, and people looking to practice Tulpamancy may have never heard of Lucid Dreaming beforehand.

 

The definition for head pressures has not changed yet

 

It's hard to keep track of every single comment, and it's almost 8 am for me, so I understand that it was easy to overlook.

 

Eclipsing: When the thoughts of one system mate, intentionally or otherwise, affect the thoughts/actions of another

 

I noticed the definition changed, but as someone who doesn't understand how Eclipsing works, this still feels like a synonym for parroting/puppeting.

 

I looked up eclipsing and found this reddit page talking about it:

 

On that note, it might be a good idea to consider co-fronting as an umbrella term and add eclipsing, possession, and blending.

 

The term Daemon is still missing

 

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Aside from that, it looks like the other changes were for the better, but I'm not the best when it comes to catching things.

 

At this point my immediate knowledge on Tulpamancy vocabulary isn't going to cut it for giving you guys the best feedback. Good luck with getting this thing patched up. After getting all of the revisions it needs, it can become a really valuable go-to resource.

[Apollo Fire]

Possession isn't a remote thing. Possession is a tulpa taking control of the body (by becoming the active thinker) while the host is still fronting. If the host is not fronting, then it is switching.

 

I don't see daemon used often enough to warrant being added to the glossary, and I'm pretty sure it's a meta term, though I may be mistaken.

 

I fixed the eclipsing definition, since it isn't an intentional thing.

 

(I only skimmed the thread so far, I'll read through it more thoroughly later.)

[Breloomancer]

Why would something being meta exclude it from the list?