Shifting Definitions - Removing Challenge

[Piano Soul]

To me possession is the tulpa in the driver's seat and the host in the passenger's seat, while switching is the tulpa in the driver's seat and the host in the trunk.

 

EDIT: Hmm maybe that's not entirely accurate. Fronting would be like being in the driver's seat. If you're possessing, then you're sitting on top of the host to drive. If you're switching, then they can either be in the passenger's seat (not fronting but active, through the tulpa thinking of them) or in the trunk (inactive, with all the other poor tulpas).

[Flandre]

Switching is switching seats in the vehicle. Possession is the tulpa leaning over from their side to control the vehicle, despite the host having gone nowhere. When you get really proficient at possession, you're basically sitting right on top of the host, although it absolutely does not start that way. Either way, there's a world of difference, because to us possession was just as uncomfortable (having been used to switching already) as literally sitting on our host.

 

People keep telling us "if you full body possess then that means you are switching," and we just don't believe that, it would feel really wrong to move the goalpost like that just to feel like we've accomplished something when really we haven't. That's why I feel these terms have changed in general -- people want to say they've switched without actually having their host switch out, so instead they just consider full-body possession to be switching. However, full-body possession, like overlay imposition, is basically child's play, it's so easy.

 

The definition of switching will not change to full body possession here on .info, ever, no matter how it changes "out there". We ourselves aren't really "out there", though, so we can't do much about that. You can feel free to. Also, we've conflicted a bit (your system and ours) on the definitions of switching and possession in the past, with us feeling like you were trying to change the definition of switching to be more inclusive maybe. So I thought your post was rather valiant here.

 

Imposition has no point in being something literally unobtainable for 99.9% of tulpamancers. The definition of "hallucinate" is very stretched in what we'd consider the legitimate modern definition. If we're allowed to do so, I'd like to give an authoritative explanation of what it is and isn't really quick.

 

Imposition was always about convincing yourself your ""hallucinated"", aka imagined, senses were real. Whether visual or tactile or other, it had one major separator from those who practiced open-eye visualization and those who achieved imposition. The latter believed it. While a lot of imposition is about say, the clarity of your open-eyed visualization (or other senses you're imposing), the main thing that makes it imposition is that you really feel those sensory perceptions have substance. Despite the 2012'ers going for literal hallucinations, I'd say modern (ie reasonable) imposition is more about belief. Imposition isn't seeing your tulpa standing by you, it's being convinced on a physical level (not necessarily LITERALLY believing they're there) that they are. That's why we so often talk about the most important sense to impose, the "sense of presence". Even though our visualization clarity is poor, what we do is still imposition, because it's real to us. We feel like who we're imposing is there with us. We feel like they're affected by what we do (we feel like we're affected by what we do).

 

The point of imposition is to give your tulpas the ability to be a little more physically real than they are. That was always the goal, to let them out of your head a bit, even if they're still just in your head. Open-eye visualization does not do this on its own. The difference for us is open-eye visualization, even if utilizing the actual space we see, still feels 2-dimensional, or like an illusion I guess. Imposition has a sense of presence, it just feels more real. In our case specifically, imposition is also harder to blink out of existence, compared to visualization. Even if we stopped actively visualizing who we had imposed, their sense of "being there" lingers, whereas I can end an open-eyed visualization of someone instantly.

 

 

A couple of disclaimers though. First, for imposition, remember the goal in a tulpamancy sense. We maintain the definition to maintain a respectable and satisfying result for people to accomplish. Actual hallucination (not using our stretched, casual version of the word) is honestly a little unhealthy and mostly unobtainable for the mentally healthy. Actual "physical" belief (not sure how else to put it) of your tulpa being there is not, though. If the presence imposition comes easily to someone who's good at open-eye visualization and on day one they can walk around town with their tulpas, that's absolutely fine. Our goal is to share and create fulfilling experiences, not to be elitist. We only maintain exclusive definitions for the experience's sake, for the people's sakes.

 

Second, switching. Everyone should know switching is the most subjective part of having a tulpa after the basis of having a tulpa in the first place. It's incredibly important to remember that we are not all experiencing the same things, not even close. Probably none of us. We can keep the experiences close by maintaining strict definitions, though. But the reality is, some people are going to basically achieve "switching" to their heart's content that wouldn't even come close to matching what our system does, or ours to what another's does. The goal is not to make sure everyone experiences the exact same thing, because that's impossible. The goal is to make sure those experiences match the definitions we've created well enough.

 

The Felight system however, is a good example of who those definitions just aren't working out great for. That's going to happen to some people, and it needs to be worked out and thought of on a case-by-case basis with this stuff in mind. Furthermore, people don't seem to realize that possession starts as possession and, with time, often becomes something much more in-depth. Full-body possession was originally just a term meaning possession, applied to the whole body. However, we've noticed major differences in basic "possession" and those who have practiced full-body possession for a long time, like the Felight system for example. This is just due to how dang subjective all of these experiences are - but for the sake of fitting them into definitions, I think the term "full-body possession" can be used to accommodate or at least be associated with this more advanced state.

 

Basic possession doesn't normally entail the tulpa having any impact on the body's overall thoughts and feelings - they were supposed to remain in the background. But we see more and more that advanced full-body possessors are getting more and more in-depth control over the body and brain as a whole. As much as we'd like to keep the tulpamancy definitions perfectly as-was from the start, I think it's unfair to group these obviously different experiences people are having together (with the imposing "you're not Switching" thing hanging over them the whole time).

 

But like I said, maybe we won't change the definitions per se.. Just keep in mind that advanced possession (as in, the system's act of possessing has advanced to a more encompassing level with practice) is a thing, and often comes with practicing full-body possession as opposed to the classic "hands, for typing" sort.

[Guest LanceReilyn]

With all this talk of clarification, I have a question. My writing is sloppy, lazy, and the skill underdeveloped. That being said, I have written in the past and sometimes find myself loosing focus and basic awareness. My hands and creative mind or whatever a person wants to call it, connected without me getting in the way or expending conscious effort to produce words. It was just a river or stream and I was along for the ride. I never really did it on purpose or controlled it, it either happened or it didn't and I'd have to go back over it to analyze and edit what I wrote. I just figured it was a neat phenomenon that all people do.

 

With that in mind, I noticed that it happened a couple days ago on here, but instead of 'what am I writing? Oh well, may as well let it out', it seemed that I started dictating for Reilyn as I usually do but when I let go she took over instead. Not in a 'manipulating the body way', but in a 'the flow I put down was hers instead of mine', without dictation or conscious effort/thought on my part.

 

She was pretty passionate about a topic she found upsetting and I found myself upset too. My heart was beating faster, there was a throbbing in the front of my head and my senses briefly sharpened, like adrenaline had kicked in. When it was done I felt drained and burnt out and she told me "Sorry".

 

Any idea what the heck happened? Does that fit into any of the existing definitions of experiences?

[GrayTheCat]

Second, switching. Everyone should know switching is the most subjective part of having a tulpa after the basis of having a tulpa in the first place. It's incredibly important to remember that we are not all experiencing the same things, not even close. Probably none of us. We can keep the experiences close by maintaining strict definitions, though. But the reality is, some people are going to basically achieve "switching" to their heart's content that wouldn't even come close to matching what our system does, or ours to what another's does. The goal is not to make sure everyone experiences the exact same thing, because that's impossible. The goal is to make sure those experiences match the definitions we've created well enough.

 

The Felight system however, is a good example of who those definitions just aren't working out great for. That's going to happen to some people, and it needs to be worked out and thought of on a case-by-case basis with this stuff in mind. Furthermore, people don't seem to realize that possession starts as possession and, with time, often becomes something much more in-depth. Full-body possession was originally just a term meaning possession, applied to the whole body. However, we've noticed major differences in basic "possession" and those who have practiced full-body possession for a long time, like the Felight system for example. This is just due to how dang subjective all of these experiences are - but for the sake of fitting them into definitions, I think the term "full-body possession" can be used to accommodate or at least be associated with this more advanced state.

 

Basic possession doesn't normally entail the tulpa having any impact on the body's overall thoughts and feelings - they were supposed to remain in the background. But we see more and more that advanced full-body possessors are getting more and more in-depth control over the body and brain as a whole. As much as we'd like to keep the tulpamancy definitions perfectly as-was from the start, I think it's unfair to group these obviously different experiences people are having together (with the imposing "you're not Switching" thing hanging over them the whole time).

 

But like I said, maybe we won't change the definitions per se.. Just keep in mind that advanced possession (as in, the system's act of possessing has advanced to a more encompassing level with practice) is a thing, and often comes with practicing full-body possession as opposed to the classic "hands, for typing" sort.

 

Right now I would call what the Felight system is doing "soft-switching". With Ranger figuring out how to possess and me not freaking out anymore, I thought our experience couldn't be comparable to switching because we are not used to possession yet. However, because they practiced possession for so long, I can see how dissociation is more of a natural "next step" thing instead of a required step, thus getting them really close to their goal of switching.

 

---

 

Would it be fair to call literally hallucinating "advanced imposition"? Like possession and switching, I think there's also a spectrum, and open-eyed visualization looks nothing like full-blown visual hallucinations. It might make it easier for people if they knew to what extent people expect people to be able to impose their Tulpa.

[Guest]

...

Would it be fair to call literally hallucinating "advanced imposition"? Like possession and switching, I think there's also a spectrum, and open-eyed visualization looks nothing like full-blown visual hallucinations. It might make it easier for people if they knew to what extent people expect people to be able to impose their Tulpa.

 

I I don't think I can have open-eyed visualization in the real world yet. In my head, I picture everything, scene and them in that scene, not in the real world. When I've had 'visual hallucinations' which I considered to be synonymous with visual imposition, I actually 'saw' Misha's form (a faint wavy outline) standing in front of me in real life, (ti's happened about 4 times now) filtering what was behind her to be something akin to heat waves. I can also 'see' her in my head through visualization, and that is profoundly different then when I 'see' her during hypnagogic hallucinations. So that's four different things.

 

...

Any idea what the heck happened? Does that fit into any of the existing definitions of experiences?

 

Yes, Misha and Ashley have both done this on Discord. I felt my heart beating faster the first time Misha did it. (This was on my phone and it was limited to possession of the whole hand and wrist.) We don't actively practice this nor do we care to, it just happened. What Misha said was, 'you type too slow' and what Ashley said about it was, 'you're not careful enough.' Ashley didn't like my constant mistyping on the virtual number pad. They both are more accurate and at least Misha is faster. Ashley would argue that she's faster after the number of corrections and backspaces I make.

[Breloomancer]

I feel like true imposition, with hallucinations and everything is a lot more possible than you think, of course I haven't interacted with a whole lot of people who do impose, but I do know for certain that I am able to induce auditory hallucinations at will, and I have never been diagnosed with any sort of mental illness. And it just doesn't make sense that it would be possible to impose one sense but not others.

I am absolutely certain that it is possible for the layman to achieve true imposition with enough time and effort