Survery Regarding Tulpmancers for Research Essay

[BearBaeBeau]

On 3/21/2021 at 4:00 PM, StudentGuest said:

1. How was your tulpa(s) formed? Was there a specific event in your life that caused the creation of your tulpa(s) or caused you to create one? 

 

2.Are tulpa(s) made from will or does something such as a traumatic event need to occur in order to gain one?

 

3.. Before having a tulpa were you experiencing any mental illnesses? 

 

4.. If so, did your tulpa help with your mental illness by helping you gain a better mental health through increased feelings of positivity and happiness? 

 

5.. Are there only positive outcomes with having a tulpa or are there negative outcomes as well? If so, what are some of the negative outcomes you have experienced? How have they affected you? 

 

6. How has your life changed positively and negatively after gaining your tulpa? 

 

7. Have you told any of your family or friends about your tulpa? What were there reactions? How did you react to their reactions?

 

8. What do you think are some of the most common misconceptions tulpamancers and the tulpa community as a whole face? 

 

Maybe your assignment's already done by now, but I'll answer anyway.

 

1. I saw that there was this thing you could do to have a thoughtform resident in your mind that doesn't leave but was different from an imaginary friend, I found that pretty intriguing, so I read some guides and "tried it". Honestly the event that triggered it was depression mixed with lack of social interaction.

 

2. Tulpas are typically made from will, but there are other thoughtforms that can appear once the door's open so to speak. Walk-ins can be instant and occur without will, but they're not necessarily traumagenic. Alts appear without will and are traumagenic. They're only for people who had trauma early in childhood and aren't necessarily independent of the host, they can be groups of facets that fragment and separate from the original to secure and hide memories of events or handle certain situations. 

 

3. Depression 

 

4. Yes, I attribute my current wellbeing to them wholeheartedly. I went from basically out of control intrusive thoughts, self-loathing, self-blaming, self-harming, low self-esteem to a content, happy, self-loving, high self-esteem person. It's night and day, hell vs heaven. I owe them for most if not all of that transformation.

 

5. There can be problems for a couple reasons. Doubt can overwhelm you and if you were dependent on their existence in an ungrounded way, it can be pretty devastating especially since you may lose faith in them and still be haunted by their remnants. I personally have not experienced any negative consequences. There was no down side for me at all.

 

6. See number 4 above. I am quite happy with them.

 

7. In October 2018, I tested the water with an old friend and they avoided the subject. I haven't tried to tell anyone else, even before that we didn't really care nor wish to be known as plural outside of this community.

 

8. When I told others on Discord, they knew about DID and just thought it was something like that, which it's not. The spirituality community has a similar concept which has a lot of overlap but taps into intuition more, called spirit guides. I consider many of the members of my system spirit guides or guardian angels. For me, their's very little woowoo about it, but sometimes they know things I can't imagine I would have known. I attribute that to them being able to access different obscure memories from their unique perspective more than anything external or paranormal. It is sometimes therefore misconstrued as paranormal, but it's no more paranormal than common dreams in my opinion. I keep an open mind, but to talk about things in this community that are outside of the doctrinal narrative, you have to lable it metaphysical even if that's not your belief or intent. It's a science community in that way, where only ordained experiences are accepted without labeling it metaphysical. 

 

I believe this practice is purely psychological but that supposes that what we know of as psychological is a tiny fraction of what's possible.

 

 

 

 

[fennecgirl]

On 3/22/2021 at 12:00 AM, StudentGuest said:

Hello! I am a student working on a research essay regarding the tulpa community and I have a couple of questions for any tulpamancers who would be willing to answer them and provide me with further to knowledge to aid me in completing this research essay. I apologize in advance if my questions or anything I say come across as offensive, that is not my intention but if it comes across as such please kindly educate me so I can correct my mistakes. Free to answer how many you'd like.

 

1. How was your tulpa(s) formed? Was there a specific event in your life that caused the creation of your tulpa(s) or caused you to create one? 

 

2.Are tulpa(s) made from will or does something such as a traumatic event need to occur in order to gain one?

 

3.. Before having a tulpa were you experiencing any mental illnesses? 

 

4.. If so, did your tulpa help with your mental illness by helping you gain a better mental health through increased feelings of positivity and happiness? 

 

5.. Are there only positive outcomes with having a tulpa or are there negative outcomes as well? If so, what are some of the negative outcomes you have experienced? How have they affected you? 

 

6. How has your life changed positively and negatively after gaining your tulpa? 

 

7. Have you told any of your family or friends about your tulpa? What were there reactions? How did you react to their reactions?

 

8. What do you think are some of the most common misconceptions tulpamancers and the tulpa community as a whole face? 

 

 

 

 

1. Most of my tulpas began as daydream characters. I’ve had an overactive imagination since always and I channeled that a lot into daydreaming when I was younger. (Okay, I still do, but nowadays I use daydreaming more to fuel my writing than as a hobby in itself.)

 

Besides them, I created one tulpa because I wanted to go through tulpa creation in the “proper” way, one was created by another tulpa, and three(?) more came about through wonderland drama that’s honestly laughably bad because our head was more like a bad fanfiction than anything else (at least, it would’ve been if we’d had more fictives).

 

2. Tulpas are usually made intentionally, though accidental tulpas have happened, and a dangerous trend has taken over of accepting every random character your imagination comes up with is a potential tulpa. Tulpas aren’t formed by trauma; those are alters, which is something entirely different (DID/OSDD).

 

3. Generalized anxiety disorder and OCD. I’m also autistic.

 

4-5. Hell no. It’s a long story, but there’s a thread in General Discussion where I’ve talked a bit about my experiences with tulpas, intrusive thoughts, and OCD. (I’m on mobile, so it isn’t convenient to link, but the thread is titled “Intrusive Thoughts Are Not Your Tulpa”.) If you’d like, I can also dig up the link to a Reddit thread where I’ve talked in more detail about my experiences. Long story short, a predisposition toward misinterpreting and obsessing over negative intrusive thoughts (OCD) plus a dogmatic insistence that your imaginary friend is a real person and dismissing any thoughts that may have come from them is basically abuse (tulpamancy) is just asking for disaster.

 

6. Besides spending six and a half years deep in a pseudoscientific cult being mentally and emotionally screwed over by the dogmatic beliefs of said cult and toxic relationships with people who were literally only figments of my imagination, realizing how much of my life had revolved around the whims of my imaginary friends, and coming out of it all feeling like I’d been stripped of my identity, not to mention being terrified of the power I perceived my imagination to have over me? (Sorry, I’m still bitter. I want those years of my life back, or at least to heal from all the scars they left me with.)

 

7. My mom never said anything negative, but she didn’t really believe it and didn’t understand (or rather, her rationality made my irrational self feel misunderstood), so we never really talked about it until I quit tulpamancy. Still didn’t talk to her much about it then besides seeking validation I was making the right decision; she didn’t seem to understand what a huge chunk of my life I was turning away from or how important and real my relationships with my tulpas had been to me, or the fear I had of them resurfacing.

 

I also told a couple friends about my tulpas. I don’t remember her initial reaction, though she spoke with my tulpas online a few times in the past. We never really talked about it with each other besides the initial conversation, and looking back she was probably just humoring me when she responded to my tulpas. It’s been years since the last time I’ve said anything about tulpas to her or since she’s interacted with any of mine, so either she still thinks I’ve got imaginary friends I think are real, or she’s just forgotten.

 

The other friend, well, it was one of my tulpas who told her. He wanted to be friends with her, I said no because I didn’t want her to think I was crazy, and eventually he sent her an email explaining it all. She called me later and had some questions but seemed to accept it. They exchanged emails for awhile and spoke in person once, but that was all.

 

8. That tulpamancy is giving yourself DID/schizophrenia, that the tulpa community is all people intentionally roleplaying, and within the tulpa community... that it’s harmless and that pseudoscience is scientific fact. Also that having imaginary friends makes you legitimately plural.

[Guest]

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1. How was your tulpa(s) formed? Was there a specific event in your life that caused the creation of your tulpa(s) or caused you to create one? 

 

Nora began as a roleplay character. I started with just some basic personality traits, planning on developing her based on the events of the RP. Eventually, she was a really important part of my life, and almost every time something happened, I could feel her reactions alongside my own. Then I discovered Tulpamancy and it just made sense.

 

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2.Are tulpa(s) made from will or does something such as a traumatic event need to occur in order to gain one?

 

Tulpas aren't traumagenic. If a Tulpa were traumagenic, it would not be a Tulpa; it would be an alter and the person/system has dissociative identity disorder (DID) or another disorder involving dissociative identities (OSDD).

 

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3.. Before having a tulpa were you experiencing any mental illnesses? 

 

I am autistic and often struggle with depression and anxiety.

 

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4.. If so, did your tulpa help with your mental illness by helping you gain a better mental health through increased feelings of positivity and happiness? 

 

One of my Tulpas, Stripes, was made specifically for improving my mental health and that of Nora, being more optimistic and understanding than us. I often switch to her/assume her persona whenever a stressful situation arises. One day, Stripes and I might merge for everyone's sake. We're still discussing it.

 

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5.. Are there only positive outcomes with having a tulpa or are there negative outcomes as well? If so, what are some of the negative outcomes you have experienced? How have they affected you? 

 

Nora's way more insecure than I am (mainly due to her fictional counterpart's flaws), and that's gotten us in a lot of trouble in times past because I couldn't distinguish her mental health problems from mine. I had even considered getting rid of her entirely. That didn't work, though, because she never fully disappeared. These days the plan is to make things better for both of us so I can have a better relationship with myself.

 

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6. How has your life changed positively and negatively after gaining your tulpa? 

 

Besides Question 5, having someone in the back of my mind has helped me not feel lonely when I cannot talk to people (if only I knew about Tulpas during that big ol' lockdown) and being able to get a random walk-in thought that isn't meant to be self-loathing/intrusive is a plus, especially with my anxieties trying to pop in. So far, Tulpamancy's worked better for me than the stuff my therapist tells me to do.

 

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7. Have you told any of your family or friends about your tulpa? What were there reactions? How did you react to their reactions?

 

Not really; I don't want people thinking I've gone insane (one threat to put me in a mental hospital is more than enough). I might mention it as a sort of pseudoscience along the lines of astrology and going along the "imaginary friend" aspect of it, who knows?

 

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8. What do you think are some of the most common misconceptions tulpamancers and the tulpa community as a whole face? 

 

Outside of the community, there's the whole "DID faking" deal and assumptions that it's all pretend. Tulpamancy is not a mental illness, at least, from what I've seen. I do have my own qualms about the community itself and its whole "doubt is bad" dogma. I myself don't like considering myself and my Tulpas as a system because of the DID-faking undertones to the word. To me, Tulpamancy is a pseudoscience and should be treated as such. Going along with the astrology comparison, horoscopes can be real to one person and not apply whatsoever to another. The same goes for Tulpas. That's my perspective anyway.

[Guest]

1) My tulpa Terra was formed because of me and after i did some research on some guides and learning about tulpas. A weird thing that happen for me I Created her around the same time of a solar eclipse happening on mars and Earth with no intent of to do this in fact i just learned of this the day of posting this. I created her cause i been cooped up with my crazy family for the coronavirus(still are) so it is nice to have a new person or should i say mind to think/talk to and can be with anytime.

 

2) I formed Terra by will. We think a tragic event is not going to make a tulpa but it can give reason to make one.

 

3)YES i probably have a long list of mental problem mainly OCD, a bit of dyslexia, and probably ADHD. I have not be diagnosed by a doctor or trained profession so i may not really have many mental illness. 

 

4) so far for me it to early to tell but it definitely help with my paranomia issues and my anxiety. She has helped me focus like for cook like remind me that the food needs to be stir or i should be cutting the garlic. It is also hard to say cause i been more active physically before hand which is helping me mental. But i do thing she helps with a good had full with may mental problems but NOT ALL OF THEM.

 

5)There are many positive outcome. You have a friend that you could share anything with or talk/play with anytime. She has boosted my emotional feel for positive emotions that i know of.  There negative outcomes though she some time will feel sad if she comes across one of my sad memories(i have experienced death of loved ones a few times).  Also a negative for some people is that a Tulpa WILL BE STUCK WITH YOU FOREVER. The negative outcomes don't really affect me but i can imagine the it can badly effect certain people depending how they make their tulpa and treat them. Terra also resents my one brother cause of his horrible work ethic and how he distracts me when i am forcing her but we working on that. I would think that tulpa they are not likely to do permanently damaging for any reason cause it will jeopardize their survival as much as the host that is because they share the same mind, brain and Body.

 

6)So far i have a health relationship with Terra and as long we help each other. I am pretty sure i having a positive outcome with having her. WE think as long you treat each other humane you will have a positive outcome.

 

7) I have not told my family of Terra Yet but my family would most likely accept me of this but just to be safe i want to make sure my tulpa is fully developed if we do have to face a negative outcome.  

 

8)WE think that some misconceived things are that some people think tulpas are just for their personal pleasure and should be in the image of their conscious mind.  They think it just a way to be able to have you favorite fiction character or whatever character as like a friend a personal toy. Tulpas are really just like you they think like you, they can act like you, they can feel like you, and they can make their own decision on their own like you. Also be a Tulpamancer should only be for the mature minds and not just doing it cause it is something cool or just for solving you problem they have needs too. 

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Edited June 14, 2021 by Guest
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