Tulpamancy learned as a system vs as an individual

[Jared The Fabulous]

[Red Gray] Skills in tulpamancy are generally thought of as the host or in some cases the tulpa learning a skill. I wonder if tulpamancy skills are actually being learned on an individual level or not.

 

I believe there are two types of separation learned during tulpa creation- the kind where the brain can identify you versus your tulpa and your tulpa being separate from you. I noticed Gray struggling with parrotnoia with Ranger, but with me and the others, less so. While several of the others are older than Ranger including myself, I do not believe my age gave me a large advantage separation wise and the same can be argued for some of the others. I recall Gray not questioning me as much, even after I became "part of the system". I then realized a similar pattern for the others. The only times Gray doubts us are when our sense of self is unstable and/or he is struggling with doubt in general. This lead me to conclude the first type of separation is not actually specific to a tulpa but a skill the "host", or really "the system", learns during the creation process. Given that, perhaps not everything learned in tulpamancy is solely learned by the host or tulpa.

 

We used to believe possession is a shared system skill, but it may be more complicated than that. When Ranger learned possession, the rest of us picked it up almost naturally. I never struggled to possess. When Ranger started switching in more frequently, that challenged our belief. Initially, Blue noticed Ranger had a hard time giving him space, and others have picked up Ranger being more anxious about letting go and observing us. Perhaps possession was a host-based skill rather than a tulpa-based skill. However, after observing Gray struggle to possess, I wonder if its actually both a "host-based" skill and a "tulpa-based" skill, in the sense the possessed needs to learn how to be possessed and the possessor needs to be comfortable possessing. Perhaps the rest of us picked up possession with ease because Gray was already used to being possessed, and by the time Ranger was switching in more frequently, we had enough confidence in our ability to possess we worked with Ranger's fronting anxiety.

 

I also think this can sometimes apply to other skills like visualization. Visualization ability seems like a shared one- we all share the same wonderland feed or camera, the visualization doesn't change when the headmates in the front changes, and visualization seems to improve if the switched-in fronter is focused and immersed, regardless who that fronter is. On an interesting note, it seems all of us can equally influence the visualization on an unconscious level, even if we are inactive. If one of us is distressed, even if not around, the wonderland reveals symbolism indicating there is an unresolved problem. My headmate the "Subconscious Representative" seems to change what symbolism he helps illustrate based on who is most active in the mind, regardless of anything involving the front. I can have an insightful experience with him while Gray is passively observing. The symbolism of distance and any consequential fuzziness changes based on who interacts with who, but this seems to be a trait everyone in this system has and not a specific skill or an area of strength or weakness for any individual. I don't consider comfort levels a "skill" for the sake of this argument.

 

Curiously, switching seems to be an individual skill for our system. Ranger more or less had to start from scratch and learn how to stay switched-in for longer periods of time as well as work with the body's auto pilot. It's possible our assessment will change if others start switching, but as of now we only know what Ranger's experience was like. On that note, it's possible his experience was unique given his fronting anxiety. I believe we heard some systems did not struggle to learn how to switch on an individual level.

 

I'm curious what your thoughts are.

Edited January 25, 2024 by Ryan Shadow

[Luminesce]

Most things are both, leaning towards system-wide. Lucilyn's creation was as easy as it was because my brain was already very familiar with how a tulpa exists in it. Switching with Lucilyn (although I don't remember the specific first instance of that) was also a no-brainer, albeit a wholly new experience for her herself - the process to do it was the same, and she didn't experience the tiredness we used to when learning switching as far as I remember. But it's not like it was a natural experience for her, it was entirely new (and probably very exciting lol)

 

But yeah, all of these experiences on the tulpas' ends are pretty different. A tulpa may just fall into pre-existing skills the brain already knows, meaning it won't require effort on their part to accomplish certain things, but the experiences are still going to be totally new for them, and in some cases, the tulpa will be a clean slate to interact with requiring more experience (/forcing) before the interaction actually becomes effortless. For example, the concept of possession will always be easy to try and get back to, because everyone in a system already knows how it's done. However, actually getting back to it may be hard, if the brain is relying on neural connections tied to your other tulpa(s), and new ones might have to be made for your new tulpa. It's not like your system is learning how to do possession again - though you might choose to call it your new tulpa learning possession - it's just satisfying the existing prerequisites that experience had for your system. If that makes sense?

 

Basically, I don't think any new system member will ever have to reinvent the wheel of an experience the system is already familiar with (and, not very out of practice with), but depending on the skill (and likely how exactly things work for your system specifically) you may well need to develop those neural connections for them again, to apply to that existing knowledge.

 

Like... let's see... First example that comes to mind: Starting tulpamancy/making your first tulpa is like putting a whole computer together and then installing Windows and having to set everything up/maybe even learn to use a computer. But making another tulpa is like then dual-booting (not complicated as it sounds at all, literally just a choice of either OS on startup) and having to install Linux, and set up the programs and environment on that too. Minus the part where Linux is more complicated to use anyway. That process still takes a little time and effort, but it's going to be nothing compared to the first time where you both had to build the entire dang computer it runs on, and also learn along with Windows/your first tulpa how exactly computers/tulpamancy work in the first place. The second OS you install will be significantly easier overall with your existing knowledge. (... again, ignoring the actual details of how easy/hard windows and linux or any other OS are to use)

Edited June 14, 2021 by Luminesce