Tulpa of my future self?

[MadMax]

I am struggling with substance abuse and seeking AA-like treatment.

 

I've been seeking a philosophy to replace the higher power in my life that had been a void left since I lost faith in organized religion. I have been thinking along the lines of Humanism: the focus on the positive people can make in the world; and Longtermism: a focus in the long term future survival of and improved quality of life for the future generations.

 

But I have been getting the feeling of something much closer. Having a philosophical discussion with an AI about what I was feeling, it suggested I look into Future-Self Continuity Theory (being able to see where your at and imagine yourself how you wish to be in the future) and Temporal Self-Distancing (putting yourself in your future self's mind to reflect on your current situation). Basically my future self would be my higher power in this situation. 

 

Now I'm worried that my propensity of making accidental tulpas (7 in 2 years) would seep into this philosophical mindset, and I would essentially make an accidental tulpa of my future-self. If I already know it's probably going to happen. Maybe I should focus on intentionally creating this one?

 

Just the thought of it has me already feeling intrusive thoughts from such an entity, so maybe it's already too late, and they are already forming.

[2serpents]

Do you think it's dangerous?

 

On the surface, it doesn't sound like an alarming idea, rather like the concept of "higher self" that you can find among New Age circles. Alternately, guardian angel, or daemon, or whatever term you prefer. 

[MadMax]

12 minutes ago, 2serpents said:

Do you think it's dangerous?

 

On the surface, it doesn't sound like an alarming idea, rather like the concept of "higher self" that you can find among New Age circles. Alternately, guardian angel, or daemon, or whatever term you prefer. 

 

Wouldn't it be more akin to normal self-talk where the "other" your conversing with I'd a future representation of yourself rather than the "you" of here and now?

[2serpents]

If I were communicating with personal representation of a "higher power,"  I would consider it different from normal self-talk. But it depends on your belief and intention.

 

Some people think dreams are prophetic and can contain messages of outside powers. It's also very common to interpret dreams as completely contained within yourself - every person, every place, every thing you interact with in your dream is simply another version of you. Using similar logic, you could interpret any tulpa as yourself in a different guise.

 

I don't see an issue with either interpretation in context of the twelve steps (note: outsider perspective, only family and friends in programs and not myself). It's a very interesting idea.

[Luminesce]

I would avoid purposely thinking of your envisioned-future-self as a tulpa, because that will eventually lock them out of the creative change that that exercise normally specializes in. It's seriously a good mental exercise, allowing you to determine realistic goals for yourself through imagining what they would actually look like for you - but if you tulpa-fy that hypothetical, it'll eventually become equivalent to say a Jesus or Buddha tulpa where it might seem great but is really just limited to what your brain can superficially come up with, and there usually won't be as deep of thought behind its advice as it may appear.

 

Plus, of course, the goal is to become your future self eventually. There's no sense in imagining something unrealistic that you can't see yourself attaining with this exercise, since the whole point is to create realistic personal goals.

 

I wouldn't worry about accidentally tulpa-fying them, but this should be an occasional/intermittent exercise, and you're not really supposed to talk to your future self I don't think. Maybe that can work, but if you have trouble with making accidental tulpas, I wouldn't, stick to thinking of it as yourself in the future. (And while you can try different timescales, from "How would it look if I solved this three months from now" to "What would it look like to have done training and achieved a career I want in five years", it's also usually best not to look too far into the future because of how simply unpredictable and so unrealistic such things are, but if it's more for hope/motivation than actual planning it should be fine to do occasionally)

 

 

For philosophy, I actually just mentioned the basis of some of my core (humanitarian) values the other day - 

"Feeling good feels good", and immediately following, "If I can make other people feel good without making myself feel bad, then I should"

 

I think the natural way of things for cooperative species is to help yourself first and foremost, and once you are safely sustained, to dedicate any extra resources (physical or mental) to helping others. "From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs" and all.

 

And this is more tangential, but I sometimes like to think of anyone who shares my feelings of selflessly wanting to better humanity across the world as a web of allies. We don't know each other, but the same way I can know there are people out there doing their best to make the world a better place, those same people can know that I am doing the same.

Edited December 11, 2023 by Luminesce

[Guest]

You could always give one of your existing headmates "the power to speak for your future self" as if they could know your future and guide you that way. It's similar and doesn't involve a future self tulpa.

 

SheShe kind of does this for us, she holds the power of intuition which is like a higher self property. It's just a matter of someone putting themselves in that mindset and let the subconscious mind do the extrapolation naturally. The same information can be gathered in this way. It's the subconscious mind's guess in a way.

[TurboSimmie]

I don't know about the idea of creating a tulpa to represent your future self, but I think it's not a bad idea to create or force a tulpa with traits that you aspire to have! Anything good you put into a tulpa will be given back to you as the tulpa grows and develops, so having a tulpa that embodies the kind of person you would like to be, that tulpa could be something of a guide or moral compass for you. Although I am in no way somebody who my host actually wants to be, I do have some traits that he wants to have in himself as well and I try to help guide him in the right direction.

[Luminesce]

I would just keep the "imagine your future self" exercise entirely separate from tulpamancy. It's completely fine (a good thing, even) to have a tulpa with positive traits as a companion or even role model to aid in your personal development, but they should be living along with you, not with any sense of "already having all the answers". Because again, your brain will make up superficial stuff to seem like such-a-tulpa does, but in the end they really can't.

[SeekingMyPlanet]

17 hours ago, Luminesce said:

I would just keep the "imagine your future self" exercise entirely separate from tulpamancy. It's completely fine (a good thing, even) to have a tulpa with positive traits as a companion or even role model to aid in your personal development, but they should be living along with you, not with any sense of "already having all the answers". Because again, your brain will make up superficial stuff to seem like such-a-tulpa does, but in the end they really can't.

I will +1 this. My tulpa is wise in ways that I'm not, and can point out things about my behavior and motivation that I don't notice. But she tells me the expectation that she do that puts pressure on her and we both agree that that's not fair to her.

 

I was in a 12-step program and am enough of an atheist/agnostic, that praying to an omnicient god wasn't going to work for me. I developed the habit of praying to my inner strength, with the caveat that I could only ask it for things I could find inside me, such as strength, wisdom, and acceptance. It worked really well.