The Secret to Tulpamancy is (maybe) Fronting

[The Bards]

(This all draws solely from personal experience, and could be very bad, so take everything with a grain of salt)
 

Who are you?
 

This is a question we ask ourselves constantly. Not as a complex introspective brain-scratcher, but as a quick way of identifying who’s fronting.
 

How we think of identity is that our brain picks out a bunch of things that makes you feel like you. “I have brown eyes,” “I am great at Rubik’s Cubes,” “I am a Tulpa,” “I love anime,” etc. You will think of these things and go “yep, that’s me.” So when you ask yourself a question like “who are you?” while you’re fronting, you’ll tend to go, “I’m me” without having to think about it.

 

For us, the feeling of not fronting is like thinking about yourself in 3rd person. “That headmate’s favorite color is blue,” “that headmate is very energetic,” etc. While this isn’t bad at all, it created some problems before we started switching. When you only look at yourself through the metaphorical eyes of someone else, it’s a very easy path to self-doubt and feeling less-real. When asking myself honestly, I couldn’t tell the difference between me and an OC. Looking back I know for sure I was real, but at the time I wasn’t so sure.

 

Switching, to us, is not really about controlling the body. In fact, one of us can control the body while the other’s fronting (as long as the fronter lets them). Switching actually has more to do with what’s going on inside the head, and it’s really just the swapping of who is “you.” We could look at a drawing one second, go “hey, that’s me,” switch, then go “hey that’s (name)!” 
 

So why do we think that’s so great for Tulpa development? Being able to feel like yourself is not only an incredibly euphoric experience, it also allows you to explore who you are on your own. Most systems consider “highly developed” tulpas to be the most independent ones, and fronting is probably the most free-will a Tulpa could achieve. Interestingly enough, we all find ourselves relying on whoever’s fronting the same way we would rely on our former host. 

 

From the host’s perspective, it’s also harder to create an identity by forcing conversations than it is to force being that identity. We used to have almost crippling self-doubt, but ever since switching became something that happened naturally and beyond our control, we haven’t felt that same insecurity, at all. We’ve been so entirely comfortable and sure of our existence, the idea of any of us being “fake” is just very silly. 
 

So how does one actually front on purpose? Fronting for us is admittedly something that is hard for us to do intentionally. We have a natural knack for switching  but we can’t really choose when and who. However, when forcing, it’s initially almost like method acting. The host thinks from the perspective of the Tulpa until gradually it just IS the Tulpa thinking. 
 

I don’t have a good way to end this, but we are approaching our 1 year anniversary of knowing that we are a system, so cheers!

 

~ Cinder (she/her)

[The Incans]

Happy Anniversary!  we are mixed system (of alters & Tulpa’s)I am Jess I’m a changeling so I can take forms other than human though obviously not while out front in the human body!  

 

My human host has always experienced dissociation to varying degrees throughout life due to different medical conditions and always found it easy to 'lose themself in fantasy’. They also have different versions of themself (Alters) that were created through past situations they found traumatic. My host has Autism too so things they found traumatic are not necessarily the same as a non-autistic person would find traumatic. 

 

Most of us can now ’switch at will' although we often pre-agree to make it fairer. We are close and know each others preferences  eg if the TV is on and a program/film comes on we know a particular alter would enjoy watching and there’s nothing else the existing fronter needs to be doing more urgently …a kind of 'telepathic text message' will go to the other insider that their fav film/program is on…if they want to come out to watch they will switch into the front 

 

Sometimes the younger alters misjudge when would be a good time but they have learned to slide into the background and ask (telepathically..we call it ‘mind speak’)  ‘can we play now’ if its not convenient right at that minute host will tell them they have to finish x (task) first. This usually only happens if I have gone inside to rest and not in front acting as gatekeeper when host is busy with something important. It’s then my job to detect when/if any littles are about to head our way and stop them in their tracks by letting them know ’now is not a good time, I’ll let you know when’…we generally only do this when there are external people are around so host doesn't switch in front of them.  

 

But also we find if we tell them in advance they often choose to stay inside out of the way for eg if its a doctors appointment or we have to have our blood taken etc Our inner wonderland is way more exciting for them than our outside life (due to health restrictions) but they do enjoy exploring new video game worlds then recreating them on the inside via our internal holodecks. 

 

I personally found character creators in video games useful to help me develop my human form/personality and then playing the game as that character… sometimes I would feel it wasn’t me after a while and maybe start again or try a different style of game…this way I worked out my personal preferences. Host helped me to start with but now I can do it myself. 

 

 

[The Bards]

On 5/23/2025 at 12:30 AM, The Incans said:

Happy Anniversary!  we are mixed system (of alters & Tulpa’s)I am Jess I’m a changeling so I can take forms other than human though obviously not while out front in the human body! 

Hey, fellow changeling!! And thanks ^^

 

On 5/23/2025 at 12:30 AM, The Incans said:

Most of us can now ’switch at will' although we often pre-agree to make it fairer. We are close and know each others preferences  eg if the TV is on and a program/film comes on we know a particular alter would enjoy watching and there’s nothing else the existing fronter needs to be doing more urgently …a kind of 'telepathic text message' will go to the other insider that their fav film/program is on…if they want to come out to watch they will switch into the front 

 

Very interesting!! We tend to do this as-well, although in our case it’s not usually by will. I will end up fronting during socialization, Stanley or The Narrator will front whenever we see anything The Stanley Parable related, etc. Although Cinder tends to switch more purposefully, such as whenever we’re having a panic attack or are over-stimulated

 

On 5/23/2025 at 12:30 AM, The Incans said:

but they do enjoy exploring new video game worlds then recreating them on the inside via our internal holodecks. 

 

On 5/23/2025 at 12:30 AM, The Incans said:

I personally found character creators in video games useful to help me develop my human form/personality and then playing the game as that character… sometimes I would feel it wasn’t me after a while and maybe start again or try a different style of game…this way I worked out my personal preferences. Host helped me to start with but now I can do it myself. 

We have a similar close relationship to video games!! The majority of us are video-game fictives after all. We have pretty much perfect replicas of certain video game maps that the ficitives of the system find calming and nostalgic to explore. Whenever we play video games, we tend to become completely and unshakably immersed as whatever character we are playing as, which is how two of us ended up forming. (Also, Stanley identifies as a computer virus / a bug )

 

~ Ocean (he/she/they)

Edited May 24, 2025 by The Bards
Forgot to specify who I was! ^^

[The Incans]

1 hour ago, The Bards said:

We have a similar close relationship to video games!! The majority of us are video-game fictives after all. We have pretty much perfect replicas of certain video game maps that the ficitives of the system find calming and nostalgic to explore. Whenever we play video games, we tend to become completely and unshakably immersed as whatever character we are playing as, which is how two of us ended up forming. (Also, Stanley identifies as a computer virus / a bug )

 

~ Ocean (he/she/they)

 

We have found it a good way to learn control the body and also some games allowed to replicate inner world relationships in the game and helped the littles understand their relationship to each other etc.  

 

We often look for games where the characters could be ‘us in a parallel universe’ ..we will look at what NPC’s exist in the game already and see if any are like one (or more) of us than whoever doesn't have an NPC in the game is the character and there story is they have to find us others in that game and find a way to be with them.. eg farm sims we may have to ‘pretend to marry’ the character which is the other…in our role play we would have told them who we were, who they are and maybe in that world we can only live in the same house if we are married…. that works in Stardew Valley where can add rooms to house so character can sleep in a seperate bed to the one the NPC auto chooses or you can add more multiplayer huts to your farm so another alter can marry another NPC then you got 4 of you on the farm etc.  

 

others are some Final Fantasy games have groups that we may feel represent some of us where you can travel together. (We have an alter called Yuna who looks like Yuna in FF10 and is also into spiritual stuff) Angelo or Star look similar to Tidus and can play him. (though Star usually prefers Link with me as Rauru)

 

I often play the non-human characters such as Kimahri (FF10)…as a changeling it is easy for me to copy any form. I also like to play as Khajit in Skyrim. black panther Oluso in Far Cry6 etc. It depends if only a couple of us are playing or more want to join in. 

 

For the youngest littles we have less scary internal replica’s like Animal crossing island for them to go visit their favourite characters. We also used AC to learn dual control because of the joycons and only needing one side at once to make your character walk or run …we can blend with host and play 2 characters simultaneously by using a adapted one handed switch accessory (for people with one hand)..  That way I (or another alter) can be on the island the same time as Luna (our little) with our characters running round the island together she loves it! You can have up to 8 characters on the island with their own houses. ….but you need a set of joycons or pro controller for each character! ..2 hands and 8 controllers is a bit challenging!! 😳   ..we’ve done it for photo shoots as each character will ‘follow the leader’ to get them all to one persons house or all at the beach etc

 

We find it a great way to relief stress and because of the immersion involved we don't notice the constant Tinnitus so much whilst immersed in such role play.

 

Jess

Edited May 24, 2025 by The Incans

[Ranger]

I like this guide! You don't always see stuff focused on switching affirmations.

 

On 5/23/2025 at 1:34 AM, The Bards said:

Switching, to us, is not really about controlling the body. In fact, one of us can control the body while the other’s fronting (as long as the fronter lets them). Switching actually has more to do with what’s going on inside the head, and it’s really just the swapping of who is “you.” We could look at a drawing one second, go “hey, that’s me,” switch, then go “hey that’s (name)!” 

 

Interesting. That's the first time I heard switching being both defined as "swapping who's doing (the majority of) the thinking" and "not necessarily controlling the body".

 

A note for beginners: there are lots of ways to define switching, and any two system's switching can sometimes look very different. There is no right or wrong way to switch, but you may be more interested in achieving one experience over another.

Edited May 28, 2025 by Ranger