The Intended Sentience Spectrum: An analysis of the Tulpamancy community

[The Bards]

Saddle in because this is a long one

Tulpamancy is a very diverse experience that looks different for every system, and we say that a lot, but I feel like we as a community very often fall short on applying that knowledge. It’s kind of an afterthought that we throw out there time to time. However, I have been thinking long and hard about it, and I believe that almost every Tulpamancers falls on a spectrum that we have dubbed The Intended Sentience Spectrum. This spectrum takes the shape of a triangle, and it represents what Tulpamancers hope to achieve when developing a Tulpa, it is NOT representative of any tulpa’s actual level of sentience

 

(Sentience = The ability to feel and perceive things)

 

In one corner are tulpas who aim to create a fully independent imaginary friend, maybe one who isn’t sentient (in the same way we are) but one who can act independently. Folks who lean towards this corner tend to have their experience line up with that of The Illusion of Imaginary Independence. This is the Imaginary Corner. Also, this extremely important: imaginary ≠ not real. Additionally sentient ≠ real. This experience of tulpamancy is completely real a valid. And lastly imagination ≠ not sentient, imagination is impossible to separate from any kind of thought process, and it is a powerful tool no matter where on the spectrum you fall. Being on this side of the spectrum is not an excuse to break any of your tulpas boundaries!!

 

In another corner are Tulpamancers who aim to create fully independent and sentient Tulpas. People who lean towards this corner are more likely to stress that tulpas are people too, with the capabilities to do anything that the host can. These tend to be the people who push for tulpamancy to be seen as a valid form of plurality since it usually involves creating an identity distinct from yourself. Tulpamancers and tulpas at the end of the day aren’t different in nature. This is the Independence Corner

 

Now lastly, there are Tulpamancers who see tulpas as a part of themselves, or perhaps two parts of one person. They and their Tulpa will  share sentience. This corner is a very large spectrum within itself, and there are many ways one can apply this to oneself. I often see people approach Tulpamancy in a similar way to IFS therapy (internal family system), or the Tulpa could act as a metaphor for any aspect of yourself. This is the Connected Corner!!

 

 

Here’s a visual demonstration of what we mean!! (“Me” in this case is Ocean)

 

While this graph isn’t perfect and is very open to critique, we do believe that clear repeated acknowledgment and understanding of the various versions of tulpamancy is important.

 

We’ve seen people’s experiences with tulpamancy be invalidated time and time again because one person’s view on tulpamancy did not line up with another’s. It has happened directly to us multiple times, which made us not feel safe to share our experiences. And we are not exempt from the bias, we used to believe that Tulpamancers who considered their tulpas to be akin to imaginary friends were fundamentally wrong, which is not true at all.

 

Tulpamancers who are in the Imagination corner get told they are immoral for not aiming to create another fully sentient person. Tulpamancers within the independent corner get told that they are exaggerating the capabilities of tulpas (yeah, no, as a Tulpa and a host this is a very inaccurate assumption). Tulpamancers who are in the Connected corner are pretty much always asked ”but why wouldn’t you want to be separate from your tulpa? you would be a lot happier if you were separate from your Tulpa.” Absolutely no one wins here

 

Everyone’s experience is valid, thank you for coming to my ted talk

(Constructive Criticism is encouraged)
 

- Timekeeper

[Abvieon]

I really like this. It helps visualize the spectrum of different experiences in tulpamancy, and shows that there isn't just one ideal or end goal for a tulpa. Different people want different things out of the practice.

I've seen people in each one of these camps say that their way is the best way or the only way to do tulpamancy (For example, someone thinking their experience is how tulpamancy objectively works and telling others with different experiences that they are fooling themselves, or that they're doing it wrong.) and I am glad you acknowledge this doesn't help anyone. The tulpa community shouldn't be a warzone where people argue over "what tulpas really are" but rather all just share their personal experiences while also acknowledging nobody knows the "objective truth." I think it's best to trade ideas and learn from each other while also respecting the choices and beliefs of others.

[WondrousFairy]

I only have one nitpick with this and that's the word usage of sentience. You should be going for sapience instead which is the full cognitive ability. Insects are sentient, humans are sapient. (Hence why we're named homo sapiens) So unless you want to create something with the mental awareness of a butterfly, you probably should clarify that.

Edited July 6, 2025 by WondrousFairy

[The Incans]

I (host - Lily) have some level of dissociative disorder plus AuDHD so long before I knew of the existence of words such as Tulpa, alters etc …they was ‘others’ inside. Now many years ago we didn't have the communication our system has now. The external hosts designed to cope with getting us through external life had no communication with the inside so they couldn't tell anyone of their existence.  

 

In our most stressful period we had many ‘social mask alters’ there was no understanding of where they went when they disappeared from the front. 

 

I believe our first proper Tulpa was Kitty triggered by our mothers death way back in 1991 ..she had been very religious and told us she would be an angel and we just had to talk to her so our younger ones did constantly in our bedroom. She developed from us only talking to a photo of our mum to imagining her as she had looked ..to her developing into her own style. It wasn’t intentional we didn't have the understanding at the time but she has been witih us ever since though only the ‘secret insiders' knew that as she lived with them..in our ‘holodeck’..(our version of the wonderland)

 

Throughout life there was always ‘versions of me’ but Kitty was never a version of me… when our last dog died it nearly killed the external host at the time who had seen her as her service dog for 15 years and she tried to unalive the body to be with her…our insiders created a ‘rainbow bridge holodeck’ for that part to live in with our dogs spirit. ..she was a spirit dog for many years …for some of us,,though the littles could see her as she was or with wings…but then they knew about Phoenix as she had been their protector their entire life…they had apparently asked Phoenix to give Inca’s spirit a changeling body like she had for Kitty…and so Inca became a Tulpa. again she remained in canine form existing only inside for years. 

 

During the pandemic when we couldn’t go out no-one could see us we had 24hrs a day to dedicate to research and development without interruption for months on end and both Kitty and Inca really developed far beyond what any of us had imagined!  ..Inca especially as she started to express a desire to be experience being human first just staying in background for short periods and getting used to the feeling of life on 2 legs instead of 4! … Video games and character creation really helped her see herself in many different human forms and she eventually chose to be called ‘Jess’ as her human name. 

 

As we learned more about DID during this time also and had no more need for all the past parts that had social roles such as attending college, work etc they integrated but the littles & Phoenix wanted to stay seperate and have a family inside so Angelo and Bear were added to the family and Luna and Star created inner Tulpa bodies for themselves too.  I think they felt from medical community the goal was to get rid of all the alters and encourage fusion to one host and no longer wanted to identify as ‘alters’ 

 

We don’t imagine our Tulpa’s as being external from us (like a child having a teaparty with an invisible friend)… instead maybe due to us being dissociative and having alters too we see us as a family of souls/spirits sharing the same body. Although Angelo and Bear never come to the front the littles can still front, though they only tend to ..to do so to play video games or watch old tv shows from their childhood..as they are essentially ‘a younger version of me’.

 

To help Kitty and Jess achieve being able to front other alters would blend and co-host with them but let them do what they wanted to do during that time…eventually ones that didn’t want to remain seperate for ever... instead of fusing with me ..they just temporarily blended with me to share their memories then permenantly fused with either Kitty or Jess to give them the ability to front independantly as themself for ever. ..so I guess those two are a kind of hybrid!   - they see themselves as ’spirit walk-ins’ and we created Tulpa bodies for them so they could share the body and stay with us. 

 

We don’t know of anyone else who has used past alters (willing to fuse with) Tulpa’s to give them full sentience and alter abilities but we’ve never had therapy for dissociation (in our entire 56yrs) so never had anyone tell us it wasn’t possible either! ..not sure where that puts us on your spectrum!! 

Edited July 7, 2025 by The Incans