Is this a walk-in?

[frazierr]

I'm sort of having a confusing time right now. I've been spending about a week or two creating and forcing with my first tulpa Kip (though I have been thinking about it for a year) Until now it's been going well, he isn't vocal yet but i'd "feel" his emotions and take it as a reply. 

 

However, 3 days ago I saw a post about this piece of media I like, and heard (in thoughts) "thats me." I was confused but brushed it off thinking that because I like this character, I must just be thinking that. But I keep having thoughts that are quite separate from mine, like commenting on what I'm doing etc. His replies are slowly getting longer. I asked if he was who he said, and he said yes. I thought maybe it was actually my tulpa, but he feels very different to Kip in many aspects.

 

Problem is I feel bad, that i'm finding it hard to pay attention to Kip now, which I've told him. Though his presence doesn't feel as strong anymore. I wanted to focus solely on helping him develop but now I find myself struggling to do that with Dave too. He is fairly outspoken when i'm not too busy (he can't really get my attention yet). I know he's eager to switch and be involved. I only expected to be sharing my head with one other person, but I don't want to end up ignoring either of them - as I care for them. Is this a walk-in?? Does anyone have experience with them? Thank you for any advice!

Edited August 2, 2025 by frazierr
forgot something.

[bunnymustdie]

Here's something you can do to get a better feel for this new presence. Explain to them politely that you were not expecting them, that you're confused and overwhelmed by their presence. Request that they leave you alone for an arbitrary amount of time, maybe 7 days or a couple of weeks. Make a note of the day when you made this request, and then just stop thinking about it.

 

Then you just observe. Does the new presence respect your boundaries? Do they leave you be as you requested, after you gave them a reasonable explanation for the request? Do they fail that and communicate with you before the time is up? If so, why? Is there some supposed important reason for the contact (which is unlikely), or do they seem ignorant of the concept of time, of what a day or a week is? From there, you can decide based on how they have responded to your request.

 

If they can't respect your boundary, they may not be the best to work with. I don't remember which exact guide I read this from, but you don't have to accept every walk-in that comes around. Even if they seem nice, you can still refuse if you're not mentally in a good place to deal with having multiple beings around, as you have described. It's your mind, you can say no.

[mattx]

It is not unheard of to have a sort of "verbal" response at the early stages, but honestly what you need to figure out is if it was triggered "naturally" or because you were hyperfixated on that media you were talking about.

 

Was the "that's me" completely out of context or was it say, right after spending time researching/consuming that media?

I too get heavily into media (One Piece for example) and read theories and the wiki for hours, and that has the effect of me "immersing" myself into the lore and the various scenarios, but the things I hear and the characters I imagine doing stuff are not obviously walk ins, just my imagination working with data I had freshly received. That's just daydreaming really.

 

I'll die on this hill (while claiming I left everything in one place thus starting the great age of tulpa piracy) when I say that everything in tulpamancy takes actual intent by the host to do, especially at the early stages.

 

It is frowned upon here to talk too much smack about walk ins and such, but as far as I can tell Kip is an honest attempt at developing a Tulpa, and this other "Dave" might just be the result of some sort of maladaptive daydreaming. Keep at it with Kip and take it slow please, there's absolutely no rush in this as hopefully you're doing this for the long run.

[frazierr]

3 minutes ago, matt.exe said:

It is not unheard of to have a sort of "verbal" response at the early stages, but honestly what you need to figure out is if it was triggered "naturally" or because you were hyperfixated on that media you were talking about.

 Yeah that's what I was thinking about, but I also haven't been too interested in this thing for a couple years, it's nothing from my current hyperfixation which I would have expected it to be? Either way I'll keep at it with Kip because I felt we were really getting somewhere 

[frazierr]

14 minutes ago, bunnymustdie said:

Here's something you can do to get a better feel for this new presence. Explain to them politely that you were not expecting them, that you're confused and overwhelmed by their presence. Request that they leave you alone for an arbitrary amount of time, maybe 7 days or a couple of weeks. Make a note of the day when you made this request, and then just stop thinking about it.

That's helpful thank you:)!

[fennecfoxx]

There's no harm in ignoring the walk-in.

 

Headmates are a phenomenon of the mind, and the mind, particularly the unconscious, is a powerful thing. Creating mental representations of people and simulating their behavior comes naturally to it. It happens every night when you dream. A tulpa is fundamentally no different from a dream character that is interacted with while awake and consistently enough that they develop a stable identity and personality.

 

Tulpamancy trains you to get into that dreamlike state of surrendering control of the imagination to the unconscious and perceiving an imagined person or people as independent. Autonomy really has more to do with mindset than development. Case in point: dreaming. Second case in point: I (fennec) used to imagine fictional characters and chat/hang out with them well before I discovered tulpamancy. Letting them act on their own and seeing what they'd say/do was half the fun. I think it's common for tulpamancers, immersive daydreamers, and even some writers to be able to summon characters at will who are at least partially autonomous, especially if said characters are fictional ones they know well.

 

As for feeling bad -- don't. Healthy systems are not built on guilt and obligation. We know this from experience. Expectation shapes a heck of a lot, and if you believe "neglecting" your tulpa will harm them, even emotionally, it likely will. That's especially true for young tulpas who are still developing and thus more easily shaped by the host's beliefs and expectations. And that's not getting into how damaging guilt can be for the host and, by extension, the system as a whole.

 

Our advice: Don't pay attention to Dave unless you're certain you want to keep him. He's a figment of the imagination you have no obligation toward. If he still bothers you, ask him to leave, like @bunnymustdie suggested. Be firm if you have to, or use whatever other trick you like (send him on a vacation somewhere, lock him out, whatever). You're planting the suggestion that he'll leave by creating a scenario where it's expected.

 

Hopefully that's coherent. We're tired and struggling to articulate thoughts on a topic we haven't talked much about in a long time.

 

~ fennec and Alex

[The Incans]

can you definitely feel the presence of two seperate beings?  

 

When we have created Tulpa from scatch we find they kind of morph into what we’re thinking about in the early stages when they aren’t yet sure themselves who they are….  what I’m saying is..Could ‘Dave’ be ‘Kip’ ? …. who maybe felt unsure of who they were or wanted to be….but used your fixation with the media form ‘Dave’ to create what he thought you wanted from him?    

 

We refer to ours as Changelings and they frequently switch but are essentially the same spirit/personality. (even though they do sometimes change their name to match a media eg we had one who took the form of ‘Spock’ for years and insisted we called them that…then suddenly they decided they weren’t or didn't feel they needed to be ‘Spock’ anymore.  Through role playing as Spock they discovered who they actually felt they were.   

 

We’ve had 2 walk-in spirits who were a specific person/personality right from the beginning and who they essentially were never chnaged but their inner Tulpa body may change eg the same person but their age changes. ..or started as an animal but then became human so they could co-host and/or front.