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On Dissociation of Personality


bigman

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Hey, so just to put it out there, here is an essay I wrote about why I believe that tulpa can be relevant to everyone.

http://lateralintrospection.tumblr.com/post/36986750546/on-dissociation-of-personality-an-argument-for-why-i

 

A proper introduction, I am kind of an outsider to this community and am only just starting a tulpa of my own, but I am documenting everything as I go. So if that's interesting to you I'm going to be writing a lot of essays like this in the future. I'll start a thread every time I write something that I think is worthy of discussion.

 

I didn't make a tumblr to get likes or anything, it's just an easy place to put these kinds of things, and it's organized.

 

tl;dr (if that was too long then you might want to turn and leave, just saying) there is a link to an essay I wrote about the relevance of tulpa to individuals and society.

 

If I don't reply for a long time (as in days or a week or so) it's because I don't have a computer of my own and I don't know when I'll be able to use this one again.

 

_____EDIT______

 

I wrote another post identifying problems with the first one. you can find it here http://lateralintrospection.tumblr.com/post/37128407026/identifying-my-preconceived-notions-and

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I found this post to be an enjoyable read, and look forward to entries in the future!

 

There was, however, one point, which I didn't quite agree with:

 

This alone, this fact that the mind can impersonate or adapt to other constructs and modes of thinking, that it can navigate entirely different personalities within one individual, this alone should validate that the creation of a tulpa, a separate yet internal consciousness, is at least possible.

 

What exactly is a "separate yet internal consciousness"? Sure, we are capable of maintaining several identities or adapting these "modes" you mentioned, but that doesn't imply anything about another consciousness. How do you conclude it's not just an identity that is being created, but a wholly new consciousness?

What is a Tulpa? Blog

Rainbow 'Alyx' Dash

Pronto

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It was interesting, but I'm not quite sure what you're trying to say. Your concluding paragraphs suggest that you're making the case for tulpas helping you to have and get through identity crises, but does that mean that the rest of the essay has little relevance? Along the lines of that conclusion I'd agree with you.

 

I also take issue with what Bluesleeve quoted; changing behavior in certain circumstances isn't really equivalent to a tulpa. Regardless of whether you change your 'identity' consciously or unconsciously, I don't think that this creates a separate 'person' as it were. Behavior patterns may well be equivalent to a new personality but a new consciousness they are not. Besides this, bear in mind that it is not well established - in theory - that tulpas are indeed conscious, and it is best to bear this in mind when writing essays on the subject.

 

Earlier you also raised an interesting point:

When these checks, balances and even imaginary constructs or defense mechanisms are disrupted, everything from minor neuroses to full psychological disorders develop.

It is a shame you never actually linked this to tulpas, as it is a very real issue here. The harmful effects of tulpas and messing with places of your mind not normally accessible - for good reason - are very much unknown, and to be watched out for too.

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This experience has led me to believe that one's identity is inherently illusory and dissociated from the totality of the mind to begin with. By now i don't think it's too much of a stretch to state that it is possible to create another such "illusion" in one's head consciously without having been raped in your childhood and such. The mind is already quite alive and dissociated to begin with, developing parts of it separately from your own should be no big deal - unless you happen to think that you are the entirety of your mind, which (the way i see it) is a faulty assumption destined to crumble under sufficient self-analysis. Of course don't take this post too seriously either, just the opinion of a random tulpamancer (and the people this stuff comes from, partly).

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I found this to be really interesting, especially how the tulpa phenomenon fits in with society as a whole.

perceiving “too much meaning”(3) is apparently detrimental to functioning in the real world.

Do you think you could give an example for this? I was confused by this a bit.

My Tulpa

And then it cuts to a scene where you're sitting in a padded cell.

 

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I found this post to be an enjoyable read, and look forward to entries in the future!

 

There was, however, one point, which I didn't quite agree with:

 

 

What exactly is a "separate yet internal consciousness"? Sure, we are capable of maintaining several identities or adapting these "modes" you mentioned, but that doesn't imply anything about another consciousness. How do you conclude it's not just an identity that is being created, but a wholly new consciousness?

 

 

You are right that I did not really explain what I meant by "separate yet internal consciousness" and that is mostly just poor writing on my end. But I do mean what I said and will explain it in another post soon.

 

But to help bridge the gap between everything before that claim and the claim itself, I should point out that the "different identities" aren't actually succinct identities but " different arrangements of psychological components" that gave the illusion of different identities.

 

Again, your question about why this ability can "create" a consciousness is still valid and I will address it in a new post soon.


I found this to be really interesting, especially how the tulpa phenomenon fits in with society as a whole.

Do you think you could give an example for this? I was confused by this a bit.

 

I'm sorry I did not elaborate on this more. Basically, the mind is wired to ignore or "take for granted" certain things so that we can "focus on the task at hand", so to speak. An easy example is that your nose is always within your vision but you are often not aware of it because you are looking "beyond" your nose. The same goes for your hands, especially when you are using them to work. Your brain has the ability to "see through" your hands while you work on something because you can't help but clutter your vision with them (an easy example of that is that you can type without seeing every button because you have an imaginary construct of the keyboard in your mind to help you know where each button is).

 

A more controversial but still relevant way that "too much meaning" can be perceived is what we know as the "religious" or "spiritual" experience. there is a small section of brain (and this is neuroscience, which i am mostly unfamiliar with so please forgive me for not being more specific) that allows you to assign "weight" or "meaning" to an act, sensation, or event in the real world. When this area becomes more active (and we do this for a number of reasons, but particularly in a "hypnotic" state, which you will be hearing me talk about more in the future) we feel a strong attraction or significance to whatever it is we are focusing on or perceiving. The more we focus and engage on a particular thing, the more active this area becomes (physically) and as a result we value it more. It's part of why we feel that people we know for a long time are more important that people we just met.

 

Too much meaning is really about perspective since it usually is only considered "too much" if we experience it at an inopportune time. For example, if someone has an intense religious experience while driving 80mph on a highway they could crash. A moment of intense meaning is also a moment of intense distraction, and your brain is constantly regulating what is safe at what times.

 

I hope that clears that up.

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>capitalising my name

Goddammit. It even says in my title not to do it.

I guess I shouldn't get autistic about it, but still.

 

>siphoning consciousness

No! That's not how consciousness works. You don't have a lump of consciousness, from which you can tear off a chunk to grow separate. Consciousness is a state, and not something that you can divide, or reduce or increase in quantity.

 

>If the structures of identity that we use to identify ourselves are illusions of consciousness,

What? We are conscious, no illusions. Forgive me if I'm misunderstanding you, but you seem to have a rather loose definition of 'consciousness'. The alternate behaviour patterns are not conscious, nor do they appear so, since they do not 'think for themselves'. As opposed to a tulpa that thinks separately to the host's personality, an alternate structure - your 'micropersonalities', I think - do not, and are assumed by the original personality.

 

>separation

If you are separate from the tulpa because you are not privy to its inner workings, then by the same measure the tulpa is separate from you. The tulpa also doesn't stop existing when you want it to.

 

>tulpas can become conscious but don't start off as such

Again, consciousness. Given that the tulpa always appears conscious, it would be difficult to define a time when it becomes so, and even more difficult to give any sort of hint as to why this might be.

 

>unhealthy mental landscape

What? Mental instability might be better here. I think you may be looking for a term like that.

 

>youth etc.

Uh-oh. Given that a large proportion of this forum is under 20, we might be in trouble. For sure, puberty brings about mental change, but change doesn't mean instability. You keep saying 'sound mind' but what that should mean is basically 'sane'. You're using it weirdly here.

 

>delusion

What you seem to be implying here is that tulpas done wrong leads to a slippery slope of harmful fantasy and delusion. How exactly being young and making a tulpa leads to creating an elaborate delusion is unexplained here, and likewise being ill-equipped to explore your own mind.

 


 

Overall you seem to be saying that tulpas are a delusion relating to your own identity, but that only making a tulpa when you're young leads to delusion. Could you clarify this please?

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1>capitalising my name

Goddammit. It even says in my title not to do it.

I guess I shouldn't get autistic about it, but still.

 

2>siphoning consciousness

No! That's not how consciousness works. You don't have a lump of consciousness, from which you can tear off a chunk to grow separate. Consciousness is a state, and not something that you can divide, or reduce or increase in quantity.

 

3>If the structures of identity that we use to identify ourselves are illusions of consciousness,

What? We are conscious, no illusions. Forgive me if I'm misunderstanding you, but you seem to have a rather loose definition of 'consciousness'. The alternate behaviour patterns are not conscious, nor do they appear so, since they do not 'think for themselves'. As opposed to a tulpa that thinks separately to the host's personality, an alternate structure - your 'micropersonalities', I think - do not, and are assumed by the original personality.

 

4>separation

If you are separate from the tulpa because you are not privy to its inner workings, then by the same measure the tulpa is separate from you. The tulpa also doesn't stop existing when you want it to.

 

5>tulpas can become conscious but don't start off as such

Again, consciousness. Given that the tulpa always appears conscious, it would be difficult to define a time when it becomes so, and even more difficult to give any sort of hint as to why this might be.

 

6>unhealthy mental landscape

What? Mental instability might be better here. I think you may be looking for a term like that.

 

7>youth etc.

Uh-oh. Given that a large proportion of this forum is under 20, we might be in trouble. For sure, puberty brings about mental change, but change doesn't mean instability. You keep saying 'sound mind' but what that should mean is basically 'sane'. You're using it weirdly here.

 

8>delusion

What you seem to be implying here is that tulpas done wrong leads to a slippery slope of harmful fantasy and delusion. How exactly being young and making a tulpa leads to creating an elaborate delusion is unexplained here, and likewise being ill-equipped to explore your own mind.

 


 

Overall you seem to be saying that tulpas are a delusion relating to your own identity, but that only making a tulpa when you're young leads to delusion. Could you clarify this please?

 

1> I fixed it. Sorry, I guess...

 

2> I thought I explained what I mean when I use the word consciousness, and by siphon. I am not implying that you are creating a schism or fracturing a single consciousness into several (because that is impossible). By consciousness, I am simply referring to your mind and yourself insofar as you are aware. I will word my arguments more carefully in the future if that is still not clear.

 

3> refer to the above

 

4> Yes and no, but it can be said that a tulpa has (as far as I can tell by testimony) a better view of your innerworkings than you do of its. When you break this relationship (i speculate) by making their inner workings transparent to you, you damage their identity.

 

5> First of all, I know that, which is exactly why I am speculating on it to the best of my ability. Second of all, these are speculations and preconceived notions. It says so in the title. Deal.

 

6> No, actually. A person can be sane but still have some unhealthy neurosis. I refer to it as a "psychological landscape" to help support the use of such abstract terms as "psychological components" "personality traits" "constructs" "conscious" "subconscious" and so on, of which all of the above listed terms represent complex "landmarks" (aka significant figures) within the human psyche.

 

7> I'm ok with people having a problem with my thoughts because I'm only looking to document my own views and understanding there, so that is not a real problem. also, refer to the above.

 

8> 1) Being young affects your ability to understand yourself because the ages of puberty are ages of constant psychological change. I could go on and on about why it's not a good idea (and I might later on). As for being ill equipped, I never said that you can do harm by EXPLORING your own mind, but simply by altering it without a thorough definition of it. Explore it all you want, through introspection or visceral awareness or what have you. But something like creating a tulpa requires an intense ability to know yourself which in itself requires an understanding of what your made of. So yeah, explore all you want.

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I like this thread.

 

Everyone has more personality than what they show. Tulpa is just giving it mental form. Nothing's being changed, just being categorized and visualized.

 

People just need to get comfortable with the insides of their head. The insides that can hug you back.

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