General Kiahdaj's Absolute Guide to Tulpas

[schlondark]

Approved for guides.

[waffles]

I approve of this guide because you know it's pretty good. That said, I've given this one a proper going through, but I'll try to keep it brief; no 17-page critique from me:

 

• 
  [li]Your structure is a bit odd. You put things like narration, wonderlands and switching in 'Concepts' while personality, visualisation and possession go in 'The Creation Process'. It would probably help if your ToC were better, too.
   
  [/li]
  [li]I personally hate your typography. I think it's ugly, the colours clash, and the page breaks are uncomfortable. Your line spacing is weird and your table of contents is plain broken. I guess I'm not really supported in my opinion there though.
   
  [/li]
  [li]Speaking of opinions, your guide is very opinionated. For example - although the majority here probably share your views on what a tulpa is - you waste no time impressing your own morality onto the reader and telling them exactly what you think is shallow and pathetic, and later on what makes you sick. Not to mention telling us all about what you think about switching despite never having switched (which just about makes your opinion worth as much as the reader's, to boot).
   
  [/li]
  [li]I find your mentality section odd. It's mostly typical but the two things that bother me are
  
  • how you never really defined 'doubt' clearly, at least until maybe a page in. Then you say "don't doubt that responses are your tulpa within reason" - which I personally disagree with, though I don't suppose that matters. But objectively that ignores the other forms that the great doubt monster takes, like "help my tulpa isn't real" or similar.
    
  • how you spend half the time saying "you shouldn't doubt ever" and half the time saying "you should deal with your doubt in a reasonable way". I'm not sure that the two are particularly compatible; for example, when you say " thought of all the evidence that pointed toward his existence [...]" and so forth,
     
    

 

[/li]

[li]I'm going to be pedantic about symbolism and point out that at two separate times you call things 'symbolism' which are not: at the bottom of page 4 and page 14 with "believing that something is harmful is symbolic".

[/li]

[li]Okay last bit of pedantry I promise: "Active forcing is generally more qualitative than passive forcing" is nonsense in two ways, both of which become obvious when 'qualitative' is looked up in a dictionary.

 

[/li]

[waffles]

I approve of this guide because it's pretty good. That said, I've given this one a proper going through, but I'll try to keep it brief; no 17-page critique from me:

 

• 
  [li]Your structure is a bit odd. You put things like narration, wonderlands and switching in 'Concepts' while personality, visualisation and possession go in 'The Creation Process'. It would probably help if your ToC were better, too.
   
  [/li]
  [li]I personally hate your typography. I think it's ugly, the colours clash, and the page breaks are uncomfortable. Your line spacing is weird and your table of contents is plain broken. I guess I'm not really supported in my opinion there though.
   
  [/li]
  [li]Speaking of opinions, your guide is very opinionated. For example - although the majority here probably share your views on what a tulpa is - you waste no time impressing your own morality onto the reader and telling them exactly what you think is shallow and pathetic, and later on what makes you sick. Not to mention telling us all about what you think about switching despite never having switched (which just about makes your opinion worth as much as the reader's, to boot).
   
  [/li]
  [li]I find your mentality section odd. It's mostly typical but the two things that bother me are
  
  • how you never really defined 'doubt' clearly, at least until maybe a page in. Then you say "don't doubt that responses are your tulpa within reason" - which I personally disagree with, though I don't suppose that matters. But objectively that ignores the other forms that the great doubt monster takes, like "help my tulpa isn't real" or similar.
    
  • how you spend half the time saying "you shouldn't doubt ever" and half the time saying "you should deal with your doubt in a reasonable way". I'm not sure that the two are particularly compatible.
    

As an example of both, take when you say " thought of all the evidence that pointed toward his existence" and so forth. You imply that you doubted that he existed but what does that mean exactly? And assuming that you meant that he was sentient, only the second item is good evidence for that in my view, and even then not convincing.

 

[/li]

[li]As a minor thing I'm going to be pedantic about symbolism and point out that at two separate times you call things 'symbolism' which are not: at the bottom of page 4 and page 14 with "believing that something is harmful is symbolic".

[/li]

[li]And last bit of pedantry I promise: "Active forcing is generally more qualitative than passive forcing" is nonsense in two ways, both of which become obvious when 'qualitative' is looked up in a dictionary.

 

[/li]

 

So there are a few things that you might want to consider assuming you ever edit this guide again which is maybe unlikely.

[Averian]

Not much to say which hasn't been already said. I approve. unless you add some neutrality of opinion I will be disappointed. The French isn't too bad but since I'm a pretty Acadian princess, I have no place to correct it.

[Sands]

Right, well there is a lot more text and stuff than there is actual guide, you might be reading this and wondering when he'll get to the point. Kiahdaj also really lets his opinion color the work, which can be a bad thing if you don't agree, but I think opinions are always allowed. Writing has a lot to do with expressing yourself, after all.

 

In the end though, I think this guide is mostly a guide for finding your own way. He gives you hints, he explains things, he tells you how you could do something... But I think you're really just supposed to figure out the main thing for yourself. That's what I think this guide is about. Not the easy steps which would make a guide easy for others to approach, but a guide to help you think and make your own steps. That's a guide in my eyes alright, one that is important and something that is sorta unique, actually.

 

Also I do like the whole form isn't the tulpa part, seeing that there already was that one guide that was basically nothing but making the form and only a little of the other, more important steps. Really made me wonder what the author of that one thought was the most important thing about a tupper. In a negative way.

 

Approved.

[Guest Anonymous]

Approved.

[Linkzelda]

6/9 GAT members have approved of this for the Guides Section, but seeing how some GAT members gave some considerations on things such as neutrality, format, etc., and how some of the guides recommended there have to be reviewed as well (especially the one with creating a vocal tulpa), what's the course of action guys?

[waffles]

Your (Linkzelda) vote is the only one that's withheld pending changes, so I think we can consider an unconditional 5/9 approvals as long as you don't change that. I suppose if you don't, this'll need another vote or an edit from Kiahdaj to see it through.

[NotAnonymous]

Approved.

 

This is a pretty good general purpose guide, it's well-written and talks about a lot of important things some other guides skirt around. Definitely worth a read for most newbies or even those which aren't new, but have some issues.

 

It tries to be "complete", although does lack content in the Possession and Switching parts of the guide, and instead talks a bit too much on why it's not a good idea. I don't really think everyone will agree with those opinions, but as long as people keep in mind they are the author's opinions, they should be good.

 

Some of waffles' critique of the guide is also quite on point and agreeable. For example, there are other mindsets which would also yield a well-developed tulpa without having to straight-out force the belief - the belief in one's tulpa's nature can come to you naturally the more evidence they give you, and being curious and mindful about a tulpa's responses is typically better than blindly accepting everything (and usually results in a tulpa which is more "alien" or "stronger").

 

Also as a final point, I'd like to know why "On top of that, there is also a possibility that this guide may be taken down altogether." was included in the first post and how will the approval of new versions work (whenever or if Kiahdaj plans on updating the guide).

[waffles]

6/9 votes plus one pending, so approved for Guides.