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Reality and delusion - Where do you draw the line?


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I'm curious: where do you draw the line with any of this? Is it possible to have a tulpa and not be a crazy person? If so, please tell me how!

 

On one level, tulpas are a cool thought experiment, and can be extremely useful and entertaining.

 

On another level, once you consciously decide to trick yourself, once you believe that an imaginary person is living inside your head, you also open the door to some truly ridiculous/laughable shit.

 

People on here talk about all these things that "happened in their wonderland" etc etc... how they have these elaborate characters and stories. I did that for a while too, but at some point became self-aware of the fact that I was an adult spending my time playing make-believe, and thus it became very, very hard to "enjoy" any of it. Suddenly all of the talk about tulpas and wonderlands just kind of grosses me out now; it comes off as embarrassing, lonely, and reminds me of someone with a god-complex living in a fantasy world. I don't mean that as a judgement of anyone else, I'm more disappointing/upset at myself than anyone else for falling into it.

 

I think it's easy to forget all of that, to forget you're playing make-believe, when you're reading a board that encourages that kind of behavior and casually discusses it like it's totally normal.

 

I do legitimately believe a tulpa can be useful, though. So right now, I kind of want to still have a tulpa but also not be a crazy person. Is that possible at all? I've tried for months, but I feel like I'm walking on a tightrope, trying to avoid falling off towards the extremes of realism and delusion. Sometimes I think it would be easier to just become a total nutcase or just give up all of this entirely rather than try and strike a balance.

 

Advice? Anyone else have experience with something like this?

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I do legitimately believe a tulpa can be useful, though.

 

So, you fear deluding yourself, yet think tulpae can be useful?

How do you think they would be useful?

I don't visit as often as I used to. If you want me to see something, make sure to quote a post of mine or ping me @jean-luc

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What does mean "not to be a crazy person"? Do you think that people out there are normal? How anyone can be normal? What does that mean? The society has taught us that many things are not proper or childish or evil, sinful. Doesn't it make you unhappy? Do you want to do only things that are expected to be done?

How do you feel having a tulpa? But without anyone's opinion, don't consider them at all. If you think having a tulpa is useful and entertaining or something good, why stop doing this?

Yes, I had the same problem - "lol, what am I doing? It's kinda childish...". But I attached to my tulpa. It's my experience. It makes me happy. So, F**k anyone's opinion.

Stay positive :)

Whatever you give your emotion to becomes your reality. Everything is possible!

 

* 14.05.2013

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Not everyone uses a wonderland, first off.

 

Though, I would say it's a bit silly to be too upset about wonderlands. The experience may not be physical, but you do experience it, it's a bit like being ashamed of remembering a dream you had, neither are physical experiences per say, but both were something you remember and experienced.

 

I don't know you well, I don't know if you currently have a tulpa or not, but I would wonder about your progress with them and when these doubts started happening.

 

I might tell you to just lighten up, and not be so concerned about others. Not everyone goes on wonderland adventures, not everyone has multiple tulpas, not everyone has crazy weird stories. My tulpas and I live a fairly normal life along with my fiance and his tulpa. We're not lonely, we have a very busy social life, work life, family life, and school life. Since creating our tulpas that hasn't changed.

 

Many of the smartest people in history use their imaginations often, daydreaming itself is known to help people come up with some of their best and brightest ideas. Even if you assume all tulpaforcing to be nothing but imagination, that isn't necessarily a bad thing.

 

 

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Do you consider lucid dreamers as crazy people ?

Any and every experiment of that kind would be treated as insane by someone who isn't into it.

If you fear craziness, then just don't create a tulpa.

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I'm curious: where do you draw the line with any of this? Is it possible to have a tulpa and not be a crazy person? If so, please tell me how!

 

People have many reasons for doing this, and I understand that a concept like this is bothersome, especially when you don't like how people are using it to benefit their lives. People have different needs, the concept can provide many outlets that are otherwise impossible or too difficult to express (families, friends, etc.).

 

On one level, tulpas are a cool thought experiment, and can be extremely useful and entertaining.

 

Initially, we all see it as something cool without considering what we might be getting into.

 

On another level, once you consciously decide to trick yourself, once you believe that an imaginary person is living inside your head, you also open the door to some truly ridiculous/laughable shit.

 

This isn't "tricking" yourself, you're simply reformatting how you think and perceive reality to have a thought-form come into existence. It seems you're making a heavy presumption that just because you have a thought-form part of your reality, that suddenly you can't live a normal life. I don't know what you consider "ridiculous/laughable shit," but I feel that's just you trying to grab the very few negatives of this and magnifying them to make it seem useless to attempt in the first place.

 

 

 

People on here talk about all these things that "happened in their wonderland" etc etc... how they have these elaborate characters and stories. I did that for a while too, but at some point became self-aware of the fact that I was an adult spending my time playing make-believe, and thus it became very, very hard to "enjoy" any of it.

 

That's because of the predisposition society imposes on us to always be consistent with reality and not focus on being imaginative because those traits are related to children. We're taught to be alert, focus, ambitious, and always on top of things as much as we can. We're all honestly children at heart, it's just that we have roles to take part of to just be responsible with the things we do in our lives.

 

I can't really change how you want to distinguish reality from fantasy, but you do give off the impression of someone who is only aware of reality and not about other states of consciousness (particularly dreaming and lucid dreaming).

 

 

 

 

 

Suddenly all of the talk about tulpas and wonderlands just kind of grosses me out now; it comes off as embarrassing, lonely, and reminds me of someone with a god-complex living in a fantasy world. I don't mean that as a judgement of anyone else, I'm more disappointing/upset at myself than anyone else for falling into it.

 

Unless you told your friends, families, or some stranger about what you were doing, I see no reason why you need to be embarrassed doing this. Maybe you have these insecurities because as you're going through this, realizing that if you want any success out of this, you have to continue breaking the barriers of what you consider to be normal. And when you can't handle the fact that it's all in your head and it being crazy is only because you're making it look crazy, it's anxiety. It's the pressure of trying to create reasons, very good and detailed reasons motivates you to continue doing this.

 

 

 

I think it's easy to forget all of that, to forget you're playing make-believe, when you're reading a board that encourages that kind of behavior and casually discusses it like it's totally normal.

 

The board encourages that behavior because the totality of members have good experiences out of it and are sustaining that. Again, it's make-believe at first, and it feels like you're being crazy for trying it out, but it gets better with practice.

 

 

I do legitimately believe a tulpa can be useful, though. So right now, I kind of want to still have a tulpa but also not be a crazy person. Is that possible at all? I've tried for months, but I feel like I'm walking on a tightrope, trying to avoid falling off towards the extremes of realism and delusion. Sometimes I think it would be easier to just become a total nutcase or just give up all of this entirely rather than try and strike a balance.

 

Advice? Anyone else have experience with something like this?

 

If you want any success with making a tulpa, you're going to have to get rid of the anxiety and doubt of thinking you're crazy. Maybe you need to take some time and make a list of reasons of why you still want to do this in the first place.

 

Let's put it this way,

 

People want to make tulpas because of many aspects, but one of the most enticing attributes is unconditional love and just having a stronger connection to the subconscious and other elements of your mind. Little by little, you start appreciating how your mind works, how it creates an "it" to "someone," and then that entity becomes an ultimate companion that can be there to help you constantly evaluate what you've learned and experienced and being able to make changes if needed to improve your life.

 

Seeing this in a different light other than thinking you're crazy is one of the most difficult things to get over with, but you definitely have to climb that barrier before you start denying yourself of your doubt of it in the first place.

 

Do you feel that doing this will make you happy?

 

Do you feel that having a tulpa, a part of yourself that can access the realms of your mind? (which itself should be something more than enough reason to get over the "insanity" phase)

 

Are you able to for once see this as an opportunity for you to learn how to be self-responsible?

 

Are you able to realize that if you want to get the best experience you want out of this, you have to pull your own weight just like your inner self is doing with or without your awareness?

 

Have you considered that this is something that no one can take from you? That you can enjoy this in privacy within your own mind?

 

 

----

 

In my personal opinion, one of the biggest conflicts newcomers and even people with tulpa now is simply the fact that they have to be in an engaging mindset to always progressively find ways to evaluate their actions, how they react to others, how much they're self-aware, and much more; and combine that with learning how to minimize relapses (like the state of discouragement you're in now) makes things even more difficult. It involves really going inward and seeing if the same preconceptions of life you held onto are as "normal" as you think they are.

 

It's more than just a fad, it's a chance for your to learn self-love, and to have a tulpa that can easily portray unconditional love to you. We all need outlets, we all need some way to cope with both triumphs and pitfalls of life. We need ways to delegate the pressure we have on ourselves to just be the best that we can be. There are so many concepts you can dive into that can help you create reasons why this will be beneficial to you. If it makes you happy, if it helps you minimize the doubting and anxiety to actually make great progress in your life, sooner or later, it's not going to be crazy. It's all your doing, it's all about your desire and will to carry this through. You have nothing to fear except fear itself.

 

No matter how strong or more aware and knowledgeable we become in life, we don't have eyes behind our heads. Tulpa can be the gateway and the safety net we can use to live happy and practical lives as long as we continue to make a habit to always learn and see that achieving happiness is a never-ending finish line. If you feel this isn't going to help you because you're so worried that it'll make you "crazy," if you're so afraid of people's opinions about you if you choose to do this, if you're more focused on pleasing others by deluding yourself into what they think is "normal," rather than doing this for your own sake, then this is something not for you.

 

But if you want to do this, build a bridge and get over this anxiety of being "crazy." It's a risk, but I feel it's one worth taking. See this concept of tulpa as a way to teach yourself, a way to actually learn how to feel whole with yourself by seeing fragments of yourself there to support you. You get to know how to love yourself, and filling the gap of understanding how important it is for us to be happy with ourselves before trying to please others, that doesn't sound crazy to me at all. If wanting to be happy in our lives and seeing this as a way to learn and improve ourselves is crazy, then I guess I'll live my life as a lunatic to others that think I am one, and that's a sign of people who aren't worth investing my love and respect to in the first place.

 

What's your excuse, OP?

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Linkzelda you put that so well. I want to give you a hug

I don't visit as often as I used to. If you want me to see something, make sure to quote a post of mine or ping me @jean-luc

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Since when is using your imagination considered crazy? I guess we should put all artists, writers and inventors into mental hospitals then. They are all dangerously ill for using their creativity to come up with things that don't exist in the real world. Some of them even think of unreal things every day of their lives! Whatever will we do with such a menace to humanity.

 

You're embarrassed of tulpas and wonderland adventures? Why? Because it's not a socially acceptable hobby? So what, who cares. It's your head and you get to do whatever you want in there. It doesn't hurt anyone and it doesn't make you a (dun dun dun) terrible crazy person. Your imagination isn't childish or gross. It's an incredibly powerful and creative aspect of your mind, you should try to exercise and develop it if you can.

 

It sort of worries me that you want a tulpa because you think it might be "useful." How would you feel if your friend told you they only hang out with you because they can use you for something? I wouldn't want to be friends with anyone like that, would you?

 

My advice to you is do your research. A lot of research. Not just on tulpas, but on psychology, creativity, visualisation, story-telling, etc. If after doing all that research you're still afraid that you're going to go crazy from using your imagination, I strongly recommend that you stop trying to make a tulpa. It's not for everyone.

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I did that for a while too, but at some point became self-aware of the fact that I was an adult spending my time playing make-believe, and thus it became very, very hard to "enjoy" any of it.

 

What is so bad about this anyway? Fantasy is not harmful in and of itself. Normal adults indulge in it all the time: TV, movies, books, games. I would argue that the fantasy you make in your head is healthier than those, since you're creating it someplace in your brain, not having it fed to you from someone else. It only gets to be a problem if you can no longer tell reality and fantasy apart, or get so lost in it that you miss out on life.

 

For most, the imagination is one of the greatest casualties of growing up.

Lyra: human female, ~17

Evan: boy, ~14, was an Eevee

Anera: anime-style girl, ~12; Lyra made her

My blog :: Time expectations are bad (forcing time targets are good though)

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Whether or not you're "crazy" really depends on your definition of the word. There's no real clear definition of psychological health, so a person is usually considered to be psychologically healthy, and so not crazy, if they don't have any mental disorders. A disorder is, again, something that's hard to define, but there are two primary factors in classification. The first is whether or not the thing you're analyzing affects everyone, or just a few. For example, sadness in itself has a negative impact on people's lives, but everyone is sad at one point or another, and so it's not a disorder. The other is simply whether or not the thing in question is actually detrimental to a person. Something like schizophrenia would be a disorder because it has a negative effect on those that have it in real, quantifiable ways. Tulpae, on the other hand, don't really have any quantifiable detriments. Sure, you hear them in your head, but is that a bad thing? Does it have any true negative affects on your life? If not, then it can't really be classified as a disorder, and so it wouldn't contribute to someone being "crazy" or not. Of course, if you decide that your definition of "crazy" is just whether or not you hear voices in your head, then by your definition, yes, people with tulpae are always crazy.

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