Quiet for the active mind.

[Epicwes]

So, I know some of these questions may have been answered, but I either lost the links or could not find them...

 

I have been with my tulpa for about 3 months now and one thing I have noticed is that I can't really calm my thoughts. Even before forcing I sometimes lost my train of thought because my mind was actively putting random thoughts and ideas unwillingly. I have tried meditating and trying to focus, but when I finally calm my mind 5 minutes later the flood gates open once again filling back up my head. Is there any tips or tricks some of you have done to calm your mind while forcing?

 

Because of this I fear that because I have random thoughts just pop up and fly away. I don't even know what is genuine thoughts of my tulpa and what is made up by my mind. Also before I heard voices in my head (very much the same as what a mind voice is) not one but many voices of my friends, family or that random person I ran into. Usually saying phrases that they would say or more commonly my name.

[Twice Sparked]

Well, first, and in case it may be of some help to you, I recently read a quote by someone whose name escapes me that compared tulpa to intrusive thoughts. To paraphrase, a tulpa is like an organized intrusive thought: While generally coherent, you have control of neither what they say nor when they say it.

 

It's no wonder then that tulpish is such a popular way of training conviction. Random thoughts are given significance as a tulpa talking, which belief reinforces the thoughts, no longer random, thus reinforcing the belief.

 

In the interest of invoking the above process for your forcing needs, I really have to recommend hypnosis. The central trick in hypnosis is convincing yourself that you can be hypnotized. Every particular session just follows from that first belief. Crucially, this is the same skill you will need in order to quiet your thoughts; you have to first convince yourself that you can quiet your thoughts, then you will be able to.

---

A common problem, and one that will surface here and there. I dealt with and deal with it often.

 

I know that it's difficult to act against deeply ingrained beliefs like "I'm too skeptical, cynical and rational for this," but beliefs do not appear out of nowhere. They are trained.

 

Similarly, you must train yourself to stop believing these things, and accept that you are far more open suggestion than you first thought.

 

Here is my thought process to open me to suggestion, but yours may vary. What's important is that it leads to conviction:

 

I can't accept anything without evidence, but the only evidence I have for myself is that I am here. No, not even that. There is a doubter here, but that means that everything else is up for grabs. So I don't need evidence to tell me who I am. Now I can decide who I am, and I am (queue hypnosis script).

 

Again, that's just my thought process, but I use it as an example to show you how your rational disposition can be introduced, by its own process of reasoning, to an awareness of its own malleability.

 

You, I'm sure, underwent a similar process when you gave your assent to the notion of tulpa in the first instance. Surely, well before you had begun, you had the same skeptical spirit that would have resisted the idea of sentient, imaginary friends. But, and by whatever argument you were convinced, your skeptical side was shown that it could embrace tulpa. For me, I just promised myself it was going to be a "quick experiment" and that I really "didn't believe," but eventually the production of conviction becomes habitual, and you really do believe.

 

So yes, you are skeptical. Acknowledge it, live with it and push it to a rational conclusion; push yourself to conclude that you can hypnotize yourself, and push yourself to conclude that you can quiet your mind. Because you can do both, and your ability to do so needs nothing more than your conviction.

 

I hope, too, that my post helps you build conviction. Good luck!

[Bin]

Something I usually do when I can't focus is just try focusing on the wonderland. I'd put a lot of detail into my surroundings and really try to focus on it, to get myself into it, feel like I'm really there. If it's real to me then I'll be more alert, since it's now my surroundings. I usually actually need to get myself into this state beforehand, so I'll spend a bit of time just looking at random imagery of my wonderland with no particular pinpoints or focus on it, just to get myself adjusted to focusing on it.

 

I think after that you might be able to sift through your thoughts a little more easily. Just what I do though. I think it's just a more natural way to hypnotize yourself.