Does narration have to be verbal?

[Carnivorous M.]

I ask because most guides on narration mention talking a lot to your tulpa, but mostly I'm much better at sending mine images, sensations, and general nonverbal thoughts. When I try to think verbally at them for long, it feels weird and like I'm not directing it at them. I do need to practice this, if only because it'll probably be much harder for them to become vocal if we only talk in images, but do you think it'll have largely detrimental effects if my basic method of narration is nonverbal?

[Indurain]

In my experience it's better to actually talk outloud to your tulpa whenever possible. I find it easier to stay focused that way, because it's kinda telling your brain that your speaking to someone else and not just thinking words. As for the non verbal part, if you send it images and feelings, then that's what it will send back to you.

[Carnivorous M.]

Thank you, those are both good points. I have noticed that sometimes when I'm trying to narrate with just thoughts it tends to slip from thinking to to just thinking, and while I'm not usually a very outwardly vocal person (I don't talk much), I'll try out-loud narration more to see if it helps.

 

Edit: I tried talking out loud with Persephone for an hour or two, both straight narration and word games, and it had an effect I hadn't thought of: by automatically saying stuff out loud as I thought of it, it made it much easier to hear her thoughts and not have to constantly worry about distinguishing them from mine. Very handy!

[Amygda1a]

I always try to verbalize when I speak with Nuwe, although the situation doesn't always allow for it. Obviously I can't speak to her in classes or anything, so I speak in mindvoice. At home I usually speak to her verbally, unless I'm near someone else. I also sometimes verbalize when I'm playing hockey. I'm a goalie so when the action gets thin sometimes I can speak to her if she starts talking, but otherwise she has to wait. Usually no one hears me on the ice but if they do, well, goalies are all crazy to them anyway. :)

[Linkzelda]

It doesn’t have to be verbal; it can be non-verbal, contingent through images, and other sensations as well.

 

 

As for using that mostly as your means of communication, how exactly would that be detrimental? It's just one of many ways to understand them; the actual verbal communication while having that indirect understanding behind the back of your head can be motivation in furthering your propensity in wanting to treat them as sentient. Direct and indirect ways can go hand-in-hand, you know.

[Carnivorous M.]

Verbal-along-with-images-and-thoughts is actually what I've been doing for the most part, and I would be perfectly fine with that except that it's harder to establish clearly what was theirs and what was mine with images and emotions than with words. It's easier to work with 'no, that wasn't me' than 'feeling of annoyance that might just be my own.' I also want to teach them how to express themselves clearly in a way that allows them to interact with other people without having to rely on me to translate raw thoughts by guesswork.

 

For example, if Persephone is telling me to translate for her and sends me a picture of Jack Frost coupled with positive emotion and approval, I have to try and guess what she means ('I think Jack Frost has an appealing character design,' which may be inaccurate). That, or I can translate it as directly as possible ('I like Jack Frost'), and lose a lot of her meaning in the process.

 

So basically words are useful for clarity and clearer boundaries between host and tulpa's thoughts. In my experience, at least.

[Bambi]

Whether talking out loud or in your head to your tulpa is entirely up to you. Some people find it better to talk aloud, and others find it better to talk non-verbally. As it's your brain, you're the only one who can safely say what's best.

[Linkzelda]

Verbal-along-with-images-and-thoughts is actually what I've been doing for the most part, and I would be perfectly fine with that except that it's harder to establish clearly what was theirs and what was mine with images and emotions than with words. It's easier to work with 'no, that wasn't me' than 'feeling of annoyance that might just be my own.' I also want to teach them how to express themselves clearly in a way that allows them to interact with other people without having to rely on me to translate raw thoughts by guesswork.

 

For example, if Persephone is telling me to translate for her and sends me a picture of Jack Frost coupled with positive emotion and approval, I have to try and guess what she means ('I think Jack Frost has an appealing character design,' which may be inaccurate). That, or I can translate it as directly as possible ('I like Jack Frost'), and lose a lot of her meaning in the process.

 

So basically words are useful for clarity and clearer boundaries between host and tulpa's thoughts. In my experience, at least.

 

 

 

But if you want to eradicate that unsettling feeling on whose thoughts being their own vs. some amalgamation of raw thoughts where you can’t attribute any distinction in meaning (e.g. symbolic meaning), and yet remove bias towards guesswork, trial-and-error, and just developing experiential learning, it’s like removing what could be an integral part to reach that end goal of being able to know who’s saying what at a given circumstance.

 

What I was doing wasn’t really guesswork, I would even argue that it wasn’t for comprehending anything other than describing that’s going on in my head for 7 hours straight, if that’s what you’re referring to as well. The part where I would, in this circumstance, invest in comprehending, and finding meaning behind those experiences would be when I’m debriefing myself after forcing.

 

If you want to cut through iteration loops that seem like guesswork, and having to find a system of your own to understand, it would seem plausible to be accustomed to it while knowing that after doing it for so long, you can reflect back, and understand from it. If you remove yourself from that progressive learning curve, than how can you even begin to gradually subside that unsettling feeling you have?

 

That’s what happens when you become so preoccupied with the end result to the point where you can’t even have fun when it comes to fostering a mindset to never give up in any adversity. You start losing the naiveté where an individual, in their initial stages, becomes so engrossed in learning that it becomes fun, and even when there were adversities along their way, they still had fun because of the potential of experiencing through it all meant to them.

 

If you truly wanted to have assurances with differentiating your thoughts from theirs, and feeling assured that they can refer things to themselves without much of your conscious guidance, it seems practical, IMO, to be used to those seemingly convoluted thoughts in your head if you want to develop some kind of rapport.

 

But again, everyone’s different, though that’s probably just a card everyone uses to be unaware that we all probably can reach towards something through a common habit (e.g. trucking through the convoluted thoughts in hopes that it will all come through in the end).

 

When you start playing “safe tulpaforcing” to avoid guesswork, or just knowing that you may make mistakes every now and then, along with building a morality that doesn’t allow you to explore as much into your imagination, it’s no wonder that the unsettling feeling always seems to come back at you in some shape or form.

 

In my experience, when you go through that valley of the suck; where shit doesn't seem to come together, you just have to keep doing what you can do while finding some joy in it where the reveling in learning through those experiences can help you find some epiphany at some point.

 

 

Edit: I know you were mostly focusing on being verbal for the most part, but does this include using your mind-voice as well? I typically just go with mind-voice since I know talking to myself for several hours would probably seem weird to others around me. :P