Why Do We Get Head Pressure?

[Rootbeer128]

[Whenever I get really comfortable and relaxing i usually start to give rootbeer head pressure. same with alice, i think.]

 

{Yes, it happens to us as well. i give head pressure wehn i'm relaxed and comfy.}

 

Yes. Whenever Sim and Alice get really relaxed and comfortable, they usually start to give head pressure. Sometimes it hurts a little, but for the most part it's started to feel rather relaxing; a sort of pressure or fullness to my mind. I believe Cloud gave a little bit of it today when she was napping earlier.

[Pleeb]

Your brain uses over 20% of your entire body's energy. That's a lot for an organ that's maybe 1/40th of your body weight. We already know that meditation changes the structure of the brain, and tulpaforcing is a specific form of meditation; a very intense, concentrative, form. Tulpaforcing is a very mentally intensive process, and for those who aren't used to "cranking their brain," there's going to be a lot of things going on that you're not used to. Ever work muscles that have never been worked before? They strain, they stress, they ache. I was reading an article earlier on how thinking too hard does take its toll on the brain, that might tie into this as well.

 

It's probably also perceptual. People get headaches yet there's actually no pain receptors in the brain itself. The brain is what actually processes pain, so if there's a reason you need to feel headpressure somewhere, the brain simply needs to point in that area and say "Pain, here, now." I know tulpas who are able to "create" headpressure for their hosts, and I can consciously create headpressure, myself, if I focus enough on doing it.

 

It's probably a mix of both strain on the brain (orange juice, anyone?) and perceptual.

[Yakumo]

Sure, that explains feeling exhausted or getting headaches during or after extensive forcing or other activities that require a high amount of concentration, but not head pressures actively caused by tulpas.

I think we should differentiate between the two. If we can, I've never experienced anything that I could call headpressures.

 

About headaches in general, I always thought they were at least partly related to the constriction of blood vessels in the brain, but apparently it is a purely neurological thing, meaning it's all about the activity of nerve cells themselves. I guess it's not the brain actively causing pain but rather a malfunction of neuronal pathways similar to epilepsy. But many forms of pain are still poorly understood, the brain simply can be a bitch sometimes.

 

So, what does headpressure feel like compared to an exhaustion-related headache?

[Stevie]

So, what does headpressure feel like compared to an exhaustion-related headache?

 

Head pressure is like a painless headache, I've seen it explained that way before and it kind of sums it up. It's not like congestion, where it feels like your head is being pumped full of air, it's more like, just pressure. In my experience, it doesn't really seem to "come" from outside or inside, it's just its own thing. Exhaustion headaches are painful, and even when they're in the early stages, there's that sinking feeling that it's only going to get worse.

 

With this, I'm sort of tempted to write up something for the experiment board, but I'm not sure how useful any results might be to the community at large.

[Guest Anonymous]

I think it's connected to cognitive stress. To elaborate - the areas of your brain that you don't usually use, can give you feedback in the form of head pressures/headaches if you subject them to such stress. So lets say that you're an artsy type of guy, for example. When visualising, you won't experience head pressures because you'll be using the areas in your brain that are used most of the time. But you'll most probably get head pressures when vocalizing if you never practiced it, or aren't used to hearing music/sounds in your head.

 

This speculation is based purely on personal experience with tuppermancing and cognitive stress in general.

 

So take it with a grain of salt, since what I've said could be the biggest load of crap anyone said on the topic. Given that my knowledge on neuropsychology could be fit into an A4 paper sheet with nothing but ink blots on it.

[Luminesce]

That's what I've always thought, but there's a problem with that theory (for me in particular). I'm the opposite of artsy, due to my perfectionism disabling me from ever doing something long enough to get good at it (because if I'm bad at it I can't stand to do it in the first place). I'm extremely logical and science-minded. My visualization is/was next-to-nothing before I started attempting to visualize my tulpas and thus training that mental muscle.

 

However, I've not once experienced any kind of head pressures.

 

I've felt many-a-time the weirdness of learning to think or use your mind in a new way, especially in tulpamancy, but I've never gotten this feeling of head pressure that should supposedly come with exercising an entirely new mental muscle. Tulpamancing was the first time in my life I've had a reason to visualize anything, tulpamancing is why I learned how to separate specific sets of thoughts and treat them as separate entities, and tulpamancing aside I sort of base my life around expanding control over my mind, so I experience lots of new things that require completely new mental experience. And not once has it given me a head ache or pressure.

 

But I seem to be an outlier here, so I was thinking... Maybe, my mind is in a way used to not being used to things? The term brain plasticity comes to mind. Is it possible that I don't experience head pressure because my mind is somewhat adapted to working new mental muscles?

 

I don't know, but I find the subject interesting, and think my experience could be useful in understanding it. Maybe.

[Abvieon]

I get head pressures very frequently whilst forcing or passive forcing- and if I am focused on my tulpa enough, the pressures seem to be constant and do not go away or lessen for extended periods of time. Strangely, I almost never get headaches- the last real headache I had occurred about 5 years ago. Therefore, I can confirm that these head pressures are not connected to headaches in my case. The two feel completely different, as well.

[Vani]

Jana did headpressures on me only a couple of times, in the first days of forcing. She hasn't done it since then, she always says that she doesn't like doing it since she's afraid of hurting me, even if it doesn't hurt at all.