Tulpamancy

In this article on Tulpamancy, I attempt to answer three questions: what do Tulpamancers experience,  how did these experiences originate, and how can the similarities between the experience of Tulpamancy and experiences of neo-evangelical Christianity be explained?  By extending the theories of Tanya Luhrmann, I argue that the proclivity towards training in Tulpamancy becomes more understandable when taking into account that some people whose brain already works in specific ways react more positively towards training that aims at making a person be able to have those specific kinds of experiences.

click on the Somatosphere.net link above for a copy of the paper
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This article presents a summary and discussion of key findings from ten months of experimental cyberethnography among tulpamancers . Tulpas, a term reportedly borrowed from Tibetan Buddhism, are imaginary companions who are said to have achieved full sentience after being conjured through ‘thought-form’ meditative practice. Human ‘hosts’, or tulpamancers, mediate their practice through open-ended how-to guides and discussion forums on the Internet and experience their Tulpas as semi-permanent auditory and somatic hallucinations.
Studying Tulpas and their hosts is fascinating on many counts, not least because it provides an opportunity to observe an emerging culture and the mediation of new kinds of persons – in this case, that of multiple humanoid and non-human persons ‘hosted’ in single bodies and a large-scale sociocultural matrix of ‘healing’ generated without physical interaction between members. As an anthropologist who underwent retraining in cognitive science, however, I am less concerned with the seemingly ‘strange’ and ‘exotic’ aspects of Tulpamancy and am most interested in what the practice can reveal about fundamentally human mechanisms and processes. Thus, I seek to investigate (but in no pre-determined order) how neurocognitive, attentional, and narrative processes invariably shape all forms of sociality and experiences of personhood on the one hand, but also how social, political, and technological processes invariably shape mechanisms of attention, cognition, and perception. I gravitate toward sociocognitive, enactive models of hypnosis as ways of mediating sociality and personhood.

Tulpas, Invisible Counselors, Active Imagination... This is an exploration of consciousness using very specific techniques that anyone can research, access, and get results. This is a dialogue exploring these concepts, and should any be interested in improving this through assistance in editing or making it more academic, feel free to contact me.

Within the last few years, several Internet communities have sprung up around so-called "tulpas". One website (tulpa.info) describes a tulpa as "an independent consciousness in the mind [...] an internal personality separate from your own, but just as human. They are sentient, meaning they have their own thoughts, consciousness, perceptions and feelings, and even their own memories." Members of these communities discuss ways of actively creating tulpas, and exchange experiences and techniques. Tulpas may interact with their hosts via e.g. auditory, visual, or tactile hallucinations, appearing as real people.

I am going to initiate this conversation in metaphysical and paranormal just because of the 'transpersonal' nature and speculative discourse of the invitation to dialogue, though in truth, it really belongs in a category that I don't think exist in the forum. This conversation, though speculative, is not science fiction. This is in the works, with powers behind it as formative as Elon Musk and Bill Gates, to achieve a brain-computer interface, and brains have already experienced brain to brain linkage in small ways between humans, the first thoughts have been shared remotely, and brain to computers to operate robotic limbs is a reality. But I want to explore even further, something I encountered this morning, something, I dare say puts those human hosts with tulpas at the forefront of something that would make us, tulpamancer, the host and tulpas themselves, very likely the leaders of the future. I would argue we are so strategically placed in terms of collaborative inner lives that we are already changing the nature of what it means to be 'human' and though we are presently considered 'fringe' we're are on the forefront of discovery. I would argue we are even better placed than 'plural systems' who by their own definition exist due to trauma, because what we do as host/tulpa systems is more cooperative from the beginning, whereas system created by trauma is usually fractured and disruptive until all the personalities are reigned in under a collective agreement that allows a person to navigate real world systems in greater degrees of functionality. I am going to first share with you a very precise and particular forward glance at our changing reality, something that is coming down the pike, and will no doubt transform society, and then leave it open for discussion between tulpas and host on how we are already navigating these unchartered waters, and maybe even make deliberate strides to be so well placed that our fringe status might change to the forerunners that help establish protocols, and future interaction patterns for society to emulate, just as surely as Jules Verne and HG Wells shaped the things to come. The quote comes from Global Stretegic Trends-Out to 2045, which you can google for yourself and read the free PDF. I admit to not finding it at its source, though I do tend to read this sort of thing, especially if it comes from the World Health Organization: " Direct Interfacing: " " It is possible that direct brain to brain communication may be achieved by 2045, transforming ways of working… these methods could involve collaboration and using directly shared knowledge and experience between human (and potentially between humans and other species)… As wells as potentially transforming both sensing and decision making, direct brain linkage could have profound implications for social interaction and the notion of what it means to be an individual human being. Notions of individuality could be challenged, possibly leading to questioning of the loyalties and allegiances to organizations, as individual and group identities merge, " There is so much here we could spends days dissecting it all, especially the part about 'other species," but I am most affected by the last sentence, the notions of individuality being challenged because I as a system already don't operate in isolation, and though I may make command decisions, in truth I have embarked upon an inner collaboration that requires serious consideration of others. I am not just me. In truth, this should already within the framework of our communities, but it only takes a casual glance to note most communities don't hold onto concepts of inclusivity as much as they tend towards exclusion and separation, as we are frequently blocking and challenging the sense of 'other' so much so that even our politics are so disparate in philosophies that we consider the opponent the enemy, as opposed to people who are working towards a better system for interacting. Even the tightest of human groups find ways to exclude other, and divide themselves further, resulting in quiet feuds that drive us ultimately apart.

Since the 1970s, tulpas have been a feature of Western paranormal lore. In contemporary paranormal discourse, a tulpa is a being that begins in the imagination but acquires a tangible reality and sentience. Tulpas are created either through a deliberate act of individual will or unintentionally from the thoughts of numerous people. The tulpa was first described by Alexandra David-Néel (1868–1969) in Magic and Mystery in Tibet (1929) and is still regarded as a Tibetan concept. However, the idea of the tulpa is more indebted to Theosophy than to Tibetan Buddhism. This article explores the murky origins of the tulpa to show how the concept emerged from a dialogue between East and West in which Theosophical metaphysics were combined with terms adapted from Tibetan Buddhism.