InTibetan Buddhism and later traditions ofmysticism and theparanormal, atulpa is a materialized being orthought-form, typically in human form, that is created through spiritual practice and intense concentration.[1][2][3]Modern practitioners, who call themselves "tulpamancers", use the term to refer to a type of willedimaginary friend which practitioners consider to be sentient and relativelyindependent. Modern practitioners predominantly consider tulpas to be apsychological rather than aparanormal concept.[4][5][6][7] The idea became an important belief inTheosophy.
The concept of tulpas has origins in the Buddhistnirmāṇakāya, translated in Tibetan assprul-pa (སྤྲུལ་པ་): the earthly bodies that abuddha manifests in order to teach those who have not attainednirvana. The western understanding of tulpas was developed by twentieth-century European mystical explorers, who interpreted the idea independently of buddhahood.[8]
20th-centuryTheosophists adapted theVajrayana concept of theemanation body into the concepts of 'tulpa' and 'thoughtform'.[9] The TheosophistAnnie Besant, in the 1905 bookThought-Forms, divides them into three classes: forms in the shape of the person who creates them, forms that resemble objects or people and may become ensouled by nature spirits or by the dead, and forms that represent inherent qualities from the astral or mental planes, such as emotions.[10] The term 'thoughtform' is also used inEvans-Wentz's 1927 translation of theTibetan Book of the Dead.[11] The concept is also used in the Western practice ofmagic.[12][page needed] TheSlender Man has been described by some people as a tulpa-effect, and attributed to multiple people's thought processes.[13]
OccultistWilliam Walker Atkinson in his bookThe Human Aura described thoughtforms as simple ethereal objects emanating from theauras surrounding people, generating from their thoughts and feelings.[14] He further elaborated inClairvoyance and Occult Powers how experienced practitioners of the occult can produce thoughtforms from their auras that serve asastral projections which may or may not look like the person who is projecting them, or as illusions that can only be seen by those with "awakened astral senses".[15]
SpiritualistAlexandra David-Néel stated that she had observed Buddhist tulpa creation practices in 20th-century Tibet.[8][1] She described tulpas as "magic formations generated by a powerful concentration of thought."[16]: 331 David-Néel believed that a tulpa could develop a mind of its own: "Once the tulpa is endowed with enough vitality to be capable of playing the part of a real being, it tends to free itself from its maker's control. According to David-Néel, this happens nearly mechanically, just as the child, when her body is completed and able to live apart, leaves its mother's womb."[16]: 283 She said she had created such a tulpa in the image of a jollyFriar Tuck-likemonk, which she claimed had later developed independent thought and had to be destroyed.[17][3] David-Néel raised the possibility that her experience was illusory: "I may have created my own hallucination", though she said others could see the thoughtforms that she created.[16]: 176
Influenced by depictions in television and cinema from the 1990s and 2000s, the term tulpa started to be used to refer to a type of willedimaginary friend.[9] Practitioners consider tulpas to be sentient and relatively autonomous.[4] Online communities dedicated to tulpas spawned on the4chan andReddit websites. These communities refer to tulpa practitioners as "tulpamancers". The communities gained popularity whenadult fans ofMy Little Pony started discussing tulpas of characters from theMy Little Pony television series.[4] The fans attempted to use meditation andlucid dreaming techniques to create imaginary friends.[5][18] Surveys by Veissière explored this community's demographic, social, and psychological profiles. These practitioners believe a tulpa is a "real or somewhat-real person".[5] The number of active participants in these online communities is in the low hundreds, and few meetings in person have taken place. They belong to "primarily urban, middle-class, Euro-American adolescent and young adult demographics"[5] and they "cite loneliness and social anxiety as an incentive to pick up the practice".[5] 93.7% of respondents expressed that their involvement with the creation of tulpas has "made their condition better",[5] and led to new unusual sensory experiences. Some practitioners have sexual and romantic interactions with their tulpas, though the practice is controversial and trending towardtaboo.[19] One survey found that 8.5% support ametaphysical explanation of tulpas, 76.5% support a neurological or psychological explanation, and 14% "other" explanations.[5]
Practitioners believe tulpas are able to communicate with their host in ways they sense do not originate from their own thoughts. Some practitioners report experiencing hallucinations of their tulpas. Practitioners that have hallucinations report being able to see, hear and touch their tulpas.[5]
Veissière's survey of 141 respondents found that the rates ofneurodivergence includingautism andattention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) was significantly higher among the surveyed tulpamancers than in the general population. He goes on to speculate that people may be more likely to want to make a tulpa because these groups have a higher level of loneliness. Tulpamancers were typically white, articulate, and imaginative and lived in urban areas.[20] A 2022 study found individuals that did not have psychosis who experienced more than one unusual sensory phenomenon, (in this instanceautonomous sensory meridian response (ASMR) and tulpamancy) were found to have greater hallucination-proneness than people that only experienced one of the two sensory phenomenon.[21]
Somer et al. (2021) described the Internet tulpamancer subculture as being used to "overcome loneliness and mental suffering", and noted the close association with reality shifting (RS), a way of deliberately inducing a form of self-hypnosis in order to escape from current reality into a pre-planned desired reality or "wonderland" of chosen fantasy characters.[20]
The dictionary definition oftulpa at Wiktionary The dictionary definition ofthoughtform at Wiktionary