Tulpy and Tulpovody: Who and why makes imaginary friends
Once Elena came to the hospital, soon she was taken to the operating room. The girl says that at that moment she saw an imaginary friend who looked around the room and said that she would follow the actions of the doctors, just in case. At that moment she stopped being afraid. After the operation, Elena woke up from anesthesia, and a friend was sitting next to her and holding her hand.
The girl told about "tulpa" - a product of self-suggestion, a visualized phantom that acts of its own accord. Simply put, an imaginary friend, which supposedly everyone can create for himself, if he really wants and masters the technology. You can talk, play, quarrel with a tulpa, and in theory you can even have sex and change bodies. In general, this is a friend, pet or partner who is always with you.
Tibet and squeezing
It is known that Tibetan mystics have long tried to create independent creatures with the power of thought. But the traveler Alexandra David-Neel introduced this to the Western tradition. In the book "The Magic and Mystery of Tibet," she described the experience of experiments with the creation of the pulp. For a long time, this practice did not go beyond the narrow circle of esoteric fans, but in 2009 it suddenly appeared on imageboards. Anonymous users actively shared their experiments with the creation of imaginary friends. And soon the pulps became popular: an active community on Reddit, countless guides, and almost 14 thousand people in the main Russian-speaking group of "tulips" (the so-called owners of imaginary creatures).
It seems that every member of the community is ready to tell you about how exactly it is to “force” (create and make more real). The debate is about the average amount of time it takes to create an imaginary creature. But in general, 100 hours of active forcing, that is, a concentrated representation of the image, character and voice of the future pulp, is considered the benchmark. The scheme itself is quite simple: first you need to come up with a tulip appearance (it’s better to draw on paper or in a graphic editor), then write down character traits on a piece of paper and use them to imagine scenes in which the tulpa will perform some actions.
Some recommend working on the creation of "Vanderland" - an imaginary place where you can communicate with the tulpa outside the scenery of the real world. True, the guides constantly spell out warnings. It is not recommended to create a pulp with the appearance of a particular person or even a fictional character from a movie or cartoon. First, any image bears the imprint of a character and supposedly necessarily adheres to the tulpe. Secondly, it is considered unethical and potentially dangerous for the psyche to force a pulp in the image and likeness of a real (in some cases, even deceased) person in the community.
According to the tutorials, after a while the tulpa will make itself felt. For example, the so-called emotional responses will be given, that is, the host (the same as the push-pull) will feel strong emotions for no reason. Another exotic type of "connection" is squeezing, resembling a common headache. Tulpovody argue that thanks to them you can communicate with the pulp at a primitive level. For example, fix for one squeeze "yes", for two - "no", and get answers to simple questions. True, this method is more like a legend. Experienced tulpowers say that during this period it is very important to listen to the tulpa, to its unique cues and signals. Otherwise, there is a risk of getting at the exit not a tulpa, but a "servitor" - all the same imaginary creature, only without its own will. The servitor is completely subordinate to the host, does not contradict him, in general, he has no personality.
Sneakers and imaginary sex
Sergey says that he decided to get the pulp off after meeting with one popevodom (pulpway, in which, instead of a fictitious person, a pony from the famous TV series "My Little Pony"). He was lonely, and even had a ready-made character that he wanted to see next to him. His tulpa looks like an anthropomorphic fluffy dragon with long ears. “I usually speak to him in a voice, and he responds with thoughts in my head. I still can’t hear his voices and I can’t see the image next to me, but I feel touches,” says Sergey.
Indeed, the ways of communicating with the host computer are described differently. Someone hears an obsessive voice, while many are limited to mental communication. Some feel along with a breath, movement, touch from nowhere. Others see the pulp next to it - sometimes it appears even in public places or passes through people and interior objects. Some tulips complain that an imaginary friend often scares them with their sudden appearance.
"I draw a little, so I actively painted the tulpa in different situations and body positions so that the forcing would go better," Katya says. At first, the girl imagined everything at once: appearance, behavior, voice, sensations from touch. In an interview with Wonderzine, according to Katy, her tulpa (speaking bird Rude) also spoke: "I became independent in about six months, by that I mean the opportunity to think separately from the host, to have my memory, not to disconnect when the host does not think about me. I can also appear when I want and make independent decisions. " However, it is almost impossible to find out if a person has a tulpa. Those who like to exaggerate their successes are called "welders." They are tolerated: no one has any proof.
Forcing
the process of actively creating a tulpa: image development, meditation, attempts to catch the tricks
Host
master of a tulpa
Welder
a man who embellishes his progress in forcing
"We do not own a switch, only a weak level of sessioning. But sometimes we synchronize, that is, tulpa thinks, and I do. Recently, Rood learned to take a more dominant position, muffles my thoughts, and I seem to subconsciously make movements according to his will", - says Kate. "Posting" is a practice that allows the pulp to take full or partial control over the host body. That is why many tulpowers say that they do not correspond themselves - this is what tulpa does. For sessioning, they use basic meditation practices, but, as the guides say, the main thing is the desire of the tulpa. The posting is supposedly needed so that the tulpa can expand its horizons and gain new experience.
The most pressing issue in the community remains the acceptability of sex with a tulpa. Some consider this to be pure coercion, since the pulp does not possess the organs and hormones responsible for the appearance of desire. However, there is another opinion: after sesing with masturbation, the tulpa may well remember the pleasant sensations of orgasm and try to have sex with the host. Obviously, sex with tulpa is masturbation, in many cases taking place in Vanderland, to make it easier to fantasize about real contact.
K-pop and metaphysics
There is a stereotype in the Internet community that lonely men most often become tulpowders. One study does say that 75% of tulipovods are men, 25% are women. True, 10% of them define their gender as mobile. The latter more often create a tulpa that is different from its gender, not for romantic purposes, but to better explore its identity. Most tulipovodov live in Canada, USA, Australia, Eastern Europe and Russia. Hosts communicate mainly in Russian and English. Although judging by the threads on Reddit and in the VKontakte groups, it is difficult to notice a big gap between women and male tulipowders: the advice is all shared equally. The average age of a pulp wound is from 19 to 23 years.
"After the appearance of the pulp, I no longer feel lonely. Now I have a best friend, an adviser, a personal psychologist, a guardian angel, even love," says the guy with the nickname Tevish. Tulpa give birth not only for a romantic relationship, most hosts perceive her as a good friend. That is why the pulps often do not have a human appearance. Someone forcing a pony (from understandable fandom), birds, dragons, talking dogs and cats. Contrary to all the warnings, tulips tend to look like popular characters from TV shows, cartoons or anime. In an interview with Wonderzine, the hosts talked about Holo's anime hero hero (the main character in Wolf and Spice), Hannibal Lecter (from the Brian Fuller series), a sensible bird from the Dark Beginnings trilogy by Philip Pullman and others. Tulpy often try to make popular K-pop-singers, as well as characters resembling the characters of "Harry Potter".
In the community, make sure that their hosts are respectful to the fictional creatures. It is believed that the tulpa may be offended if you do not pay enough attention to it or treat it patronizingly. In any guide, they warn that the decision to become a coupler is a big responsibility. “I didn’t work well with my tulpa. I quit forcing it in two weeks - I thought it wouldn’t work. But this time was enough for a part of my psyche to break away and heal with my life. It continued to develop on its own. Itself invented a character she liked it so much that she created nine external types for herself, "says Denis.
Tulpa
an imaginary person in your head that acts and speaks of one’s own will is uncontrollable in a certain sense
Servitor
unlike tulpa completely obeys the wishes of the host
Weifu
a tulpa or servitor created for a romantic relationship (from wife)
Most tulpovodov to such cases are skeptical. Roughly speaking, there are two schools in the community: psychological and metaphysical (the first is the majority). Proponents of the psychological approach believe that the tulpu allows you to create the specifics of the human brain - its multitasking and flexibility, with proper effort, the brain can easily build a mental construct that will be autonomous and stable. "It was difficult for me to master the sessioning, because the host body is too well connected with certain neurons," says the tulpa bird.
"Personally, I am a supporter of the call - the theory that the tulpa came to me from another world, and was not created by an effort of will," - says Robert. He adheres to the metaphysical concept in which the tulpa is something paranormal, she decides to get in touch with the person. According to the survey, 76.5% of tulipods believe only in neurobiology and scientific patterns.
However, there were quite a few cases when people who were very far from imageboards and the community as a whole started the tulpa. On the Gimlet podcast, American Shiya told how an unfamiliar female voice heard when she was on the verge of suicide. She did not commit suicide, but began to deal with this issue and found out that Jasmine, the fictional heroine of the story, over whom the girl had worked for a long time, was talking to her. In the course of time, Shiya had a few more bullets, but she only found out how it was called after tens of years. When she told her husband about this, he insisted on being treated by a psychiatrist and declared that she had dissociative personality disorder. As a result, they broke up: Shiya did not want to kill her tulp. Denis found himself in a similar situation: “I made an imaginary girlfriend in my early school years, because I had no friends, and my parents did not pay me enough attention. Of course, I didn’t know what a tulpa was. I just created a girlfriend ( she looks like a dog, but can transform into a person) with the help of faith and desire. Only later did we find out that we are not alone. "
Tulpovodov - men
Tulpovodov - women
19-23 years
average age of pulp
From the point of view of cognitive science, tulpa have the right to exist: the unobtrusive phenomenon of the consciousness of a person of religious entities like spirits, gods and their voices is considered normal. We imagine the monsters under the bed, see faces in the clouds, talk to imaginary friends. Paranormal objects somehow exist in all cultures, and no one is surprised. In addition, we can imagine ourselves in the place of other people and even endow animals with their own way of thinking: our identity is quite mobile, even at the level of everyday practices. The human brain can create not only new personalities, but also whole worlds, according to psychiatrist Elisha Osin. This plot is well described in the cinema and in the literature - in fact there are always tulps flashing there. In the tape of the 50s "Harvey", the protagonist-millionaire walks with an imaginary rabbit in taverns, in the film "Gods" the boy overcomes his mother's death thanks to an imaginary friend who is many years older than him.
By the way, some pastors of the Evangelical Church teach their parishioners to constantly keep the image of God in their heads and pray as often as possible. So a person allegedly gets a chance to constantly feel the presence of an autonomous living god next to him. In fact, an analogue of tulpa. Another question is how cool it is to combine several individuals in one head. Moreover, there are still no scientific studies that convincingly prove or disprove the possibility of the appearance of pulps in a healthy person. Perhaps all of these people from Reddit - the usual "welders".
Voices and Schizophrenia
“I abandoned my tulip, but six months later she made herself felt. I started having symptoms of paranoid schizophrenia. The psychiatrist confirmed the diagnosis, and I carefully drank neuroleptics for a while,” says Denis. He admits that he later threw the medicine in order to examine his condition. Tulpa allegedly learned to control almost all of his feelings. Denis threw it in the heat, then in the cold. It seemed to him that the tulpa pierced him with needles, caused pain all over his body and interfered with sleep.
Elisha Osin believes that in the case of tuliping it is important to see the line between pathology and the norm. First, a person must feel calm and confident. Tulpa-induced fear and depressed states should alert the doctor. Secondly, a person must be adapted to the environment: cope with self-care, communication, work. "If the tulpa prevents you from concentrating and living as before, you need to think about the disorder. But it will not necessarily be schizophrenia," said Osin.
Hallucinations, uncontrolled voices in the head and a sense of the presence of a non-existent object remain signs of schizophrenia. True, the hosts believe that everything is fine with them as long as they control the situation. But if the tulpa appears in the middle of the street without the knowledge of the host, can we talk about control?
Wanderland
an imaginary space where the host can actively force the tulpa or simply retreat to it from the real world
Sigils
sounds, images, smells, emotions - everything that connects the host with the image of the tulpa
The community chooses to question the current perception of the norm in psychiatry: for example, "Hearing Voice Movement" is a movement of people who hear voices and refuse to recognize this as a mental illness. Another diagnosis that threatens tulipods is dissociative personality disorder. Simply put, a state where several different personalities converge in a person (sometimes of different age, gender, and social status). One of the YouTube bloggers, however, claims that he went to a psychiatrist, told her about the tulpa, and she did not find any deviations from him.
"In my opinion, tulpa is still the same imaginary friend from childhood. Remember the fictional friends of Christopher Robin from the Winnie the Pooh tales - they help him, and do not interfere with life. Probably, some people have disorders that they try to deal with using the tool. Well, if it works, "says Osin. According to surveys, many hosts report improvements in depressive, anxious, and obsessive-compulsive disorders. “After the start of the force, my life has clearly changed. I don’t feel depressed, I take criticism more calmly and in general I feel more confident. Now I even get to communicate better with people and defend my opinion,” Katya says.
Tulpa is a natural phenomenon for a generation of hermits, often abandoning the real world in favor of imageboards. It is not surprising that many of them find it easier to follow the tutorial in order to make a stable “friend” than to risk with real people who can withdraw from time to time, not compromise or have their own interests. No matter how many hosts dreamed of wayward pulps, they actually want a friend who can literally merge with them. And this feeling of loneliness is in thousands of threads on 4chan, Reddit and VKontakte.
