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This is part of a series about the concept of kin and its history. For a more comprehensive explanation of what kin is, check here. A glossary is also included at the bottom for convenience. Work on this post started 03 Mar, 2022, but it was completed and posted on 04 Mar, 2022.
This post does not talk about kin, but rather a kin-adjacent experience. Topics I have covered previously may come up in discussion.
It was last updated on 05 Aug, 2024.
What changed: Two years have passed, this isn't a good post to me anymore.
06 Mar 2022: Small clarification on tulpas 'going rogue' + glossary
... So what exactly is a tulpa?
'Tulpa' is the phonemicization of the Tibetan ‘སྤྲུལ་པ’ meaning 'magical creation', 'emanation' or 'incarnation'. The Tibetan Buddhist Encyclopedia states that it is 'a manifestation created by an adept to accomplish a certain task or tasks'. They are a being or object created through sheer discipline alone, and are sometimes referred to as a 'thought form'. The encyclopedia also likens them to a golem.
You may be wondering what Tibetan Buddhism has to do with anything related to modern internet culture. You'd be right to wonder, but there is an answer.
Some time in the early 2010s (at earliest 2009), tulpas are discussed on 4chan's /x/ board. Some of these people took the concept seriously and an IRC channel was eventually made to keep the discussion going. A member of Tulpa.info says they moved the discussion to multiple threads (mentioning /a/ and /jp/) until it found its way to /mlp/ in a lucid dreaming thread. Eventually dedicated tulpa threads are created and they lasted until May of 2012, when Tulpa.info is created and the community moves over there.
The proper plural of 'tulpa' is apparently 'tulpae', but 'tulpas' will suffice. It seems generally agreed by the layman that tulpas are another form of turning your imaginary friend into a (debatably) real person.
The reputation of the western tulpa is generally poor. The most well known cases of people having tulpas tend to be the 4chan stories where their tulpas have turned against them, such as the person who claimed to be repeatedly raped by their tulpas of the mane six because they got a girlfriend. There's also this story of a Pearl tulpa (with another anon chiming in with his Peridot tulpa), and this strange relationship an anon had with his Pearl tulpa. These stories are almost guaranteed to be jokes or roleplays, however they've done their damage.
They also are scorned in the OSDDID community because they use terms specific to and coined for the OSDDID experience, as well as their habit of going into the community when they aren't supposed to. They seem to have habits similar to soulbonds and are treated accordingly. Non-trauma plurality is becoming more accepted as a possibility in the community, however it's still a source of hostility as term are appropriated and misinformation is spread. DID is a trauma-based disorder - of course people are going to get angry if you keep talking about non-trauma forms of plurality and taking away from the conversation!
Soulbonds and tulpas, while treated similarly, do have key differences:
*Most of these stories originate from 4chan and should be treated accordingly. However, it seems problems arise in Tibetan Buddhism if a tulpa is not properly 'dissolved' before its creator passes, among other instances.
- Tulpas are created by their host in their entirety. Soulbonds are generally a connection established with an already existing entity, albeit in a different world.
- Tulpas seem to be generally accepted as 'system members' and tulpamancers are often considered 'systems'. Soulbonders may be considered a system (or 'collective'), but a soulbond being able to take over its bonder's body likely requires a lot more work.
- Tulpas are not always a fictional character, while soulbonds tend to always be (even if said fictional character is the bonder's OC).
- Tulpamancers seem to continue appropriating OSDDID terms. Soulbonders as I've seen are moving away from these terms and creating alternatives.
- It seems that tulpas, more often than not, go rogue.*
The reason they are conflated is down to community behaviour - their reputations are poor because they both have had bad people use them in similar ways (blaming poor actions on their creation or manipulating others) and both are considered a way to 'legitimize' an imaginary friend. Tulpas generally have a worse reputation than soulbonds as they're seen as cultural appropriation by some. There was an interesting essay I was linked to on the concept a few years ago, but it's been completely defaced and is unreadable now. It is worth mentioning that soulbonders, while considering themselves different, do see the similarities between themselves and tulpamancers.
The concept of a tulpa in the west has existed in other forms, though is not always called a tulpa. You'll likely hear the word thought-form, which according to Wiktionary is 'a manifestation of the thoughts, ideas or emotions of someone'. It also notes that these are said to take form in the spirit world.
I'm not sure how, but the insanity of tulpas causes me to take soulbonding more seriously. However, I still consider both feeding into some sort of delusion - especially since the kind of person to make a tulpa likely has no idea what they're doing. Whether or not there are legit tulpamancers out there is a mystery to me, and not one I intend to solve. Don't harass anyone you see who claims to have a tulpa, just leave them alone.
SOURCES
Guy gets fucked over by Mane Six tulpas (screenshot)
Peridot + Pearl thread (archive)
The other Pearl thread (screenshot)
GLOSSARY
TULPA + 4CHAN TERMS
- Tulpamancy: A Buddhist practice appropriated by /mlp/ to talk to their beloved ponies
- Tulpa: A manifestation created to accomplish a certain task; created through sheer discipline alone
- Tulpamancer: A person who practices tulpamancy
- Tulpa.info: Website containing information on tulpamancy and tulpas
- Thought-form: A manifestation of the thoughts, ideas or emotions of someone
- /x/: Paranormal
- /a/: Anime
- /jp/: Otaku culture
- /mlp/: Pony
SYSTEM TERMS
- OSDDID: Umbrella term referring to DID and OSDD
- System: A person with OSDDID is often called a system - should not be used by other communities, though they often have no alternative
- Host: The alter that is in control the most is considered the host
OTHER
- Golem: Part of Jewish folklore - an anthropomorphic being made of inanimate matter that has symbolized many things
- Soulbonding: To form or experience a robust connection with one or more fictional characters
- Soulbond: The character you're bonded with
- Soulbonder: Often shorted to bonder - the person who is soulbonding, the 'host'
- Mane six: Used to refer to the main characters of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic
- Cultural appropriation: Taking a piece of another culture and adopting it in a way that is disrespectful to the original culture
Comments
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gaz ☆
nice work
there was a week or two in my teens where i tried to make a tulpa. heads up, though, pretty sure those 4chan stories about tulpas "going rogue" are widely understood to be jokes/roleplays
Understood. Reading up on it, it makes sense since Steven Universe came out much after Tulpa.info. Hopefully stories like these aren't too common in more 'prestigious' circles, for lack of better word. I'll update the post when I get out of bed.
I feel like everyone at some point has tried to make a tulpa. I didn't necessarily try to make a tulpa, but I did really want an imaginary friend in middle school - glad I didn't fall down that rabbit hole!
by Nikita; ; Report