Tulpa

The Manifestations of Thought

A **Tulpa** is an entity created in the mind, acting independently of, and parallel to mortal consciousness.

## Overview

More commonly known as Egregore, it is an occult concept representing a distinct non-physical entity that arises from a collective group of people. Historically, the concept referred to angelic beings, or watchers, and the specific rituals and practices associated with them, namely within Enochian traditions. More contemporarily, the concept has referred to a psychic manifestation, or thoughtform, occurring when any group shares a common motivation—being made up of, and influencing, the thoughts of the group. The symbiotic relationship between an egregore and its group has been compared to the more recent, non-occult concepts of the corporation (as a juridical person or legal entity) and the meme.

They are able to think, and have their own free will, emotions, and memories. In short, a tulpa is like a sentient person living in someone's head, separate from them. Tulpas can also be inanimate objects, animals, furniture, or creatures. They are created within the Collective Unconscious, the source of humanity's inner-most thoughts and feelings. It is currently unproven whether or not tulpas are truly sentient, but in this community, we treat them as such. It takes time for a tulpa to develop a convincing and complex personality; as they grow older, your attention and their life experiences will shape them into a person with their own hopes, dreams and beliefs.

## Description

The usual reason for creating a tulpa is having them around for companionship, which means that the most important aspect is being able to properly communicate with them. There are different ways of communicating with a tulpa; of which the most common one is through mind-voice. Hearing a tulpa’s mind-voice means hearing thoughts that are not your own, and you respond by directing thoughts of your own back to your tulpa. It can take anywhere from a couple of days to several months to hear your tulpa in this way, and in some cases longer.

An advanced technique in the community is imposition, which consists of hallucinating your tulpa with any of your senses. When you master it, your tulpa will seamlessly fit into reality as you see it with your own eyes, and you’ll be able to hear them speak, smell them, and even feel the texture of their skin and clothes, as if they were really there.

A Tulpa was considered dangerous and often grew bold and out of control, it was not uncommon for stories of Tulpas to turn sinister and even violent as the entities took on poltergeist characteristics or, in extreme cases, became almost demonic and capable of physical harm to others. This is evidenced in one of the most infamous of Tulpas, the Slender Man, a member of the group known as the Creepypastas.

Once a Tulpa grows mischievous or violent it is said that only its creator holds the power to erase it and as such it is seen as vital for them to do so, some tales say that those who fail to do so may even become the final victim of the Tulpa. A tulpa is hard to define, as anything could possibly be a tulpa. While the idea is still being focused on, the object or creature may change and morph into different forms as the idea itself changes. Tulpa can be destroyed by eliminating the thought (if the tulpa is not yet formed properly), or the diluting the concentration of the thought, then destroying the object or creature.

## History

According to legend a Tulpa is an artificial being or "thought form" created by those who have either meditated for prolonged periods of time or mastered some ancient magic: this Tulpa is often invisible but may become visible if its creator is strong enough to will them into existence, much like the Golem of Jewish folklore a Tulpa was considered dangerous and often grew bold and out of control - it was not uncommon for stories of Tulpas to turn sinister and even violent as the entities took on poltergeist characteristics or (in extreme cases) became almost demonic and capable of physical harm to others.

Once a Tulpa grows mischievous or violent it is said that only its creator holds the power to erase it and as such it is seen as vital for them to do so, some tales say that those who fail to do so may even become the final victim of the Tulpa.

## Myths and Legends

### In Fiction

Tulpas have appeared in fiction outwith folklore, a more famous example would be in the X-Files when a Tulpa was created to enforce the draconic laws of a suburban community leader and given life via trash (in a similar manner to a golem) - this Tulpa was murderous but uncontrollable and ultimately murdered its own creator (paralleling the fables, in which Tulpas were notorious for being uncontrollable).

## Notable Tulpas

### Legendary Tulpas

* Boogeyman
* Easter Bunny
* Jack Frost
* Krampus
* Mrs. Claus
* Old Man Winter
* Sandman
* Santa Claus
* Tooth Fairy

### Fictional Tulpas

* Babadook
* Gorefield
* Slender Man
* Zalgo

### Other Tulpas

* Bloody Mary
* Media
* Mr. World
* Polybius
* Technical Boy
* Mr. World
* Zozo

### Non-Tulpas related to the concept

* Alice Liddell
* William Shakespeare

### Tulpas Species/Groups/Classifications

* Christmas Elves - Species
* Christmas Reindeer - Species
* Creepypastas - Classification
* Fables - Species
* New Gods - Species
* Personas - Species
* Shadows - Species

### Tulpa Worlds/Locations

* Land of Oz
* Metaverse
* Otherland
* Santa's Workshop
* Wonderland

## Quotes

* *"So there was this incident in Tibet in 1915. A group of monks visualize a golem in their heads, they meditated on it so hard they brought the thing to life. And that was twenty monks. Imagine what ten-thousand web surfers can do. So, these forums start the story about the Slender Man then it spreads, goes online, and now there's countless people believing in the bastard."* - Lady.

* *"Gods are real if you believe in them."* - Odin about Tulpas.

* *"Tulpa is one of the greatest examples of how powerful mankind can be if they combined their forces together. From a single story or idea, a living entity was born into the living world, manifested from the dreams of humanity. Nightmares and daydreams alike.
There are numerous questions raised about Tulpas, about their potential and power, though the biggest and original questions are undoubtedly: "Are the gods simply tulpas born of humans' worship?" and "Is the supernatural world born because humans can't stop dreaming?" These two questions, unlike any other, may never have an answer."* - Matt Wright.

## Trivia

* It was adapted by 20th-century theosophists from Tibetan sprul-pa (Tibetan: སྤྲུལ་པ་, Wylie: sprulpa) which means "emanation" or "manifestation".
* According to paranormal studies, Tulpas are more common in children than adults.
* The concept of egregorial powers has its roots in ancient Greek culture and in Oriental cultures.
* Tulpas are generally afraid of the Fifth Church and Cosmic Starfish, due to the latter association with the destruction of free will and thought.
* Even though the Lovecraftian Pantheon is known through H.P. Lovecraft, he did not create them which means they are not Tulpas.
	+ This is due to the fact that the Old Ones were the ones who gave him all this information that he wrote down.
* Cryptids are not Tulpas as they exist without human intervention.

## Image Sources

* (Tulpa.jpg) Tulpa by Mario Martinez
* (Music of Gounod - Annie Besant Thought Form - Project Gutenberg eText 16269.jpg) The Music of Gounod - a Thought Form from Thought-Forms by Annie Besant & C.W. Leadbeater
* (Human-head-chakra-power-inspiration.png) Human Chakra by ???