Snowflakes drift from the sky, and the wind is bone-chilling. In your rush to get to your first lecture of the day, you left your winter coat hanging on the back of a chair. Your friend abruptly appears beside you, shrugging off his coat before placing it on your shoulders. The sharp wind ceases its assault; you feel the material of the coat on your skin, the added weight of an extra layer of clothing, and a warmth spreading across your body. 

This scene might seem ordinary—a friend offering their coat to shield another from the cold. However, for you, there’s a profound distinction: Nobody else can see him.

This is an experience recounted by a young woman studying at Midwestern University. She is one of the 118 participants in a study conducted by Dr. Samuel Paul Veissière, a psychosocial clinician and Assistant Professor at McGill University. These participants all have one thing in common: a Tulpa.

A modern ‘Tulpa’ is an entity born from the mind. They are autonomous, entirely sentient thought-forms that, according to Stanford anthropologist Michael Lifshitz, inhabit the brain and body of their hosts while often serving as their close friends or confidants. Historically, the concept of a Tulpa finds its roots in Vajrayāna Buddhist cultural practices, where it is used to describe how the physical body of a buddha manifests to help others attain Nirvana, the highest state of enlightenment and the goal of many Buddhist practices. The West has explored this particular idea of a manifested avatar through an interest in Tibetan mysticism before it was repopularized in the twentieth century by, absurdly enough, My Little Pony fans through online forums and message boards. Over time, it has developed into a thriving online culture where tens of thousands of members have formed communities across the internet.

Tulpas are said to develop through consistent meditative practice and cultivation by a tulpamancer, the person engaging in the practice. The primary technique is called “forcing,” which has both an active and passive component. Active forcing requires meditation, self-hypnotism, or visualization, all of which involve the tulpamancer dedicating time and effort into projecting the tulpa’s presence into reality. Passive forcing builds on the assumption that the tulpa already exists in the subconscious, meaning the tulpamancer solely develops an awareness for its presence. Many tulpamancers describe a moment where the tulpa begins to respond unpredictably and autonomously. Typically, the longer one has practiced, the more “tangible” the tulpa feels. Some tulpamancers with 2+ years of experience report being able to “hear and see their Tulpas ‘outside’ their heads.”

An important distinction to make about tulpas is that it is often a non-pathological phenomenon. The generated thought-form is distinct from the hallucinations or voices that appear as a result of dissociative identity disorder or schizophrenia, although certain experiences may be shared. Tulpamancy is considered far more aligned with a meditative practice than a diagnosable disorder. Dr. Veissière also discovered several potential benefits of tulpamancy in his study. Participants reported improved quality life, happiness, or ability to face psychopathological experiences such as depression or anxiety. One participant states: “My ability to read other humans has improved quite a lot since I have been with my Tulpa.” Furthermore, Veissière directly interviewed the tulpas, who conveyed through their hosts that they felt degrees of independence from the host’s cognitive processes, including psychopathological conditions. A tulpa’s transcension of their host’s perceived limitations allow them to be beneficial companions and perhaps even advisors that aid in overcoming fears or challenges.

Tulpamancy emerged as a unique online culture in the twentieth century. The highly individualistic nature of this practice makes it a difficult subject to study, as each tulpa and method of conjuration can differ so drastically. The rise of this relatively new experience raises numerous questions. What percentage of Tulpamancy experiences are truthful? What do Tulpas mean for the malleability of the “self?” How does the internet give birth to new cultures? With the community only growing, this area should continue to be studied to better understand human cognition, sociology, and mysticism.

References

1. Veissière, S. (2016). Varieties of tulpa experiences: The hypnotic nature of human sociality, personhood, and interphenomenality. In A. Raz & M. Lifshitz (Eds.), Hypnosis and meditation: Towards an integrative science of conscious planes (pp. 55–74). Oxford University Press.
2. Lifshitz, M., & Kozhevnikov, M. (2021, May 1). Cultivating relationships with invisible beings: Phenomenology and cognitive mechanisms of Tulpamancy [Video]. Mandala Library. https://av.mandala.library.virginia.edu/video/cultivating-relationships-invisible-beings-phenomenology-and-cognitive-mechanisms-Tulpamancy
3. Campbell, E., & Brennan, J. H. (1994). Body, mind & spirit: A dictionary of new age ideas, people, places, and terms (F. Holt-Underwood, Ed.). C.E. Tuttle Company.
4. Luhrmann, T. M., Alderson-Day, B., Chen, A., Corlett, P., Deeley, Q., Dupuis, D., Lifshitz, M., Moseley, P., Peters, E., Powell, A., & Powers, A. (2023). Learning to Discern the Voices of Gods, Spirits, Tulpas, and the Dead. Schizophrenia bulletin, 49(12 Suppl 2), S3–S12. https://doi.org/10.1093/schbul/sbac005
5. Isler, J. J. (2017). Tulpas and mental health: A study of non-traumagenic plural experiences. Research in Psychology and Behavioral Sciences, 5(2), 36–44. https://doi.org/10.12691/rpbs-5-2-1
6. Martin, A., Thompson, B., & Lancaster, S. (2020, May 11). Personality Characteristics of Tulpamancers and Their Tulpas. https://doi.org/10.31234/osf.io/5t3xk

Image Reference

Banner Image: “Who’s Lila prologue.” Garage Heathen, 2022. Author’s Screenshot.