When is a tulpa/thoughtform created?

[chiasmox]

Hey!

Not sure if I'm in the right part of the forum here, but I'll try anyhow.
As a writer and worldbuilder for around a decade now, I've put a lot of thought and energy into one specific character of mine. There's at least another person who believes in him. How do I know when I've created a tulpa of him and how could I possibly verify it?

[CH Moderator]

Topic moved to suitable section.

[Lewk]

Hey!

Not sure if I'm in the right part of the forum here, but I'll try anyhow.
As a writer and worldbuilder for around a decade now, I've put a lot of thought and energy into one specific character of mine. There's at least another person who believes in him. How do I know when I've created a tulpa of him and how could I possibly verify it?

tl/dr: Someone with good enough psychic sensitivity - eg a practitioner that creates character bindings or sentient servitors - could sense your character or a tulpa of them.

It's a fascinating and quite complex field.

Well, firstly, every thought resonates on some level and creates an energy picture, which some sensitives can read as a psychic picture in your aura. (On another level, a very subtle one, every thought every one of us has had is kind of stored somewhere. Maybe like what people call the Akashic Records.)

Next stage would be repeated thinking of something that creates what many would call a thought form. This can be a repeated worry, a habitual thought - for example, maybe a character that a writer has carried in their mind for a long time. I remember reading about a study carried our by 2 occultists in the early days of the Golden Dawn. They visited places like churches and different types of buildings then drew the energy thoughtforms that had built up there - their shapes and colours. I remember one church that had a thought form reaching up into the heavens, created by all the repeated prayers of congregations there. Then people talk about egregore - thought forms created by crowds of people, eg on a busy street.

For individuals, their thought form can be a mental energy that gets fed every time we have that reflex fear or thought. A well known mid-20th century hermeticist, Franz Bardon, called these larvae. He said they kind of take on a mind of their own and can create paranormal effects. He taught thought control to starve them of the person's built up mental energy. This is kind of a paranormal angle on obsessive or intrusive thinking - mental complexes. At this stage they are 'just' thought forms that plague the sufferer. But I think someone can, in theory, develop a detailed internal thought form of a person they think is an evil magician persecuting them, so strongly that it could probably act as if it had sentience and they could hold conversations with it. (Franz Bardon would have called this kind of thoughtform a 'schema'.)

To me the word Tulpa describes a thought form created by someone, which has broken free of the person and gone walkabout. The classic description of one of these is hidden away in Alexandra David Neel's fascinating autobiography Magic and Mystery in Tibet. That one not only becomes independent of its creator but is seen by other people.

So, if you want to use a generic word like thought form, there are different stages of accretion, patterning and solidification. Whether that is unwitting or intentional. And a thought form is either within one's own mental energy field or has detached itself and become indpendent.

This natural phenomenon has been exploited to create tulpas/thoughtforms/ constructs/servitors that are programmed to obey their creator and carry out certain tasks. Some are fully sentient and evolve to become indistinguishable from 'natural' spirits. There are vast numbers of half formed and broken thought forms out there too in the psychic background.

Then there's the issue of mass belief in beings like religious figures. On the astral these become thought forms of the built up energy of worship and belief. And well known fictional characters too. (Some expert practitioners have been able to offer fictional character bindings.)

tl/dr: Depending on how you define or use words like tulpa or thoughtform, we all have them to some extent but most haven't achieved independence or even semi-sentience. However all characters exist somewhere on the astral.

Eclipse Metaphysical sell a programmable guardian (sentient servitor) that you can turn into your favourite character. It draws on what is known to the mass consciousness of the human race. The more widely known the character is, the better defined the guardian becomes.

[chiasmox]

Whoops, kind of embarrassing how I haven't seen this specific subforum...

Thanks, @Lewk! Love your detailed answer.

With all this in mind, what do you believe is the phenomenon behind authors claiming that their characters have become independent when writing? It feels like they've become sentient, and I can definitely agree with that statement in regards to how I vibe with my own character. At this point he has become something of an alter ego and feels like a tulpa to me.

[Lewk]

Whoops, kind of embarrassing how I haven't seen this specific subforum...

Thanks, @Lewk! Love your detailed answer.

With all this in mind, what do you believe is the phenomenon behind authors claiming that their characters have become independent when writing? It feels like they've become sentient, and I can definitely agree with that statement in regards to how I vibe with my own character. At this point he has become something of an alter ego and feels like a tulpa to me.

I'm a would-be writer myself. I've done a few courses and belong to a writer's group, so I think I know what you mean. Yes, the character becomes so familiar and alive in your mind's eye.

I haven't got an definitive answer. And, by the way, in my profile I say I'm on the learning path. I don't claim to be a master or practitioner. But...I have read several books on sentient servitor creation and have created some, using spelled or programmed items. Maybe the key word here is creation.

- When we create a fictional character, we build up an image of them, as well as fairly detailed knowledge of their history, skills, their personality etc.

- When creating a servitor (people use these words slightly differently), we also engage in an act of creation, imagining their appearance, abilities, to the extent that that is needed.

The difference between the 2 is probably partly: a) intention and b) location.

With creative writing, the being is a mental construct whose location is lodged in our mind / neural pathways. I think quite a few well known writers have talked about how their characters come alive in their mind and can be dialogued with. (I think some people might happily call that a tulpa or a nascent tulpa.) And there is no intention to create an energy being.

With conscious construct/servitor creation (I know less about tulpamancy), depending on the method, it will commonly be located outside of the person's mind or body. The intention is there to create an independent entity - one that is programmed to be under the creator's control.

I really like the 1950s movie Forbidden Planet, starring Leslie Neilsen and based on Shakespeare's The Tempest. Spoiler alert: In that film you see a rampaging monster that is the undisciplined Id of the scientist/Prospero character, who has unwittingly released it while using advanced alien tech to increase his intelligence. There seems to be a metaphysical lesson in there somewhere.

...but I don't think writers need worry that their fictional character creations will go on the rampage in the real world, like undisciplined tulpas. (Although that could be a good idea for an SF story.)

[Arcanae]

@Lewk - Wow, it's really amazing to reading this topic. I'm a occasional writer too and I REALLY agree with you! Your characters become like real person. It's amazing to imagine that I could "manifesting'' them.

I have a character who's with me (I created him when I was a child) and I often put him in my writing. I think he could be a great candidat for creating a thoughform because of the amount of energy I put in him (I'm 23 now). I have to do more researches! Thank you for sharing

[cairngorn]

I remember reading that account of the tulpa. What struck me was the way she tried to create a jolly monk and he ended up far more severe and scary, either because she was creating with some fear or he had his own ideas about who to be. Once she'd actually brought him out, he was difficult to make go away.

I've heard of several authors who've "hallucinated" their characters, but I don't think most character forms stick around after the author's done writing. Might be wrong, but they seem unlikely to go full tulpa.

[PrincessKnight]

So, do you think that well known characters like, for example, Sherlock Holmes or Harry Potter may have become independent thoughtforms?