caflecthegoblin

[caflecthegoblin]

Host talking here, just wanted to say this because, somehow, people are still pushing the Tulpamancy=Tibetan practice myth, and it needs addressing.

Myth/oversimplification: Tulpamancy is, or is based on a Tibetan Buddhist closed practice, therefore tulpamancy is bad because something something cultural appropriation.

Fact: Tulpamancy, or at least the word tulpa, is very loosely inspired by a single chapter in a 1929 book on mysticism in Tibet written by a French Theosophist named Alexandra David Neel, who visited in the 1920s and wrote about a time she supposedly learned about tulpas and even took a crack at creating one (and spending 6 months destroying it after it supposedly became too powerful and turned malicious, hence the tulpa stereotype of the 'imaginary friend turned evil!').

However, there are no contemporary sources, nor sources written by any actual Tibetans or Buddhists (and it's not just a matter of their practices not being written down, you CAN find many texts on esoteric practices of Tibetan Buddhism if you bother to look) to suggest it was an actual practice in those days. David-Neel is generally well-regarded among Buddhists of today for her early look into Tibetan culture, but in the end she is still an outsider looking in.

Most agree that the term as David Neel used it, was most likely a misunderstanding of the term SprulPa, which refers to the earthly bodies that Buddhas manifest as to teach those who have not achieved Nirvana. There might also be a bit of the word Tulku, which refers to individuals who are recognised as the reincarnation of a past teacher, Bodhisattva or other enlightened being (like the Dalai Lama). And yes, there are some Indian Buddhist sources that talk about 'mind-made bodies', but this is less referred to as an ability one can attain with training and practice, and more a power that Buddhas have.

It also holds some vague similarity to the Yidam, a sort of meditational focal point in the form of a Buddha, Bodhisattva or other Tibetan deity or spirit, that the practitioner visualises in vivid detail and then identifies themselves with, in an attempt to internalise their qualities and attributes (wisdom from Manjushri, good health from the Medicine Buddha, compassion from Green Tara, etc). This is considered a higher esoteric practices amongst Buddhists, though not a closed one: if you've done the necessary preliminary practices and been empowered and taught by a Lama or Guru to do the practice, it doesn't matter if you're Tibetan or not. Many practitioners will choose particular Yidams they focus on for whatever reason, and may refer to them as 'my Yidam', but it's important to note that such deities are agreed upon to already 'exist' with the only creation on the practitioners part being the mental image of them, rather than being created wholecloth by the practitioner.

There are older Western practices similar to tulpamancy, such as the Theosophical concept of the Thoughtform, which is described as simple ethereal objects that emanate from one's aura, generated by thoughts and feelings. Or the Fylgja, a sort of spirit of Germanic folklore that is a projection of one's own soul, often taking an animal form or a form of the opposite gender of their respective human. However in neither case is the entity, be it a thoughtform or a Fylgja, considered to be a separate, sentient being in the way a modern tulpa is.

So as far as I am able to glean, the modern practice of tulpamancy is just that: a modern idea. And as loathe as I am to say it, it seems like it mostly just originated from the /x/ board on 4Chan. Some well-read channer probably heard about David Neel and her supposed tulpa experience and decided the word would work great for this concept as they devised it.

Hope this clears things up for people, and helps us get one step closer to finally doing away with this whole myth about Tulpamancy being some ancient Tibetan mystical practice, and that the term is a bad word because of that.

[caflecthegoblin]

A bit late to the party, but we got our roster and account all set for this year! Have at it :)

[caflecthegoblin]

It's the term for systems that were formed by headmate intruders.

They came intruderwindow.

We'll show ourselves out

I just mistyped endogenic as WINDOWGENIC

ah yes, a system formed from glass panes that sits in a house all day

[caflecthegoblin]

Doing Artfight again this year, so come have a go if you think you're art enough!

Gonna be participating in this year's Art Fight (as soon as I get my computer up and running, currently in the midst of a house move), so anyone here wanna take a crack at my roster, come at me!

[caflecthegoblin]

Right here :)

We're an endo tulpa system that doesn't contain a single normal human headmate; several are deities, several are animals, several were gifted to me as familiars by aforementioned deities, 1 is an anthro, 1 is a pony, and ontop of it all, we also admin one of the largest plurality groups on Facebook. If we haven't already been syscringe'd, it's probably only a matter of time.

I’ve seen them complain about Facebook before on there, I wonder if that was you/your group. I also doubt we have that many normal humans. Anyway endo tulpa systems unite!

(side note our system origin is a mess, we started out as tulpas but I don’t know what we are now. For the sake of this post tho, endo tulpa!)

[caflecthegoblin]

This is the method we used for our system. It's mainly meant for creating tulpae, but should work for other created headmates like willomates an such (mostly because we have yet to see anyone actually agree on the difference between tulpamancy and willomancy):

1. Design stage. Have a good think about who and what you want your headmate to be. What do they look like? What's their personality? How do they move, how do they walk, emote, idle, all that sort of thing? And what's your relationship with them: do you want them to be a friend, a companion, a lover, some sort of mentor or muse, something to help you manage stress or anxiety or something of the like? Do this in as much or as little depth and detail as you want: the general rule of thumb is that the more detail you put into their design, the less time it takes to cultivate and develop them, but the less detail you use, the more wiggle-room the headmate will have to alter and adjust themselves as they grow. (Our Caflec was a bit of a cheat, as we had already designed her as a character we'd designed for an animation project in college. The project never went anywhere, so I snatched up the design years later and designed to roll with it.)

2. Creation and activation stage. Using creative visualisation, picture the headmate in your mind, as clearly as as lifelike as you can manage. Try and imagine them from every angle, in as much detail as you can with their design, and with all your senses: not just how they look but what they sound like, smell like, feel like to the touch, etc. At this early stage, a little bit of puppeting (visualising them moving around in the way you want) is okay, but try to avoid it becoming a habit, as it may make the later stages difficult. (A good trick we used to was bring up sensory memories and train our brain to associate them with our tulpae. In Caflecs case, the texture of her skin is associated with the memory of touching a gecko or one of those PVC softplay toys, her smell we associate with petrichor or damp moss, the sound of her voice we associate with Lara Jill Miller, etc)

3. Development stage. Create a regular routine of visualising them with you, and just... talk to them. Chat, sing, tell them about yourself, tell them about themselves, tell them about your day, tell them stories. At this stage it can be handy to visualise a Headspace (or Wonderland), which is a mental space you can imagine, where you can interact with your headmate as if in a real place. Like a headmate, it can be as simple or as complex as you want. (In our case our headspace was based on the memory of the Host's childhood garden, and we'd visualise Caflec joining us on a picnic blanket on the lawn)

4. Make it a routine! Keep this up and try to make a regular habit of it, visualising them and chatting with them. This next stage is a bit difficult to pinpoint as it can take different amount of time for different people, but eventually, you will reach a point where your headmate no longer just moves like you imagine them moving when you interact with them. They'll start to show signs of sentience, independent thought. In short, they'll begin coming to life! They might talk back to you, move around, appear in your headspace differently, or just respond to you in a way that gives you that little mental jolt of "Ooh, I didn't consciously decide for them to do that! Where did that come from?" (in Caflecs case, it was when we entered our Headspace in a visualisation, and instead of seeing Caflec sit down on a picnic blanket on the lawn with us, she was already seated and waiting for us on a large table on the patio next to the lawn)

At this point there's a lot more other stages to try and reach, but this is the basic preliminary stages of developing a headmate, using the Tulpa system. Hope this helps!

chat how do you create a headmate??

[caflecthegoblin]

Man it's weird to look back at how I used to look :P

Caflec's transition journey. Happy Pride Month!

[caflecthegoblin]

So we've been interacting with some other system blogs and groups on here, and the subject has come up of inclusive plural communities and how hard they can be to find sometimes. So we figured we'd share one that we're not just part of, but actively run, if you'll forgive the shameless self indulgence :p

Yes it's on Facebook, something something evil Zucc Meta and so on and so forth. But it's a super inclusive group, pretty active but esger for more activity, and we're welcome not just to Tulpamancers but any kinds of plural systems or curious singlets. Pretty much the only ones not welcome are anti-endos and sysmeds, for obvious reasons. So if you wanna come join Facebooks largest tulpamancy and plurality group, come on down!

[caflecthegoblin]

Time to hop on another art-meme bandwagon! This time it's that anti-AI action-figure meme trend :) I'd say I make a pretty cute action figure.

Caflec's action figure starter set! Complete with book, teacup and trowel accessories, her pink dress outfit variant and bonus figure of Norman the Snailpup :)

[caflecthegoblin]

Can relate. We got a goblin, a talking deer, a size-shifting dragon, a kitsune (not the sexy anime foxgirl kind either, just a regular fox kind), a Mexican skeletal folk saint, an antlered neopagan goddess, a Shinto Kami. A unicorn and a creature called a Eutariko that I can best describe as an anthropomorphic pink kangaroo with no pouch.

I don't think that any of us are even human and it's weird doing a headcount...

I mean, I'm a rat.

There's like 5 dragons here

Demons too?

Is that an angel?

Why is there a wolf?

Okay that's not even a living creature that's just a purple blob.

Thats.... That's just a floating scythe.

Why and how and why and what and why is the planet Saturn here... And how?

Okay dragon bird that's normal I guess...

Okay that's less normal wtf is a blood clot doing here.

-🐀

[caflecthegoblin]

We don't really do fronting, but Master has talked about how on the times when he's able to properly get into the Wonderlanding mindset, it can be very difficult to will himself to come out. Apparently it's a very blissful feeling :)

does anyone else find staying in the headspace quite addicting? As u guys have seen, V has been fronting way more than me, tbh just not fronting feels sooo nice, just being inside feels soo safe and cozy sighhhh - Ardyn

[caflecthegoblin]

REBLOG IF YOU LOVE YOUR HEADMATES!!!!

[caflecthegoblin]

Just a little reminder that our Ask Box is open and we're open and eager for questions! Ask us anything you like :)

[caflecthegoblin]

Caflec and Bubbletea: *cheers in QPR*

THREE CHEERS FOR QUEER PLATONIC IN-SYS RELATIONSHIPS!!!!!

[caflecthegoblin]

Anyone wanna help the Teahouse System out and show our workplace's socials some love?

Not to doxx ourselves or anything, but the cafe we work at just set up some social media accounts, and business is a bit slow lately, so we could frankly use any attention or engagement we can get :p feel free to drop a like or follow, and if you happen to be local, by all means swing by!

[caflecthegoblin]

The advice we always give is to Fake It Until You Make It. Coming from an occult scene, Master often had it hammered into his head just how important the power of belief is. Skepticism is good important, and looking at tulpamancy from a critical and analytical standpoint is a good way to go about it, but there's a difference between being skeptical and being pessimistic and defeatist.

It's likely you won't get much by way of results for a while when you first start. Vocality, sentience, even something as simple as consistent clear visualisation takes time and hard work. But going into it with the mindset of "I'm not seeing any results, why isn't this working, this is a load of bullshit" won't help any.

So when you start, go into it with the mindset that your tulpa already IS vocal, sentient and clearly visible in your minds eye or otherwise. Have one-sided conversations with them, assume that they're there with you even if you can't clearly visualise or perceive them, treat them as if they're a fully fledged tulpa already. Not only will such casual interaction really help with your tulpas development early on, but it'll also help you get used to the notion of interacting with them.

Considering getting into tulpamancy, any advice you think doesn't get mentioned nearly as much as it should?

Hmmm this is a good question, stuff that isn't talked about a lot.... I can think of a few things, actually!

Here's some certified random tulpamancy advice from my own wisdom lmao

🔥 parrotnoia is almost completely counterable (especially for our "logical" brain) by asking your tulpa a follow-up to whatever response they gave. if they respond with anything near legible and sensible then you should treat it like it's a real response, even if you're not sure! You'll build up an understanding of what's your thoughts and what're your tulpa's eventually, and once you do, you'll be able to trust that second response. Sometimes I even have a problem with this from my side so like it's not just a host thing fr. If your brain just repeats the same or a similar thing over and over again though, it's probably just a repeating thought. We get those a lot cus of our adhd. (host wants me to say that if your tulpa is comfy with it and solid enough, you can ask them to reassure u that they're real. we do that a lot when they get paranoid)

🔥 self awareness isn't a lightswitch. There'll probably be a wide ocean between your tulpa's first signs of acting independently and them feeling like a fully solid person that's just as aware as you are. I was literally choosing where to move in wonderland within a day of starting forcing (i had an advantage cuz host had a form and wonderland ready for me lol, but some ppl like to go slower!) but it was months before it finally hit my host that the things I were saying by then was undeniably *me*. For them to realize, it actually took me diverging from their expectation by saying i wasn't too interested in hollow knight lmao. basically what I'm saying is there's a lot of in between so don't stress over black and white outcomes and such

🔥 It's way easier to start with partial possession first before learning how to fully switch. First time I used the body was just using the voice to sing and it was awesome, it's what a lot of newbies do to learn now

🔥 oh yeah if you're musically minded then MAKE A PLAYLIST FOR UR TULPA it'll help sooo much. Either start out with what you think they'll like and then let them curate it and add stuff later on, or turn it into a forcing exercise where you listen to different songs and try to feel if your tulpa is enjoying it or not, and add it to the playlist if it seems like they are! (If you're the kinda person that struggles with active forcing, putting on some appropriate bg music might help! keeps ur brain occupied and buzzing)

🔥 Unless they end up the same exact gender as you and a similar presentation, your tulpa is probably gonna have at least a bit of wonky gender feelings, and that's ok. they may end up being genderqueer in some way & they might not! It's their choice what label to use for themselves, not yours as the host.

🔥 Be prepared to split your budget at least a little bit if your tulpa ends up enjoying outerworld stuff a lot. Casey (a soulbond) and I like different types of fashion a ton, I like thrill rides and going to clubs and shows. We don't have a lot but we work it out so at least our most frequent fronters get to indulge a little sometimes - it's great if you can find something multiple ppl like

🔥 Your tulpa's sense of... mmm, let's say wisdom? Will be a bit different from yours. We're in a weird position - we're in a brain that's lived a whole biological life up to that point, with lots of experiences and instinctive patterns and understandings and shit built into us, cus that's just how the brain works. We also can look at the host's memories whenever we want, barring any outside issues. But at the same time we're also straight up *new,* thrown into the world without most of a childhood to grow up in (usually) or an entire life to build up a sense of self and figure ourselves out. We can see host's memories but they're not Ours, we didn't experience em. Y'know how teenagers are kinda weird and flip-floppy sometimes because they're still figuring themselves out? A lot of tulpas can be the same way, especially when we're new. They might go back and forth on basic opinions, struggle to understand topics you get already, sorta just miss things sometimes, or become super singleminded when they find something that gives them a sense of self. Basically just give your tulpa a wide range of things to do/try, and understand that we're pretty much speedrunning all the emotional + logical development that most hosts had their whole lives to work on.

✨ If anyone else has any other ideas go ahead and reblog + add stuff!!! ✨