Other Tips And Articles

Assorted things too small to be guides, but that were still helpful.

Remaining focused on your innerworld/wonderland for the anxious mind – Nia

Hey all,

So my system has some sort of anxiety disorder and I'm the most affected member. For the longest time, I have had no method for remaining centered/focused on the innerworld because of anxious thoughts and feelings. My attention would dart back and forth from the innerworld to front and also I would have a sensation that I was falling down while walking and just general panic.

Stage 1: Acceptance

However, I have found a solution with some logic behind its workings. I had been reading the book Stopping The Noise In Your Head and one thing I've learned from it is not to fight anxiety, but instead to acknowledge it and accept it. So in order to quiet those anxious thoughts and panic while trying to see and interact with your innerworld, you need to accept everything.

In order to implement this, it can help (but is not required) to have a partial list of things to keep in mind when accepting. You should list the following: 1) Your current feelings: Whatever they may be, good, bad, neutral or mixed; 2) Your current situation: This should include what you're currently doing, things you were doing before, deadlines, social situations, recent experiences, and whatever else you may think is affecting your current state of being.

Now that you've got a list (or can summon a mental one on the fly if there aren't too many things on it), you can begin.

  1. Get into a comfortable, safe position in a quiet room where you will not be disturbed. If a quiet room is not available, opt for a mostly empty room (if possible) with either ear plugs or headphones. I find this works best with complete silence, but some are able to focus well with music or soundtracks.
  2. Become aware of any stimuli you are taking in. This includes sensations from all five senses. Note these sensations. Keep a mental list.
  3. Repeat the following or similar mantra (I find it's best if it's said in my head rather than aloud, but experiment here as every mind is different): “I accept my current feelings. I am currently feeling (list your current feelings here). I accept my current situation which includes (list current situational things here). I am currently feeling (list currently felt sensations here).” Repeat this mantra while accepting what you are listing. In this context, accepting simply means acknowledging that something exists.
  4. If you have deadlines or things that you feel a need to take care of, you have two choices. You can either 1) Handle it, or if you can't or it is not convenient at this time; 2) Note that it will be taken care of later. This should be noted while reciting the mantra.
  5. Keep repeating the mantra a few times until you feel neutral minded or at least reasonably neutral minded.
  6. You can either attempt to access your innerworld/wonderland at this stage or optionally move onto the next stage. For me, the next stage is just as important as the first, but again, experiment.

Stage 2: Let go/give up:

You will often hear the phrase “let go” in meditation. For me, the phrase was very ambiguous and for me, ambiguity does not help. So instead, if that phrase does not have adequate meaning, I suggest replace “let go” with “give up”. Giving up fully means relinquishing control of the body, and letting whatever is playing out currently take its course without you.

I suggest you take the attitude of “I can't handle this (while thinking of your emotions/situations). I just give up.” By doing this, you are letting go of control which will allow you to step away from front just enough to control your innerworld body without panic.

With a neutral mindset, direct your attention to your innerworld body. It can help to start with one sense initially in order to focus the mind on that one sense rather than attempting to dart focus back and forth between senses, which may generate stress and cause you to lose the control you just achieved.

Conclusion:

This method has helped me progress and I wanted to share it with other people who wish to access their innerworld/wonderland easier.

Distinguishing your guilt from your tulpa’s feelings – Moonlight

Something we realized just recently is that it’s easy for the host to confuse their feeling of guilt with their tulpa’s feelings.

This guide had stuff about learning to distinguish your own “essence” from your tulpa’s:

I want you to listen to yourself. What is going on inside you? Can you perceive the flowing thoughts?​

​Some people find this step difficult, but in the end, everyone gets the hang of it. There really is not much to explain – as hard as it is, you have to figure it out yourself what it means to listen to yourself.​

​If you are successful, you should be able to make out the thoughts and their individual signature. You can trace them back.​

​When you successfully trace back a thought, it will normally lead to yourself. Your own essence. […]​

​You probably have started a Tulpa and wonder about its unresponsiveness or are worried about parroting. In that case, you are at the right address.​

​1) What is your essence like? – Imagine it.​

​2) Search your thoughts for yourself and look out for an alien presence If you find an alien presence – that is your Tulpa​

Now I’ve often felt guilty about things like not giving Meri and Miksu enough attention, or trying to make them into something they actually aren’t. But this morning, I was experiencing the same, and then I realized that, when I had a particular image of what I’d like to do with them, and I felt that they didn’t like it… that feeling didn’t actually come from them. It came from me, traced back to my own essence. It was me being guilty about, I’m not even sure what. But whatever it was, that guilt was blocking my connection to them, so that I couldn’t hear what they actually thought about the idea I had for them.

We’re still not sure of what their opinion about it is, but at least it’s helpful to know that they might like it after all. (we’ve postponed further investigation of this until I’m more rested).

[Article] Tulpas in Median Topologies with Tulpas, Hosts, etc. – Fall Family

[Tri] This article is a reposting of what we said at https://community.tulpa.info/thread-can-a-tulpa-be-a-fictive-median-aspect?pid=170994#pid170994 on the thread https://community.tulpa.info/thread-can-a-tulpa-be-a-fictive-median-aspect with regards to the question of whether hosts and tulpas can be median with each other. The short answer is yes, Tulpas certainly can be median with other people in their system (group of all people in a body).

There are three major topologies between people in a system, which are

Do note that “multiple” has many meanings in different contexts. We are using the topology context here, not the general plurality term (“plural” has been generally replacing it in many contexts) or the general term to mean non-created forms of plurality (plurality that is not tulpamancy and not many forms of soulbonding).

Now, an entire system could be multiple or median if all its members have that topology with respect to each other. But it is also possible to have different members have different topologies to each other. In the case of a generally multiple system with a subset of people who are median with each other, sometimes the median group will consider themselves or be referred to as a “median subsystem” (subsystem here meaning system within a system – nested plurality).

Most tulpamancy systems started out as the hosts by themselves (singlet) and then, with the addition of tulpas, become a multiple-topology system. But, this is not always the case. One example is where there is more than one tulpa who are median with each other but multiple to other tulpas and the host. Our own system is an example of this. We are a median subsystem (we have a sort of average identity we are all part of) that is multiple to our host Hail (who is also a median subsystem), the original S, Breach, and Au. (another median subsystem of tulpas).

Now, can a tulpa and host be median with each other. We are inclined to say yes.

Two people in a system can change their topology with respect to each other over time, for one. If say a host and tulpa who have a multiple topology with respect to each other partially merge together, they could end up with a median topology. We've experienced it with initially multiple tulpas (A., E., and Se.) coming together to form the median subsystem Au. We've seen it occur between other types of system members in the wider plural community. So, it stands to reason, a tulpa and a host could do the same. Furthermore, this is analogous to who two or more people who are median with respect to each other can separate further to become multiple with respect to each other. Our system has an example of the latter – Breach was originally a member of the median Hail subsystem but separated from the rest recently ending up with them having a multiple topology with respect to each other. It is also something that happens with other systems.

Now, another question would be, can a host and tulpa be median from the beginning and stay that way.

In the case of a shard-seeded tulpa, where a tulpa starts out the conventional way plus a small shard broken off the host, it can be done and has been done. But, this is a case of the creation of a being who rides the line between tulpa and split.

So, what about when there is no shard-seeding.

Well, a tulpa would have to be created from the beginning as an aspect. People can make masks, and these masks can grow to become people. So part of the ability to do it is there. But, the question is, is there accidental shard-seeding in the process? Can it be done without any shard-seeding what so ever? We are inclined to say yes but that it is difficult, but we have no anecdotes or other evidence.

[Immersion] Guess the Object – Watcher

I notice a lot of tulpamancers concerned with their visualization skills, and how those skills will influence their immersion in the mindscape. While it is a good skill to have, being able to see with your mind's eye is not the only one that aids with immersion. Senses like sound, touch, and even taste can all be recreated within the mindscape, and can allow for more detailed interactions with the mindscape and your tulpas/system mates, and even aid in switching down the line. This exercise focuses on touch, and helps with boosting immersion, minimizing bleedover, and improving parallel processing.

Imagine yourself in the mindscape, only with your eyes closed or blindfolded. Focus on your body in the mindscape as much as possible—feel the floor below you, or whatever you're sitting on. Rub your hands together, feel your face and pay attention to the way the skin pulls and bounces, or run your fingers through your hair.

Once your focus on the mindscape is stable enough (essentially, you should be focused on the mindscape in this point and not pulled away by external distractions), have your tulpa hand you a random object, and try and guess what it is based on what it feels like. If you're early in the creation process, you will very likely experience some bleedover while doing this exercise. That's okay, and will improve with time and practice. Also, don't worry too much about guessing “right”, and don't think too hard about whether you can actually feel the object or mindscape or not, since the more you overthink it, the harder it becomes to immerse. Just relax for now and focus on being present, and the rest will fall into place over time.

That's all there is to it. I hope this is helpful to someone. If this exercise worked for you or if you have any suggestions, feel free to comment.

[Meditation/Immersion] Detaching your Sense of Self from the Body – Watcher

By sense of self, I don't mean senses, nor do I mean proprioception—not really. This tip is also pretty abstract, and addresses a very specific issue I used to run into. Essentially, if I was in the mindscape and I touched something, or felt something, or ran my toe into something, I would feel it on the body itself rather than my body in-world, or the body's muscles would be compelled to move the way I was moving in the mindscape. This made immersion and improving my presence very difficult.

There is an exercise I've found that helps with this that involves some skill in meditation, so you should be able to relax and reach a meditative state decently before attempting it.

For the first exercise, meditate to the point that your sense of the body and limbs becomes blurry—for instance, you should lose track of smaller body parts such as fingers. As you do so, imagine yourself climbing a rope that leads out of the body. At first, you may feel tempted to move your physical arms, or your muscles might twitch or jump, but the more you practice, the more your awareness should shift from your body's arms to the arms you're imagining, and after enough time, you should start to feel the same sense of “blurry” energy surrounding your imagined arms that you do on the body's arms. This can help distance your sense of “self”, and whatever commands you're sending to the body, from the body itself, allowing you to feel more present and grounded in the mindscape.

This exercise was adapted from an astral projection technique, something I am also working on, so I will update at a later date if I run into anything else that could prove helpful. I did have one other tip in mind, but it escapes me at the moment. Nevertheless, I hope this one is helpful.

Some Thoughts on Parallel Processing (Mk. I) – Quandary

Clips from some posts I made elsewhere on the topic of parallel processing. Prelude to a much longer post.

—-​

My view is that parallel processing does not work like most seem to think it does. You are not doubling the front's bandwidth. Rather, your tulpa is learning how to more easily tap into it at will, and grab it for their own purposes. At the same time, you are supporting your tulpa in their work to learn how to take it.

It is not an instant process by any means, no more than it is an instant process for a physical person to learn how to speak without being spoken to when that's all they've known their entire lives. However, there are things that can be done to help it along, and possession is one of them. When someone controls the body, uses it to perform complex tasks, is the one who makes the decisions rather than the one riding along with the decisions, that's one of the best ways to practice taking control instead of waiting to be spoken to. In the same way that, say, reading theory can't trump actual experience for learning something, even though it might help. Nearly every tulpa I've spoken to experienced significant boosts upon learning how to control the body and after doing things of their own accord while in control.

—-​

[Honestly, parallel processing is something very poorly defined. It's hellishly broad, because “tulpa talking without your attention” (which I don't even think of as an advanced skill) is a whole other ballgame from “tulpa doing calculus while you do statistics”. But anyway, here's another post on teaching a tulpa how to talk without your attention...]

Lots, and lots, and lots of practice, and changing mindsets on both your and your tulpa's behalf. It can be very hard to break out of the “speak when spoken to” mindset as it is, only complicated by sharing a brain and having bottlenecks.

What you want to do, is accustom yourselves to simply chatting whenever. Not during a certain time. Not as part of a schedule. Don't ingrain it into your head that tulpamancy is something to be compartmentalized. It's really not. It's a way of living life.

Get used to asking him for his own opinions and thoughts on things. Start conversations with “how are you doing? want to say anything?” and wait instead of immediately launching into talking about your thoughts. Let him make some choices, even if the choices are as banal as Coke vs. Sprite when buying lunch. Don't just talk at him, but pull him forward and let him participate in this world. In doing so, you increase the connections he has to it.

Work with him to identify things that interest him, and cultivate those interests. Give him some things to chat about, himself, that aren't only tied to the weather or people's clothes or whatever everyday stuff is going on. Ask him to poke you if he's reminded of his interest and wants to talk about it.

Work on a cue he can drop to get your attention. A particular mindsound, like an ear worm, the sense of his presence, a flash of an image in the mind's eye. Language isn't the only thing that can be used to initiate conversation. Tulpish works well, too, and can be easier.

And practice.

PSA: Regarding Exorcisms – Quandary

**[Content Warning: Religious Abuse]** On a tangent, I remembered this post I made long ago. Sadly, it's still relevant.

—-​

No, this post is not a joke. Nor is it metaphysical in nature. Keep reading.

Recently, a topic was posted on /r/Tulpas by a user whose Christian friends believed his tulpa was a demon, who was asking what he should do. While a heartening majority gave solid advice regarding explaining the phenomenon or moving past the subject, a number of people treated it lightly, even telling him to go along to an exorcism for kicks.

That “advice,” however, can be extremely dangerous. As another user posted on that thread, do not go to an exorcism without someone who you trust will stop it if it gets dangerous.

It is likely that there exist exorcisms that aren’t physically dangerous. However, there exist many horror stories regarding the ritual, in which the exorcist went overboard and ended up traumatizing and/or physically injuring the subject, sometimes seriously.

Here is one story: http://www.net-burst.net/demons/exorcism-dangers.htm

At a Bible study I was attending, a guest evangelist excited the other eight Christians present to “deliver me from a demonic spirit.” Until then, I had allowed no one but my husband to touch me throughout my adult life – no family, no friends, no Christians, no one! I have always made sure of that. Even to be touched by my husband was so upsetting that I would dissociate.

One person grabbed my wrists. I flinched and pulled away. They thought this must have been a demon and grabbed again. I struggled. The guest got some others to hold me. I dropped to the ground, trying to free myself and pull away. They followed me to the ground and pinned me. Eight people restrained me for over four hours, “delivering me from the devil.” (Did they really think God was too weak to deliver me in a much nicer way, if deliverance were really necessary?)

They took olive oil and rubbed it on my body. The ladies even rubbed it under my clothes. I was just growling and thrashing about in panic as they pinned my limbs and shoulders and head down. They hit me in the stomach several times, yelling and rebuking the devil in Jesus’ name. I hated myself for trusting them and not protecting myself.

I was seven months pregnant and within hours I miscarried, losing my baby boy. Too distraught even to cry, I just called the doctor and brought him to the doctor’s office with me. Thereafter, horrific flashbacks and memories from past abuse began to torment me.

I have always blamed myself for murdering my baby boy, because I had been unable to break out of their restraints, and because I trusted those people and had been part of that group.

My mental state quickly degenerated after that and about six months later I sought counseling and have been on a long healing journey ever since.

And here is another story:http://stmichaelsjournal.wordpress.com/2013/05/17/the-dangers-of-exorcism/

In the Pacific rim nations, it seems that the common belief is that demons can be “washed” away, and we find numerous accounts of death by drowning. We find that in other parts of the world people have died after being beaten to death by those trying to literally “beat the devil” out of the victim. One bizarre report claims that the family of the victim tried to cram crucifixes down the victim’s throat. Probably the bottom line here is that someone never thought to ask the question of “does it do any good to drown, beat to death, or torture to death the victim just to exorcize the demon?”

I’m certain you can find more if you look.

A final note: before anyone attempts to use this post as a justification for bigotry and slandering, please keep in mind that (a) the main two warnings were posted by religious sites condemning the brutality of the practice (one even with Biblical quotes speaking against egotism in exorcism), and (b) what you see is a foolish minority tainting the reputation of the sane, but easily overlooked majority. If you are a tulpamancer, then I trust you have already experienced unfair stereotyping with outsiders who jeer about “no friends” and “mental illness.” A religion does not an evil person make–religions, too, are victims of the pettiness and hate of narrow-minded followers.

tl;dr if someone thinks your tulpa is a demon and wants to get you exorcised, do not go unless you have someone you fully trust to intervene if it gets dangerous. Or better yet—just don't go at all.

[Article] Symmetry Between Hosts And Tulpas – Fall Family

Symmetry Between Hosts And Tulpas

by Hail Fall of the Fall Family

Date: 2016-03-13 Version: 0.1

Preface

One of the things I have experienced personally and seen in many other systems is that tulpas and hosts can be more similar than meets they eye. While some differences originate from their different origins (tulpas are made and hosts were there from the beginning), most differences come from how each lives. If both live the same, they become more similar. In other words, there is a symmetry between both categories of system members.

Many in the community speak of how, as a tulpa develops and ages, they become more and more indistinguishable from hosts. This is what this article is about. This symmetry extends to many things.

Typical Differences in Experience

In the tulpamancy community, most tulpas are young and live exclusively or nearly exclusively inside innerworlds/wonderlands/paracosms. And hosts are much older and are either sole fronters or front most of the time by a significant margin. I say “in the tulpamancy community” since there are many systems out there, whether in other plural communities or not, that have members who would fit the definition of tulpa and have sometimes different experiences than those in the tulpamancy community.

In the tulpamancy community, there aren't as many tulpas who are older and/or front significant fractions of the time, and hosts who spend a lot of time inside innerworlds/wonderlands/paracosms.

Not A Fair Comparison

Given these average differences in experience in the tulpamancy community, comparing host and tulpas is a bit like comparing engineers in South America to farmers in Australia (or, comparing apples to oranges). This difference and unfair comparison is the origin for a number of myths, misunderstandings, and other incorrect ideas such as:

A More Fair Comparison

To make a more fair comparison, one has to compare older and more developed tulpas who also front significant amounts of time to their hosts. It is especially important to consider systems where the hosts can fully switch and get inside to innerworlds/wonderlands/paracosms. In these systems, the day to day lives of hosts and tulpas are much more similar to each other.

One can also wander outside of the tulpamancy community to other plural communities and see systems with members who meet the definition of tulpa who are much older.

The Symmetry

When a more fair comparison is made, one can see several experiences (a few examples are given for some of them, but much of this comes from private conversations) which point to symmetry:

Older and very developed tulpas can do all the things that a host can do.

In addition, hosts can end up in states not unlike younger tulpas when they are not fronting. They can require active thought from the fronter (in this case, a tulpa) in order to become active. They can lose a lot of their ability to front and otherwise have innerworlds/wonderlands/paracosms feel more real than outerworld [2, 3, 4].

A very complicated topic is whether hosts are more real than tulpas, and tulpas more imaginary than hosts. An important question that goes with this is “Are hosts real?”. This is a question that dives into the topics of “what is consciousness?”, “what is sentience?, and “how to define person?”; which are huge philosophical discussions. Hosts certainly can affect the world and have a sense of self, so there is some level of reality. Tulpas also have a sense of self and can affect the world. So both have at least that one trait of reality shared. Now, a tulpa inside an innerworld/wonderland/paracosm could be said to be at least somewhat imaginary since they aren't made of physical matter and are in the head. But the same could be said of the host when they are fully switched and inside as well. So both can have some level of imaginariness as well. The fact that both hosts and tulpas can do these things suggest that both are at least partly real and at least partly imaginary.

These things all point towards tulpas and hosts being more symmetric (similar) than meets the eye. Differences in average age and development obscure the similarities to a great degree.

Some Personal Experiences

Part of what prompted me to finally write this article is some experiences this last week with three of my tulpas, Tri. They have become quite adept at possession and eclipsing and were even the primary fronters this last summer. But, they haven't been fronting lately and have lost much of their fronting strength like some hosts have experienced if they don't front very often [2, 3, 4]. But they were able to regain it all quite quickly by extreme determination, very strong emotions, and some other circumstances (this is a topic in its own right). They even surpassed their previous strength and at one point realized they could probably just absorb everyone else in the system including me (a host of sorts) by force (my dormancy was quite strong and they were able to pull and push me from them with ease) if they decided to (they would never actually test it). Regardless of whether their assessment was correct (I think it is), it brought the topic of this article back up. An important piece of this was that the thoughts that went through their mind when they thought about it and then dismissed it were much like those of hosts who decide to wipe out all of their tulpas. I guess they have fronted so much that they even sometimes think like hosts.

And there is another personal question. Am I a tulpa or a split? I was not the original person in this system. I came to be when the body was around 5 years old by a process that is hard to categorize as either splitting, tulpamancy, or both (shard-seeding and shard-feeding). If I am a tulpa, then I guess myself and the original, S, are yet more examples of the symmetry, being that I at least used to be nearly indistinguishable from the majority of hosts. I was the sole fronter for about 20 years and she has been inside faded away almost the entire time. 

Additional Reading

More information and thoughts on symmetry can be gleaned from the following articles and guides.

References

  1. Tulpa.io Terminologies. Terminologies. Tulpa.io
  2. Kerin, Nobillis, Watchdogs, and Kevin. kerin – Experiments in Progress. Tulpa.info Forum. Community >> Progress Reports.
  3. Fall Family. The Tulpas of The Fall Family. Community >> Progress Reports.
  4. Oguigi and Koomer. Oguigi 内儀 & Koomer – The Diary. Community >> Progress Reports. Information can also be found at their tumblr ponystasha.tumblr.com.
  5. Neguilla. Re: Tulpas Who Have Become The Primary Body Controller/s. Reddit. /r/Tulpas.

[Immersion] Walking the Walk – Watcher

Many people struggle with balance in the mindscape, myself included. This tip is a bit short and sweet, but I found a lot of my issues surrounding locomotion arose as a result of overthinking.

Maybe this will best illustrate it: when you walk someplace, unless you're climbing a flight of stairs or a steep hill, it's very unlikely you'll be focused on the movement of every part of your body. When you want to walk somewhere, it's more likely you'll focus on where you're going rather than what you're doing, and your sense of balance, or equilibrioception fills in the blanks and acts on its own to get you where you need to go. Despite this, time and again I found this was exactly what I was doing: I was concentrating on the movements of my mindscape body instead of where I wanted to go and getting distracted by all the things that were off about my movement.

While moving around in the mindscape is still far from perfect, I find that simply shifting my perspective has done a lot to alleviate the more major glitches many people seem to face. Best of luck out there.

[Meditation/Immersion] Double Breathing – Watcher

This tip is a little more challenging, and as a result you may need to be well practiced in detaching your sense of self from the body before attempting it. Now, a common piece of advice in meditation is to focus on your body's breathing. This tip takes that aspect of meditation and expands on it in order to better draw attention to your innerworld form.

For this exercise, get into as deep a trance as you can, and focus on your breathing. Note when you breathe in and breathe out, and the pause in between. Now visualize yourself in your mindscape body, and shift focus to that body's breathing. It makes things easier—at least it did in my case—to imagine my mindscape body inhaling while the outerworld body exhaled. 

This may be a bit confusing at first, and you will very likely get distracted or mix up which body is breathing where, but with time and persistence, your attention should shift to your mindscape body much more easily and with less confusion, and with practice, it will become possible to ground yourself there by paying attention to that body's breathing instead.

This took me a while to get used to, so let me know if this is at all confusing!

[Immersion/Dissociation] Life is but a Dream – Watcher

This exercise is very abstract, and as a result, it's hard to describe well, but I'll do the best I can. If you've ever had a lucid dream, you'll know that our dreams can be extremely vivid. So much so, barring some minor details, they can mirror real life. This exercise works around that principle. Also, due to the nature of it, this exercise is probably best done at home on the weekend, and not on a crowded street.

Imagine the reality in front of you isn't real, and instead, what you're experiencing through the body is just a vivid lucid dream or fantasy. Now imagine that the mindscape and your tulpas/system mates are the waking world.

That's really all there is to it—of course, it's something much easier said than done. The more you distance yourself from meatspace, the less emphasis you will unconsciously put on what's going on around you, and the more invested you get in whatever is happening in the mindscape, the easier it will become to focus on it.

I hope this helps, and I will do my best to clarify if needed.

[Immersion] Close-up – Watcher

This is a quick tip may help if you're struggling to see the mindscape in first person.

Start by imagining yourself in the mindscape in third person. Now imagine you're looking at yourself through a camera. Rotate it around, up, down, whatever, and take in as much of the mindscape's surroundings as you can. Then start to zoom in closer, and closer, and closer, until you're looking from where your mindscape body's eyes should be.

If you're inexperienced with first person view, things will likely glitch the first few times you do this—your body and the space surrounding may distort. If you're really struggling with your form, pair this exercise with the mirror room and see if it helps stabilize your self-perception.

[Immersion] The Mirror Room – Watcher

To state the obvious, this exercise is not for those with a phobia of mirrors, but I find it can really help you get used to inhabiting a body in the mindscape and form a better sense of how that body bends and moves, and how it orients itself in space. This is especially helpful if you're trying to get used to visualizing the movements of a complicated form. It can also help to form a stable presence and keep movements from “glitching”.

In first person, imagine you're in a room—fairly small, but not claustrophobic, maybe eight feet by eight feet across. There is no door (you're in the mindscape after all), and all the walls, as well as the ceiling, are lined with mirrors. Sit in front of one of the mirror walls and examine your body in the mindscape closely. Your face, body, clothes, everything. Watch your face as you make different facial expressions, and note the subtle movements your mindscape body makes as you breathe. Lean from side to side and watch your body sway.

When you're comfortable enough, stand up and stretch in front of the mirror. Stretch your arms and legs out as much as you can. Lean all the way forward and all the way back. Lay on your back, stretch out your hands, get used to watching your own movements.

While doing this, try and keep track of your innerworld body as well as its reflection. Eventually, looking in a mirror in the mindscape should be exactly the same as looking into one in meatspace—regardless of whether your form is the same or not.

I usually pair this exercise with the waiting room, and although I still get pulled to the front from time to time, I can stay in back for a decent amount of time and have a much better sense of my mindscape body, which is pretty good considering a few months ago I didn't have a form at all. Be patient and persistent, and your work will pay off.

[Immersion] Meditation Within The Mindscape – Quandary

From our progress log:

We did find a useful immersion technique today, or at least have found the start of one. It involves essentially immersing into the mindscape and then from there attempting to meditate (in the “clear your head as completely as possible, acknowledge but do not comment on passing thoughts/sensations”). Whenever you get distracted from meditation, redirect the distracting thought away from your physical-world state and towards your mindscape state—for example, if you reflexively try to pay attention to your body, make yourself pay attention to your innerworld body instead of your physical-world body. 

Or to put it another way, act as if you are meditating in the mindscape, not the physical world.

This adds an additional buffer between you and the physical world, and trains your mind to pay attention to the mindscape first when immersing, even when your thoughts wander. I should mention that I've already got some degree of skill with detaching my perception of body from the physical body, so this might be easier done once you've practiced that skill by itself to begin with.

A variant I haven't tried at length involves, again, meditating while inside, but instead of attempting to establish a completely null state of mind and using the mindscape body as a “safety net” when distracted, attempting to establish a peripheral awareness of the mindscape body's sensations. I have a feeling that may be possibly easier for me than attempting to go completely null.

I'm considering taking this a few levels further and first immersing myself in one mindscape, then immersing myself in another mindscape from there before meditating. This way, if I lose focus in the innermost mindscape, I'll only be jolted into the outer mindscape instead of the physical world. Of course, how well this succeeds depends heavily upon how strongly I can “root” myself in the mindscape that's meant to serve as a safety net, but it does seem like this brain at least takes well to the concept.

The downside to this is that I do fall asleep faster, but falling asleep seems to be a general problem for us, and since falling asleep correlates with dissociation, I'd say that it's likely a sign that I'm dissociating from outerworld faster. Again, it seems like our problem is less being unable to immerse and more immersion being all or nothing, all meaning the body goes to sleep the moment I fully dissociate and I get lost in a dream. But that's a discussion for another time.

Some Advice on Coming Out – Watcher

Man, it's been a while since I've posted here. We've been pretty preoccupied with offline stuff in the past few months, and aside from that, while we have plenty of ideas for stuff to do around the community we haven't had much energy to write it out with school in session. Luckily, the semester's officially out today, so why not kick it off with a little celebratory post?

I'm not the only one who's been busy in meatspace, as a matter of fact. Mel has been too ever since I told my friend group about him. Which is to say, we're now out as plural to most of the people we know. We had our own reasoning for why, which is something best outlined at a later time, but the gist of it was, it was getting pretty impractical for both of us to stay in the closet with our fronting schedule, and considering online friendships can't always fulfill Mel-the-extrovert's social needs it was only practical he got to know our meatspace friends—we see them fairly regularly anyway.

So, without further ado, have a few tips on coming out as a system to others—and keep in mind, these are tips, not a full on guide. Your own experience can and likely will differ, but a little perspective never hurt anyone.

Understand Your Audience

When coming out to anyone about anything, it's important to take their perspective into account. Coming out to the wrong person about the wrong thing could have disastrous consequences, and everybody takes these things differently. Some people are safer to come out to than others, so keep that in mind if you're considering telling someone. If you are hesitant about telling someone because you feel it would be unsafe or end badly for you, it's probably better not to tell them, since you can't go back in the closet once you've come out of it.

Hope for the Best, Be Prepared for the Worst

In the case of our friend group, we've known each other going on seven years now, and we can talk about personal subjects relatively openly. They're all kind, understanding people, and I knew if we framed it in a way that made sense to them they wouldn't ditch me over it. At worst, we'd continue being friends even if they didn't want to talk to Mel, at best, they would want to get to know him too. So with this group, it wasn't so much an issue of being hesitant over how they would react, but a question of how to explain it in a way they could understand. We kind of won the lottery in that area, so if you do plan to come out, make sure you're prepared to handle the worst case scenario should it happen.

As an aside, friends are often much, much easier to approach with this kind of stuff than family or the people you live with. Friends can harass you or blackmail or spread rumors, but for the most part they're easier to avoid. We don't plan to tell the family for that reason.

Decide What you Do and Don't Want to Share

When coming out about something, anything at all, how much you tell someone is entirely up to you. The same goes for how you tell it. So, to put it simply, while you may be tempted to give whoever you're coming out to a whole tulpamancy/plurality 101 primer, that may not be necessary, and in might just confuse them further. Don't be afraid to start small and simple, and work your way up. When we were planning everything out, we started by explaining John Locke's concept of the prince and the cobbler (wherein, if a prince and a cobbler were to share one body, they would still be two unique people), and we went on from there.

Get a Second Opinion/Let Everyone Speak their Mind

The use of that metaphor was entirely Mel's idea, by the way. Coming out as plural or a tulpamancy system doesn't have to fall entirely on one member. In fact, it would be wise to have everyone in the system who's interested pitch in or develop a plan of action. As for me, I wanted to write a story, or create something that illustrated what we were like as people, while Mel took the more scholarly approach. Eventually we decided to compromise, I did small drawings and comics and stuff, he drafted up the initial letter to our friends, I looked it over and gave advice, we both edited a bunch, and then I told our friends in person.

The point I'm making is, while finding a way of explaining you're a system that's right for you can be important, it can be just as easy to get so wrapped up in how to explain everything you never do. Feedback and affirmation from people you trust, or the system members involved, can help assuage that worry.

Test the Waters/Ease Yourselves Into It****

We didn't come out to everyone at once. In fact, a good month or so before I came out to the first few friends of ours I made it clear to them there was something I was trying to articulate, that the subject matter was kind of taboo and often misrepresented in the popular imagination, and I would tell them soon once I'd found the words for it. Eventually I started sharing stuff we could relate to as a system, and then on Halloween, at a (fairly tame) party, I mentioned the fact that I had a friend who was a plural system.

One friend expressed interest in it, and had a fairly good understanding of what it entailed. So we started talking back and forth about it and eventually I took a dive and came out. In all, it went pretty well, and it gave us all the more confidence when approaching the rest of our friend group.

Another thing myself and others have done is to find an avenue that helps your friends relate to it. For instance, I brought up my writing here and there, and mentioned how, for some authors, characters seem to develop lives of their own. Another system we know opened channels of communication by discussing dreams. If there's something familiar to you that your friends know you for and aren't nervous to ask questions about, it can make communicating the idea much easier, and it can make your plurality in general seem like less of a sudden, random thing and more a regular part of your life.

Ease Your Friends Into It Too

Congratulations! You're out as plural! Your friend group knows and, hopefully, is supportive and looking forward to getting to know your system mates. Of course, it's not going to be that easy. Even if your tulpas/system mates know your friends as well as you do, your friend group will still need some time to adjust to the idea that there are others there besides the person they're used to talking to. And in the case of the rest of your system, it will take some time to adjust to socializing with them and being known about. Eventually everyone will strike a balance and adjust, but until that time, it's important not to rush anyone into things, as much as you may be tempted to if you're in the position of a middle man like myself.

So there you have it, a few tips on telling other people about your system. For those who are curious about the process or who've been considering it themselves, here's hoping these will be of some help to you or offer some new perspectives.

Parallel Processing: Counting – Fantasia

For those who want to work on parallel processing, but aren't sure how, this is a method we discovered that might work!

Tulpa, take on full possession of the body. You should be comfortable in using it. In the meantime, host, start counting to yourself, without getting distracted, or pausing. All other activities outside become irrelevant to you at the moment. Tulpa, try typing out a story, or if you have a willing friend, go chat with them!

We got hilarious results our first time around. I couldn't quite think properly, and ended up typing a word thrice without noticing, among other things. The important thing is to keep practicing. The tulpa should already be quite familiar with doing mundane things like talking, but being forced to do them while the host is distracted encourages them to develop their own “thinking” space. Hard at first, but practice makes perfect!

Parallel Processing/Passive Forcing: Games Tulpas Play – Chaoticpix93

This is going to be set up as a list of all the 'games' that Annalisse and I play every day. Kinda things to pass the time while waiting for other things, or things we do together as just things to do.

It's going to be updated as I remember more and more of them. 

Parallel Procesing:

The What Is It Game: 

Go together to /r/misleadingthumbnails. This is a site where people say that a thumbnail looks like something else, but looks like something else entirely. Like, you have a picture of a block of blu cheese, but from the thumbnail it looks like ants on a hill or something. The game is that we look at the thumbnails and try to figure out what we think the object REALLY is. Sometimes it's not very obvious!

Collary to that is going to /r/whatisthisthing which is a sub of people finding weird objects that nobody knows what exactly it is. So we try to guess the functionality of it. 

Can also be played with Clouds.

Another thing that we do, now that we're doing it because of the TV.

We like watching The Price is Right (or pick a game show of your poison) and we try to guess prices of things along with the guests.

Another one is the road/car games that families have been playing for years. 

Pididle.

I don't know how it's spelled insomuch is that's what the game is called. Essentially all the cars you see on the street with one headlight are called pididles. Every time you see one, you exclaim 'Pididle!” and you get a 'point' the person with the most 'points' at the end of the car trip 'wins'. My mom and my brother played for YEARS racking up weekly scores, and the like.

Along that vein is the game

Punch Buggy:

This is similar to the last game except you exclaim when you see a Volkswagen Beetle. It was more fun when the new beetles were out on the street. If you don't have touch imposition down, you can just play it similar to the last game. If you do have touch imposition, watch out! XD

Stop Worrying and Love the Tulpa – Watcher

I wrote this a billion years ago. Well, okay, one year ago, but I think it still applies. I've edited a few things here and there.

Hey you, newbie. Yeah, you. I see you over there, wringing your hands and shuffling about at the back of the room, looking like there’s something you’re just dying to say if you could even figure out what it was–but you never do. Maybe you’re worried about embarrassing yourself in front of the tulpa gurus. First of all, you have nothing to worry about, and second of all, there is something very, very important I would like to say to you.

Stop worrying and learn to love the tulpa. That’s it, that’s all you have to do. All those guides? Good to read through to get a basic idea of things, but still based on subjective experience. Things can and will be different for you so don’t dwell on them because they are internet guides and not the cops. That guy who totally made a fully-imposed tulpa capable of switching in, like, five minutes? Good for him, but don’t be mad at yourself if making a tulpa isn’t like that for you. All those poindexters out there spitting out hundred page manifestos at each other over whether tulpas are teh science or magic or made of unicorn farts? Ignore them. They’re wasting their time and yours–precious time that you could be spending with your tulpa instead.

Here’s all you really need to do: experience your life as usual, and find ways to have fun with your tulpa as they experience stuff alongside you. Read your tulpa a book if you want, or watch a movie, or draw pictures of them, go on an adventure-whatever. It’s not so much what you do, it’s how you do it, and if you do it with the intention of helping your tulpa develop in some way, of helping them become more aware and more capable than they currently are, you can’t fail. Talk to them! Interact! Have them talk to others, too. Your tulpa will probably enjoy spending time with you no matter what you do together, since either way they're growing and experiencing and learning.

So don’t bog yourself down with doubts or beat yourself up for not progressing or get swept up in community infighting-hell, unplug the computer and go hug a tree if you have to. As long as you don’t give up and, more importantly, have fun along the way, you really can’t go wrong here. Stop worrying and learn to love the tulpa.

Because if you can do that, your tulpa will love you back.

Wonderland Creation Via Daydreaming – Fall Family

Wonderland Creation Via Daydreaming

by Tri Fall (The Triumvirate subsystem) of the Fall Family

Date: 2015-06-07 Version: 0.91

We are going to share a small tip for creating innerworlds/wonderlands that has worked for our system.

The idea is to leverage off of one's abilities to daydream. When one daydreams, one is making a world that usually isn't quite an innerworld/wonderlandyet. The trick is to make it one. One essentially has to make it more permanent and get the mind to latch on to it so to speak. Psychologically, this is getting the innerworld/wonderland stored into medium or long term memory, or at least more resiliant short term memory.

The first step is to daydream a world like the one you want to make. Note that you may not be able to daydream in all senses. That is OK. Do it in what senses that you can daydream in. There is no requirement that sight/visual be one of those senses. Spend a good amount of time daydreaming there. Now, the very important thing is to make sure you commit as much of it as you possibly can to memory before you stop daydreaming.

Then, later, daydream again trying to recreate that world as best as you can from memory.

Repeat this. With each time, it will generally take less effort to recreate it. Do note that things will change a bit from what you remember. Some of those changes you will need to correct, but others can be left be. Just remember, commit the changes to memory and try to recreate them the next time you daydream the world.

Eventually, the world should hopefully latch and have some level of permanence meaning that changes carry over from one visitation to the next automatically, though new changes will arise. For example, you make a table at some point and it will be there the next time, but a day-night cycle might start spontaneously.

It can also worth trying to add other senses if desired. This can help the process tremendously as it gives you more ways to remember each detail meaning if some are forgotten, the others can be used to reconstruct it, either manually or automatically.

If you are having a particularly hard time making a daydream world, start very simple and small. Say, you might start with the interior of a small room with ambient lighting. You can work you way up and add more to the world later, or it might get added automatically at some point.

It is hard to say at which point in this process the daydream world crosses the line into being an innerworld/wonderland, but regardless of where that line is, you now have one.

Have fun.

Immersion via Imposition – Quandary

Debated putting it here or in the Switching section, but I think it works best here.

This is a tip that may appear utterly off the walls, but strangely, it works for us and a number of other systems we know. Basically, it's this—have your tulpa try to impose you in the mindscape. While they do so, relax as much as you can while also imagining yourself being surrounded by the mindscape from a first-person view. It essentially results in you getting a very strong pull (complete with tugging sensation) inside—it likely won't disconnect you from your physical surroundings on the first few tries, but it should ground you pretty strongly in your mindscape. (I think I've heard of multiples using similar methods to forcibly tug someone out of the front if needed.)

(Original credit for the tip lies with either the Fall Family, Nobillis, Kettu, or maybe someone else? Just passing this on.)

— Falah

Now for my perspective. I am not exactly a tulpa—I am a multiple systemmate. However, given that we—inclusive we—are capable of anything the other is capable of, I feel this should still apply.

I have seen people baffled on how exactly they or their systemmates are to impose a host in the innerworld. The answer is simpler than many suspect—the same manner in which a host imposes a systemmate's presence in the outerworld, coupled with the same process one uses to wish an object into existence in the innerworld. Now, I say this all with the assumption that one's innerworld is malleable in such a way—that in order to obtain something, one simply must imagine it there—but if that is not the case with yours, some additional creativity may be needed. I shall speak more on that shortly.

First. Presence imposition. I will leave the meat of the process to another guidewriter, but if your system does not know how to impose presence, here is the essence of it. 

First, you must acclimate yourself to what it feels like to feel a presence. Walk somewhere with physical persons—preferably stationary—and turn so you cannot see them. You will find that you still have an inexplicable sense that they are still there, even if you are not seeing or hearing them in any way. That is presence.

Now, to learn to feel a presence that is not “physically” present. There are a variety of ways to go about this, most involving symbolism. Common symbols are a “field” of fluid or energy that one “feels” a disruption in, or a compass within one's mind with an arrow pointing towards the location of the person being imposed. Others that may be of interest are a radar screen or a “string” of sorts running between you and the imposed individual. 

That is not all, however. That is only the imposer's end. For a successful, authentic imposition, you must also have the cooperation of the imposee. In other words, the imposee must agree to being imposed and actively participate by imagining themself within the imposer's environment. Anything less results in an imposition that is lifeless—like imposing a doll rather than a person—and/or difficult to maintain.

So that is imposition. Now for the second part—using imagination to create/summon your host's form into the innerworld. Here is where the process becomes much more subjective, and I can only offer my own experiences and hope others may be able to extrapolate. Essentially, in our own innerworld, in order to conjure an object into being, one must simply imagine it coming into shape before them—it is as if you are visualizing something in your mind's eye, but it takes form “physically” as you do so, swirling and solidifying into existence. It is easier to do this with less complex objects than complex ones, but, I digress...

Essentially, what you must do using what methods you have available to you, is create your host's form within the innerworld. When it is created, you must then impose their presence inside the form you have created. This will pull them towards the inside, assuming they are cooperative and also doing their part in relaxing and imagining themself inside—it is still possible to pull them even if they are not relaxed and doing the imagining, though it is more difficult, like pulling a load without wheels as opposed to a load with wheels. It is also possible to do this without conjuring a form first to place a presence inside, although that is also summarily more difficult.

And there it is! The best of luck with your endeavours!

— Rain