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| {{Contains Indic text}} | {{Contains Indic text}} | ||
| {{Tibetan Buddhism}} | {{Tibetan Buddhism}} | ||
| '''Tulpa''' is a ] and ] |
'''Tulpa''' is a concept in ] and ] of a being or object which is created through spiritual or mental powers.<ref name="Campbell">{{cite book|last1=Campbell|first1=Eileen|last2=Brennan|first2=J.H|last3=Holt-Underwood|first3=Fran|title=Body, Mind & Spirit: A Dictionary of New Age Ideas, People, Places, and Terms|date=1994|publisher=C.E. Tuttle Company|location=Boston|isbn=080483010X|edition=Revised|section=Thoughtform}}</ref> It was adapted by 20th century ]s from Tibetan sprul-pa ({{bo|t=སྤྲུལ་པ་|w=sprulpa}}) which means "emanation" or "manifestation".<ref name="Mikles">{{cite journal|last1=Mikles|first1=Natasha L.|last2=Laycock|first2=Joseph P.|title=Tracking the Tulpa: Exploring the "Tibetan" Origins of a Contemporary Paranormal Idea|journal=Nova Religio: The Journal of Alternative and Emergent Religions|date=6 August 2015|volume=19|issue=1|pages=87–97|doi=10.1525/nr.2015.19.1.87}}</ref> Modern practitioners use the term to refer to a type of ].<ref name="SavageMinds">{{cite web|last1=Joffe|first1=Ben|title=Paranormalizing the Popular through the Tibetan Tulpa: Or what the next Dalai Lama, the X Files and Affect Theory (might) have in common|url=http://savageminds.org/2016/02/13/paranormalizing-the-popular-through-the-tibetan-tulpa-or-what-the-next-dalai-lama-the-x-files-and-affect-theory-might-have-in-common/|website=Savage Minds|accessdate=22 April 2017|date=13 February 2016}}</ref> | ||
| ⚫ | ==Sprul-pa== | ||
| A study on the subject of tulpas conducted in 2015 classified them as "imaginary companions who are said to have achieved full sentience after being conjured through ‘thought-form’ meditative practice". Human "hosts", or tulpamancers, mediate their practice through open-ended how-to guides and discussion forums on the Internet and experience their Tulpas as semi-permanent auditory and somatic hallucinations.<ref name="Veissière">{{cite web|last1=Veissière|first1=Samuel|title=Varieties of Tulpa Experiences: Sentient Imaginary Friends, Embodied Joint Attention, and Hypnotic Sociality in a Wired World|url=http://somatosphere.net/2015/04/varieties-of-tulpa-experiences-sentient-imaginary-friends-embodied-joint-attention-and-hypnotic-sociality-in-a-wired-world.html|website=Somatosphere|accessdate=6 September 2017|date=3 April 2015}}</ref> | |||
| ===Indian Buddhism=== | |||
| ==History== | |||
| ⚫ | |||
| {{Copy edit-section|for=excessive parentheses and jargon|date=April 2017}} | {{Copy edit-section|for=excessive parentheses and jargon|date=April 2017}} | ||
| One early |
One early ], the '']'' lists the ability to create a “mind-made body” (''manomāyakāya'') as one of the "fruits of the contemplative life".<ref name="Fiordalis">{{cite web|last1=Fiordallis|first1=David|title=Miracles and Superhuman Powers in South Asian Buddhist Literature|url=https://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/handle/2027.42/61721/dvf_1.pdf|publisher=University of Michigan|accessdate=22 April 2017|date=20 September 2008}}</ref>{{rp|117}} Commentarial texts such as the '']'' and the '']'' state that this mind-made body is how ] and ]s are able to travel into heavenly realms using the continuum of the mindstream (]) and it is also used to explain the multiplication miracle of the Buddha as illustrated in the '']'', in which the Buddha multiplied his emanation body ("nirmita") into countless other bodies which filled the sky. A Buddha or other realized being is able to project many such "nirmitas" simultaneously in an infinite variety of forms in different realms simultaneously.<ref name="Fiordalis" />{{rp|125–134}} | ||
| The Indian Buddhist philosopher ] defined ''nirmita'' as a ] or psychic power (Pali: ''iddhi'', Skt: '']'') developed through Buddhist discipline, concentrated discipline ('']'') and wisdom in his seminal work on Buddhist philosophy, the '']''. ]'s ''Bodhisattvabhūmi'' defines nirmāṇa as a magical illusion and “basically, something without a material basis”.<ref name="Fiordalis"/>{{rp|130}} The ] school of philosophy sees all reality as empty of essence, all reality is seen as a form of nirmita or magical illusion.<ref name="Fiordalis" />{{rp|158}} | The Indian Buddhist philosopher ] defined ''nirmita'' as a ] or psychic power (Pali: ''iddhi'', Skt: '']'') developed through Buddhist discipline, concentrated discipline ('']'') and wisdom in his seminal work on Buddhist philosophy, the '']''. ]'s ''Bodhisattvabhūmi'' defines nirmāṇa as a magical illusion and “basically, something without a material basis”.<ref name="Fiordalis"/>{{rp|130}} The ] school of philosophy sees all reality as empty of essence, all reality is seen as a form of nirmita or magical illusion.<ref name="Fiordalis" />{{rp|158}} | ||
| ===Tibetan Buddhism=== | |||
| Sprul-pa is a ] concept in ] and ].{{Citation needed|date=October 2017}} | |||
| Sprul=pa is a ] concept in ] and ]. The ] is said to be partly a sprul-pa of ], the Bodhisattva of Compassion.<ref>{{cite|url=https://www.dalailama.com/the-dalai-lama/biography-and-daily-life/birth-to-exile|title=The Dalai Lama - Biography and Daily Life|section=Birth to Exile|publisher=The Office of His Holiness the Dalai Lama|accessdate=October 10, 2017}}</ref> The Dalai Lama mentioned in a public statement that his successor might appear via sprul-pa while the current Dalai Lama is still alive.<ref name="SavageMinds"/> | |||
| ==Tulpa== | |||
| 20th century ]s adapted the concepts of tulku and sprul-pa into "tulpa" and "thoughtform".<ref name="Mikles" /> The term “thoughtform” is used as early as 1927 in ]' translation of the ].<ref>{{cite book|last1=Evans-Wentz|first1=W.T.|title=The Tibetan Book of the Dead: Or The After-Death Experiences on the Bardo Plane, according to Lāma Kazi Dawa-Samdup's English Rendering|date=2000|publisher=Oxford University Press|location=New York|isbn=0198030517|pages=29-32, 103, 123, 125}}</ref> ] in a note to his English translation of the life story of ] defines a ''tulpa'' as “an emanation or a manifestation.”<ref name="Rinpoche">{{cite book|last1=Rinpoche|first1=Dza Patrul|title=The Golden Letters: The Three Statements of Garab Dorje, the First Teacher of Dzogchen|date=1996|publisher=Snow Lion Publications|location=Ithaca, New York|isbn=9781559390507|page=350|edition=1st}}</ref> | 20th century ]s adapted the concepts of tulku and sprul-pa into "tulpa" and "thoughtform".<ref name="Mikles" /> The term “thoughtform” is used as early as 1927 in ]' translation of the ].<ref>{{cite book|last1=Evans-Wentz|first1=W.T.|title=The Tibetan Book of the Dead: Or The After-Death Experiences on the Bardo Plane, according to Lāma Kazi Dawa-Samdup's English Rendering|date=2000|publisher=Oxford University Press|location=New York|isbn=0198030517|pages=29-32, 103, 123, 125}}</ref> ] in a note to his English translation of the life story of ] defines a ''tulpa'' as “an emanation or a manifestation.”<ref name="Rinpoche">{{cite book|last1=Rinpoche|first1=Dza Patrul|title=The Golden Letters: The Three Statements of Garab Dorje, the First Teacher of Dzogchen|date=1996|publisher=Snow Lion Publications|location=Ithaca, New York|isbn=9781559390507|page=350|edition=1st}}</ref> | ||
| ===Alexandra David-Néel=== | |||
| {{primary|section|reason=Find additional secondary sources that evaluate the content in a critical way.|date=October 2017}} | {{primary|section|reason=Find additional secondary sources that evaluate the content in a critical way.|date=October 2017}} | ||
| Belgian-French explorer, spiritualist, and Buddhist ] claimed to have observed these mystical practices in 20th century Tibet.<ref name="Campbell"/> She reported tulpas are "magic formations generated by a powerful concentration of thought."<ref name="David-Neel">{{cite book|last1=David-Neel|first1=Alexandra|last2=DʼArsonval|first2=A.|title=Magic and Mystery in Tibet|date=2000|publisher=Book Tree|location=Escondido, California|isbn=1585090972}}</ref>{{rp|331}} David-Néel wrote that "an accomplished ] is capable of effecting ten kinds of magic creations. The power of producing magic formations, ] or less lasting and materialized tulpas, does not, however, belong exclusively to such mystic exalted beings. Any human, divine or demoniac being may be possessed of it. The only difference comes from the degree of power, and this depends on the strength of the concentration and the quality of the mind itself."<ref name="David-Neel"/>{{rp|115}} | Belgian-French explorer, spiritualist, and Buddhist ] claimed to have observed these mystical practices in 20th century Tibet.<ref name="Campbell"/> She reported tulpas are "magic formations generated by a powerful concentration of thought."<ref name="David-Neel">{{cite book|last1=David-Neel|first1=Alexandra|last2=DʼArsonval|first2=A.|title=Magic and Mystery in Tibet|date=2000|publisher=Book Tree|location=Escondido, California|isbn=1585090972}}</ref>{{rp|331}} David-Néel wrote that "an accomplished ] is capable of effecting ten kinds of magic creations. The power of producing magic formations, ] or less lasting and materialized tulpas, does not, however, belong exclusively to such mystic exalted beings. Any human, divine or demoniac being may be possessed of it. The only difference comes from the degree of power, and this depends on the strength of the concentration and the quality of the mind itself."<ref name="David-Neel"/>{{rp|115}} | ||
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| David-Néel wrote of the tulpa's ability to develop a mind of its own: "Once the tulpa is endowed with enough vitality to be capable of playing the part of a real being, it tends to free itself from its maker's control. This, say Tibetan occultists, happens nearly mechanically, just as the child, when his body is completed and able to live apart, leaves its mother's womb."<ref name="David-Neel"/>{{rp|283}} David-Néel claimed to have created a tulpa in the image of a jolly ]-like ] which later developed a life of its own and had to be destroyed.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Marshall|first1=Richard|last2=Davis|first2=Monte|last3=Moolman|first3=Valerie|last4=Zappler|first4=George|title=Mysteries of the Unexplained|date=1982|publisher=Reader's Digest Association|location=Pleasantville, NewYork|isbn=0895771462|page=176|edition=Reprint}}</ref> David-Néel raised the possibility that her experience was illusory: "I may have created my own hallucination", though she reports that others could see the thoughtforms that have been created.<ref name="David-Neel"/>{{rp|176}} | David-Néel wrote of the tulpa's ability to develop a mind of its own: "Once the tulpa is endowed with enough vitality to be capable of playing the part of a real being, it tends to free itself from its maker's control. This, say Tibetan occultists, happens nearly mechanically, just as the child, when his body is completed and able to live apart, leaves its mother's womb."<ref name="David-Neel"/>{{rp|283}} David-Néel claimed to have created a tulpa in the image of a jolly ]-like ] which later developed a life of its own and had to be destroyed.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Marshall|first1=Richard|last2=Davis|first2=Monte|last3=Moolman|first3=Valerie|last4=Zappler|first4=George|title=Mysteries of the Unexplained|date=1982|publisher=Reader's Digest Association|location=Pleasantville, NewYork|isbn=0895771462|page=176|edition=Reprint}}</ref> David-Néel raised the possibility that her experience was illusory: "I may have created my own hallucination", though she reports that others could see the thoughtforms that have been created.<ref name="David-Neel"/>{{rp|176}} | ||
| ===Thoughtform=== | |||
| ]'', according to ] and ] in ''Thought Forms'' (1901).]] | ]'', according to ] and ] in ''Thought Forms'' (1901).]] | ||
| The ] understanding of the concept of "thoughtform" is believed by some to have originated as an interpretation of the Tibetan concept of "tulpa".<ref name="Campbell"/> The concept is related to the Western philosophy and practice of ].<ref>{{cite book|last1=Cunningham|first1=David Michael|last2=Ellwood|first2=Taylor|last3=Wagener|first3=Amanda R.|title=Creating Magickal Entities: A Complete Guide to Entity Creation|date=2003|publisher=Egregore Publishing|location=Perrysburg, Ohio|isbn=9781932517446|edition=1st}}</ref>{{Page needed|date=April 2017}} Occultist ] in his book ''The Human Aura'' described thought-forms as simple ethereal objects emanating from the ]s surrounding people, generating from their thoughts and feelings.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Panchadsi|first1=Swami|authorlink=William Walker Atkinson|title=The Human Aura: Astral Colors and Thought Forms|date=1912|publisher=Yoga Publication Society|pages=47–54|url=https://borderlandsciences.org/project/aura/ref/panchadasi/ch6.html|accessdate=26 April 2017|chapter=Thought Form}}</ref> He further elaborated in ''Clairvoyance and Occult Powers'' how experienced practitioners of the occult can produce thoughtforms from their auras that serve as ]s which may or may not look like the person who is projecting them, or as illusions that can only be seen by those with "awakened astral senses".<ref>{{cite book|last1=Panchadsi|first1=Swami|title=Clairvoyance and Occult Powers|date=1916|url=http://www.gutenberg.org/files/12480/12480.txt|accessdate=26 April 2017|chapter=Strange astral phenomena}}</ref> The ] Annie Besant, in her book ], divides them into three classes: forms in the shape of the person who creates them, forms that resemble objects or people and may become "ensouled" by "nature spirits" or by the dead, and forms that represent "inherent qualities" from the astral or mental planes, such as emotions.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Besant|first1=Annie|authorlink=Annie Besant|last2=Leadbeater|first2=C. W.|authorlink2=Charles Webster Leadbeater|title=Thought-Forms|date=1901|publisher=The Theosophical Publishing House|url=http://www.gutenberg.org/files/16269/16269-h/16269-h.htm|accessdate=26 April 2017|chapter=Three classes of thought-forms}}</ref> | The ] understanding of the concept of "thoughtform" is believed by some to have originated as an interpretation of the Tibetan concept of "tulpa".<ref name="Campbell"/> The concept is related to the Western philosophy and practice of ].<ref>{{cite book|last1=Cunningham|first1=David Michael|last2=Ellwood|first2=Taylor|last3=Wagener|first3=Amanda R.|title=Creating Magickal Entities: A Complete Guide to Entity Creation|date=2003|publisher=Egregore Publishing|location=Perrysburg, Ohio|isbn=9781932517446|edition=1st}}</ref>{{Page needed|date=April 2017}} Occultist ] in his book ''The Human Aura'' described thought-forms as simple ethereal objects emanating from the ]s surrounding people, generating from their thoughts and feelings.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Panchadsi|first1=Swami|authorlink=William Walker Atkinson|title=The Human Aura: Astral Colors and Thought Forms|date=1912|publisher=Yoga Publication Society|pages=47–54|url=https://borderlandsciences.org/project/aura/ref/panchadasi/ch6.html|accessdate=26 April 2017|chapter=Thought Form}}</ref> He further elaborated in ''Clairvoyance and Occult Powers'' how experienced practitioners of the occult can produce thoughtforms from their auras that serve as ]s which may or may not look like the person who is projecting them, or as illusions that can only be seen by those with "awakened astral senses".<ref>{{cite book|last1=Panchadsi|first1=Swami|title=Clairvoyance and Occult Powers|date=1916|url=http://www.gutenberg.org/files/12480/12480.txt|accessdate=26 April 2017|chapter=Strange astral phenomena}}</ref> The ] Annie Besant, in her book ], divides them into three classes: forms in the shape of the person who creates them, forms that resemble objects or people and may become "ensouled" by "nature spirits" or by the dead, and forms that represent "inherent qualities" from the astral or mental planes, such as emotions.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Besant|first1=Annie|authorlink=Annie Besant|last2=Leadbeater|first2=C. W.|authorlink2=Charles Webster Leadbeater|title=Thought-Forms|date=1901|publisher=The Theosophical Publishing House|url=http://www.gutenberg.org/files/16269/16269-h/16269-h.htm|accessdate=26 April 2017|chapter=Three classes of thought-forms}}</ref> | ||
| ==Tulpas in modern Western society== | ==Tulpas in modern Western society== | ||
| The concept of tulpa was popularized and secularized in the Western world through fiction, gaining popularity on television in the late '90s and 2000s. This exposure led to an internet subculture of practitioners who create tulpas.<ref name="SavageMinds" |
The concept of tulpa was popularized and secularized in the Western world through fiction, gaining popularity on television in the late '90s and 2000s. This exposure led to an internet subculture of practitioners who create tulpas.<ref name="SavageMinds" /> The community originated in 2009 on the discussion board ], and gained popularity through the emergence of the ].<ref name="Vice">{{cite web|last1=Thompson|first1=Nathan|title=Meet the 'Tulpamancers': The Internet's Newest Subculture Is Incredibly Weird|url=https://www.vice.com/en_uk/read/tulpamancy-internet-subculture-892|website=VICE|accessdate=2017-04-22|language=en-uk|date=2014-09-03}}</ref> These individuals, calling themselves "tulpamancers", treat the tulpas as a real or somewhat-real person, or as a special kind of ].<ref name="SavageMinds"/><ref>{{cite web|author=T. M. Luhrmann |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/15/opinion/luhrmann-conjuring-up-our-own-gods.html |title=Conjuring Up Our Own Gods |publisher=The New York Times |date=2013-10-14 |accessdate=2017-04-22}}</ref> The number of active participants in these online communities is in the low hundreds, and few meetings in person have taken place. They belong to "primarily urban, middle class, Euro-American adolescent and young adult demographics" and they "cite loneliness and social anxiety as an incentive to pick up the practice." They report an improvement to their personal lives through the practice, and new unusual sensory experiences. Some practitioners have sexual and romantic interactions with their tulpas, though the practice is controversial and trending towards ].<ref name="Veissière">{{cite web|last1=Veissière|first1=Samuel|title=Varieties of Tulpa Experiences: Sentient Imaginary Friends, Embodied Joint Attention, and Hypnotic Sociality in a Wired World|url=http://somatosphere.net/2015/04/varieties-of-tulpa-experiences-sentient-imaginary-friends-embodied-joint-attention-and-hypnotic-sociality-in-a-wired-world.html|website=Somatosphere|accessdate=6 September 2017|date=3 April 2015}}</ref> Veissière's survey of the community with 118 respondents on the explanation of tulpas found 8.5% support a metaphysical explanation, 76.5% support a neurological or psychological explanation, and 14% "other" explanations. Nearly all practitioners consider the tulpa a real or somewhat-real ]. 93.7% respondents expressed that their involvement with creation of tulpas had "made their condition better".<ref name="Veissière"/> | ||
| Tulpamancers belong to "primarily urban, middle class, Euro-American adolescent and young adult demographics" and they "cite loneliness and social anxiety as an incentive to pick up the practice." They report an improvement to their personal lives through the practice, and new unusual sensory experiences. Some practitioners have sexual and romantic interactions with their tulpas, though the practice is controversial and trending towards ].<ref name="Veissière"/> Veissière's survey of the community with 118 respondents on the explanation of tulpas found 8.5% support a metaphysical explanation, 76.5% support a neurological or psychological explanation, and 14% "other" explanations. Nearly all practitioners consider the tulpa a real or somewhat-real ]. 93.7% respondents expressed that their involvement with creation of tulpas had "made their condition better".<ref name="Veissière"/> | |||
| It is not entirely clear if tulpas relate to any condition of the mind that would be classified as a ]. On its own, the modern concept of tulpa doesn't fall under a ], as the latter requires a "clinically significant distress or impairment in social, occupational, or other important areas of functioning".<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Spitzer|first=R. L.|last2=Wakefield|first2=J. C.|date=December 1999|title=DSM-IV diagnostic criterion for clinical significance: does it help solve the false positives problem?|url=https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10588397|journal=The American Journal of Psychiatry|volume=156|issue=12|pages=1856–1864|doi=10.1176/ajp.156.12.1856|issn=0002-953X|pmid=10588397}}</ref> On the contrary, 93.7% respondents expressed that their involvement with tulpamancy and creation of tulpas had "made their condition better".<ref name="Veissière"/> | |||
| ==Tulpas in culture and art== | |||
| {{In popular culture|section|date=October 2017}} | |||
| Tulpas appear in various cultural works, movies, books, and video games. For most of those appearances, they are related to the occult definition of the thoughtform. | |||
| * Tulpas were featured in '']'' murder mystery television series, notably one of the characters is a tulpa.<ref>{{Cite news|url=http://twinpeaks.wikia.com/Diane_Evans_(tulpa)|title=Diane Evans (tulpa)|work=Twin Peaks Wiki|access-date=2017-10-21|language=en}}</ref> | |||
| * '']'' animated television series featured an episode where main characters considered that they are tulpas.<ref>{{Cite news|url=http://adventuretime.wikia.com/Blank-Eyed_Girl|title=Blank-Eyed Girl|work=Adventure Time Wiki|access-date=2017-10-21|language=en}}</ref> | |||
| * "Tulpa" is an adventure game about "two beings entwined by fate; a girl and her soulmate, left to travel through a hauntingly elegant world".<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://store.steampowered.com/app/331340/Tulpa/|title=Tulpa on Steam|website=store.steampowered.com|language=en|access-date=2017-10-21}}</ref> | |||
| * The television series '']'' feature an episode where one character has a dispute with a boy, who has created a cunning imaginary friend that became a real soul.<ref>{{Citation|last=Harvey|first=Gary|title=Tulpa|date=1999-03-15|url=http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0703717/|others=Patrick Levis, Mackenzie Phillips, Cara DeLizia|accessdate=2017-10-21}}</ref> | |||
| ==See also== | ==See also== | ||
Revision as of 10:26, 22 October 2017
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Tulpa is a concept in mysticism and paranormal of a being or object which is created through spiritual or mental powers. It was adapted by 20th century theosophists from Tibetan sprul-pa (Tibetan: སྤྲུལ་པ་, Wylie: sprulpa) which means "emanation" or "manifestation". Modern practitioners use the term to refer to a type of imaginary friend.
Sprul-pa
Indian Buddhism
 | This section may require copy editing for excessive parentheses and jargon. (April 2017) (Learn how and when to remove this message) |
One early Buddhist text, the Samaññaphala Sutta lists the ability to create a “mind-made body” (manomāyakāya) as one of the "fruits of the contemplative life". Commentarial texts such as the Patisambhidamagga and the Visuddhimagga state that this mind-made body is how Gautama Buddha and arhats are able to travel into heavenly realms using the continuum of the mindstream (bodhi) and it is also used to explain the multiplication miracle of the Buddha as illustrated in the Divyavadana, in which the Buddha multiplied his emanation body ("nirmita") into countless other bodies which filled the sky. A Buddha or other realized being is able to project many such "nirmitas" simultaneously in an infinite variety of forms in different realms simultaneously.
The Indian Buddhist philosopher Vasubandhu defined nirmita as a siddhi or psychic power (Pali: iddhi, Skt: ṛddhi) developed through Buddhist discipline, concentrated discipline (samadhi) and wisdom in his seminal work on Buddhist philosophy, the Abhidharmakośa. Asanga's Bodhisattvabhūmi defines nirmāṇa as a magical illusion and “basically, something without a material basis”. The Madhyamaka school of philosophy sees all reality as empty of essence, all reality is seen as a form of nirmita or magical illusion.
Tibetan Buddhism
Sprul=pa is a spiritual discipline and teachings concept in Tibetan Buddhism and Bon. The 14th Dalai Lama is said to be partly a sprul-pa of Chenrezig, the Bodhisattva of Compassion. The Dalai Lama mentioned in a public statement that his successor might appear via sprul-pa while the current Dalai Lama is still alive.
Tulpa
20th century theosophists adapted the concepts of tulku and sprul-pa into "tulpa" and "thoughtform". The term “thoughtform” is used as early as 1927 in Evans-Wentz' translation of the Tibetan Book of the Dead. John Myrdhin Reynolds in a note to his English translation of the life story of Garab Dorje defines a tulpa as “an emanation or a manifestation.”
Alexandra David-Néel
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Belgian-French explorer, spiritualist, and Buddhist Alexandra David-Néel claimed to have observed these mystical practices in 20th century Tibet. She reported tulpas are "magic formations generated by a powerful concentration of thought." David-Néel wrote that "an accomplished Bodhisattva is capable of effecting ten kinds of magic creations. The power of producing magic formations, tulkus or less lasting and materialized tulpas, does not, however, belong exclusively to such mystic exalted beings. Any human, divine or demoniac being may be possessed of it. The only difference comes from the degree of power, and this depends on the strength of the concentration and the quality of the mind itself."
David-Néel wrote of the tulpa's ability to develop a mind of its own: "Once the tulpa is endowed with enough vitality to be capable of playing the part of a real being, it tends to free itself from its maker's control. This, say Tibetan occultists, happens nearly mechanically, just as the child, when his body is completed and able to live apart, leaves its mother's womb." David-Néel claimed to have created a tulpa in the image of a jolly Friar Tuck-like monk which later developed a life of its own and had to be destroyed. David-Néel raised the possibility that her experience was illusory: "I may have created my own hallucination", though she reports that others could see the thoughtforms that have been created.
Thoughtform
The Western occult understanding of the concept of "thoughtform" is believed by some to have originated as an interpretation of the Tibetan concept of "tulpa". The concept is related to the Western philosophy and practice of magic. Occultist William Walker Atkinson in his book The Human Aura described thought-forms as simple ethereal objects emanating from the auras surrounding people, generating from their thoughts and feelings. He further elaborated in Clairvoyance and Occult Powers how experienced practitioners of the occult can produce thoughtforms from their auras that serve as astral projections which may or may not look like the person who is projecting them, or as illusions that can only be seen by those with "awakened astral senses". The theosophist Annie Besant, in her book Thought-forms, divides them into three classes: forms in the shape of the person who creates them, forms that resemble objects or people and may become "ensouled" by "nature spirits" or by the dead, and forms that represent "inherent qualities" from the astral or mental planes, such as emotions.
Tulpas in modern Western society
The concept of tulpa was popularized and secularized in the Western world through fiction, gaining popularity on television in the late '90s and 2000s. This exposure led to an internet subculture of practitioners who create tulpas. The community originated in 2009 on the discussion board 4chan, and gained popularity through the emergence of the My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic fandom. These individuals, calling themselves "tulpamancers", treat the tulpas as a real or somewhat-real person, or as a special kind of imaginary friend. The number of active participants in these online communities is in the low hundreds, and few meetings in person have taken place. They belong to "primarily urban, middle class, Euro-American adolescent and young adult demographics" and they "cite loneliness and social anxiety as an incentive to pick up the practice." They report an improvement to their personal lives through the practice, and new unusual sensory experiences. Some practitioners have sexual and romantic interactions with their tulpas, though the practice is controversial and trending towards taboo. Veissière's survey of the community with 118 respondents on the explanation of tulpas found 8.5% support a metaphysical explanation, 76.5% support a neurological or psychological explanation, and 14% "other" explanations. Nearly all practitioners consider the tulpa a real or somewhat-real person. 93.7% respondents expressed that their involvement with creation of tulpas had "made their condition better".
See also
- Bardo
- Bicameralism (psychology)
- Cryptid
- Dialogue
- Dream yoga
- Egregore
- Etiäinen
- Golem
- Homunculus
- Materialization (paranormal)
- Philosophy of mind
References
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- ^ Mikles, Natasha L.; Laycock, Joseph P. (6 August 2015). "Tracking the Tulpa: Exploring the "Tibetan" Origins of a Contemporary Paranormal Idea". Nova Religio: The Journal of Alternative and Emergent Religions. 19 (1): 87–97. doi:10.1525/nr.2015.19.1.87.
- ^ Joffe, Ben (13 February 2016). "Paranormalizing the Popular through the Tibetan Tulpa: Or what the next Dalai Lama, the X Files and Affect Theory (might) have in common". Savage Minds. Retrieved 22 April 2017.
- ^ Fiordallis, David (20 September 2008). "Miracles and Superhuman Powers in South Asian Buddhist Literature" (PDF). University of Michigan. Retrieved 22 April 2017.
- "Birth to Exile", The Dalai Lama - Biography and Daily Life, The Office of His Holiness the Dalai Lama, retrieved October 10, 2017
- Evans-Wentz, W.T. (2000). The Tibetan Book of the Dead: Or The After-Death Experiences on the Bardo Plane, according to Lāma Kazi Dawa-Samdup's English Rendering. New York: Oxford University Press. pp. 29–32, 103, 123, 125. ISBN 0198030517.
- Rinpoche, Dza Patrul (1996). The Golden Letters: The Three Statements of Garab Dorje, the First Teacher of Dzogchen (1st ed.). Ithaca, New York: Snow Lion Publications. p. 350. ISBN 9781559390507.
- ^ David-Neel, Alexandra; DʼArsonval, A. (2000). Magic and Mystery in Tibet. Escondido, California: Book Tree. ISBN 1585090972.
- Marshall, Richard; Davis, Monte; Moolman, Valerie; Zappler, George (1982). Mysteries of the Unexplained (Reprint ed.). Pleasantville, NewYork: Reader's Digest Association. p. 176. ISBN 0895771462.
- Cunningham, David Michael; Ellwood, Taylor; Wagener, Amanda R. (2003). Creating Magickal Entities: A Complete Guide to Entity Creation (1st ed.). Perrysburg, Ohio: Egregore Publishing. ISBN 9781932517446.
- Panchadsi, Swami (1912). "Thought Form". The Human Aura: Astral Colors and Thought Forms. Yoga Publication Society. pp. 47–54. Retrieved 26 April 2017.
- Panchadsi, Swami (1916). "Strange astral phenomena". Clairvoyance and Occult Powers. Retrieved 26 April 2017.
- Besant, Annie; Leadbeater, C. W. (1901). "Three classes of thought-forms". Thought-Forms. The Theosophical Publishing House. Retrieved 26 April 2017.
- Thompson, Nathan (2014-09-03). "Meet the 'Tulpamancers': The Internet's Newest Subculture Is Incredibly Weird". VICE. Retrieved 2017-04-22.
- T. M. Luhrmann (2013-10-14). "Conjuring Up Our Own Gods". The New York Times. Retrieved 2017-04-22.
- ^ Veissière, Samuel (3 April 2015). "Varieties of Tulpa Experiences: Sentient Imaginary Friends, Embodied Joint Attention, and Hypnotic Sociality in a Wired World". Somatosphere. Retrieved 6 September 2017.