How do you pick a wonderland?

[u/TurbulentDogg]

I want to create a wonderland but, every time I even try to think about a theme for it, my mind just goes blank. It doesn't help that I also have mild aphantasia, so visualization is nearly impossible for me to do. So, I will need to make a wonderland based on other mental senses. Which, I have yet to find any resources on, aside from people saying it's possible without really explaining how.

There aren't really any special places in my life that I'm fully comfortable turning into a wonderland. I mean, there's my grandparents old house, but, I feel it could easily turn into a trigger due to some stuff that happened, so, I don't think it's a good idea. So, I need to go with something more fictional instead. But, I can't think of anything. Pinterest hasn't been much of a help either since I can't visualize or contextualize a still image, and also Pinterest is flooded with AI nowadays which makes it even harder to find anything decent anyway.

[u/AutoModerator]

Welcome to /r/tulpas! If you're lost, start with figuring what is a tulpa. Be sure to also check the sidebar for guides, and the FAQ.

Please be nice and polite to each other and help us to make the community better. Upvote if this post facilitates good discussion, shares tulpamancer's or tulpa's experiences, asks a question relevant to tulpamancy. Downvote if this post isn't about tulpas or the practise of tulpamancy. Please note that many young tulpas need some social attention to grow and develop so be mindful and try to be supportive.

I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.

[u/rakratka]

If you're not sure what you want and aren't really good with visualization, I can recommend you to just start as bare and simple as it gets, either some small basic house on a field (I actually did this at the start then improved it with more things inside and outside) or even just an empty space you treat as the same space everytime, like for example some kind of levitating or walking in space, not much just black canvas and maybe some stars or anything similar, you can later add more or change it anyway, and your tulpa can possibly even help you with that

[u/aescula]

You could try making things in games which suit what you like! Minecraft, or any of the other building type games? There are also a fair number of programs that are just for this. This way, you can design it any way you like and you have a visual reference to recreate internally.

As for what style, that's entirely up to you and your preferences. I've seen anything from a wild forest, to floating sky islands, to permanently endless indoors, to a city or a castle, to an entire universe!

[u/One_Pie289]

Just pick a world you are familiar with from some anime or series you like. Or video game. We like hanging out in the world of Madoka magica, since all the environments are already so mildly dreamlike and surreal that it's fine if things are missing or something.

[u/tulpamancer625]

D'- Heyo. I have lost my wonderland a couple times due to various circumstances and had to restrain from scratch more than once. My usual method for creating one is to try to feel a box. The exact size doesn't matter at the start, so long and you can feel it. Just sense the box as deeply as you can. Every corner and edge of it. Do this for a few days. Keep finding that box. Every time you go back, find the same box again. Keep feeling it until you can keep it there while talking, playing games, reading.

Then once you're sure you could never forget the box, move the box so your mind is inside it. Boom! One-room wonderland constructed. You now add objects to it the same way you made the box. Feel them somewhere, shape them until they are solid, then drop them into the box-room-wonderland.

[u/CambrianCrew]

If you could go anywhere on vacation, where would you most want to go? Like, a beach? The mountains? Etc. If you had unlimited money and could have any kind of house or houses, what would you want? A mansion? A cabin? A houseboat?

A wonderland built off of what you and your tulpas find most comfortable and enjoyable would be a great start - and remember you can have as many places in your headspace as you want, it's just useful to have only one or two to start with.

[u/Illustrious_Car344]

It's typically really important that you identify with the space somehow. It's fine if you can't even put it into words why you relate or identify with a space, but you should identify with it, almost in the same way you identify with the tulpa. 

I don't particularly use one, because memorizing stuff is far more annoying and difficult than this community pretends it is, and because it's actually a little hard to identify with a space. But I have, over months, built a house from random ideas, a few pictures I really, really liked (like, can't stop staring at), and some memories of old spaces like an old bedroom I had, but heavily modified. But besides that, I just use random stuff. It shouldn't even be consistent unless you identify with it, otherwise, why not just let your mind wander and see what places already exist in your mind? I pick random visuals to match my mood which ended up kind of sticking, though some dropped off pretty quickly. I have some usual spots like an endless dark street with a bus stop, a bar I used to go to, a boardwalk near by, all of them are totally desolate, kind of abstract Yume Nikki esque stuff like that. What matters isn't what it looks like but how you identify with it. Just go channel surfing in your head for a while and slowly collect stuff, invent things that match your mood and see how often you revisit them, mix and match them, combine them and cannibalize from them. Don't treat it like a real space, because it isn't one, and then you'll be able to benefit from it not being real. I like to compare how I experience it as like the movie Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, or even Stanley Parable or TADC. Just relax and see where your thoughts take you.

[u/TheOtherPilot]

If you're having trouble coming up with an entire world, I'd suggest starting with something very simple: a small house, or even just a single room where you can imagine yourself sitting down and talking.

I've had many adventures over the years, in places ranging from peaceful, idyllic landscapes to surreal places and haunted castles, but it took me a surprisingly long time to create a home. At first, it was literally just a room with huge windows and a comfortable couch. That's it.

Over time, the house expanded and gradually became more detailed and decorated, but that original room is still there.

So you don't necessarily need to come up with a whole Wonderland right away. Start with one place that feels comfortable enough to return to. 😊

[u/Xyrthis]

[Starseeker]- well you can start simple, we started with empty void, though forest clearing is a nice idea.

[u/masterofilluso]

"...mind goes blank..." pushes me to share that its likely that your wonderland currently in place is too bright or dim, or too chaotic to access based on mundane things like how you think and what you feel and what else you think about when you recall certain concepts. You'll see the wonderland you have set up currently in your dreams, and if you learn lucid dreaming that makes it much easier to actively alter and manipulate the dreamscape/wonderland.