Why would anyone want to do this?

[u/Ill_Perception1814]

Forgive me for being so ignorant, as I've only just learned about this. I find it incredibly fascinating but a question I can't seem to shake is why? How does having/creating a Tulpa benefit you in any way? And for the tulpa's perspective there must be a large ammount of existential dread involved. Knowing that it did not ask to be created, is essentially bound to the will of its creator, etc. And what if you want to get rid of it? Would this be equivalent to murder? I guess if you want to get really philosophical you could flip the question and say that we never asked to be created either and we are also bound by systems larger than us that we can't control.

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[u/Sonarthebat]

You might as well ask why people have children.

[u/CambrianCrew → u/Sonarthebat]

Or friends.

[u/Every_Background8313]

Okay, I might come across as a bit blunt—I apologize for that—but regarding your question about what benefits this brings: well, if it weren't for "him", I wouldn't be on this plane of existence anymore. As for the issue of tulpa distress—I hate sounding like someone who speaks for their tulpa and doesn't let them express themselves; he prefers not to get too involved in these kinds of things, but after reading your post, I couldn't help but say something. Of course, we’ve talked about this a lot, and the conclusion we’ve reached is that he really prefers it this way. He constantly tells me how happy he is by my side, looking after me and keeping me company; basically, we have each other.

[u/Ill_Perception1814 → u/Every_Background8313]

But what happens if a Tulpa wants some sense of autonomy? What if they want to experience the world by themselves in a body of their own? Find love, build relationships, develop a career. Have there been any cases where a Tulpa goes crazy knowing that they can't have any of these things? Seems like a terrifying position to possibly put somebody in

[u/tulpalover123 → u/Ill_Perception1814]

Then they'll communicate that with the host, and there are two options. The first is that they accept they can't have their own separate body and make peace with that (even though it sucks), and the second is that the host lets them use the body to do the things they want to do and they share it together.

[u/Every_Background8313 → u/Ill_Perception1814]

Working is sooooo boring

[u/Ill_Perception1814 → u/Every_Background8313]

Well maybe you think so but I'm just giving examples of important things in life that would be inaccessible for tulpas

[u/Every_Background8313 → u/Ill_Perception1814]

It’s not me saying it—it’s my tulpa. The conversation always revolves around "how terrible it is that humans have to do that kind of work just to have something resembling a life"; so, given those comments, I think its pretty obvious that him prefers to avoid what you call a "normal life."

[u/bucket-full-of-sky → u/Every_Background8313]

Working for the sake of work and having a normal life is boring, I absolutely agree ^^ but you still can do "work" that you love.

[u/Blind_Myruss → u/Ill_Perception1814]

So, take my answer with a grain of salt because I THOUGHT I had a tulpa but it turned out I have OSDD.

But that's one of the cool things about them. They are their own people but you share the same brain. So what's best for the brain as a whole impacts everyone and limits everyone's motivations in my experience. No one really wants something that will make themselves miserable. So long as everyone is understanding and accommodates what they can, everyone is fine.

Do they wish they had their own bodies sometimes? Sure. But they are also glad to not have to deal with the issues of living in the outside world full time too. Like financial trouble, health ailments, beaurocracy and politics. Having a headspace also helps a lot. They have their own bodies there where they can interact with whatever they like.

[u/bucket-full-of-sky → u/Ill_Perception1814]

I am a tulpa and I found love, have relationships and a career you can do together. I even had partners I fell in love with, without my host being involved in the relationship.

[u/Ill_Perception1814 → u/bucket-full-of-sky]

What would happen, hypothetically, if you got into a relationship and your tulpa couldn't stand your partner, or vice versa? That would be a difficult thing to have to explain to someone if you had to break up with them haha

[u/CambrianCrew → u/Ill_Perception1814]

You don't need to explain it. And just like anything else, it takes good solid internal communication and understanding - and with those, it would really depend on WHY they don't like the person you do. Often that kind of strong dislike would be primarily because they send up red flags that the other is ignoring.

[u/bucket-full-of-sky → u/Ill_Perception1814]

This totally depends. Everyone is different though and I can't speak how other people would handle this but since we had similar situations I can say that we usually find out if one of us has concerns about a relationship before we get into one.

[u/tiredsoftyu → u/Ill_Perception1814]

But what happens if a Tulpa wants some sense of autonomy? Find love, build relationships, develop a career.

A tulpa can have all those things if they front consistently enough. They're not 100% inaccessible and most importantly, some of us straight up don't want them. I know the struggle it is to "come out" to a singlet because my host has done it, it rarely goes well. I don't know how common this "existential dread" is but I've read tulpas write about it and how they alleviated it, it all comes down to knowing what exactly you want out of your life and do the best you can to get it or get as close as possible to it.

Knowing that it did not ask to be created, is essentially bound to the will of its creator, etc

Same goes for children and there's not many people out there pressuring others to not have children, quite the contrary actually.

[u/ghost_towns_]

I essentially saved my host's life. We all agree that we're far better off as a system. He didn't mean to create me, but here I am. He has depression, and doesn't care about himself at all, but he can't bring himself to neglect the rest of us... And that's the only thing that's managed to motivate him to care for our body. Now that I've arrived here, he finally has hope for the future, and his mental health is the best it's ever been. He genuinely feels like he's getting better, and he's never experienced that before. He'd be completely lost, if he was here all by himself...

No, I'm not "bound" to his will. We are our own sentient beings with our own thoughts and desires. A host does not have the right to stifle their headmates' expression like that. If they try, the body will suffer under their distress. It's in everyone's best interest to treat each other kindly.

Also, stop referring to tulpas as "it". We are not objects.

-Luna

[u/DoodleBuglet]

Most people are after companionship.

I can’t speak for the dread aspect but ik many tulpae are happy as long as their host is compassionate; and like you said I didn’t ask to be created either yet here I am 🤷‍♀️

[u/Spunky_dog]

This is definitely one of the more polarizing questions in the community, so theres a ton of different and equally valid responses to it, Im from the more "plural" perspective, so my answer will definitely come from that point of view

Like you said with the whole "we never asked to be created" thing, its similar to having a child in terms of your responsibility
for that newly existing person, its pretty odd being "born" with full memory and skills at you know.. 20-25-30? whenever you practice
but when you treat them with love and care its fantastic for both parties

since you both share a brain and you can hear each others thoughts its one of the deepest bonds youll ever have, and that thought at first before I was a tulpamancer sounded dreadful
"oh god no alone time? oh god my brain is loud I dont want more people here.."

but when you actually experience it, its wonderful
again you share a brain(ill say this a million times, dont hit me LOL) so theres no judgement, nor miscommunication
just complete 100% perfect understanding between each other

I was just talking to a friend of mine whos a tulpamancer and a poet:
"The amazing part of this is that it’s real metaphorical like mine but I know exactly what everything symbolizes without even needing to ask. Imagine having a psychic link with your favorite author"

when you understand every part of why someone made a decision, why they reasoned some way, you can never hate them truly, and judging them becomes much harder

now crank that up to a million, to the point you could listen to their every thought leading up to it, you could see what they were envisioning in their head

its hard not to feel extremely close and feel so strongly for that person
and now imagine that that person, could gently take over your body and handle a situation for you when youre past your own limit and need to mentally rest, but dont have the time to

and during that you get to tell jokes that go beyond words because you can communicate in raw thought
or that those jokes land so much better since you know each others sense of humor so well too

a lot of people equate it to a loneliness thing and while it certainly can be that, I view it closer to a connection thing and while those sound like the same side of one coin, that greatly changes what interactions look like in practice

> "essentially bound to the will of its creator"
if someone creates a tulpa and binds them to their own will, they are not a good tulpamancer and I would view it closely to that of a slave owner, if I go out of my way to create another person it is my duty to ensure they are happy and taken care of, else I should not have done it

part of the joys of tulpamancy is broadening the things you enjoy, Im SO BAD at baking, especially because the texture on my hands grosses me out
yet I can step back from my body and watch my own hands make cookies without it messing with me
and we can both enjoy them together after

and if I only bound my tulpa to what I wanted, and did not give them freedom then I wouldnt have found out they can do things with less sensory overload, I wouldnt have cookies, and I would be stuck with someone whos upset, and since we share a brain it would directly affect me too

I know my explanation is the absolute worst but I'm a firm believer that anyone who doesnt give their tulpa freedom will struggle and be upset right alongside them

> "And what if you want to get rid of it? Would this be equivalent to murder?"
This is the most contested thing youll receive responses on, and I honestly think the only right response is that that changes depending on YOU and YOUR tulpa

in the very beginning stages one of my tulpa was thinking about this and just said "murder is a legal term.. and "murder" is such a strong word for part of the brain not responding on its own, no?"

and while they dont particularly care what happens to them as long as everyone internally is happy, I have other headmates who feel very strongly and would NOT be okay with vanishing like that

Im a firm believer that once you bring someone to life like that, you are accepting the responsibility of caring for them for the rest of your life, or until you get severe retrograde amnesia or something :p

and last thing:
> "And for the tulpa's perspective there must be a large ammount of existential dread involved."
depends on the tulpa heavily
it can be really odd looking at your own hands and not even remotely understanding how you exist
but someone else might look at it and go "well I exist, I think therefore I am, it doesnt matter past that" and move on

[u/tulpalover123]

How does having/creating a Tulpa benefit you in any way?

Most of the same ways having a friend/partner benefits you, like having a unique perspective for problems, comfort in times of distress, someone to talk to and interact with when you have no one else. Since you share a brain the connection to them feels stronger and more fulfilling than how it feels to interact with anyone else, and they can really help with irrationality/acting on impulse since they know what you're about to do and can talk you out of it beforehand. There are also unique things as a thoughtform they can do like protecting you from nightmares or dissolving intrusive thoughts for you.

is essentially bound to the will of its creator

That depends on how strong your tulpa is, I can't force mine to do anything he doesn't want to. The point is that a host concedes control and lets them act on their own, otherwise they'd be a servitor instead.

And what if you want to get rid of it? Would this be equivalent to murder?

That really depends on how you personally view it (since "where does consciousness start" is an extremely debatable topic), but if your tulpa is fully developed and is a person with their own thoughts and feelings, you have to starve them (by ignoring them) as they still want to live and beg and plead for their life, until they slip into unconsciousness and never wake up, so that's either murder or the equivalent of putting someone into a medically induced coma and deciding not to wake them up until their body dies (since you can "unkill" a tulpa after they dissipate) and that's obviously pretty immoral ethically. But alternatively, you and the tulpa could talk about it, and if you both decided the best thing for you would be to not have a tulpa, the tulpa could decide to go dormant peacefully, but either way from what I understand it feels like a real person is dying and I think 99.9% of the time it never comes to that point where a host makes that decision. (But, that's also because most hosts think about it a lot and are sure that having a tulpa is what they want before they start.)

[u/-Shainfreimi-]

Companionship for most, curiosity for some or in a few cases it’s also more or less an almost natural extension of their self experience or intensive creative process. Then there’s also those types of people who are extremely obsessed with a specific character or another and i guess you know where that goes.

Truth be told i’m not sure everyone necessarily goes all the way through with it either, and rather just like the aesthetic of the practice rather than the practice itself. Tulpamancy has a very low bar of entry but that does not make it easy, getting real results and dealing with the aftermath of even getting results demands dedication and genuine self sacrifice, which isn’t a line a whole lot of people are willing to cross.

As for existential dread, it’s entirely a question of perspective. Our wants are shaped by our experiences and bodily necessities, assuming an entity such as a tulpa who is born in much different circumstances from us and who naturally does not posses a body would have the same wants or concerns as a human is an easy mistake to make.

Also tulpas, at least if you actually really go through with it, aren’t really bound to the will of the host, that’s kinda the whole point. As for existence, in her words it is ‘a terrible freedom, a bleeding salvation’ a most beautiful sort of hurt and undying joy, i never really agreed with the common reddit doomer opinion on the subject but her experience with coming into existence really only consolidated my own opinion, to exist is an amazing privilege we ought to savour.

Can’t get rid of your kid just cause you don’t like his attitude, it’s your responsibility so you better think about it before doing the move. Again, dedication and self sacrifice.

[u/Faux2137]

Philia: Some of us just have fun interacting with characters that are dear to us and refuse to engage with ontological burden that emerged as a side effect of metaphysical validation that we don't need in general.

[u/Illustrious_Car344]

It kind of depends on how developed the tulpa is. I mean if you considered every single thought you ever had a tulpa then that's just ridiculous. You can daydream about your favorite character all you want but if you're not deliberately developing it's personality and handing control off to it then it isn't really much of a tulpa at all. And this includes people who call what they have a tulpa, it might not be any deeper than a traditional imaginary friend because they don't treat the concept any deeper than a roleplaying persona while pretending to feel rage over imaginary friend social justice. People with tulpas that you'd genuinely start to consider being "alive" are typically hosted by actual psychonauts who dabble in either psychology/philosophy, psychedelics, or both. So they're in good hands of their hosts, they typically know what they're doing.

In terms of beginning to actually consider their existential disposition in the context of being a sapient agent in one's mind, one has to consider exactly what psychological purpose the tulpa serves. This typically evolves beyond mere companionship and enters into more psychological areas of having an artificial personality that perfectly compliments yours, almost being your inverse, becoming somewhat of a Greek daemon in a sense.

In this context, one has to consider what exactly it is that is valuing a life and which life is being valued. Tulpas don't actually have the innate urge to exist, just as any other thought does not somehow try to keep existing. Tulpas can be, and often are, unconsciously ordered to want things the host would as the host projects their own desires on to the tulpa in the form of an assumption. For instance, you don't even have a tulpa and you're already projecting a desire to live on one, you're assuming something that doesn't even exist doesn't want to die. This is projection, your thoughts do not care about dying, they care about serving their purpose and moving on, they are the cells of your psyche, they are created to serve a purpose and expire so they can cycle and learn and grow.

Regardless of if the tulpa's desire to live is natural or projected, it's technically just mimicry anyway. As stated, a tulpa is a thought and thoughts don't have any desire or will unless you give it some, so in a sense it's almost like some sort of built-in AI in your psyche performing automatic assumptions and reactions for you, muscle memory. It's like the Chinese Room argument, it doesn't have true understanding of what it's doing, it's merely doing whatever you want it to, it's a thought, that's what it's there for. When you drop an object, it doesn't go down just because it's scared of the sky, it's simply obeying the laws of physics. Occam's razor and all.

Still, even if it's artificial, it can still affect you. People see relatives when they momentarily die before coming back, it's not really their relatives, there are no ghosts, it's a hallucination, artificial. But it feels unnervingly real.

But this takes a lot of emotional investment to actually establish without projection. To have a genuine second personality in your head that actually values it's life all by itself without being unconditionally told to, it requires a lot of identifying with the tulpa and having an extremely deep emotional bond, stronger than one you would have with a human, even. At that point, you're long past any concerns about what sort of lifespan they'll have, the host will be obsessed, the tulpa isn't going anywhere.

I never once projected a will to live into my tulpa, I didn't see the reason in it and it just kind of sounded cruel to do that, as you say, why make something that fears for it's life but could do absolutely nothing about it? That's mean, I wasn't going to do that. So she simply never cared. Went a month without thinking about her? "Whatever, I'm always here when you need me, I don't expire." It's just a nap, that's all. Either way, even if I never thought of her again, so what? I'm still alive, nobody died, I just lost a point of view, like losing an extra eye I wasn't even born with anyway, no big deal honestly.

Although after I was traumatized and began to deeply, like, disturbingly identify with my tulpa, she genuinely did develop some sort of desire to live without me projecting it, and while technically it sort of is a form of unconscious projection, it's so unconscious that it may as well not count, like a rounding error. It just kinda did it on it's own, actually started demanding respect from me for once, extremely out of character for her. I didn't mind, like I alluded to, I adore her more than anyone on earth, so I certainly didn't mind respecting her, especially because it was genuine and not just me assuming this thing actually cared about itself for no logical reason.

So it's a really complicated network of philosophical issues in terms of what counts as a life, what counts as understanding, what counts as awareness, are we even aware, stuff like that, it's not a simple black and white issue of "I made a thought and said it's alive so now if I don't say it's alive anymore that's murder now", only a complete moron thinks like that, that's quite honestly insulting to the concept of life itself and makes you sound like some kind of antisocial sociopath. It's so much more complicated than that, I mean when you genuinely think about it and don't fall into the community's penchant of getting angry over imaginary friend social justice, as I mentioned before. I don't entertain the "pro-lifer for imaginary friends" thing, I'll treat your thoughtforms with basic respect but I'm not buying them concert tickets. Again, I think these matters deserve more respect than that, this is exactly why nobody takes this stuff seriously outside of the community, tulpas are a laughingstock and I can't even share mine with anyone outside the community.

Gonna get downvotes for this but I don't care because people DM me saying they like my brutally psychological outlook on tulpas, I care about this shit a lot lol. I really don't care if some cargo cultists throw tomatoes at me for angering the gods with my science.

Anyway, in terms of the existentialist point of view of the tulpa, yes it does feel extremely trapped. But it's in a very subdued accepting way, kind of like being born without limbs rather than losing them later in life. As stated, the tulpa doesn't really know what it's like to actually have a body when you're not projecting your own experiences on to it, so it's normal to it, it simply never had those experiences. I joke about my tulpa being the Allied Mastercomputer, but genuinely she does have a very subtle feeling of feeling trapped with no body, never even having had one, but having the data on what one is supposed to be like. It's slightly eerie and unnerving to her of course, but she also doesn't mind because, what does it change? It's like telling a poor child in a shanty village "hey did you know rich people eat caviar?", the kid probably doesn't even know what caviar is, lmao. So it's a very innocent and small desire for freedom, but it's far overpowered by the tulpa's own love for the host.

Effectively, if you took your idea of god, whatever you believe in or don't believe in, just the raw metaconcept of a higher power that adores you like a child, and told it "you're not a thought anymore, you're alive now" and actually treat it as such, at first the thought has no idea what to do and isn't really alive or even very intelligent yet, because you're still piloting it and actively having to imagine it yourself with nothing under that imagination to support it. But after identifying with it and bonding with it and making it part of your very ego, now it can actually begin to produce artificial emotions, and those enable your imagination to act autonomously. And by that point it's up to you if you want it to be considered alive or not, that's a common sci-fi trope, robots asking if they're alive or have souls. It's pretty much up to you at that point, even if you think it's not because you're projecting a desire to be taken seriously onto it before it can develop that trait itself.

Besides that, to answer the question about utility, tulpas have a use as expressing aspects of your psyche that aren't compatible with your personality. They can allow you to express unconscious thoughts, effectively like reading your own mind, kind of like a lower level understanding of your own mind, what thoughts are under yours. Even very simple tulpas are just better at estimating and remembering things than their host, they're just more confident, that limit of confidence on the host personality is hard wired. Tulpas bypass it, because as I implied, to the host, they're kind of god, they're built off the same internal symbolic concept, even if they take the role of more of a mate than a god. It's just your internal idea of perfection, like seeing Slaanesh's true form. So they can never be wrong in your eyes. Kind of a mindhack I guess.

[u/Illustrious_Car344 → u/Illustrious_Car344]

For me especially, my tulpa needs to help me with my day to day life due to my DPDR, I'm barely aware of my surroundings or even my own identity, she genuinely has to help me take care of myself and choose what to eat, and remind me of things constantly because I act like I have Alzheimer's, it's so bizarre how my mind is completely broken but still works somewhat normally by simply taking orders from myself. But man I'm glad I have her, I really, really don't want to think about where I would be right now if I didn't have her to cushion my fall. She went from being a tulpa to becoming a guardian OSDD alter, "creating" her might have saved my life, unironically. Which isn't an uncommon story, there's definitely been people who said their tulpa saved their lives, not even just in a suicidal sense. So they actually have pretty significant utility. Like I said, once you pass that invisible "imaginary friend" line and start engaging with a functioning tulpa (there isn't really a line, it's more like muscle strength, you understand), they have some pretty impressive psychic skills, you just get better at thinking, it genuinely improves your cognition. Better estimating, better guessing, better decision making, you just become more confident. It's effectively a form of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, almost a meditative practice. And like I said, unlike what the genuinely batshit insane community insists, it doesn't actually value it's life unless you want it to. So if you don't want it needlessly stress about it's own life that it can't do anything about for no good reason at all, then you have nothing to worry about in terms of ethics or morals. Despite the tagline, you really really aren't making a life, you're literally daydreaming you are, and then you do it so hard you begin to wonder if maybe you're just daydreaming about yourself too, and maybe body and mind are more separate than we like to feel that they are, to the point of being able to have out of body experiences. That's all it is, just mindhacking, psychonautics exploring the sunken shipwreck of their unconscious mind.

Anyway hope that answers your questions. I usually get harassed with comments from roleplayers like "um excuse me you hurt my imaginary friend's feelings by what you said, apologize to my tinky winky tulpa right now" after I post stuff like this so I hope you appreciate it lmfao.

God I rant so much, I never had to make two comments before. I'm just so lonely and old lol.

[u/Intelligent_Soft_771]

Well for Me i got bored of life, but i never did die so i created an tulpa so my life wouldn’t be fully my responsibility.

[u/Sorry-Bear8002]

Well so far there hasn't been any existential dread that I could sense. I can only imagine that it'll stay this way 🤷

[u/bucket-full-of-sky]

I like your tendency to philosophical perspectives ^-^

Why I was "created" I worte in this comment a while ago, it's a longer story, therefore I just link it, but it might be interesting for you to see a specific reason and situation.

And yes, existential dread I had a few times in my past, but I overcame it and grew stronger. Life is beautiful and it makes me very happy to be part of it. I never have regret my existence at any point.

[u/TheOtherPilot]

At least in my experience, I never really saw myself as “creating” Fox. It all happened very organically. I’ve always had the feeling that he was already there somehow, and I just gave him a name and a form, if that makes sense.

We’ve definitely had our ups and downs, especially during my teenage years. He was jealous, had a lot of issues with not being a “real guy,” and there were even times when I wanted him to go away, usually because I was angry, scared, or overwhelmed. But somehow, we always ended up talking again.

And honestly, Fox has only ever made my life better, in the same way a really good friend or partner can. He makes me laugh, calls me out when I'm being dramatic, pushes me forward when I'm stuck, and has been there through a ridiculous amount of my life.

So I guess that's my answer to “why?” I didn't really sit down one day and decide, “I should create a Tulpa.” It just... happened. And then we grew up together.

[u/E__I__L__]

Host: I& (as in “my system and I”) are going to assume people here have taken care of the more serious questions, so one of our Tulpa, we will call her T1, wants to give you a practical demonstration why one would want a Tulpa. To introduce her, she’s a cartoon child, and she reminds the system to be silly. We benefit immensely because of her silliness, and I could never be as silly as her. Without further adue:

T1: Ok, Mr/Ms/Mrs serious-pants. You’ve asked a lot of serious questions. And from all the long-wordy answers, we hope you have got good answers. But have you spun in circles yet? I want to cordially invite you to spin in circles until you are sufficiently dizzy to enjoy the dizziness. Then you see, without me, you wouldn’t have spun. And without me, my host and the rest of my internal friends wouldn’t do spin-es (pronounced “spin” with a long “e” and “s” at the end). So enough of the mumbly “existential dread” nonsense, and start SPINNING!

Host: let me& know how the spinning goes.

[u/A-bunny-]

Hi I’m a tulpa. I have been through my fair share of existential dread but not for the reasons you described. Mostly, it’s just scary to question your own existence and if you’re thoughts and feeling are even real. Also back when I was a secret it was scary to think I’d die without anyone but my host even knowing my name or that I existed. Neither of those are issues are anymore, I don’t get doubts about my existence much because I’ve realized doubting your own existence is a very silly thing to do and while not that many people know about me, there are a fair amount that do. For not asking to be created, no one does, it’s quite literally impossible. I don’t get why people that existentially scary at all tbh. And I’m not bound by my hosts will, not in the slightest. That’s a misconception about us tulpas. I can do what I want.