Tulpa
A tulpa is a sentient being that is created by the will of a person through spiritual or mental powers. It is said that anyone can create a tulpa if they learn to harness their psychic abilities. There are many different types of paranormal events that have been theorised to have been caused by a subconsciously created tulpa.
It is a commonly held idea that as humans we are able to speak our will into being. In Tibetan Buddhism Tulpas are claimed to be extra bodies that are created from a person's mind in order to travel to spiritual realms. In some fundamentalist Christian circles it is believed that humans are able to speak things into being as we are made in the image of God who created the universe with his words. In some new age religions and philosophies such as The Secret it is believed that thinking positive thoughts and visualising you goals will bring them into being through the law of attraction. Witchcraft is based around the idea that if you channel your intention you can make changes upon physical reality. Even in some folklore it is considered taboo to speak of bad things happening as it may cause them to happen. It seems to be built into our collective psyche to be careful about what we say as it may have an influence on the world.
Tulpas specifically are a powerful form of our intention manifested in reality. One phenomena thought to potentially be a form of tulpa is our childhood imaginary friends. It is a relatively common part of childhood to have an imaginary friend with 65% of seven-year-olds reporting that they have had an imaginary friend at some point in their lives. Most children acknowledge that these friends are just in their heads but some state that they are indistinguishable from the real people around them.
Most of the time imaginary friends are only able to interact with the child but occasionally people have reported seeing paranormal phenomena that their children have claimed was caused by their imaginary friend. A woman named Kellie and her daughter Madison had a spooky experience with Madison’s imaginary friend. Madison reported many imaginary friends in her childhood but one in particular stood out. He was a middle aged man named Kellum. Maddison began to sing an unfamiliar song and when asked where she learned it she said Kellum sang it to his baby daughter. Kellie couldn’t thing of anywhere else she could have learned the song as she would have had to have listened to it a lot to have learned most of the words as a 2 year old. Before long Maddison started getting moody and not sleeping well. When Kellie asked what was wrong Madison said Kellum wasn’t letting her sleep at night. Kellie would stand outside Madison’s room and her her talking to Kellum telling him to go away. Madison said the more she told Kellum to go away the more dirty and tired he would look which frightened her. Eventually he faded away and she didn’t see him anymore.
Is it possible that Maddison was longing for a father figure who would play with her and sing to her and subconsciously created Kellum to fill that need? Perhaps her desire was so strong it created an imaginary friend with his own autonomy and his own experiences.
Reports of poltergeist phenomena have also been theorised to be potentially caused by a tulpa. Victims, often young girls, are said to have objects move on their own around them when experiencing high levels of emotion. Perhaps the heightened emotional energy is able to manifest a physical presence which acts out the subconscious will of the person. Eventually the tulpa is said to be able to evolve to the point where it is no longer connected to the person who created it and it is able to go about under its own will.
There is a theory that the spooky story of Slenderman has become reality due to being though of as real by a large number of people. With so many people having been made aware of the possibility of Slenderman’s existence through how popular the story became perhaps this combined awareness has created a real life manifestation of the concept. People have reported seeing Slenderman like figures in real life despite knowing he is not real.
There are guides online which provide the steps for summoning a tulpa. These usually involve things steps such as meditation, visualising your tulpa’s appearance and personality and imagining yourself interacting with them. Practitioners believe that eventually your tulpa will take on a life of it’s own and be able to interact with you without your input.
Whether Tulpas are a product of an overactive imagination or a real life interactive phenomenon is up for debate. Regardless they seem to have a tangible affect on their creators sometimes in a good way sometimes in a negative way. We’ll leave it up to you to decide whether it’s a good idea to partake in such creative spiritual endeavors.