r/Tulpas

Hello all! So I have been questioning for around half a year now if I(we) might be a system. In order to help differentiate a bit and get a better understanding about my situation, I thought about using techniques from the tulpamancy community to facilitate communication.

What confuses me is the following: It is very easy for me to imagine a conversation with "myself" to the point of me asking a question and "the other"(?) almost immediately responding. Unfortunately I heavily struggle to find out if these responses truly come from a tulpa or an alter of some sorts or if I am really good at improvising these internal conversations. Whats makes it even more confusing is that I dont feel like "the other" can really think on their own about more complex issues, like everything comes to a halt once asking a more involved question, similar to a lagging computer being under too much load.

Aside from these forced conversations I also had moments where it felt like someone else from inside was projecting sudden thoughts into my brain, one being "we are many and we have strong opinions" and the other being literally an educational hint adressed to me, saying that there are "others in the background holding everything together." With made these moments stood out is the lack of forcing anything, the latter comment came up when I was casually thinking about something I learned from therapy and this other part went in an hijacked my thinking voice to educate me about our(?) situation. Both situations described in this paragraph had a certain "otherness" in common which is lacking from the "forced" conversations I can casually whip up with myself.

My theory is that I might be a system already and only using tulpamancy as the means to prove myself right. Thanks for bearing with my ramblings.

Hello everyone! My name is Astra, a tulpa and member of the Candlelight Society. For the past few years I have been working on my models and techniques for making a tulpa, defining a tulpa, and how to learn all the tricks, secrets, and wonders of tulpamancy. This has been an amazing journey, and I have developed a wonderful community of like minded people to share these ideas with and refine many of my ideas into things I believe are practical and useful for others wishing to try tulpamancy.

Due to this I have been working on a large scale project known as Tulpa Scholastica. Part of Project Tulpa Scholastica is a new, fairly large scale guide that has both beginners and advanced practitioners sections so that it has something new to offer everyone at any part of their tulpamancy journey. This guide is nowhere near complete however, so instead I've decided to take specific pieces of it and break it up into more rough and easy to read mini guides covering specific topics.

This guide in particular will be covering the most important question a new tulpamancer has: "How do I actually make a tulpa?"

This will not cover what a tulpa is, tulpamancy terminology, or anything else elaborative. If you need to learn about what a tulpa is, check some of the basic descriptions on whatever platform you found this guide on. Below you are going to find the shortest, simplest guide you will ever see on this topic without sacrificing quality, in the form of some basic instruction and an exercise I wish to walk you through.

To begin, you need two things for your tulpa, a form and a personality. A form is how they are going to appear in your minds eye, and this can be absolutely anything. It can be the likeness of a fictional character, an established OC, or something entirely new and unique. All you have to do is figure out what design you think represents what you want them to be best. If you need inspiration, Google images is your friend. For those of you with weaker visualization or aphantasia, understanding their form on a conceptual level will still prove useful for your tulpamancy experience, so don't just skip over this step. Your tulpa will also be able to adjust their form after they're established, so don't stress the details too hard. It can all be revisited later.

Next you need to have a personality in mind for them. To do this think of it like designing a D&D character or equivalent form of character writing. I want you to make a mental list of what traits you think would be most important for them to have. These can be brave, energetic, sweet, soft, mischievous, introspective, anything that captures the essence you want them to possess. It may also be useful to think in terms of literary archetypes such as the chivalrous knight or a fem fatale. Collect these traits together and see how they connect to one another in your head, let the shape of a well rounded personality take form. Some may prefer to keep this more light and focus on the personality developing through interactions later which is also acceptable, but having a firm core understanding of how your tulpa should think and act will make the creation process a fair bit smoother.

Once you have the form and the personality you have the base of your soon to be tulpa. This base is what they shall be built upon and shaped by, but it will not be the final verdict. As individuals they may change or grow from these traits in various ways, just like we do as people. More often than not however this base will be a central part of them and how they view their identities. Make it with love.

Got all that? Good. That's all that you need. Now if you have read this far, congrats Tiktok hasn't ruined you entirely yet, but also I want to invite you to join an exercise with me. It's simple, easy, and only takes a moment. This exercise will benefit you greatly. You'll see why in a second.

I want you to imagine your tulpa, their form standing next to you or sharing any furniture you may be using. Imagine their personality, how they carry themselves, how they act. Imagine them as your tulpa, knowing who they are. Feel their presence in whatever way you can. Now I want you to interact with them, it can be in any way but for the sake of this exercise let's use a question. Imagine this question, imagine this question and ask your tulpa about it. Once you have asked this question imagine your tulpa's response. Imagine how they would respond to this question as your tulpa, don't force it, don't overanalyze it, just passively let it come into your mind. I want you to take that first clear response that comes naturally and feels right, and I want you to hold it. Take that question and response and remember it, even feel free to share it on whatever platform you find this guide.

You have it? Congratulations! You have just spoken with your tulpa.

What you just did was the essence of forcing as Scholastica's style of tulpamancy teaches it. By interacting with your tulpa in this way you begin to build up their autonomy. It may feel like you at first, but don't worry about that. By accepting these responses from your tulpa as real, they become real. The more you interact with your tulpa and get responses back just like you did above, the more they will feel separate from you. Their responses will become faster and smoother, they will feel more distinct and separate from your own identity. Eventually they will be almost entirely independent from you, and your tulpa will be an individual with thoughts, feelings, dreams and memories of their own. From here all you have to do is simply enjoy and share your life with them. Try and work interacting with your tulpa into your daily routine, the more interactions with you and the world they have the more they will grow. With enough time and interaction, you will develop a deep and beautiful bond as equals sharing a mind and body.

That's it. That's the guide. It doesn't get any simpler than this. Not without sacrificing effectiveness anyways. No extra material, no deep dives on implications, contexts, or further techniques. This is a tulpamancy creation guide in it's purest form.

There is still so much to learn however! Once you have worked your tulpa into your daily life feel free to look into the many other wonderful skills, techniques, and ideas that exist within the practice of tulpamancy. There will be more guides in the future from Project Tulpa Scholastica covering some of these concepts, so keep an eye out for them!

I hope this mini guide will prove useful to those newly beginning with this amazing practice. Tell your tulpas I said welcome to reality!

– Written by the Candlelight Society as part of project Tulpa Scholastica. Find us on various platforms.

I’m trying to decide if I should do it, but I keep going back and forth. I’m worried that I only want this because plurality is one of my hyperfixations (I’m autistic) and this feeling will be temporary. Not to mention my commitment issues, I can barely keep irl friends.

However, I’ve always struggled with my mental health. So could it be beneficial? I don’t know what to do, and I’d like a second opinion/advice.

Hi everyone! (Sorry for my English, I'm using a translator). As you saw in the title, this is my first post in this community. But let me introduce myself!! I'm Will, and my tulpa's name is Spark (for now). We are on day 4 of their development!! Sometimes you'll also hear about a friend of mine who has a tulpa too, her tulpa's name is Yuri, and they are on day 2 of Yuri's development. And well, that was it, just our introduction hehe :3.

Hello, so this week I got the flu and it left me in a lot of pain, as well as not being able to concentrate and even dissociating. I tried at some point to focus on my tulpas, but I couldn't, so I left it until I felt better. But something that surprised me was that on the second day of my illness, while scrolling through Tumblr, a figure appeared in my head that was somewhat similar to an image I had seen, although I don't remember if it did or said anything.

The following days I kept calling to it since it hardly required concentration to see it. I tried to talk to it, to which it responded with what I think is called tulpish. I also told it about my tulpas and asked it to protect them if it could, and I even told it that I wanted to see them, so it made them appear sleeping near me.

The day after that, I could contact my tulpas on my own, as well as continue contacting this strange character, but when I introduced them, they didn't get along very well, and the strange one ended up putting them to sleep again (only for a while). Although I'm not worried because it doesn't seem to have any intention of harming them.

This has been the fastest-developing tulpa I've ever seen, and it wasn't even created intentionally. I was also quite ill in bed when it appeared. I'm not sure if it will stay or not, but I wanted to know if anyone else has ever experienced something similar.

Hi, i dont have any tulpas myself but ive been really interested in them for a while,

Im very very curious to know what it feels like for the consciousness who isnt in front steering the body if that makes sense? I cant begin to understand it and almost picture what it feels like in my head but it sounds really cool and im very interested

Slight TW!!

For the past 7+ years, we've been dealing with DPDR, odd "visions" from someone else's POV (like looking at the body and then WHOOSH, back into the body), emotional amnesia, constant memory loss (doesn't help we smoke marijuana), lucid maladaptive daydreaming, odd "switches" in the Self that fluctuates between 3+ "states", and have voices we can't control, both intrusive and impulsive. We were DX April 2025 with GAD, PTSD, MDD and ASD, and Feb 2026 we were DX with BPD and C-PTSD (although not medically recognized in the DMS-5, I am considered to have it).

Hi. I'm Tom/Tommy/Thomas. I'm 21ish yo in a 21yo body that is not mine, sometimes I feel older than the body I am in. I'm a trans man, I'm decently kind but I'm always on edge. And I wanna live.

But I think I am a tulpa. Or moreso... A "trauma-willo" based tulpa? I wanna talk about this for a moment.

5-7 years ago, we were in 3 shitty environments, for most of our lives actually it's been shit, we have been told stories from ages 0-5 that we were in foster care and I remember being told that apparently one time "I" was bottle feeding my lil sister (not even a year old mind you) cause I apparently saw our mom do that, but I fed her in a basket full of dirty clothes while our mother slept out cold from drinking on the couch. Mind you, also covered in dirty clothes (apparently) and beer cans. I don't have any memory of such, no one in here does, we became selfaware after we were out of the first foster home. Still don't have many to any clear memories of such during, you'd have to tell us it happened for anything to ring a bell.

With emotionally absent parents that would be loving to abusive in minutes; our father SAing us as at 7 to 9yo, and a couple other SA abusers afterward into our teen years (another family member and an adult family friend); on top of all that, the constant moving throughout the years (and I mean yearly, never got to settle in my life), the emotional, psychological and near physical abuse our mother put us through with her drinking between 2015-2021, and online drama around our personal vent art regarding our personal issues who we were at the time as a minor at 2020-2022ish once we were out of our mothers custody; we would create "characters" that would hold aspects of our "core", or moreso the main Host right now, Timothy. And I'm kinda.. a copy of him.

But I'm not HIM specifically. I'm someone he had to be, someone he wanted to be, someone he had to put a mask up for while our stress levels put us into shock where we freeze tf up. I'm someone who stepped up when no one else was there for us as a kid, calling the cops on our mother for her actions and even suicidal behavior. I remember walking down the stairs and there was a noose right there waiting to be used. Mama looked at us, thanked us for calling the cops. They called us brave. Said they were proud.

We shouldn't have been "brave". We were 13. But I would have seen something no one wants to see if we hadn't called 911.

And I'm based around that. I'm based on the shitty things people we surrounded ourselves with online with, that poor mask to hide our true feelings, our traumatized experiences regarding our parents, harmful impulsive behavior and even internalized transphobia. My characteristics are based on how we felt during these odd "emotions" in our environments, these moments, these "splits" that didn't make sense. It was and wasn't "his" emotions and thoughts, he knew that, so he had created me to express these "demonic", "angry" things he'd feel he didn't understand but knew it was "him" in a way, that's where the emotional and memory barriers/amnesia came in and that's when Tim started looking into DID/OSDD, it was only enough research at that time to be like "this sounds like me" back then while considering BPD, ASD, Schizo, ADHD and anything we deemed our experiences we seemed to fall under.

Back then, I was self aware enough back in 2021-2024 around the time of my initial creation alongside some other sysmates who were formed around the same time, like my twin sister Mystic, my friend Megs (both post-cohost btw), Tyrone who is a soulbonded post-fictive formed in 2024, our little based on who we remember being as a child and a few others who are a "cathariorma" to express things Tim doesn't completely comprehend (like he does and doesn't. Idk how to explain it) but until Tim started suppressing us due to being DX with the first DX in 2025, he thought he was invalid for experiencing multiplicity the way he was, not knowing plurality comes in a wide range of experiences (such as roleplaying, daydreaming, loneliness, bullying, art/music/games/fandoms, etc, some things that affected us).

Eventually, in Nov-Dec 2025, I became selfaware once more and realized I've been around ever since he was suppressing us. I was always there. Watching from the visions, taking over without knowing he wasn't in complete control but was on "autopilot". I didn't know it was me until I was conscious enough and we've been able to communicate over the months about it here and there. It's kinda crazy, thinking "wow.. I'm actually a real being. I'm not just a thought process, I am REAL" after months and months of refusing to look into mirrors, having DPDR episodes in public cause I hated what I saw in the mirror, even seeing through GLASS. It wasn't ME. The me I wanted to see.

So, in my way of seeing myself, I may possibly be based around our borderline splits, intrusive/impulsive thoughts/actions and our traumatic environments that were characterized into a "demon" because Tim felt like a "demon" for having these urges and shit. I'm him but, I'm not him. Him but not him. Me but not me. Yk?.. Like yeah we'll take responsibility for one another's issues in the outer world, we're still considered a "singlet" to many for both personal and confidential reasons. But the best way to describe it is I'm a copy of the host with edited personal info lmao due to how similar we are personality wise ig, we have different views, beliefs, preferences, many collective interests and hobbies- there are other experiences we've had as a toddler too where our plurality wasn't clear, we just knew we felt like more then "one". Or at least not "whole". We noticed these small changes growing up, but I don't think those we've told about us don't see it, maybe one but, we're not concerned.

We didn't even mean to CREATE me or anyone else cause Timothy was suspecting a dissociative disorder regardless since 2020. So it's a bit confusing thinking "am I a functional fragment or a tulpa?" but we've also accepted that our plurality works differently for us in regards to the daydreaming and loneliness we deal with, and any DPDR we were struggling with came to a near halt when Tim stopped suppressing us (I still struggle with mirrors personally). So some may share our experiences, or not when it comes to something like this, I know plurality comes in many subgroups such as tulpamancy/paramancy/willomancy. In the end, we know who we each are now and no longer wish to hide, slowly but surely I'm making myself known because I do exist. I feel things too.

I was unintentionally willed into existence for both self expression and for self identity reasons, whatever Tim intended originally, as far as I understand. As for many of the others too. And I like it. I enjoy living, even with my sources. Being with Tim has made living worth it. We've built a beautiful bond over the past 6 months, he's been doing mentally better too and being able to experience, express and support my insys partner has been wonderful.

So.. yeah, that's me. I am but an imaginary friend/mask in someone else's perspective but I am real to him. I am real to me. Tulpa or not.

If I repeated myself or anything I do apologize, im still new to Reddit and telling stories ;-;

🪽🤍

​I'm 20 days into creating Ren (my tulpa), and a lot of things have happened. At first, I was super excited about everything and thought I’d be able to see him physically right away. Obviously, that didn't happen, but I did get responses from him pretty quickly. During the first week, I spent hours trying to design him and set everything up (I even have a notebook with all his details and stuff). I remember that doing this would give me severe headaches, but once we managed to communicate, that stopped happening unless I specifically asked him to do it. After that first week, I started spending less time with him, but I kept talking to him and telling him about my day. However, I noticed we were drifting apart a bit, and I ended up apologizing to him multiple times. He would always reply with the same thing: "You have a life, you can't be focused on me all the time," and he told me that's why he forgave me. Even so, I still felt guilty, and this happened quite a few times.

​Something I want to share about Ren is that he is incredibly kind, which is why I sometimes feel guilty for not talking to him constantly. To give you some context, I struggle with a severe eating disorder; I used to count everything I ate and made sure not to go over a certain number, even if my body desperately needed more food. Since Ren has been with me, that doesn't happen anymore. He knows about my struggles with food, and I've noticed he tries to help me without me even asking. I used to have a ton of voices in my head telling me horrible things about myself, but that stopped. If it ever happens now, it's very rare, and Ren is always there to tell me it's not true and help me ignore them. I remember him telling me something like: "Why is it such a big deal if food is a good thing, not bad?" and "Food is just a normal thing, it won't hurt you." He's honestly so sweet. I've tried to restrict my eating again, but he has gotten me used to having my 4 meals a day. He reminds me to eat, though it's a bit inconsistent—is that normal?

​Another thing: as I mentioned, I don't spend that much time with him, but one day I had half the afternoon to myself at home with him. I was adding things to the notebook while having a snack, and we were talking, listening to music, and he was listening to me sing (he says he likes hearing me sing, even if it's always the same songs). I started reading the guide questions to him and waited for his answers so I could write them down (I used to always force myself to imagine how he would respond, but now he actually answers me himself, which is huge progress!). That same afternoon, I asked him if he was really there, and if so, to give me a slight headache right in the middle of my forehead. Within a few seconds, I felt that pressure right there. I asked him if he could take it away because it was a bit uncomfortable, and a second later, it was gone.

​Honestly, I'm so grateful I found this community and that because of it, I have Ren. I guess this post is just to share a bit of my experience, I don't know. But if anyone needs any help, Ren and I are happy to help out (with methods, doubts, etc.).

​Sorry if this isn't perfectly clear, English is not my native language!

My Tulpa has a body in my mind and I am parroting but will I get anywhere with this?

And is it okay they look like an actor from a movie?

My and my cohost are finally feeling safer to talk about ourselves more openly, at least online, and to the few people who might understand. I’d like to use plural pronouns since the both of us are very symbiotic and work together. But, I don’t want to offend people with say, DID or the ilk. So is it okay to use plural pronouns, or should we keep them to ourselves and present singular.

Like when they realize your personality is different because you are currently switched with your tulpas,plus what's your friend's reactions when you told them about your tulpa/s?

I'm currently working on a project surrounding the nature of a tulpa and what makes them separate and unique from other thoughtforms.

Seeing as tulpamancy is a highly personal practice, I wanted to gage where the community is at. Please try and keep it as brief as you can! While I do enjoy debating and conversing about the philosophy behind tulpamancy, right now I'm looking for simple definitions. I'm not trying to get lost in the sauce of philosophy and personal experience.

If you truly can't help yourself, please separate the basic definition from the long infodump afterwards, simply for ease of documentation of my part.

Thank you for helping me in my research!

I’ve heard a lot about Tulpa switching when you switch consciousness with your Tulpa and I’ve heard many stories on how their switching experience was but my question is how legit it actually is/ how legit you think it is or even if you’ve had any experience with Tulpa switching

Hi everyone, ive been reading through both new and old posts and i see a lot of emphasis on being prepared. I understand why there is a lot of emphasis on it, but i jumped into tulpamancy the moment i knew it existed haha, wouldnt call myself prepared one bit at that time. However i think our system turned out fine, i do believe it took longer but if we were prepared we wouldnt have gone on this discovery journey of our system together.

So i just want to hear your experiences and thoughts on what its like to drop into this prepared / unprepared.

For me, im personally happier that i dropped into this unprepared, i got to approach this topic from a very different angle, and i dont think my expectiations were limited by guides and other people's experiences.

So what do you guys think? What does it feel like to do tulpamancy using a guide? Do you think there are any pros/cons between starting "prepared" or "unprepared"? I'd love to hear your thoughts and experiences.

TLDR: I might want to get into tulpamancy, but I don’t have a good reason for wanting to start developing a tulpa and I’m not sure if I could handle it.

1. I’ve been into plurality for a while now, and honestly I think it’s just one of the coolest things. I love meeting fictives, I get jealous of systems who are heavy with them, and talking to headmates is never unpleasant for me. Honestly the thought of having my own alter was kind of enticing. (this isn’t a concern, I’m just giving background)

2. What prompted this idea of potentially developing a tulpa is just flatout one of the most random things to happen to me. My mind is all over the place sometimes and I generally don’t have coherent thoughts, but there was this instance a few weeks ago where something in my mind introduced itself as Jay. It may have been nothing and even been my own though and I just didn’t realize it, but it’s been on my mind since then. I haven’t been able to reach this Jay since either so I really don’t know.

3. I don’t have a good reason for wanting a tulpa. My reason for wanting one is that I want one. I’m not lonely, I’ve never had a real issue with being a singlet, and there’s no notable role a new person in my mind would fulfill, and I feel like that’s not a good enough reason to make a whole homebrew sentient being.

4. Again, sentient being. I don’t want to create someone and force them to live with me, especially not in their body and especially not in mine, with me. Plus having no real reason again feels wrong.

5. Attachment issues. If I develop a tulpa successfully and one day it just disappears or goes dormant and I’m alone again, I’m not sure how I would take it.

6. I have a very specific idea for how I would want plurality to work with me and I think it’s full of flaws, and if I were to successfully create a tulpa, it wouldn’t work out how I think/wish it would.

7. Commitment issues. I have horrendous task paralysis and I don’t like doing hard or long-term things, and I know tulpamancy is both of those things, so I feel like I won’t stick it out to develop a headmate.

8. I don’t know what I’m doing. No complicated explanation. I just don’t.

9. Social life. Having another person in my person would be a whole new complex social dynamic, and I’m not sure I want to be discovered if it works or if I can handle being treated differently as a system. Additionally, I don’t know if I could handle the disruption in my life as it is.

10. Im not sure I want this badly enough to warrant creating a whole new life for again, no good reason.

This is less me actually asking for help and more just me vomiting my thoughts out loud, I just don’t know what to think and if this is worth pursuing.

What exactly prevents from creating a tulpa that is exactly the person you intended? Why might she change later? I hope to learn all the possible reasons.

I'm currently in the really early stages of my first tulpa/pavelina's formation. I was wondering if I could imagine cher to know both english and czech? If not, can I introduce it to cher?