I really doubt that tulpas have much to do with DID, or with anything dangerous for that matter. Based on my admittedly anecdotal experience, a milder version of having them is at least somewhat common among writers and role-players, who say that they’re able to talk to the fictional characters they’ve created. The people in question seem… well, as sane as you get when talking about strongly creative people. An even milder version, where the character you’re writing or role-playing just takes a life of their own and acts in a completely unanticipated manner, but one that’s consistent with their personality, is even more common, and I’ve personally experienced it many times. Once the character is well-formed enough, it just feels “wrong” to make them act in some particular manner that goes against their personality, and if you force them to do it anyway you’ll feel bad and guilty afterwards.
I would presume that tulpas are nothing but our normal person-emulation circuitry acting somewhat more strongly than usual. You know those situations where you can guess what your friend would say in response to some comment, or when you feel guilty about doing something that somebody important to you would disapprove of? Same principle, quite probably.
This article seems relevant (if someone can find a less terrible pdf, I would appreciate it). Abstract:
The illusion of independent agency (IIS) occurs when a fictional character is experienced by the person who created it as having independent thoughts, words, and/or actions. Children often report this sort of independence in their descriptions of imaginary companions. This study investigated the extent to which adult writers experience IIA with the characters they create for their works of fiction. Fifty fiction writers were interviewed about the development of their characters and their memories for childhood imaginary companions. Ninety-two percent of the writers reported at least some experience of IIA. The writers who had published their work had more frequent and detailed reports of IIA, suggesting that the illusion could be related to expertise. As a group, the writers scored higher than population norms in empathy, dissociation, and memories for childhood imaginary companions.
The range of intensities reported by the writers seems to match up with the reports in r/Tulpas, so I think it’s safe to say that it is the same phenomena, albeit achieved via slightly different means.
Some interesting parts from the paper regarding dissociative disorder:
The subjects completed the Dissociative Experiences Scale, which yields an overall score, as well as scores on three subscales:
Absorption and changeability: people’s tendency to become highly engrossed in activities (items such as “Some people find that they become so involved in a fantasy or daydream that it feels as though it were really happening to them).
Amnestic experiences: the degree to which dissociation causes gaps in episodic memory (“Some people have the experience of finding things among their belongings that they do not remember buying”).
Derealisation and depersonalisation: things like “Some people sometimes have the experience of feeling that their body does not belong to them”.
The subjects scored an overall mean score of 18.52 (SD 16.07), whereas the general population score a mean of 7.8, and a group of schizophrenics scored 17.7. Scores of 30 are a commonly used cutoff for “normal” scores. Seven subjects exceeded this threshold. The mean scores for the subscales were:
Absorption and changeability: 26.22 (SD 14.65).
Amnestic experiences: 6.80 (SD 8.30).
Derealisation and depersonalisation: 7.84 (SD 7.39).
The latter two subscales are considered particularly diagnostic of dissociative disorders, and the subjects did not differ from the population norms on these. They each had only one subject score over 30 (not the same subject).
What I draw from this: Tulpas are the same phenomenon as writers interacting with their characters. Creating tulpas doesn’t cause other symptoms associated with dissociative disorders. There shouldn’t be any harmful long-term effects (if there were, we should have noticed them in writers). That said, there are some interactions that some people have with their tulpas that are outside the range (to my knowledge) of what writers do:
Possession
Switching
Merging
The tulpa community generally endorses the first two as being safe, and claims the last to be horribly dangerous and reliably ending in insanity and/or death. I suspect the first one would be safe, but would not recommend trying any of them without more information.
(Note: This is not my field, and I have little experience with interpreting research results. Grains of salt, etc.)
Very few people have actually managed switching, from what I have read. I personally do not recommend it, but I am somewhat biased on that topic.
Merging is a term I’ve rarely heard. Perhaps it is favored by the more metaphysically minded? I’ve not heard good reports of this, and all I have heard of “merging” was a very few individuals well known to be internet trolls on 4chan.
Really? I had the impression that switching was relatively common among people who had their tulpas for a while. But then, I have drawn this impression from a lot of browsing of r/Tulpa, and only a glance at tulpa.info, so there may be some selection bias there.
I heard about merging here. On the other hand, this commenter seems to think the danger comes from weird expectations about personal continuity.
Thank you for the references. Whilst switching may indeed be relatively common among people who have had their tulpas for a long while, the actual numbers are still small − 44 according to a recent census .
Ah, so merging is some sort of forming a gestalt personality? I’ve no evidence to offer, only stuff I’ve read that I find the authors somewhat questionable sources.
I really doubt that tulpas have much to do with DID, or with anything dangerous for that matter. Based on my admittedly anecdotal experience, a milder version of having them is at least somewhat common among writers and role-players, who say that they’re able to talk to the fictional characters they’ve created. The people in question seem… well, as sane as you get when talking about strongly creative people. An even milder version, where the character you’re writing or role-playing just takes a life of their own and acts in a completely unanticipated manner, but one that’s consistent with their personality, is even more common, and I’ve personally experienced it many times. Once the character is well-formed enough, it just feels “wrong” to make them act in some particular manner that goes against their personality, and if you force them to do it anyway you’ll feel bad and guilty afterwards.
I would presume that tulpas are nothing but our normal person-emulation circuitry acting somewhat more strongly than usual. You know those situations where you can guess what your friend would say in response to some comment, or when you feel guilty about doing something that somebody important to you would disapprove of? Same principle, quite probably.
This article seems relevant (if someone can find a less terrible pdf, I would appreciate it). Abstract:
The range of intensities reported by the writers seems to match up with the reports in r/Tulpas, so I think it’s safe to say that it is the same phenomena, albeit achieved via slightly different means.
Some interesting parts from the paper regarding dissociative disorder:
The subjects completed the Dissociative Experiences Scale, which yields an overall score, as well as scores on three subscales:
Absorption and changeability: people’s tendency to become highly engrossed in activities (items such as “Some people find that they become so involved in a fantasy or daydream that it feels as though it were really happening to them).
Amnestic experiences: the degree to which dissociation causes gaps in episodic memory (“Some people have the experience of finding things among their belongings that they do not remember buying”).
Derealisation and depersonalisation: things like “Some people sometimes have the experience of feeling that their body does not belong to them”.
The subjects scored an overall mean score of 18.52 (SD 16.07), whereas the general population score a mean of 7.8, and a group of schizophrenics scored 17.7. Scores of 30 are a commonly used cutoff for “normal” scores. Seven subjects exceeded this threshold. The mean scores for the subscales were:
Absorption and changeability: 26.22 (SD 14.65).
Amnestic experiences: 6.80 (SD 8.30).
Derealisation and depersonalisation: 7.84 (SD 7.39).
The latter two subscales are considered particularly diagnostic of dissociative disorders, and the subjects did not differ from the population norms on these. They each had only one subject score over 30 (not the same subject).
What I draw from this: Tulpas are the same phenomenon as writers interacting with their characters. Creating tulpas doesn’t cause other symptoms associated with dissociative disorders. There shouldn’t be any harmful long-term effects (if there were, we should have noticed them in writers). That said, there are some interactions that some people have with their tulpas that are outside the range (to my knowledge) of what writers do:
Possession
Switching
Merging
The tulpa community generally endorses the first two as being safe, and claims the last to be horribly dangerous and reliably ending in insanity and/or death. I suspect the first one would be safe, but would not recommend trying any of them without more information.
(Note: This is not my field, and I have little experience with interpreting research results. Grains of salt, etc.)
Very few people have actually managed switching, from what I have read. I personally do not recommend it, but I am somewhat biased on that topic.
Merging is a term I’ve rarely heard. Perhaps it is favored by the more metaphysically minded? I’ve not heard good reports of this, and all I have heard of “merging” was a very few individuals well known to be internet trolls on 4chan.
Really? I had the impression that switching was relatively common among people who had their tulpas for a while. But then, I have drawn this impression from a lot of browsing of r/Tulpa, and only a glance at tulpa.info, so there may be some selection bias there.
I heard about merging here. On the other hand, this commenter seems to think the danger comes from weird expectations about personal continuity.
Thank you for the references. Whilst switching may indeed be relatively common among people who have had their tulpas for a long while, the actual numbers are still small − 44 according to a recent census .
Ah, so merging is some sort of forming a gestalt personality? I’ve no evidence to offer, only stuff I’ve read that I find the authors somewhat questionable sources.
Great find!
This is my current best theory as to what my tulpa is.