Tulpas, Thoughtforms & Imagined Beings
What Is a Tulpa?
From Tibetan Buddhism: sprul-pa (སྤྲུལ་པ) — translated variously as “to make phantoms,” “illusionary man,” or a phantom created by spiritual energy. Alexandra David-Néel documented tulpas extensively after years in Tibet.
A tulpa is an entity created by intense focused visualization and ritual. It can:
- Appear solid and be mistaken for real by other people
- Take on a life of its own beyond its creator’s control
- Outlive its creator if the belief sustains it
David-Néel’s Tulpa Experiments
Other People’s Tulpas She Witnessed
The Painter’s Deity: A painter obsessed with wrathful deities — who spent mornings painting one — was followed by a misty form of the deity. David-Néel touched it; it felt like soft material that dissolved.
Lama Rimpoche’s Double: Rimpoche appeared at her camp, was seen by her cook, then vanished instantly when she approached. He later admitted to nothing but laughed. He apparently did it again on a different occasion, vanishing mid-conversation on open ground with nowhere to hide.
Her Own Experiment
David-Néel isolated herself and performed rituals to create a tulpa: a short, jolly monk. After months of practice, the monk persisted outside her meditation sessions — appearing during travel, taking actions on his own. Over time:
- She no longer needed to actively think about him for him to appear
- She could occasionally feel him — his robe brushing her, a hand on her shoulder
- His features began to change on their own — he became “leaner and meaner,” “more troublesome and bold”
- A herdsman delivered butter to her camp, saw the tulpa, and assumed it was a visiting Lama
The tulpa was becoming real to others. She dissolved it over six months of concentrated effort.
Collective Tulpas
If one person’s sustained belief creates a tulpa, a large group’s shared belief could create a “collective tulpa” — proposed as a mechanism behind visions of holy figures, uncatchable monsters (Bigfoot, Nessie), even Santa Claus. This framework explains the unexplained with the unexplained, but it’s a useful model for thinking about how social consensus produces phenomena that feel real.
Connection to Vajrayana Deity Yoga
Tibetan Tantric practice formalizes the tulpa mechanism:
Deity Yoga (devatayoga) — meditation on a chosen deity (yidam) involving:
- Visualization of the deity’s body, mandala, and attendants
- Recitation of mantras
- Divine pride — actively identifying with the deity being visualized (“I am this deity”)
The deity is to be imagined as “empty yet apparent” — real in appearance, unreal in substance, like a mirage or rainbow.
Two-stage process in Unsurpassed Yoga Tantras:
- Generation stage (utpatti-krama): dissolve ordinary reality into emptiness → visualize deity-mandala → identify with the divine form
- Completion stage (nispanna-krama): dissolve the illusory body into luminous emptiness → re-emerge as the deity
The three mysteries of Tantric practice: Body (mudra), Speech (mantra), Mind (samadhi) — each affiliated with the corresponding aspect of a Buddha.
Why This Matters
The tulpa experiment — both in David-Néel’s account and in Tibetan practice — suggests that sustained, emotionally charged attention can crystallize patterns of perception and behavior that take on a kind of independent existence. What starts as disciplined visualization eventually organizes cognition around itself.
This overlaps with psychological concepts like internalized objects, parasocial attachment, and projection. See also: golem-kabbalah for the parallel Jewish tradition of created beings.
Questions Worth Sitting With
- If a belief, once sufficiently elaborated, can be experienced as external — what does that imply about the ontology of “real” entities?
- The tulpa turned darker and more autonomous over time. What does it say that the mind’s creations become less controlled the more real they become?
- The collective tulpa hypothesis: are gods, heroes, and archetypes sustained by the same mechanism?
See also: golem-kabbalah | acedia-desert-fathers | witchy