Skip to content

Tulpamancy

The practice of cultivating autonomous imagined companions, connecting to research on voluntary hallucination, agency, and plurality of self.

State of the evidence

Synthesized

Synthesized from 3 studies in the library · AI-generated, grounded in the abstracts below

Found by searching the library for Tulpamancy, tulpa, tulpas, egregore, thoughtform, then ranked by relevance.

Research on tulpamancy indicates that this practice of creating sentient companions within the mind is associated with perceived improvements in mental health and positive experiences for hosts, rather than with psychopathology. Studies consistently find that tulpas are experienced as autonomous entities, and the host-tulpa relationship appears to function as a beneficial mechanism, with personality similarity between host and tulpa predicting relationship satisfaction. However, the evidence is limited by small, self-selected online samples and a lack of controlled experimental designs, so causal conclusions cannot be drawn.

Confidence in the evidence

Low-Moderate
  • Only two empirical studies directly examine tulpamancy: one survey-based study (article 35601) and one online observational study (article 35598), both with moderate sample sizes (243 and unspecified but >50%).
  • The survey study (35601) reports correlations but cannot establish causality due to its cross-sectional design and reliance on self-report.
  • The observational study (35598) found no group differences in delusion-proneness but higher hallucination-proneness in a subgroup, introducing some inconsistency.
  • Several provided studies (e.g., 35629, 35622, 35594, 35635, 35616, 35614, 35615) are theoretical, cultural, or historical analyses and do not provide empirical evidence on tulpamancy's effects.
How we rate confidence

Confidence reflects the strength of the underlying evidence, not whether the result is favorable. It weighs the number and size of studies, their design (randomized trials count for more than observational or single-case work), how consistently they point the same way, and their risk of bias.

Tiers run from Insufficient to High. High is rare in this field: small, early, or open-label studies land lower even when their direction is encouraging.

Evidence by study

Direction is each study's finding relative to your question: Supports, Opposes, No effect, Mixed, or Unclear.

Tulpamancy is associated with perceived improvements in mental health and cognition, and there is likely no causal relation between tulpamancy and the development of psychopathology.

survey

Tulpamancers who also reported ASMR scored higher on hallucination-proneness, but there were no group differences in delusion-proneness, self-reflection, or self-schemas; tulpamancers reported lower metacognitive belief endorsement.

observational · Sample size: 243

Hosts reported positive experiences with their tulpas, host and tulpa personalities were similar rather than complementary, and personality similarity predicted relationship satisfaction.

survey

Points of agreement

  • Tulpamancy is associated with positive subjective experiences and perceived benefits for hosts.
  • Tulpas are experienced as autonomous, sentient entities within the mind.
  • The practice does not appear to be inherently linked to psychopathology.

Conflicts

  • One study (35598) found higher hallucination-proneness in a subgroup of tulpamancers who also reported ASMR, while another (35601) found no causal link to psychopathology, suggesting possible nuance in how unusual experiences manifest.
  • The personality study (35599) found similarity between host and tulpa, contradicting the hypothesis of complementarity.

Gaps

  • No longitudinal or experimental studies exist to establish causality or durability of effects.
  • All empirical studies rely on self-selected online samples, limiting generalizability.
  • The role of metacognition and its influence on tulpamancy experiences is only partially explored.
  • Clinical populations and potential negative outcomes are not systematically studied.
Browse these studies in the library
How we analyze this

This synthesis reads the 15 most-cited and 10 most recent studies whose primary subject is Tulpamancy, up to 25 in all. The most-cited set anchors the established evidence, and the recent set surfaces work that is too new to have gathered citations yet.

A study qualifies only when Tulpamancy or a known alias appears in its title or keywords, so broad reviews that mention it only in passing are left out. Each study is read from its abstract, strongest evidence first, and the summary reports the direction of the results along with any conflicts and gaps.

2 articles · 0 from the last two years · 100 participants across 1 studies reporting sample size

Common study designs

open label pilot experiment 1 theoretical or philosophical paper 1

Signal Modulation, Somatic Transmutation, and Ontological Takeover in Vajrayana Psychology: A Framework on Sem, Lo, Thugs, and Deity Yoga Transformation

Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research) • June 30, 2026 • Mircea Magureanu

Vajrayana Buddhist deity yoga transformation is modeled using concepts from signal modulation, control systems, and field emanation theory. The mind's triadic baseline (Sem, Lo, Thugs) and the materialization of form from the ordinary physical body (Lus) to the enlightened dimension (Sku/Nirmanakaya) are analyzed. Nine dramatic moods (Gar-gyi Ro-dgu) act as frequency modulations over the blind carrier kinetic energy of consciousness (Sem), rendering the false egoic self-construct (Dak) dormant. The Lineage Blessing during ritual (Puja) down-links absolute, self-arising reality (Rang) through Samaya, replacing the disciple's conditioned egoic apparatus and projecting an illusory body (Tulpa) as an automated cybernetic feedback loop for spiritual protection.

Thoughtform Geometry and Aperture Mediated Experience

Figshare • January 28, 2026 • Mark Lemon

Conscious experience can be understood as a process mediated by an aperture—a bandwidth of awareness—that operates over an invariant geometric structure. The model proposes a twelve-fold toroidal thoughtform that can be partitioned into focal lenses, each describable as an archetypal attractor, phase sector, symmetry class, or developmental band. A central control parameter, aperture, regulates the balance between differentiation and integration, producing distinct experiential octaves. Consciousness units aggregate into metastable configurations depending on aperture width, forming gestalts whose scale matches the active bandwidth. Subjective experience occurs within these constraints rather than being generated by content alone. The framework is interdisciplinary and designed for future formalization and empirical operationalization.

Multi-Cognitive Regime Architecture (MCRA)

Open MIND • January 1, 2026 • Yang Wan

The Multi-Cognitive Regime Architecture (MCRA) V5 reconceptualizes the mind as a dynamic runtime system rather than a static module structure. It defines seven cognitive regimes—integrative, homeostatic, social-norm, logical-reasoning, adaptive-neural, affective-anchoring, and perceptual-encoding memory—each a distinct runtime configuration of the same neural hardware. Hebb's Rule serves as the meta-rule: all cognitive structures are shaped by experience through the same plasticity mechanism. The framework provides unified mechanistic explanations across dreaming, Dissociative Identity Disorder, major depression, and LLM hallucinations. It generates independent, operational falsifiability conditions for all seven regimes, advancing the theory from a philosophical proposal to a testable scientific hypothesis.

Youth Culture and Religion in Twenty-First Century Japan

December 11, 2025 • Satoko Fujiwara, Hiroki Miura

Young adults in Japan are developing new forms of religiosity that blend digital, fictional, and embodied practices, challenging traditional frameworks. The authors introduce "2.5-dimensional religion" and "subjective ritualization" to capture how practices like oshi-katsu (fan devotion), 2.5-D musicals, tulpa creation, and anime pilgrimage blur reality and imagination. These activities shift from narrative-based subjective myths to participatory subjective rituals, expressing religiosity through affective ties and performative engagements in both physical and digital environments. The work offers a new theoretical lens for understanding religion in an age of fragmented identities and technological mediation.

Heterotopia, Ritual, Egregor – The Structural Formula for Mass Manipulation

ATHENS JOURNAL OF PHILOSOPHY • November 29, 2025 • Claudia Simone Dorchain

A new structural theory explains mass manipulation by combining heterotopia, ritual, and egregor. Michel Foucault's concept of heterotopia—spaces that are other—is extended to show these spaces are deliberately used to shape collective consciousness. The formula 'heterotopia + ritual = egregor' frames the theory. Heterotopias are differentiated into corrective (Apollonian) and de-individualising (Dionysian) types, with architectural coding (linear, rectangular, circular) producing specific psychopolitical effects. Ritual dynamics amplify collective recoding, and the egregor emerges as a group consciousness. In digital modernity's borderless world, new ritual spaces are needed to counter fragmentation.

The ‘Imaginary’ World of the Afterlife: Parallel World in Bibhutibhushan Bandyopadhyay’s Debjan

Incursiuni în imaginar • November 2, 2024 • Ayusman Chakraborty

Bibhutibhushan Bandyopadhyay's novel Debjan (1946) depicts an afterlife where dead protagonists travel through multiple parallel worlds. Although Bandyopadhyay is often seen as a realist writer, this novel reveals his imaginative power by blending orthodox Hindu beliefs with Theosophy, a Western occult movement that claimed roots in Eastern religions. The article highlights how Bandyopadhyay uses Theosophical concepts like "thought form" and "tulpa"—the idea that mental constructs can be made real through spiritual training—to show spirits creating imaginary worlds. This mingling of Eastern and Western spiritualism makes Debjan a unique literary site of cultural encounter, a point previously overlooked by critics.

The Revolutionary Consciousness of Surrealism Faced with Totalitarianism

Journal of Avant-Garde Studies • August 15, 2024 • Michael Richardson

Surrealism claims to be revolutionary, but the nature of that revolution is unclear. The movement's early relationship with the French Communist Party ended in disillusionment by the 1930s, and later engagements with Trotskyism and anarchism were similarly disappointing. Even the initial enthusiasm for the 1959 Cuban Revolution faded. This article reexamines what revolution meant for the Surrealists as totalitarianism emerged, focusing on Pierre Mabille's 1937 concept of egregores—the process by which groups solidify into entities capable of social and political change—and François Jullien's idea of silent transformations.

Practicing belonging, vicarious spirituality, and gendered fetishism: The transformation of the non-religious/religious in contemporary Japanese youth culture

Social Compass • June 1, 2024 • Satoko Fujiwara, Hiroki Miura • 2 citations

In contemporary Japanese youth culture, the boundary between religious and non-religious practices is blurring, shaped by three key concepts: 'practicing belonging', 'vicarious spirituality', and 'gendered fetishism'. These are illustrated through the phenomenon of 'tulpa'—created paranormal beings derived from Tibetan Buddhism—along with other examples. The article argues that what may appear religious to Japanese scholars might not be viewed as such by Western scholars, and that factors transforming religiousness in Japan affect not only spiritual but also secular settings, leading to parallel phenomena.

World Wide Soul: Post-Identity and Network Spirituality

Electronic workshops in computing • January 1, 2024 • Ana Bandeira

Online posting can be understood as a machinic beyond in which networks amplify the proliferating potential of memetic egregores—collective thought-forms. Posting like a machine means relinquishing a monolithic identity to build multiple new ones, as if trained by the collective intelligence of online rings through swarms of collective posting. This practice questions traditional copyright frameworks while celebrating appropriation, spontaneous collaboration, post-authorship, and performative identity. Encapsulating concerns such as extinction, love, and collapse, these communing rituals embody the noosphere—a collective consciousness or interconnected network of minds. Network spirituality thus proposes new modes of being within emerging conditions of planetary existence.

Slender Man’s Face: the Religious Foundation of an Online Mythology

Journal of Religion, Media and Digital Culture • November 30, 2023 • Vivian Asimos

The Slender Man, an internet-born monster from 2009, owes its lasting popularity to how its online community resolved two challenges of mass communal storytelling: narrative inconsistency, addressed through apophatic theology (defining the monster by what it is not), and the erosion of fear when stories are easily searchable online, countered by the concept of the Tulpa (a thought-form made real). Participants play with knowledge and religious ideas, generating mimetic excess that blurs the boundary between reality and fiction.