Bringing Imaginary Friends to Life

Have you ever had an imaginary friend? I know I did; several of them. Actually, I still have them and I have no intent of getting rid of them any time soon. What if there was a possibility for our imaginary friends to become alive? Well, that idea was actually turned into theory and it is named Tulpa.

IMAGINARY FRIENDS

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Firstly, people with imaginary friends are AWARE that their imaginary friends are a product of their imagination. They are defined as a psychological and social phenomenon where a friendship or other interpersonal relationship is created in a world of imagination. Unfortunately, imaginary friends occasionally come with a bit of a negative stigma. Many falsely believe that imaginary friends are harmful dragging the person away from the reality and creating problems in the future. Luckily, that stigma has been proved as untrue. Instead, studies show they are more of a benefit rather than a harmful creation. Benefits of having imaginary friends include heightened creativity, better coping skills, emotion regulation, and empathy or understanding others, developing better social skills, increasing self-esteem and bringing the feeling of hope. Therefore, the study’s results conclude that people with imaginary friends are more creative and socially competent people with great coping skills.

BENEFITS OF AN IMAGINARY FRIEND

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Having an imaginary friend is like having your own personal psychotherapist. You can reveal your inner world to them without the fear of being judged; share your dreams and goals, your fears and anxieties. While doing so, imaginary friends become a powerful tool for observing your inner world. They help you understand your situation better in a realistic yet positive way.

Contrary to a popular belief, imaginary friends usually don’t drag us away from our family and friends instead they are just friends who seem to be there anytime we need them. Instead of them dragging us away from our close ones, they actually help understand and solve the differences that might come between us and our friends/family. So, the next time when a person with an imaginary friend forgives you for your actions or apologizes for their own, they have probably been talking to their imaginary friend who actually just helped you fix your relationship.

Imaginary friends also guide us thought tasks we are trying to accomplish. They give us ideas, lead us on the proper way, give great advice, and help us solve our assignments or even create a new project. With our imaginary friends at hand we somehow manage to have better results than when we are not cooperating with them. They are kind of like guardian angels except mine doesn't have wings therefore I felt as if I should create a guardian angel as well; he has wings.

TULPA

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Now, the interesting part! Some believe imaginary friends can be created in real life just by the power of thoughts. That being is then called Tulpa. Tulpas, unlike imaginary friends, are creations of the mind living outside of you. They have their own personality, free will, emotions, memories and they are able to think for themselves. As tulpas grow older, their life experiences will shape them into a person with their own hopes, dreams and beliefs. Sounds pretty cool.

According to tulpa.info there are two general ways you can see your tulpa which makes me wonder if maybe they are just an imaginary friend. First, you can see them in your mind’s eye and second, as a real entity in real life. The truth is, majority of people with imaginary friends see them with their mind’s eye. However, the fact that some may see them as a real entity in real life seems quite interesting. The process of working on being able to perceive tulpa in real life by its creator it’s called imposition. Imposition seems like the form of a self-imposed hallucination.

Since creation and imposition of tulpa are clearly very subjective, there are several different ways on how to do it. However, the one thing they all have in common are thoughts. Person should invest a lot of energy into coming up with the personality and appearance as well as visualizations and having extremely vivid conversations with their tulpa. Basically, it’s like playing a really intense game of play pretend. The more you do it, the more real your tulpa.

So, tulpas are basically another level of imaginary friends. It is quite an interesting concept and it’s a great example of how far a human mind can go. The more time passes by, it seems more and more like there really isn’t a limit to our minds. Keep evolving!

Thanks for a read!

SOURCES:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Imaginary_friend

http://www.tulpa.info/

http://tulpa.wikia.com/wiki/Imposition