Horror Month: Mea Culpa Tulpa

What if your thoughts could be made real? What if all reality were nothing more than notion given substance? Remember the adage: If you can conceive it and believe it, you can achieve it? Is that nothing more than pseudo psychology clap-trap, or might our thoughts possess considerably more power than we, well, think?

In many Eastern philosophies and faiths, the ability of thought to create substance is a given. Tibetan Buddhists (as well as western occultists) consider thought much more than an intellectual function. The Tulpa, a phantom figure constructed solely from the imagination, is an adept’s absolute certainly, a powerful representation of the mind’s capacity to alter the very fabric of reality. Conversely, Tibetan Buddhists also don’t consider Tulpas real—because in their belief neither is the world around us; it’s all mind-stuff, an illusion.

These so-called Tulpas, however, are not the sole providence of mystics and Eastern faith. Claims of Tulpas materialized by individuals abound. Usually their appearance coincides with great emotional turmoil, fear or some other powerful feeling. Possibly, if one accepts the manifestation of Tulpas, they account for the appearances of ghosts, perhaps even UFOs, or cryptozoological sightings. Reports of site hauntings, such as places where murders have occurred or on battlefields may be attributed to Tulpas, psychic impressions left behind like a mental fingerprint by minds suffering under extreme emotional strain.

In some cases, certain gifted individuals, as well as mystics, lay claim to Tulpa creation. Take for example the case of one Dion Fortune, an occultist writer. In her book Psychic Self Defense, she describes how she, while lying on her bed one night, “formulated a were-wolf accidentally.” In deep brooding and resentment, her thoughts turned to a frightening Norse were-creature called Fenrir. Within seconds, she felt a large grey wolf materialize beside her (we assume this was not her husband). Her knowledge of the occult in this case saved her from harm. She realized she needed to gain control of the creature, so she jammed an elbow into its furry ribs and said, “If you can’t behave yourself, you will have to go on the floor,” then pushed the beastie off the bed. Ms. Fortune was not one to mess around, obviously, and one presumes this technique worked on her husband as well whenever he got a bit wolfish.

The werewolf vanished through a wall. Yet after another family member spotted the creature’s glowing eyes in a corner of the room, Ms. Fortune decided to destroy the monster. She summoned it back, noting the thin “mind-thread” that joined it to her. She imagined herself sucking the life from the beast through that thread and poof! Fruit Brute was gone.

While Ms. Fortune’s mind-wolf and other Tulpa manifestations sound a bit far-fetched, there’s little doubt of the mind’s remarkable capability. Self-help “experts,” positive-thinking proponents and cognitive therapists likely can find common ground with mystics and occultists on one thing—the mind is a powerful organ with amazing untapped potential. Who knows what it can do, its limits? It is still little understood by scientists and doctors, a frontier of exploration whose surface as of yet has been barely scratched.

Can it produce Tulpas, ghosts, hauntings, even miracles? It can certainly manufacture despair or happiness (though the latter seems painfully more elusive than the former). Without doubt, everything begins with a thought—from great literature and music to war and hate. Thought can be a weapon or an olive branch, the expression of God or the Devil.

Tulpas aside...perhaps we should be much more careful with our thoughts…

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