I’m not finished, but here’s some of what I’ve found out on Tulpas and similar phenomena under the cut
Hey, Tulpamancy system of almost 9 years and author of currently the longest Tulpamancy guide here. We can offer some corrections of your findings regarding Tulpamancy specifically.
1. You don't need to be prone to dissociation to make a tulpa. I'm not prone to neither dissociation nor hypnosis (it just doesn't work on me), and I was still able to develop Arcanus, my tulpa really quickly. You can train yourself to dissociate for things like switching, but they're not outright necessary.
2. Same thing with hallucinations. Things like imposition (intentionally hallucinating your tulpa) are optional in Tulpamancy.
3. In fact, visualization and mindscapes (a.k.a. wonderlands) aren't necessary, either. There are people with aphantasia who've been able to create tulpas before. You don't need to have something like maladaptive daydreaming to make or immerse yourself into a mindscape.
4. Switching isn't that rare in the community nowadays, and it's actually become more common than imposition.
If you have any questions, feel free to ask us! We love answering Tulpamancy/Plurality questions.
Yes I do have several things I’m curious about!
For the capacity to experience hallucinations, does that also mean it’s not necessarily common/necessary to have internal hallucinations (ie: within your head like an internal monologue) of the Tulpa speaking to you?
Is dissociation required for switching with the Tulpa? And is there any Info on how similar/different the switch and having another person fronting is to traumagenic systems? (Like, are people consistently aware the Tulpa switched in, does the person who created it stay co-conscious or is that variable, is there ever any amnesia barriers)
Do you know any factors that impact how quickly/easily one can make a Tulpa? Or anything that correlates with how complex/fleshed out the resulting Tulpa is and how long it sticks around without intentional focus?
And have you happened to have heard any psychological theories as to how this works? The papers I’ve found had a few but it was just suggestions and what could hypothetically happen without anything solid either way
Also, before I start, most people view tulpas as fully independent people, so you shouldn't refer to tulpas with it/its pronouns unless that specific tulpa is okay with it!
It's definitely common and often deliberately trained to experience your tulpa's voice internally (vocality), but it's not to the same degree as imposing your tulpa's form in the physical world. However, not all tulpas communicate via internal monologue and may communicate through things like images and feelings (tulpish), though this is often considered a precursor to vocality.
No, it's not required to be able to dissociate to switch at all, but most people believe it's needed to do more in-depth or complete switches. I don't have any links off the top of my head, but there are traumagenic systems who also have tulpas, but one thing I can tell you is that with switching with a tulpa, there is often little to no blacking out/amnesia and outside of extraordinary circumstances, it almost always consensual. That's something a tulpa and their host usually would have to train manually (memory separation), and it's often discouraged: https://www.reddit.com/r/Tulpas/comments/1l23eyc/psa_having_full_memory_separation_is_terrible_and/
Take me, for example. When I switch with my tulpas, I can choose to go unconscious, can stick around in co-consciousness, or spend time in a mindscape. For me, when I come back, I vaguely have an idea of what my systemmates did, but the details are lost on me unless I really focus on remembering or said systemmate tells me what they did. Like how yesterday, Arcanus apparently spent time rebuilding his music playlist, and I forgot he did that until he mentioned it/saw he left the folder open.
Regarding how fast a person can make a tulpa... there isn't a clear consensus, but some things that can play a role are:
Preexisting Plurality
Autism
ADHD
MADD
Schizophrenia/Psychotic disorders
How much time you spend forcing every day or how often you force in general
Psychiatric drugs
Etc
It can take people as little as a day or up to years to create a tulpa, but I will say that how long doesn't necessarily determine how independent/fleshed out a tulpa can be. A tulpa made in a day can be as complex as a tulpa that took seven years to become sentient. Once a tulpa's developed enough, they can pretty much exist on their own without needing active attention from their host. For example, we have several systemmates here that are hardly active at all, but can choose to pop in whenever they like without any prompting.
The main theory I know of is the Mirror Neuron Theory where basically, you create a miniature neural network/cluster of neurons in your brain via Tulpamancy techniques that's basically your tulpa, but that theory is a little hard to believe because that implies "you" exist in a localized area in the brain when that's pretty unlikely. Tulpas can exist independently of their hosts, even if the host goes into dormancy/commits egocide. Unfortunately, research on Tulpamancy or non-traumagenic Plurality in general is incredibly scarce, so there isn't anything concrete. However, do keep on the lookout for an FMRI study Stanford's planning on releasing... eventually.
