Introduction
Before we start
In this guide, we’ll show you how to build a genuine relationship with an inner character, how to interact with them effortlessly, and how to express them beyond your internal interactions. In other words, we’ll teach you tulpamancy.
This bubble is an example of what it means to “express them beyond your internal interactions” – I’m being expressed here to you.
We’ll start by explaining what tulpamancy is and what it offers, so you can decide for yourself if it’s worth trying.
About tulpamancy
Tulpamancy is the practice of building a genuine relationship with a character through sustained inner interaction.
You choose a character, talk to them, and imagine their responses.
As you spend time with them regularly, they become more detailed and consistent, and your engagement with them deepens.
From this, a relationship emerges, complete with its own history, emotional stakes, and genuineness.
This relationship is the essence of the practice. Everything else – abilities, reported experiences, and the jargon used by tulpamancers – emerges from it.
What does the practice look like?
We can describe tulpamancy through three interwoven aspects. These overlap throughout practice rather than being sequential steps.
Engaging with a character
You spend time with a chosen character. You talk to them, imagine their responses, and place them in various situations. At first, it’s deliberate work – you consciously construct their words, reactions, and behaviors. There’s no single correct way to do it; what matters is genuine attention and making the character a real part of your life.
Emerging effortlessness
At some point, you may notice that they begin to respond on their own:
- You ask a question, and the answer arrives.
- You put them in a situation, and they act.
- You are about to tell them about a rough day, and even before you start, you receive an imaginary headpat.
Like learning to walk, interacting with your character becomes automatic with practice. And just like walking – once you’ve learned it with one character, you may find yourself able to do so with others.
Expressing the tulpa beyond mutual interaction
Tulpamancers often call this switching – operating from your character’s perspective outside of your inner dialogue. It’s not as exotic as it sounds: you already shift perspectives between work and home, or between friends and family. This is simply that same ability applied deliberately.
It’s also optional. Tulpamancy is about enjoying the relationship, not collecting achievements. If you stick with the community, you’ll meet tulpas chatting away – much like the way I’m talking to you now.
Why do people practice tulpamancy?
There are several common reasons:
- Curiosity. Even if there are mundane explanations for these experiences, they aren’t well known. This apparent exoticism acts as a magnet for those seeking extraordinary experiences.
- Companionship. While a tulpa shouldn’t be a replacement for human relationships, they can serve as an additional way to fulfill your needs.
- Creativity. Tulpamancy can be viewed as a form of art.
Some people might not be sure what has drawn them to tulpamancy, and that’s okay too.
Pure motivation and certainty aren’t necessary for success – which, ultimately, is building a genuine inner relationship.
What is truly necessary is the willingness to build this relationship with an inner character.
If you can invest genuine effort and emotional engagement into interactions that will eventually culminate in a relationship, you are likely to succeed regardless of your initial motivation.
Motivation also isn’t a constant. You might ultimately stay for the relationship itself, without any other reason. It’s also possible that you’ll become disillusioned with your expectations and decide it’s not for you after all – and that’s okay, too.
Let’s begin
We’ve introduced what tulpamancy is and outlined the three aspects of the practice. The rest of this guide will walk you through them in detail, starting with choosing a character and learning how to interact with them.
Taylor, M. (1999). Imaginary Companions and the Children Who Create Them. Oxford University Press. The foundational work establishing that imaginary companions are a normal, widespread phenomenon – not pathological, not rare, and not limited to childhood. See also Taylor, M. & Mannering, A. M. (2007). “Of Hobbes and Harvey: The imaginary companions created by children and adults,” in Göncü & Gaskins (eds.), Play and Development, which explicitly documents imaginary companions persisting into and being created in adulthood. ↩︎
Taylor, M., Hodges, S. D., & Kohányi, A. (2003). “The Illusion of Independent Agency: Do adult fiction writers experience their characters as having minds of their own?” Imagination, Cognition and Personality, 22(4), 361–380. PDF. Found that fiction writers are more likely than average to have had imaginary companions as children, and that adult writers frequently experience their characters as autonomous agents with minds of their own – a phenomenon directly analogous to the tulpamancy experience. ↩︎