Tulpamancy

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

State of the evidence

Synthesized July 15, 2026

Synthesized from 7 studies in the library · AI-generated, grounded in the abstracts below

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

Research on Tulpamancy indicates that it is a non-clinical form of plurality involving the deliberate creation of sentient imaginary companions, and it is generally associated with positive experiences, perceived mental health benefits, and no causal link to psychopathology. However, evidence is largely based on self-selected online surveys and theoretical analyses, with limited longitudinal or clinical data, so conclusions about long-term effects and generalizability remain tentative.

Evidence by study

Direction is which way each study's own result points, not our rating of the study. All 12 matching studies were reviewed; the 7 that directly address the question are shown here.

What the directions mean

Supports:: the study found the intervention worked, or its hypothesis held.
Opposes:: it found the opposite, no benefit or a harm.
No effect:: no significant difference either way.
Mixed:: effects in both directions within the same study.
Unclear:: the abstract does not report a direction.

Study	Design	Sample size	Direction	Finding
Tulpas and Mental Health: A Study of Non-Traumagenic Plural Experiences 2017	survey		Supports	Tulpamancy correlates with perceived improvements in mental health and cognition, and there is likely no causal relation between tulpamancy and the development of psychopathology.
Unusual experiences and their association with metacognition: investigating ASMR and Tulpamancy 2021	observational study	243	Mixed	Tulpamancers reported higher hallucination-proneness than controls but lower metacognitive belief endorsement, with no group differences in delusion-proneness or self-reflection.
Personality Characteristics of Tulpamancers and Their Tulpas 2020	cross-sectional survey		Supports	Hosts reported positive experiences with their tulpas, and host-tulpa personality similarity was associated with relationship satisfaction.
A Review of Imaginary Companions and Prospects of Research on Adolescents and Adults 2023	review		Supports	Reviews research showing imaginary companions are common in children and also occur in adolescents and adults, including the novel form of tulpa.
Learning to Discern the Voices of Gods, Spirits, Tulpas, and the Dead. 2023	theoretical or philosophical paper		Supports	Argues that communities where hearing voices is common use cultural models that teach discernment and trained attention, and that practice shapes voice-hearing experience.
Tracking the Tulpa 2015	historical analysis		Unclear	Argues that the concept of the tulpa emerged from a dialogue between East and West, combining Theosophical metaphysics with terms adapted from Tibetan Buddhism.
Imaginary companions and young children's responses to ambiguous auditory stimuli: implications for typical and atypical development. 2007	cross-sectional	80	Supports	Reporting hearing words in the Jumbled Speech task was associated with having a parentally corroborated imaginary companion.

Tulpas and Mental Health: A Study of Non-Traumagenic Plural Experiences 2017

Supports

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

survey

Unusual experiences and their association with metacognition: investigating ASMR and Tulpamancy 2021

Mixed

Tulpamancers reported higher hallucination-proneness than controls but lower metacognitive belief endorsement, with no group differences in delusion-proneness or self-reflection.

observational study Sample size: 243

Personality Characteristics of Tulpamancers and Their Tulpas 2020

Supports

Hosts reported positive experiences with their tulpas, and host-tulpa personality similarity was associated with relationship satisfaction.

cross-sectional survey

A Review of Imaginary Companions and Prospects of Research on Adolescents and Adults 2023

Supports

Reviews research showing imaginary companions are common in children and also occur in adolescents and adults, including the novel form of tulpa.

review

Learning to Discern the Voices of Gods, Spirits, Tulpas, and the Dead. 2023

Supports

Argues that communities where hearing voices is common use cultural models that teach discernment and trained attention, and that practice shapes voice-hearing experience.

theoretical or philosophical paper

Tracking the Tulpa 2015

Unclear

Argues that the concept of the tulpa emerged from a dialogue between East and West, combining Theosophical metaphysics with terms adapted from Tibetan Buddhism.

historical analysis

Imaginary companions and young children's responses to ambiguous auditory stimuli: implications for typical and atypical development. 2007

Supports

Reporting hearing words in the Jumbled Speech task was associated with having a parentally corroborated imaginary companion.

cross-sectional Sample size: 80

Points of agreement

Tulpamancy is generally associated with positive experiences and perceived mental health benefits.
Tulpas are considered a non-clinical form of plurality or imaginary companion, not inherently pathological.
Tulpa creation involves deliberate practice and trained attention, similar to other voice-hearing cultural practices.

Conflicts

One study found higher hallucination-proneness in tulpamancers compared to controls, while another found no causal link to psychopathology, suggesting a nuanced relationship.
Theoretical papers differ on the origins of the tulpa concept, with some emphasizing Tibetan Buddhist roots and others arguing for Theosophical influence.

Gaps

Longitudinal studies are needed to assess the durability of mental health benefits and potential risks over time.
Most studies rely on self-selected online samples, limiting generalizability to broader populations.
Clinical populations and individuals with psychosis are excluded, leaving the relationship between tulpamancy and severe psychopathology unexamined.
The effects of different tulpa creation techniques, practice intensity, and individual differences are not systematically studied.
Blinding and control conditions are absent in most studies, making it difficult to rule out expectancy effects.

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.

Ask your own question in the Research Synthesis Tool

25 articles · 10 from the last two years · 425 participants across 5 studies reporting sample size

Common study designs

case study 1 cross-sectional 1 historical analysis 2 autoethnographic study 1 theoretical or philosophical paper 15

Research

Synthesize the evidence → Search all →

The Point at Which We Break: Thoughtforms, Egregoric Masculinity, and Cognitive Aikido in Kathryn Bigelow’s Point Break

September 2, 2026 Michael Ross

Kathryn Bigelow’s Point Break (1991) is often remembered as a cult action film about surfing, bank robbery, and the strange spiritual magnetism of Bodhi. This article argues that the film is also a sophisticated study of liminality, thoughtforms, egregoric masculinity, and contested agency. Johnny Utah’s undercover assignment is not simply a law-enforcement operation; it is a threshold passage...

DOI: 10.33767/osf.io/jqxza_v1

Thoughtform Geometry and Aperture Mediated Experience

Figshare January 28, 2026 Mark Lemon

This preprint presents a conceptual framework for understanding conscious experience as an aperture-mediated process operating over an invariant geometric structure. The model proposes a twelve-fold toroidal “thoughtform” that admits an equivalent partition into focal lenses, each of which may be described as an archetypal attractor, phase sector, symmetry class, or developmental band depending...

DOI: 10.6084/m9.figshare.31165045 Cognition Operationalization Consciousness Invariant physics +10

Learning to Discern the Voices of Gods, Spirits, Tulpas, and the Dead.

Schizophr Bull February 1, 2023 Tanya M Luhrmann, Ben Alderson-Day, Ann Chen et al.

AbstractThere are communities in which hearing voices frequently is common and expected, and in which participants are not expected to have a need for care. This paper compares the ideas and practices of these communities. We observe that these communities utilize cultural models to identify and to explain voice-like events—and that there are some common features to these models across...

DOI: 10.1093/schbul/sbac005 Full text

“This has all happened before”: Intergenerational Trauma, Tulpas, and Tackling Lovecraft’s Cultural Legacy in America in Scooby Doo! Mystery Incorporated

Monstrum January 31, 2023 Aiden Tait

“This has all happened before”: Intergenerational Trauma, Tulpas, and Tackling Lovecraft’s Cultural Legacy in America in Scooby Doo! Mystery Incorporated. Un article de la revue Monstrum (Short-Form Horror: History, Pedagogy, and Practice) diffusée par la plateforme Érudit.

DOI: 10.7202/1096037ar Full text Art history

A Review of Imaginary Companions and Prospects of Research on Adolescents and Adults

Psychology of China 2023 Mi Jiawen, Jia Peiyu

Imaginary companions refer to an unseen character or object that a child names and refersto during direct play or conversations with others. Research on imaginary companions originated inthe early 20th century and has continued to the present day. A plethora of studies, primarily focusingon children, indicates that imaginary companions are not uncommon among them. However, recentforeign...

DOI: 10.35534/pc.0508102 The imaginary Psychoanalysis

Unusual experiences and their association with metacognition: investigating ASMR and Tulpamancy

Cognitive Neuropsychiatry November 8, 2021 Emma Palmer‐cooper, Nicola Mcguire, Abigail C. Wright 6 citations

BACKGROUND: Unusual experiences in Tulpamancer and Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response (ASMR) communities are generally positive and sought after, unlike hallucinations and delusions in clinical populations. Metacognition, the ability to reflect on self-referential experiences, may aid sense-making around unusual experiences, reducing distress. This study investigated group differences in...

DOI: 10.1080/13546805.2021.1999798 Metacognition Delusion Schema genetic algorithms Distress +4

Personality Characteristics of Tulpamancers and Their Tulpas

May 11, 2020 Anna E Martin, Bailey Thompson, Steven L. Lancaster preprint

Tulpamancy is a practice that involves the creation of imagined sentient companions, tulpas, who abide within their human host's mind. The primary aim of our study was to examine the personality characteristics of tulpas and their hosts. Further, we examined the role of personality similarity in predicting relationship satisfaction. Individuals with tulpas completed an online questionnaire of...

DOI: 10.31234/osf.io/5t3xk Personality psychology Similarity geometry Perspective graphical Host biology +2

Tulpas and Mental Health: A Study of Non-Traumagenic Plural Experiences

Research in psychology and behavioral sciences September 24, 2017 Jacob J. Isler 8 citations

Current models of mental health rely heavily on the assumption that only one agent of self exists in every one brain. Deviations from this model of singularity in mind are heavily stigmatized and often considered disordered. This paper opposes this bias by analyzing one form of plurality in consciousness: tulpamancy. Tulpamancy is a collection of meditative techniques used to create and...

DOI: 10.12691/rpbs-5-2-1 Full text Plural Mental health Psychopathology Happiness +6

From Visual Thoughtforms to Bauharoque: Paul Laffoley’s Renegade Science Fiction Art

Peter Lang eBooks July 11, 2016 Jerzy Kamionowski, Jacek Partyka

Reaching far beyond the boundaries of original agenda (Edwin Ardener’s and Elaine Showalter’s), the term’s applicability has been significantly enlarged. Its fluidity or fuzziness, however, ought to be taken as a blessing: in the rapidly changing contemporary («liquid») world it is the language that needs to keep up with new circumstances and developments, not the other way round.

DOI: 10.3726/978-3-653-05388-3/25 Art history Visual arts

Tracking the Tulpa

Nova Religio August 1, 2015 Natasha L. Mikles, Joseph P. Laycock

Since the 1970s, tulpas have been a feature of Western paranormal lore. In contemporary paranormal discourse, a tulpa is a being that begins in the imagination but acquires a tangible reality and sentience. Tulpas are created either through a deliberate act of individual will or unintentionally from the thoughts of numerous people. The tulpa was first described by Alexandra David-Néel...

DOI: 10.1525/nr.2015.19.1.87