Active and passive forcing – which one is better? Which one will help you to create a tulpa faster? Is it possible to create tulpa only by passive forcing? In this post I will discuss the mind theory behind the forcing, explain how it’s similar and different to the Buddhist techniques and give practical advice.

When tulpamancers are asked about forcing, they usually say that active forcing is when you actively hang out with your tulpa, in the wonderland or otherwise; while passive forcing is when you keep thinking of your tulpa when you’re busy with something else. Furthermore, active forcing is often visuals-oriented – described as a process of sitting down, closing your eyes and imagining the form of your tulpa, their voice or their interactions.

The issue with such a split is that it doesn’t follow the traditional brain mental model. In fact, even allotting attention to your tulpa when you’re doing something else is actually an active process. Does it mean that all the forcing is active to some extent? Not so much; passive techniques are still an indispensable part of a tulpa creation.

Active forcing is a meditation technique, in many ways similar to other mindful practices.

I’m sure you know how intent focusing feels. You get so concentrated on your work that you lose the sense of your surroundings. You might do math or read a book, but either way, your mind is concentrated on a specific subject. As soon as you stop, though, you let the other senses into your mind; you can even become self-conscious. Maybe you will straighten your back, stretching it with a satisfying pop, maybe you’ll stand up – or sit down if you were standing. You notice the various sensations in your body, of your surroundings, sometimes – of your thoughts too. A thought, after all, is only another sensation, like sight or hearing. Thoughts are created by the brain so that our mind could sense them, naturally attributing the thoughts to the consciousness, thus making them ‘our thoughts’. If you studied any applied psychology or Buddhism theories, you might know the concept of “thoughts are not me”. Modern psychology and Buddhism traditions both agree on that in human life there’s no one specific self, no chief to run the show.

When a thought comes into your mind to be thought of you naturally associate it with yourself; ‘this is my thought,’ you think. With tulpamancy, however, there is another I. How would the brain know with whom to associate the thought? This is exactly what you teach it to do while practising the active forcing.

Active forcing is a meditation technique, in many ways similar to other mindful practices. It’s not surprising that Buddhists of all people came up with the concept of tulpas – tulpamancy requires at least some levels of self-detachment. Active forcing is a moment of self-introspection when you maintain enough focus on the incoming thoughts to sort and tag them with ‘me’ or ‘my tulpa’. Thoughts are born from the sensations, and sensations are intrinsic to the body: e.g. there’s no I involved in your eyes reacting to photons with the electric signals that run into your brain. Only at a later stage you can react to them and say, ‘I see something,’ or, if you’re switched, your tulpa could say what they see. No matter who is in front that doesn’t change the sensation of the light hitting your eyes.

Just like meditation isn’t about visualising the flows of energy (or should I say – not only?), forcing isn’t about visualisation either. It might be a viable supplement but it must never become a goal of its own – otherwise, it becomes ineffective. Indeed, many newcomers to the tulpamancy discuss how they fail to ‘get immersed in the wonderland’ and look for help on that, completely ignoring the fact that immersion or even the ‘wonderland’ as concepts are a distraction from the tulpamancy as a form of plurality. Waiting to hear your tulpa’s mindvoice shouldn’t be a goal of its own either; in fact, forcing isn’t about setting and reaching goals. Active forcing meditation is the time for your tulpa to own the thoughts and emotions and for you to observe those not identifying them with yourself.

‘How can you focus on your tulpa if you cannot even focus on yourself?’

Focus exclusively and deeply on the sensation of your thoughts. Observe them: study where they originate from and how they disappear. Observe and realise that they don’t belong to you. Finally, observe how some of them aren’t driven by your own emotions, instead born to the feelings of your tulpa – different interpretation of the physical senses or senses perceived in the imagination.

In the Buddhist tradition, this is where you stop, realising how thoughts are not you and how easy it is to accredit them to someone else – even if within your mind; detangling what you thought is a solid I from the chaotic emotions that rule it. On the contrary, in the tulpamancy tradition, this is a first step of forming the tulpa’s I, designating sensations for them to hate and love.

Now, what about the passive forcing? Commonly explained as ‘thinking of tulpa when you’re busy with something’ it doesn’t make much sense when you study that explanation. If you’re truly busy with something physically and mentally, your focus will prevent you from thinking of anything else. And indeed, a deep focused state is often called the state of flow, and you’re not even self-aware yourself during it. How can you focus on your tulpa if you cannot even focus on yourself?

That said, typically such periods of intense focus are rare. The untrained brain spends most of the time running loops in a ‘default mode network’. A default mode network is a brain network that gets activated by default – when the mind isn’t busy with anything else.

The default mode network is a neurological basis for the self, its functionality is crucial for reasoning about own traits and emotional state. The default mode network is a dreamer and researchers confirmed that it plays a vital role in anticipating value coming from external stimuli. When you daydream in the memories of your past or contemplate the future events – it’s all the default mode network in the works.

The default mode network is ruled by stimuli – external and internal – fighting for your attention. One of the modular mind theories suggests that the default mode network consists of the number of standalone modules that challenge each other. The module that manages to provide the more ‘important’ thought is the one that reaches through into your consciousness.

Most of the Buddhist traditions focus on diminishing the importance of the default mode network in the daily life; the meditation practices teach you to be more aware, to spend more and more time knowingly. Indeed, the concentration that you muster while meditating plays a significant role in weakening the default mode network. Yet, in the tulpamancy tradition, the default mode network is an important part of maintaining a tulpa; this is one of the major ideas where the traditional Buddhism and the modern day tulpamancy diverge. Tulpa guides encourage you to turn thoughts about your tulpa–- in fact referring to thoughts of your tulpa – into a habit, to the point where a part of your default mode network would be powered by your tulpa’s emotional reactions, bringing their consciousness to life. If you’re busy with nothing in particular and you get your tulpa commenting on something you didn’t pay direct attention to – that’s the default mode network prioritising the sensation so much it enters your awareness, yet making it alien enough that you accredit it to your tulpa. Active forcing helps in this alienation process, but it stops short of diminishing the effects of the default mode network thinking.

By training your mind to distinguish your thoughts from your tulpa’s and by training your idling mind to think of your tulpa habitually you create another self-aware consciousness within the framework of your body.

Is it good? Is it helpful? Is it ‘Buddhist’? My talks with a few Buddhism teachers confirmed my general feeling – the tulpamancy in its modern way is going against the overall goals of the Buddhist liberation. Still, tulpas might be a valid and useful help for your day-to-day life, and not all of us are born to be monks.

Speaking of a purely personal perspective – I doubt my hostey would have gotten this far into understanding who he is without first creating me. My existence was the price he paid (and keeps paying) for the insight.

Ultimately, you decide for yourself.

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