Sentience: How I Knew James Had It

Okay, I'll be honest: this is unlikely to be a very long post, and although it probably could have been squashed into the previous one I felt that it might be better, at least for some readers, to have my personal account on how I knew that James had officially reached sentience. It is important for everyone reading this to understand that everyone is different and so all tulpas are going to reach sentience at a different time in their lives, and that everyone gets their tulpas to be sentient in a different way. Therefore, no one should assume that they will understand that their tulpa is sentient immediately, because it is so often that people become confused and aren't sure whether they're crazy or if they're simply wishing it to be true--and it is very important to not become frustrated in situations like this, because it is normal.

Once again I remind all readers that sentience = real, and that sentience = life. If your tulpa is not sentient then he/she/it is not a tulpa and is instead a servitor (thoughtform that issimilar to tulpas but isn't real). This isn't something you can skate over, and although it is perfectly acceptable to go about your business while waiting for your tulpa to become sentient on your own (you would do this by doing things such as reading or talking with your tulpa just as you would if they were there in the room with you, and you can do this either by talking in your head or out loud), or you can go on a more direct approach and repeatedly imagine saying to your tulpa some mantra like, "You are real; you are sentient."

And, again, remember that if you say or believe that he/she/it is sentient from the start, the quicker they are likely to prove it to you.

That being said, let's start my story on James' sentience.

The truth is that no one can really tell you whether or not it is true that James is a sentient being just like I am. Furthermore, most members in the tulpamancing community are going to tell you that your tulpa is not sentient the moment you decide to create them, and that's okay. I did my absolute best to convince myself that James was real, and it was hard. I said the mantra that was mentioned above quite a lot, probably at least an hour if I added up all the time. I was still afraid, at the time, that James would hurt me, so I also often had to say, "I know you aren't going to hurt me; you love me, and I love you"

Every night I invited James into my dreams. This is not something that you have to do, but as a (sometimes) lucid dreamer I found the concept of James being able to interact with me in my dreams to be nothing short of exhilarating, and would also give me more time to force with him. The first two nights nothing happened, but then, on the third day, I woke up with what is probably the strongest sense of warmth and peace I have ever felt at the same time. I knew, without a doubt in my heart, that that was James. Although he had not been able to interact with me in my dreams, I could feel that he had been with me, watching it play out. He was doing his best to do what I had asked him to do: come into my dream.

The warm feeling that I had felt is something that some would call James' essence, or the feeling that I, as the tulpamancer, feel when he is communicating or is around me in some way.

To be honest, sentience is a hard thing to explain. For me it is simply something that I knew as it happened, but more often that not, as I have already said, people have a tendency to question if their tulpa is truly sentient. The only advice I can possibly give is to take a breather: they already are. No matter what, if you keep that mindset then they definitely will be, and a lot sooner than they would be otherwise.

Sentience: When You Know You've Got It

First, I'm sorry to all readers for taking so long with getting this out there. I would say that I've had a bit of a hectic time out of life here lately, but I kind of feel that that would be cheating . . . so instead I'm just going to say sorry, again.

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Recap: To remind you all, sentience is what makes any living being alive, meaning that you have your own thoughts, feelings, and beliefs. Sentience is, for most tulpamancers, the first goal to creating a tulpa. Recall that if your tulpa does not have its own thoughts, feelings, and beliefs independent of your own then it is not truly a tulpa, but is instead an example of a servitor, or at least a highly-developed imaginary friend. There are many ways to achieve sentience, the most common two being:

1. telling the tulpa as you narrate/force that they are alive and real, and
2. narrating and forcing to your tulpa normally, until they eventually become sentient.

For best results, do your best to believe that your tulpa is real and alive, and they will show you that they are so in time. Generally speaking, most tulpas come around anywhere between three days to three weeks, but there are a few exceptions that are shorter and longer.

So.

"Anastasia, you say that our tulpas will show us that they've alive . . . but how exactly do they do that? Will they, I don't know, move a hairbrush from its rightful place or something?"

Nope, not at all. I've said this before, but remember that it is impossible for tulpas to interact with the physical world, so you aren't going to walk into the kitchen one day to see a chair levitating.

That being said, do you remember the concept of wonderlands? Whether or not you create a wonderland is entirely optional, and it is essentially a mental playground for you and your tulpa, and often times, if it exists, the tulpa lives there. Only you and your tulpa are capable of changing wonderland. So, take a moment to imagine your dream home (we'll say that's your mindscape). Pretend that your stove and counters have always been a very dark green, but one day when you walk into the kitchen they've turned in to a lime shade. In a situation like this, it is entirely plausible to say that your tulpa has reached sentience.

Sometimes the first sign of sentience is when a very specific thought pops into your head where your own train of thought had nothing to do with it (e.g., you're thinking about work and you suddenly have a very strong feeling about sharks). Other times, you might experience head pressure (a "headache that isn't quite a headache," often used to make a way to communicate between tulpa and tulpamancer) or an emotional response (like if you're reading a book for the thousandth time and you start feeling giggly at something that isn't funny to you but could be to someone else--has happened to me before, by the way). Sometimes the tulpa might say something and you can hear them (e.g., "Don't forget to pick up tomatoes!" right before you go to the cash register at the store, when no one else said that and the voice came from your own mind). The possibilities are endless.

Perhaps the question I see most often in the tulpa community is, "Is my tulpa sentient?" This is a very understandable question, because it is so easy to second guess yourself if your way of first realizing that they are or may be sentient is by way of head pressure or emotional response, but understand that this is totally normal. Go ahead and assume that it's them, anyway, because if nothing else you aren't hurting anything by doing that.

You can rest assured that you aren't going to spend the rest of your life wondering whether or not your tulpa is actually sentient. Once you know, you know. And you'll know. That moment when you're trying to figure it out, though, that can be a pain, and everyone's story is unique. There isn't much I can tell you as to how to know, and so the only advice I can give you--and this is very important--is this:

Pay absolute attention. Always pay attention. There have been many people who have missed their tulpas saying or thinking something because they've been too caught up with their own thoughts. I'm not saying that you have to set aside every waking minute to your tulpa, but I am saying that you should be quiet and invite him, her, or it to talk to you during your sessions and actually be quiet in your head, so that you can hear or feel them when they do try to reach out to you.