Tulpas originated in Tibetan Buddhist mysticism as incredibly advanced meditative constructs where a practitioner focuses so intensely on an imagined entity that it actually gains physical form and independent sentience.

A closer look

Tulpas originated in Tibetan Buddhist mysticism as incredibly advanced meditative constructs where a practitioner focuses so intensely on an imagined entity that it actually gains physical form and independent sentience. The explorer Alexandra David-Néel famously claimed she spent months conjuring a jolly monk tulpa, which then supposedly went completely rogue, turned into a terrifyingly sinister phantom, and had to be mentally destroyed over several exhausting weeks. In the age of the internet, this deeply profound spiritual practice has been hilariously hijacked by chronically online teenagers who use the exact same psychological techniques to manifest imaginary anime girlfriends and colorful ponies into their daily lives. The fact that an ancient Himalayan technique designed to prove the illusory nature of reality is now primarily used to combat extreme suburban loneliness is a brutally funny indictment of our modern psychological landscape!