I was thinking about build-it-yourself boogeymen, though. You know what I mean, right? Those terrors that assume gargantuan proportions in our own minds--then when we face them, the reality seems oddly anticlimactic.
And something more than the everyday neurosis--I'm not talking about run-of-the mill hypochondria, for instance. I mean something more on the order of Stephen King's The Dark Half...
Take, for example, the troubling idea of tulpa creation. Essentially, the idea is continued focus brings a being to life. From the site linked:
When Alexandra David-Neel journeyed through Tibet, one of the many mystical techniques she studied was that of tulpa creation. A tulpa, according to traditional Tibetan doctrines, is an entity created by an act of imagination, rather like the fictional characters of a novelist, except that tulpas are not written down. David-Neel became so interested in the concept that she decided to try to create one.
Yep. On purpose.
But wait! It gets even better!
In time the vision grew in clarity and substance until it was indistinguishable from physical reality-a sort of self-induced hallucination. But the day came when the hallucination slipped from her conscious control. She discovered that the monk would appear from time to time when she had not willed it. Furthermore her friendly little figure was slimming down and taking on a distinctly sinister aspect.
Eventually her companions, who where unaware of the mental disciplines she was practicing, began to ask about the "stranger" who had turned up in their camp-a clear indication that a creature which was no more that solidified imagination had definite objective reality.
There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio...
9 comments:
This in an interesting idea. It's also discussed in The Witches' Bible by the Farrars. I read it years ago, and this is one the the things that has always stuck with me.
Rather freaky.
I should really be getting ready for work.
I am very skeptical about the paranormal. It's to the point of "I'll believe when one of them gets right up in my face." Assuming I survive the shock. It's a strange contradiction about me as I am willing to accept the concept of a supreme deity and thus have room in my universe for things I cannot verify.
I love a good story though. I watched X-files and read Stephen King. So I'm not rabid or strident about my skepticism - I just don't believe. Uh, so far.
I am on the fence about some of the stuff. On the one hand I want proof. But on the other, if I see I ghost I might die and that's not good. I tend to believe all things are possible. I also think that our minds make up haunting out of what we fear most. I am a shark-phobic kind of girl and although my rational mind understands that a shark could not survive in my pool, I still won't go in if I am alone.
Ick... oh well :)
-N
I am my own Tulpa.
Ooh--I see I have more template-mucking to do. Coolio!
The really fun part is all the wingnuts (oops, did I say that out loud?) online that are trying to duplicate the tulpa creation phenomenon.
Here's the thing, even if it was real--no, especially if it was real--why would you set about raising something that's so ambiguous in nature, deliberately?
Who really thinks it's a good idea to go mucking about with the unknown like that (my blog template, aside...)
It's been a constant of the human condition that there's always someone mucking about with the spooky unknown. Is it smart? If they ever actually raise something from the demon dimensions I'm gonna vote no.
Anyone ever play that slumber party game where you go into the dark bathroom and stare at the mirror chanting some name (I didn't so I don't remember what they said the name was)? I keep getting mental images of monks in jammies holding flashlights under their chins.
When I attended slumber parties, it was "Bloody Mary" we chanted. She never did appear.
I remember "Bloody Mary" too! It always completely creeped me out.
Dawno, "If they ever actually raise something from the demon dimensions I'm gonna vote no" has had me chuckling off and on since I read it.
Schroeder, seriously? I think we're all our own tulpas, in a sense.
I clearly remember deciding quite deliberately what kind of person to be, who I wanted to be--then behaving as if it was so. And mentally committing myself to the idea that it was so. In no small measure, it worked beautifully.
Good words, Mac. If I can ever decide who I want to be I think I'll give your technique a try. And, lest one think I'm being facetous, I really *don't* know who I want to be when I grow up. I've just let the current me evolve haphazardly, honest, it's not something I deliberately set out to become.
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