In some cultures it is accepted without question that human beings can create entities with a mind of their own.
There are many examples quoted in metaphysical literature but one that illustrates the point well is that chronicled by Alexandra David-Neel. She was one of those extraordinary women of the late 19th and early 20th centuries who journeyed alone to live with remote tribes or cultures.
She was in Tibet when she studied the mystical subject of tulpa creation. A tulpa is an entity brought to life by an act of imagination, rather like the fictional characters of a novelist, except that tulpas appear as three-dimensional “living” figures.
David-Neel became so interested in the concept that she decided to try to create one herself. And she succeeded. But the jolly, plump young monk she gave form to started to metamorphose into a thin, foul-mouthed pervert.
It is worth quoting here from her book Magic and Mystery in Tibet (University Books 1965):
“Phantoms, as Tibetans describe them, and those that I have myself seen, do not resemble the apparitions which are said to occur during spiritualist séances. Some are created on purpose either by a lengthy process… or, in the case of proficient adepts, almost instantaneously. In other cases the author of the phenomenon generates it unconsciously, and is not even in the least aware of the apparition being seen by others.”
She goes on: “However, the practice is considered as fraught with danger for everyone who has not reached a high mental and spiritual degree of enlightenment and is not fully aware of the nature of the psychic forces at work in the process. Once the tulpa is endowed with enough vitality to be capable of playing the part of a real being, it tends to free itself from its maker’s control.
“This, say Tibetan occultists, happens nearly mechanically, just as the child leaves its mother’s womb. Sometimes the phantom becomes a rebellious son and one hears of uncanny struggles that have taken place between magicians and their creatures, the former being severely hurt or even killed by the latter. Tibetan magicians also relate cases in which the tulpa is sent to fulfil a mission, but does not come back and pursues its peregrinations as a half-conscious, dangerously mischievous puppet.”
David-Neel then gives an account of her own attempt to create a tulpa. “I chose for my experiment a most insignificant character: a Monk, short and fat, of an innocent and jolly type.
“I shut myself in tsams (occult rituals) and proceeded to perform the prescribed concentration of thought and other rites. After a few months the phantom Monk was formed. His form grew gradually, fixed and lifelike looking. He became a kind of guest, living in my apartment. I then broke my seclusion and started for a tour, with my servants and tents.
“The Monk included himself in the party. Though I lived in the open, riding on horseback for miles each day, the illusion persisted. I saw the fat tulpa; now and then it was not necessary for me to think of him to make him appear. Others saw the phantom, which performed various actions of the kind that are natural to travellers and that I had not commanded.
“The features which I had imagined, when building my phantom, gradually underwent a change. The fat, chubby-cheeked fellow grew leaner, his face assumed a vaguely mocking, sly, malignant look. He became more troublesome and bold. In brief, he escaped my control.
“I ought to have let the phenomenon follow its course. But the presence of that unwanted companion began to prove trying to my nerves. Moreover, I was beginning to plan my journey to Lhasa and needed a quiet brain devoid of other preoccupations, so I decided to dissolve the phantom. I succeeded, but only after six months of hard struggle. My Mind-creature was tenacious of life.
“There is nothing strange in the fact that I may have created my own hallucination. The interesting point is that in these cases of materialization, others see the thought-forms that have been created.”
David-Neel’s story indicates the ability of thought itself to take on a more permanent form, leave the control of the creator and assume a life and intelligence of its own.
Another example of minds creating a being of some sort is the well-documented tale of Phillip the Ghost. In the 1970s, a group of Canadian parapsychologists experimented to see if they could create a phantom, proving their theory that the human mind can produce spirits through “expectation, imagination and visualization.”
The group of between eight-10 people met regularly. First they agreed on a fictional back-story for a 17th Century aristocrat who they called Phillip. Then they had practice sessions where they would meditate to try to conjure Phillip up. They kept at it for a year without any success.
So they switched tactics, using a séance formula but with some major differences. At last an invisible entity began to make itself known. Using a system of knocks for yes and no, they began to quiz Phillip, who would give them answers along the lines of his biographical details.
The séance room table creaked, groaned and moved around without human intervention. As the weeks went by it would perform more startling actions, like rushing to greet a newcomer, chase someone round the room and distort itself by raising only one of its legs. On one occasion it even “bit” a participant by trapping part of her hand between the two edges of its corner joint.
So, although “Phillip” never reached the stage of physical manifestation, an entity of sorts had been created, just by the “intent” of human minds.
The above two examples would suggest that we should be extremely careful of what thoughts we have. It sounds as if it is much safer, and more likely to contribute to the well being of the planet, if we think constructively. And think only kind thoughts of our fellow human beings.
Anthony Talmage covers more of the above themes in his first podcast, available absolutely free. Just click on this link to listen or download: https://www.buzzsprout.com/1742930 .
