--- *** How 2 imaginary friend. *** ---



>>>Quick tips<<<
Meditation is key for this. You don't have to be good at it, but you'll have to do it quite a bit. Don't fight it.

This is not magic or demons or anything of the sort, it's just a clever use of our brains. It's illusion.

Symbolism is a powerful tool for dealing with the subconscious.

Studying the real world will allow you to see the inner world better. Studying anatomy, for instance, may help you interact with your friend and see them in a more satisfactory way. Pay attention to the things around you that matter to you.

This is a tulpa, but better because it doesn't come with all the extra bullshit the tulpa community loves.

Don't bother with thoughts like "is my friend sentient / autonomous" they're meaningless terms which only lead to frustration.

Don't stress in general, it's very hard to do anything wrong here.

It's all about mindset.

There are no don't's.

Naturally, and much like everyone else, as your friend gets exposed to more experiences, your friend's personality will change over time. This is a very organic process which you'll probably not notice, but some people stress about it so I just want to say: don't.

Even though I talk about these 'creatures' in a very clinical way here, keep in mind they're more than meets the eye. Imaginary things are incredibly powerful.



>>>What is this?<<<
First, lets make sure you know what you're dealing with. First we will be creating a character. Then we'll practice that character enough that our brain will basically play it automatically. Their personality will be second nature to us, and we instinctively know how the character reacts and all that. After that, through a process of positive reinforcement, we will try to see the character as separate from us, by talking to them and interacting with them as if they were their own entity, which will in time make it so we see them that way.



>>>Where to start?<<<
Start by developing a character. This is the first step, and you can go about it in many ways. The point is that you want to build a character and be confident enough on how they act / think, that you can automatically ask questions about them without even thinking about it. This can't be done by simply compiling a list of character traits together (but you can have a rough outline of what the character will be before you start, of course), instead you have to actually put the character into different situations and then think about what they'd do. One way to do this is by meditating on the situations (basically do the process entirely on your head, which I personally recommend), but you can also write short stories or scenes about them, if you prefer that route. The reason I prefer the former method, is because your interactions with them will mostly be within your "mind palace", so that gives you a head start in that respect.

Don't worry about trying to find out every single little thing about your character. It's impossible to know how someone would react to every situation, and that's fine. Think about yourself, for instance, if you were met with an unfamiliar situation, it'd probably be hard for you to instinctively know what to do, these creatures are exactly the same. Focus on simple day to day things and any other aspects you might find important, they'll grow with time anyway, so your goal here is just to have a solid foundation with which to start seeing them as their own person. Also, this character will not be your actual friend, so you don't have to feel bad about putting them through fearful or painful situations, knowing how someone deals with negative emotions is a big part of knowing them, after all. You can think of this character as kind of a template or mould from which you will cast your actual friend.

Aside from this, also imagine their body (if that's important to you), voice, clothing, how they move and manerisms, and anything else which might be important to you.



>>>Example scene<<<
Your character is at the mall. What are they wearing, do they take a basket or a cart? What's on their to-buy list? What do they go for first? Some stranger says hi and asks for cereal recomendations, how do they react, what do they say, what do they think?

Take the time to think things through, it's not a race, and you can take as much time as you need to answer. If you have notes on the character, feel free to go through them until you make a decision, but don't feel like you need the perfect answer. Over a few more of these simulated scenarios, any "impurities" or mistakes will be ironed out, so it's ok to make mistakes. Over time you'll see the answers will come more naturally. It's like studying, except you're studying a personality, instead of calculus. A good sort of time frame to do this for is a month or so.



>>>What then?<<<
After you have a character you're somewhat comfortable playing (again, they don't need to be perfect, and you don't need to know everything about them), then you can start actually bringing them to 'life'. The way you do this is just by pretending they're real and really with you there. Talk to them (in your head), and 'listen' for their response. Don't try to block out anything, the key here is positive feedback, so if a thought goes through your head that sounds like something they'd say, engage with that thought. Many people worry about the thoughts they hear being theirs instead of their friend's, but don't worry about that, that's irrelevant and will only lead to frustration.

From there, you're golden, just keep talking to them and start bringing them into your daily life (talk to them about work, movies, and whatever else). You'll see that their responses will be more automatic and clear. If at any point you aren't sure of how your friend would react, or if the answer you were given doesn't seem like their answer, it's ok to double check and even think about it. Think of it as you misunderstanding their intentions or maybe as them actually thinking what they'd say before saying it. In short, don't stress it, and keep at it, whatever you think you're doing wrong, you're probably not doing it wrong.



>>>Interaction<<<
So now that you have your friend, you probably want to do more than just talking to them all day. There are many ways to interact with your friend, and that's the best part about them being imaginary. The things you can do together are immense, and the sky is the limit. All this (or most of it), however, will be done inside your mind. This might seem a bit disapointing at first, but in time, and with practice, you'll see it'll leave very little to be desired.

You should start by creating a sort of imaginary place for you two to hang around, where you can actually be "physically" with them. Any place is fine really, and you can change it up, but if you're new to this it might help to have this one simple anchor so you can worry about other, more important, things. Then you can bring them there, and you can do whatever. At first, start by trying to visualize them to the point where you can kind of tell what they're doing, where in the place they are, what they're wearing, and so on. It might be useful to start with some exercises to get your senses "inside" that world. Tell them to touch you, or touch them, smell a flower, feel the temperature, and so on. At first, the feelings will be very very faint, but don't be discouraged. If you work at it and keep practicing, you'll reach a point where you'll almost drop into a dreamlike state whenever you do it, and the feelings will become very intense, to the point of being even more intense than your physical body experienced (if you're into dreams, you know what I'm talking about), but this takes time and practice, however, so don't stress about it.

Even with faint feelings, you can have a lot of fun with your friend, so do! Play games with them, have a race, cuddle, braid their hair, and whatever else you want. You don't need to be a pro to interact with them, and you'll get naturally better over time. Don't try to reach perfection right away, or you'll never get there, and perfection really isn't important as you'll find out.

The thing about imaginary things, is that whatever you think you can do, you probably can, so if you really want to you can get very creative with your imaginary friend. If you keep in mind what they are, you'll know what you can and can't do with them, and what they're capable of. This way of interacting with them is just the one I prefer, but a lot of people do things differently, and it's up to you (two) to find out whatever you enjoy doing together the most, and how you enjoy doing it.



>>>Getting rid of them<<<
If you decided there's no more room in your life for your friend, you can simply stop thinking about them and in time, you'll stop hearing their responses. This is easier said than done, and it can be hard to actually get to the point where they're gone gone (their reactions are nothing more than habits, after all), so you might wish to use symbolism. Send them away to a distant land where they'll be happy for the rest of their lives, for instance. Say your goodbyes and let them go. From that point on, just ignore whatever you hear from them and know it's not really them talking to you.