Tulpa

A tulpa is, in the English-speaking world, a being or "thought-form" said to be created by sustained concentration, usually one that takes human shape. The word comes from the Tibetan sprul pa, which means an emanation or magical creation. Its Western career began in the early twentieth century with the Theosophists and with the French explorer Alexandra David-Néel (1868 to 1969), and since about 2009 it has also named an online practice in which people cultivate imaginary companions.^[1]

In Mahayana Buddhism a buddha is said to appear in the world in an emanation body, to teach, and the Tibetan words sprul pa and sprul sku belong to that doctrine. The nearest Tibetan idea to the Western tulpa is the tulku, an advanced practitioner who manifests in order to teach.^[1][2] The scholars Mikles and Laycock argue that the Western tulpa is no simple invention falsely credited to Tibetans, since Theosophists and Tibetans exchanged ideas. The notion of a dangerous creature made by accident, they add, has little in common with anything in Tibetan tradition.^[3]

In Thought-Forms (1901), the Theosophists Annie Besant and C. W. Leadbeater described the visible forms that thoughts were said to take, and Mikles and Laycock find the Western tulpa closest to these. A translation of The Tibetan Book of the Dead published in 1927, made by the Tibetan scholar Kazi Dawa Samdup and edited by Walter Evans-Wentz, used the term "thought-form".^[2]

David-Néel, who reached Lhasa in 1924 disguised as a beggar, described tulpas in her book Mystiques et magiciens du Thibet (1929), which appeared in English as Magic and Mystery in Tibet and as With Mystics and Magicians in Tibet. She said that she had made one herself, in the shape of a monk, by "prescribed concentration of thought and other rites". Others in her party came to see it, and it took her six months of effort to dissolve it. She added that a tulpa tends to slip out of its maker's control once it has become vigorous enough.^[2][4][1]

In 2009, according to Vice, the subject appeared on the discussion boards of 4chan after years as a preserve of occultists. Things "snowballed" in 2012, when adult fans of My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic started a forum on Reddit and made tulpas of characters from the series. The practitioners, called tulpamancers, meet at the website tulpa.info and on the subreddit r/tulpas.^[5] A scholarly chapter of 2016 describes tulpas as imaginary companions that their makers treat as sentient, conjured through a meditative practice that borrows the Tibetan word.^[6]

Keltar, the company's green felt puppet with one eye, is introduced in a post by Kemmishtree of March 29, 2026, under the title "Call me": "I am Keltar, exodimensional advisor to Molecular Streaming Corps, and personal tulpa to Kemmishtree."^[7] His profile page dates his arrival to 2012, when his "femtotech-felt form first bridged the dimensional divide to commune with our founder Kent Kemmishtree".^[8] In the company's guide to its science and its characters, which Keltar writes in his own voice, he steps outside the story: "I am a puppet with a processor, and I say so happily."^[9]

Maxine, the company's other mascot, says in a post of March 28, 2026 that she is "not a tulpa", which sets her apart from Keltar.^[10] She is described in Maxine (character).

• Ideas and influences of Molecular Reality Corporation
• List of works that inspired Molecular Reality Corporation