How does one become endo and why? Asking from an actual system, personally I just don't see why someone would want to transition iinto having a disorder,, I'm not trying to be rude I'm simply just curious as to why this community is a thing and how it functions .·´¯`(>▂<)´¯`·.
First, to be clear, we don't have a dissociative disorder. Neither do other tulpagenic systems. (Mostly.) At no point are tulpamancers trying to have a dissociative disorder. And the community formed largely independently of the larger plural community.
The goal of the practice is having other people to share your mind with.
Most commonly, tulpamancers do this for companionship. And there is a special sort of intimate companionship that with someone you share your thoughts with that you can't ever truly get with external people.
And this type of practice is actually more common than you might think. Tulpamancers are pretty much the main group to approach this as a secular psychological practice, but plenty of cultures around the world have similar practices they consider spiritual in nature.
One here at home in America is the Vineyard Evangelicals. This is a group of evangelical Christians who create a "God" in their heads. They don't simply pray to God as one-way communication. Their version of God talks back to them. They describe mindvoice communication like plural systems have. Some of the women in the church will have date nights where they go out with "Jesus." And again, this is full 2-way conversation they actually experience, not a metaphor
Most Tulpamancers approach this psychologically. The viewpoint is that these so-called spiritual experiences are psychological in nature, and we use similar practices to them. The same psychological practice that can make a God in someone's head can just as easily make a Pinkie Pie. We call this the Pinkie Pie Principle. (Actually, no one calls it that YET. But I just thought of it and want to make it a thing now.)
It's unclear the underlying mechanism, but what seems consistent is that if you talk to something in your head long enough, it can develop its own consciousness.
My own hypothesis is that it's related to the Simulation Theory in Theory of Mind.
Theory of Mind is about how we predict the behavior of others. There are two schools of thought that both seem somewhat true to varying degrees: Theory-Theory which states we predict the behavior of others rationally by thinking about them and what they would do, and Simulation Theory which states we predict behavior by creating little mental simulations of the person. These temporary simulations are automatic and unconscious, but typically discarded after each use.
My belief is that if you mentally interact with the same instance of a Simulation repeatedly, you allow it to gain memories and develop consciousness. So what was originally a shortterm biological predictive algorithm becomes a whole sentient person over time. While I use the term "simulation" here, it's worth noting that a simulation of a person that the brain makes is likely to use the same mechanisms the brain used to make the original person.
I can't say for certain this is indeed the mechanism at play, but it makes the most sense to me as an explanation for how it all works.
Now, on endogenic systems in general, that's a much broader issue. Because while tulpa systems are created, plenty of endogenic systems aren't. Plenty just exist naturally.
To that, it might be worth considering my earlier discussion of imaginary friends.
Because I think asking what makes an endogenic system could be the wrong question.
There is a phenomenon that has been well-documented where about 60% of children have mental companions in childhood. Studies into this phenomenon have shown autonomy in a third to two thirds of these cases, where the mental companion acts outside of the host child’s control.
Based on this, I think it’s fair to say about 20-40% of children have some sort of autonomous mental companions.
If these companions have autonomy, then it stands to reason they're at least somewhat dissociative.
So what happens to these companions? Are they abandoned and discarded as the host child grows? Do they integrate and fuse with the host child? Some combination thereof?
To me, that's the right question to ponder. What makes this group of 20-40% of children experiencing what appears to be a form of natural multiplicity into apparent-singlets?
theartofmadeline
romaincrisis
