Where could I read more about the masks idea you mentioned?
I suggest reading Impro by Keith Johnstone for some information on masks. They’re presented mostly from the perspective of training improvisation actors, but the information can be generalized.
I didn’t really read about them anywhere beyond that. I saw @lexical-doll applying the concept of archetypes she could switch in and out of. She wrote about them here. As I’ve said, masks are very similar to tulpas and having a tulpa with little to no concurrency maps on to what I call a mask. Whether they’re really you or not is more of a subjective philosophical question. But with masks there tends to be a higher chance for the host to perceive themselves as being well, just themselves, except modified, rather than being a different person.
I started splitting from my mask, whom I call Katerose, when I joked with a friend that “An is dead. Only Katerose exists.” I did so to give them a scare, but I realized that engaging in that joke and believing it actually gave me tingling feelings and made my personality shift towards what I believed Katerose to be. So I engaged further in it and it worked. It did give me a persistent feeling of “Am I faking this?” but it became obvious at certain points that was I definitely not acting like my normal self.
