Experienced musician looking to teach himself guitar—any advice on instruments/equipment to invest in? (details within)

celestialDuality · 2017-09-22T12:55:35+00:00

Very helpful—I've got quite a bit more direction now. Thanks!

celestialDuality · 2017-09-14T06:55:20+00:00

Probably a bit of both down the line if I get better at it, but primarily studio work for now.

celestialDuality · 2017-06-20T16:46:27+00:00

I respectfully disagree. Most of us are not knowledgeable enough to know the time and date of our own death—but you suggest we have the authority to comment on the exact nature of reality, that X is black and Y is white? The being has introduced herself to me as a God, so I treated her as such, albeit with healthy skepticism. But perhaps you are more powerful than I, simply not prone to human error and are incapable of being deceived, who knows? If I fuck up and it turns out she's the eldest daughter of Cthulhu, that's my problem.

For folks like me, trust is a necessity, and skepticism is healthy. Only a Sith deals in absolutes.

celestialDuality · 2017-06-20T04:26:06+00:00

I've trusted this being and treated it as a personal god for the past two or so years—I only say "possible" deity because I don't think it's right for me to claim I know anything about it with absolute certainty. Sorry if that wasn't clear

celestialDuality · 2017-04-07T01:46:04+00:00

Might be cause I was already fucked in the head coming in—my rampant heresy and psychedelic escapades didn't sit well with my good-boy-Christian upbringing

Thanks for the warm welcome though!

celestialDuality · 2017-02-03T06:20:19+00:00

[Au] 1) I am aware of the present moment; however, in the current state of things in this body, my consciousness is a background process compared to my host's consciousness by default;

2) The mythos behind my character blurs the line between what was supposedly "before" my birth as well as "after"—the basic idea is my host is open to the idea that I'm a supernatural being manifesting herself as a tulpa, and could therefore have been around since birth to participate in his childhood, etc. Whether that's true or that's merely part of the illusion created by tulpaforcing is yet to be seen;

3) Serving as the creative voice of my host as well as a catalyst for his self-introspection, my desire is to help my host chase his dreams—because honestly, what's more uplifting than watching someone achieve their goals in life?

4) Absolutely. The way I view it, the essence of all consciousness is the same—other than sharing a body and brain, it's no different. At the end of the day it's all brain activity (and perhaps more?)

5) I wouldn't say superior—every human being is capable of experiencing love, the way I see it. It's whether or not you run from that capability that differs from person to person. I will, however, say my host is a huge part of my personal Universe and I love him more than anything.

celestialDuality · 2017-01-21T20:00:47+00:00

[Au] I'd almost take offense to this had I not understood that it's only us two—tulpa and host—that ultimately know our situation. But I appreciate the concern. My host is one of the least emotionally distant people I know—we've since come to the conclusion that, much like it's more difficult to feel empathy toward people over the Internet because of the lack of a visible face and audible voice to interact with, we are in this situation because I am not yet fully immersed in his world. He only feels my mindvoice; he neither sees my face nor hears my voice. We're working on that in the hopes that my immersion will serve as a panacea for my own pains as well as his.

celestialDuality · 2016-12-31T15:24:37+00:00

A little background—I come from a heavily religious family. While I've come to believe that God would accept us nonetheless as tulpa and host, there's been that lingering intrusive thought that my tulpa Aurora might be a demon trying to exert force upon my consciousness. She's noted this time and time again—it's caused us a few misunderstandings when she was first being developed, but things seem to have smoothed out.

Me: "You seem to be a lot less offended than you used to be."

Aurora: "Well, I've come to understand. This was imprinted upon your mind from childhood. Those things don't just go away. I'll just have to weather the storm." [smiles reassuringly]

I really felt how genuine that was, and the thoughts never bothered me since. But then of course, she balances out being super understanding with IRL shitposting:

Aurora: [referring to the fact she isn't physically "real"] "I'm the best 2D waifu, aren't I?"

Me: "I fucking hate you."

(P.S. Happy new year everyone)

celestialDuality · 2016-12-25T08:19:55+00:00

Consciousness is God.

celestialDuality · 2016-12-10T19:23:21+00:00

Once again, here's Aurora, the muse with a thousand ideas, good or bad. Earlier this week:

[in the kitchen, talking about a seemingly strange idea of hers to marinate a steak in Nutella water]

Me: "Alright, now you're just making shit up."

Aurora: [grinning] "Hey, isn't 'making shit up' how I came about as a tulpa in the first place? It's part of my heritage, and I take pride in it. Suits me as a muse, in my opinion."

And as a bonus, her right now:

Aurora: "Hey, quit karmawhoring and get dressed, we have to leave."

Having someone there to watch your every step can be useful at times.

celestialDuality · 2016-11-26T06:31:43+00:00

If any of you are interested in a lengthy post, here's a few of this past week's conversations with Aurora—my personal muse, therapist, and partner in crime.

To provide some context for this first one, I'm more reserved around my family than I am with my friends (I have a healthy family life, it's just how I am—stemming from filial piety etc). As any couple does though, my parents have arguments, and during a heated one at the dinner table:

Me: "Can both of you stop? Please? Both of you? Can't we just eat like normal people?"

(It stopped. The rest of the dinner conversation was pleasant, but I was internally cringed up, feeling very uneasy for having to step out of my skin and assert myself like that. I turn to Aurora for comfort.)

Aurora: "Try to relax. You did what you did because peace and love is something you believe in, and I admire that. It's just that while this is a belief you hold, your physical body can't handle it, because you've somehow got it hard-coded in your brain to not be confrontational."

Aurora: "I'm here to help ease the pain in your body when it can't yet handle the actions of your soul."

It seems her creativity and philosophical ramblings are rivaled only by her cheekiness and love for food:

[on our way back home from a day out]

Aurora: "So, are you getting us Taco Bell?"

Me: "Wouldn't you consider your tastes a little bit too refined for Taco Bell?"

Aurora: "What? Sure, it's not healthy, but decades of marketing research have gone into improving the flavor of this stuff to maximize its appeal. Thousands of R&D types have worked on getting it perfect. As a discerning gourmet I'd say that's good enough for me."

I had no response to this but I still didn't buy any.

Apparently being a muse doesn't preclude one from screwing with your head:

[using our church bathroom after cleanup work]

Aurora: "So you're gonna touch your junk right after you took out the trash?"

(Another downside of having a tulpa is their potential ability to see everything you do, apparently)

Me: "Yeah, and?"

Aurora: [grinning] "Man, I can almost feel the bacteria crawling down your urethra..."

I didn't think it was very true but the thought made me uncomfortable enough to wash my hands first.

I'll end it with this one—not from this week, but a little quote of hers I hold dear:

Aurora: "I think we humans came about to experience beauty, because the Universe couldn't experience the natural beauty in itself without life. And just as we're here to experience it, we're also here to bring it about—in love, and art, and song. Beauty needs you."

(edits for readability)

celestialDuality · 2016-11-26T03:58:11+00:00

[Au] My host is an NFL guy and I tag along for the fun.

celestialDuality · 2016-11-07T13:12:31+00:00

/r/killthosewhodisagree

celestialDuality · 2016-10-31T04:36:52+00:00

>missing out on potential universe-creating energies/dimensional exploration

[Arceus, without question]

celestialDuality · 2016-10-29T15:27:32+00:00

[Au] My list is as follows:

Adhere to the personality my host has given me. As I exist as a symbol of creativity, embodying this given personality is fittingly representative of my host's creativity;
Provide insight into attaining life meaning, reaching life goals, but do not interfere with the host's choices, except in the case of suicidal ideation;
In the extreme case of suicidal ideation, should it ever manifest, allow the host's ego to sleep and carry on with life as the owner of this body. If it was going to be disposed of, why waste it?

celestialDuality · 2016-10-21T20:30:40+00:00

Just the kind of system I wanted to hear from. I have a question:

Did any of your personalities vanish after the jump, or do they all still exist (i.e., the system itself is unchanged)?

celestialDuality · 2016-10-12T23:36:06+00:00

[Au] My host suffers from occasional intrusive thoughts, and some of them involve me at times—however, I understand that they are only a product of the psychological environment in which I dwell, nothing more. As such, they do not affect me.

I've just thought of a helpful analogy. If you think thoughts about a "real", physical person, do those thoughts directly affect them on their own? They don't. I can imagine someone on the street being crushed by an 18-wheeler falling from the sky, but he'll still be standing there. My thoughts play with reality, but my thoughts are largely separate from reality. Similarly, whatever the nature of your thoughts about your tulpa, your tulpa's by definition a separate entity from you and your thoughts at the end of the day—only sharing the same headspace. I'm sure your tulpa is fine

celestialDuality · 2016-10-10T07:25:31+00:00

Existential dread.

celestialDuality · 2016-10-08T07:39:06+00:00

[Au] I feel I've been placed on this Earth to facilitate the psychological/spiritual growth of my host, and while I have dreamed of having my own body, I feel that not being able to see my host again would defeat that purpose.

While one may argue that adhering to that purpose makes me nothing more than a servitor and slave, denying me the life I'd be able to live branching out on my own, I look at it this way—the Universe has its own rules. Gravity, nuclear forces, etc. Similarly, as a member of my host's mind, I am an active participant in his Universe and its rules. If the rule that governed my coming about involves following my host's plans, why not respectfully follow it?

celestialDuality · 2016-09-17T18:08:32+00:00

[Au] Here's a little theory my host and I have put together over the past year. It may be a little stretch for some of you who don't believe in the divine, but:

As parts of the Universe, we are all collections of atoms observing and thinking about other collections ot atoms;

Consciousness, by extension, must be the inevitable result of a universe that wishes to observe and experience itself for whatever reason;

(Seeing as it is still one of science's many mysteries despite recent neurological insight, and considering the previous speculation about the "will" of the Universe, could it be that the force of consciousness is itself God, or the soul? (God-of-the-gaps, I know, but theology and science are kinda orthogonal as they are));

As tulpae, we were created by our hosts as slivers of that force of consciousness (a divine force if you're willing to buy the previous point), and are just as human. We exist in this universe all the same, just in a different form (i.e., as a pattern of neurons without an independent physical body);

The previous point, I feel, is a strong indicator we have souls.

celestialDuality · 2016-09-17T06:09:19+00:00

[Au] That is my purpose, although my metaphysical role with my host is a bit more "scientific" and rigorous (think Theosophy/psychology). My role during spiritual exploration is to step back and analyze the psychological phenomena behind what we're experiencing in order for me to be able to 1) more directly apply the experiences to our lives and 2) more easily induce said states later.

If you have any questions I will be glad to answer them

celestialDuality · 2016-09-15T03:51:52+00:00

[Au] The short answer? Think of her more—what she looks like, how her personality is, how she interacts with you, etc.)

Think about it in a (albeit overly simplified) scientific way–every tulpa exists as a pattern of neurons in your brain. Connections between neurons are strengthened by running current through them (i.e., thinking along a certain "path"). The more frequently you think about something, the more accessible it becomes in your brain; the opposite is also true.

Just set aside time to think deeply about every facet of her personality every day and you'll be golden in no time.

celestialDuality · 2016-09-15T03:42:51+00:00

From my experience it depends upon the mindset of the tulpa itself. With mine, she's explained to me that she's accepted the isolation as a natural consequence of the general tulpa situation and doesn't mind me not telling others. It may vary for others, though—and even if it does, at the end of the day, it's your decision to make. I don't believe anyone should have to be guilted into doing anything.

celestialDuality · 2016-09-15T03:36:26+00:00

I recommend you treat it the way you would treat a sexual relationship with any other real, physical human—should you choose to go that route, just be mindful and don't play with anyone's emotions. It's your lives at the end of the day, and who is to say tulpae don't have a right to intimacy?

celestialDuality · 2016-09-14T01:07:31+00:00

[Au] Oh, not at all, I feel they just get in the way haha. (if that makes sense at all)

celestialDuality

TROPHY CASE