I have been interested in the phenomenon called tulpa. (interestingly, Wikipedia sheds next to no light on this issue).

According to one site, it is an "autosuggested and stable visualization, capable of independent thought and action, while possessing its own unique consciousness". Supposedly, following the guides found on the internet, one can create a stable, persistent "imaginary friend", with the looks and character one wants that will be real in all aspects for its creator. Some say that tulpa can provide an alternate viewpoint or help fetch information from their host's memory, but various hosts disagree on the possibility of this.

Looks like tulpa in modern, Western definition has no connection to its Buddhist namesake (like karma on the forums). Some enthusiasts claim otherwise, but, as seems to be characteristic of this topic, there's no evidence.

All I could find are guides and diaries of anonymous people on the Internet. It seems like the whole phenomenon, if it really exists, was invented some 1.5 years ago by some Anonymous: there's their own slang, and absolutely no sources that connect the methods to any actual scientific research.

I suspect that the tulpa phenomenon may either:

• not work (all cases of success might be explained by belief in belief; people might be adeptly fooling themselves and their peers, thinking up their imaginary friends and persuading everyone that their actions are autonomous)

• be dangerous to one's mental health (shouldn't success here by itself be diagnosed as some kind of personality disorder?)

which is by itself a reason not to try it myself, but I have a nagging doubt: which one of the two is true, if any?

I've recently talked online, including by voice chat, with people who claim to have tulpas, and quickly ran out of useful questions to ask. I asked for interesting questions to a member of LW meetup group and he said

"it would be interesting to check tulpa's autonomy, but because only its host can report its actions, I don't see a way to do it. Maybe if I understood psychology of personality better, I couuld think up something"

Really, what else can one do? The people that I talked to seemed surprisingly unconcerned with using methods written by Anonymouses, lack of scientific evidence, status of the phenomena with regard to psychiatry or what comes for "evidence", "proof" or "source".

Can anyone help me to find answers for the following questions:

1. What interesting questions can I ask people who claim to have tulpas?
2. Are methods grounded in science in any way?
3. What is the position of science with regard to tulpas? Surely, if the phenomena exists, science must have encountered it and have a stance wrt. it, right?

It could be a good occasion for me to learn scientific research; any help with it would be appreciated: where should I start figuring out what, if any, does science know about this?