Golom Tulpa Anima

“Step into

Mass delusion

Creep inside

And crawl around it

The one within

Is the one who found it

Cease to exist
Your mind is breaking [i]

Many of you have probably wondered at this point what the hell is with the stupid title of this blog. We’ll I’ll tell you.

Yes, it’s ridiculous. But it represents the closest thing I have to a thesis on the Slender Man. Three words with three different meanings, and one major connection between them, none of them alone able to communicate Slender Man, yet together create his defining crux.

Keep in mind I am not an expert in any of these subjects or fields of study.

Before getting into the basic definitions of golom, tulpa, and anima, let’s acknowledge a word that is also appropriate to Slender Man: phenomenon.

"The horror of Madness

The terminal Sadness

The cool air of mourning

Gave me the warning”

A phenomenon is an abnormal or exceptional event that is observable and/or conceivable by the human senses. (In turn this produces the noumenon, or mental/cognizant event as its mirror, not to be confused with the processing or reception of the phenomenon.) In current usage, a phenomenon is an extraordinary event, and furthermore can scientifically signify features of matter, energy, and spacetime.[ii]

Keep this in mind.

Golom

(also spelled “golem”)

Though a predominantly Jewish term, a golom is widely understood as an anthropomorphized being of inanimate and non-sentient material. For example, a man made of sand, rock, wood and classically, mud. In the Jewish incarnation, the word emet (“truth”) is written upon the being’s forehead to make it animate. In lore, it was common for the golom to become uncontrollable or dangerous, in which case half of the word could be erased, the remaining writ spelling met (“death” or “dead”) and thus de-animating the being back to its material state.

The golom had many purposed for being. It was often called upon to protect a village by the local religious figure, sometimes it was used as a servant. It was clumsy, stupid, and could not speak. However, it was unanimously sentient and had the capability to decide for itself whether it would cooperate. Because of this, more often than not the golom was or became violent, causing disruption and acting far beyond its original and usually peaceful purpose.

In regards to Slender Man, there are a few resonant ideas present. Firstly, the concept of “creating something from nothing”. Certainly goloms were literally formed in material and animated, and in that way cannot be analogous for our Slender friend. However, Slender Man was indeed put together and formed by us, and though we can never know what His material is if indeed He is made of anything at all physically normal, He is an observable and conceivable (sensually speaking) being. We have created Him, with our own energies to form Him, and animated Him with our will.

Which brings us to Tulpa.

Tulpa[iii]

A tulpa is, simply put, something made physical and real in our plane of existence through “thoughtforms”, or the willpower of the mind. It is a manifestation of a cerebral concept through focused attention and visualization.

“A tulpa is usually produced by a skilled magician or yogi, although in some cases it is said to arise from the collective imagination of superstitious villagers, say, or of travelers passing through some sinister tract of country.” – Mysteries of the Unexplained[iv]

I’m sure you all can see where I’m going with this.

To explain it even more simply, it can very effectively be created from a mass consciousness (Something Awful)- an image created by the power of thought.

“It is contended that a meme-” Yes, meme, “-is not a thoughtform [tulpa] unless it is sentient.[v] Though memetic theory may be deemed an informative correlation to thoughtform phenomena.”

Immediately, this creation is taken out of our hands. When an idea is formed, it is taken, used, changed, and further created and altered in individual minds. It is natural that as a tulpa is made of thought, it is forever in flux as our perception takes it further out of our control.

Still with me?

“Could the worship or occult use of an area over hundreds of years create a sort of artificial life form? Something that fed on the worship. When the worship is taken away the thing still needs to feed. It now feeds by creating fear with paranormal manifestations. Another idea is that they are a massive, collective, sub-conscious, thought form. The thought form or tulpa is said to be a …semi solid image created by the power of the mind. Perhaps a… thought form emanating from our innermost fears. ” –R. Freeman[vi]

This clearly illustrates the “tulpa” at hand, and a second illusion to the relation between the tulpa concept and fear, mind you.

Another aspect in this vast subject worth mentioning here in this basic summary is the physical effects of thoughtforms:

“A thought form can also act as a poisoning agent… may act so potently that the entire life is spoilt and service is rendered futile. The entire life is embittered and devitalized the embodied worry, hatred, or desire… and is held back by the poison in his [sic] mental system. His vision becomes distorted, his nature corroded, and all his relationships impeded by… thoughts which he himself embodies in form and which have a life so powerful that they can poison him.” –A. Bailey[vii]

Slender Man has both met these requirements and inspired the above mental/physical response in the unfortunate people who have encountered Him. However, Slender Man, according to the mythos, is not merely an “image” or “representation”. Though He exists in no state we can understand and doesn’t seem to adhere to our physics, it has been evidenced that this merely makes His physical realness and presence more disturbing and painful to encounter.

Overall, the implication that we created Slender Man ourselves has been echoed since His inception. Though the concept of the tulpa does not cover all the unique aspects, it has the greatest and most profound definition thereof.

Anima

Scientifically, it is the unconscious self (also known as animus), a genderless internal consciousness. On the mystic route- defined in many ways: as air, wind, or the spirit of the Earth as a whole. Latin for ‘soul’ or ‘breath’, “that which empowers or gives life to something.” Something that lives in everything, and is devoid of natural explanation.

“Every personification of the unconscious- the shadow, the anima, the animus, and the self- has both a light and a dark aspect. ...The anima and animus have dual aspects: they can bring life-giving development and creativeness to the personality, or they can cause petrification and physical death.” –L. von Franz

“A kind of psychological short-circuit, to identify the animus at least provisionally with wholeness… the animus seeks to usurp the self... This identification is a regular occurrence when the shadow, the dark side, has not been sufficiently realized.” –C. Jung

Think about that one for awhile.

Hey again guys. Hope you’re enjoying the blog so far! This entry isn’t the most thrilling one, but I needed to go over those three important ideas because they pretty much trickle through everything I’ll be saying after this! So, sorry for the lame post! But I must do what I must do.

Look, I did try to spice it up with some lyrics! And it was nice and sunny outside today. What do you want from me?! .3.

…

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[i] all lyrics in this entry by Rob Zombie; “Cease to Exist”, “Demonoid Phenomenon”

[ii] I stole that specific list from Wikipedia.

[iii] the “Tulpa Effect” to be discussed in a later entry.

[iv] Mysteries of the Unexplained, 1990, Reader’s Digest Association Inc. pg. 176

[v] an unusually intelligent excerpt from Wikipedia

[vi] Freeman, Richard. In Search of British Dragons. 2007. http://www.mysteriousbritain.co.uk/cryptozoology/in-search-of-british-dragons.html

[vii] Bailey, Alice. A Treatise on White Magic. 1934. Lucis Publishing Co. NY