One of the many things that inspired Rhuna's adventures in my Fantasy/Magical Realism series is the mysticism surrounding Tibet. Maybe you've heard the eerie chant of the Buddhist monks living in isolated monasteries high in the Himalayas, or you've heard about the legends of sacred ancient texts hidden in some inaccessible hiding place in Tibet.
What fascinates me most about Tibet, however, are the persistent stories about certain people who appear to have superhuman powers, such as monks that can levitate or become invisible, or do other strange and wondrous things.
Reading snippets like these prompted me to read up on the subject some more, and I got a lot out of a book entitled "Tibetan Magic and Mysticism" by J.H. Brennan. Some of the chapter headings are: Strange Powers, Illusion and Reality, Void Mind Meditation, Implications of Unreality, and my favourite chapter: Tibetan Tulpas.
So, what are Tulpas?
Tulpas are creations of the mind that look like real people, but are the result of many hours of intense concentration by adepts or masters. The theory is that with the right kind of meditation and concentration, the human mind is capable of creating something tangible and visible. Like when you imagine something so intensely, that it feels real, only after some hours or several days of continuous concentration, it actually becomes real. Or almost real. And that's called a Tulpa.
Read more about Tulpas on this excellent site:
Mystery Files Blog page about Tulpas
Great topic - there seems to have been some very unusual phenomenon going on in Tibet. One of my vivid other life memories comes from making sound in a monastery high in the mountains. I just finished a novella (Descent of the Maw) which features a race of adepts loosely based on Tibetan mysticism and abilities. There is a lot to be learned from the oddities in Tibet - I'm happy to see you are considering exploring that arena in a future Rhuna book.
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