Tulpas and related subjects (SPOILERS)

[Devilish]

Apologies if I'm treading old ground here, but I've intentionally stayed away from reading anyone else's theories until I finished watching the whole thing, and having started exploring the board this evening this concept of Tulpas is really resonating for me and making a whole host of things feel like they make more sense. To paraphrase Ben Horne, this Tulpa business is really at the forefront (of goodness) .

I can imagine it really resonating for David Lynch too. After all, the core activity of the creative director is to bring the imagination to the screen, to give it life. Although this is true for all directors, it seems especially fitting when the director intentionally leaves things ambiguous which forces the viewer to participate in the creative meaning making process, analogous to the concept of collective co-creation of Tulpas.

The concept of Tulpas seems to make a lot of sense when applied to the original series and fwwm. In particular the nature of BOB - the tension has always been talked about as "is BOB literally true, a malevolent spiritual being" or "is he a metaphor, a representation of the manifestation of an abusive father". This question is explicitly pondered after Lelands death, with no conclusion other than that "Maybe that's all BOB is - the evil that men do". The tulpa concept provides a way of resolving this - BOB as the literal physical manifestation of the dark side of human nature, a metaphor made real and given life. He exists because of the evil that men do, and he perpetuates evil. By extension, it seems possible that the Black and White Lodges might also be literal living metaphors cocreated by collective human consciousness fixated on the division between good and evil, right and wrong.

It makes total sense to me that Diane be nothing but a Tulpa. I never entertained the idea that Cooper was ever really conversing with a human being when he spoke into his dictaphone. But I can imagine that his vivid consciousness could have unintentionally conjured Diane into reality on some plane, and if I understand the concept of Tulpas correctly then once conjured they are sentient and live their own lives and realities. Project Bluebook was focused on accessing, following, learning about, and potentially harnessing the power of these Tulpas, be they intentionally created or not.