This week's episode of Internet Explorer delves into two of the greatest treasures of the internet: Zyzz and Brony Tulpas (we'll explain what those are in a sec).
This is Zyzz. He's was a Russian bodybuilder who became an internet sensation for having the perfect body.
Sadly, he died in 2011, and he's only become more of a legend in the world of online bodybuilding forums. People even get tattoos of him with angel wings now:
Tulpas are a concept from sort of New Age meditation where you focus meditation very specifically on creating a sort of sentient entity that appears to exist in the real word with you through the power of your own mediation. In a really dumbed down sense, it's like making a super realistic imaginary friend.
Tulpa technique has existed for a while, but recently bronies (adults who like My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic) have discovered tulpas and are using the technique to imagine the ponies from the TV show into existence.
On Tulpa.info, a messageboard for people who attempt to "tulpaforce", they discuss WHY bronies seem so into tulpas:
Perhaps one exclusive aspect of the brony community is the emphasis on companionship. After all, the show focuses on friendship. However, there's a far simpler explanation.
Now, tulpae are not a well-known phenomenon. However, bronies, like many fandoms, are an extremely tight-knit community. The fans are constantly in communication, both with each other and with the makers of the show, and they have many memes that are exclusively in circulation within that community that don't really spread across to the rest of the community. As others have pointed out, most members of the fandom are prone to fantasising, may feel lonely and generally share many common characteristics that are in common with the tulpamancer community.
Quite simply, a few people in the brony community came across this website, had the idea of making a pony tulpa, and then decided to share the idea with the other bronies. Like many ideas within the brony community, it swept across the fandom, strongly appealing to the bronies, many of whom possess the characteristics that incline individuals towards tulpamancy.
We discuss WHY and HOW this is all happening, because it's kind of amazing and wonderful.
This post from 4chan about a brony who creates tulpas that get out of hand has become famous:
