Supernatural: Hell House (1x17) | Recap & Lore

Supernatural Season 1, Episode 17, Hell House recap 🏚️ The boys come to Richardson, Texas (right down the road from us!), for a haunted house, a prank war, and the debut of the Ghostfacers' Ed and Harry on Denim-wrapped Nightmares, a Supernatural rewatch podcast. Plus: Sam. In a towel. Fresh out of the shower. We'll get there.

The episode opens with high school kids daring each other to go inside a creepy abandoned house where a man named Mordecai supposedly murdered his daughters. The Winchesters find the story on a paranormal website, and their investigation leads them to Ed Zeddmore and Harry Spangler (Travis Wester and A.J. Buckley), the bumbling duo behind the Hellhounds Lair website, who are VERY much not qualified to be here. But when the legend keeps changing and Mordecai keeps getting stronger, the boys realize this ghost is something very different.

Episode Highlights:

• The PRANK WAR: Dean's spoon-in-mouth photo, itching powder, and Sam's super glue revenge
• A motel room so Texas it had the Alamo, longhorns, AND an armadillo
• A TCU shout-out!
• The WWE entrance music in the record store
• The boys' stunt-worthy full-body exit through the front door
• Ed and Harry getting arrested while Sam and Dean slip past the cops like pros
• SAM IN A TOWEL. Berly's arms went up like a touchdown, and they STAYED up. Best moment of the season so far.
• The final prank: dead fish on a road trip to LA (poor Ed and Harry... kind of)

In the lore segment, we dig into tulpas, thought-forms of Tibetan Buddhism made real through intense concentration: explorer Alexandra David-Néel's claims about creating one, dream yoga, and how the tulpa concept took on a life of its own online (hello, tulpamancers). Plus, we get VERY confused about the word switching.

"Of all the things we've hunted, how many existed just because people believed in them?" – Sam Winchester

Your turn, hunters: Team Dean or Team Sam in the prank war? And are you a Ghostfacers fan? Tell us in the Spotify comments, leave a rating and review on Apple Podcasts (it's how new hunters find us), or send us fan mail. Bonus points for fandom fun facts we missed.

Sources:

• https://supernatural.fandom.com/wiki/Hell_House
• https://www.faena.com/aleph/buddhist-tulpas-on-the-materialization-of-our-thoughts
• https://savageminds.org/2016/02/13/paranormalizing-the-popular-through-the-tibetan-tulpa-or-what-the-next-dalai-lama-the-x-files-and-affect-theory-might-have-in-common/
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tulpa

Transcript

Copy Transcript Copied

Berly: 0:01

Music. Welcome to denim wrapped nightmares, a Supernatural rewatch Podcast where we explore the TV series, episode by episode, over

LA: 0:11

drinks, we'll discuss the lore the gore and what we adore about the Winchesters and their adventures.

Berly: 0:17

I'm Burleigh and I'm a new fan of the series.

LA: 0:20

I'm LA, and I'm here along for the ride. Hello, LA, hey Burley, wow.

Berly: 0:30

I think this week's episode was the best one so far.

LA: 0:34

My fave for sure. So good solely for one thing. Oh, my God, it was so good, and we will get to that.

Berly: 0:44

Oh my god. But last week, quick recap, the the boys were in Chicago,

LA: 0:52

yeah, shy city.

Berly: 0:53

We're in the Windy City following up on a mysterious death of a person who died in their home with the alarm set, and yeah, yada yada yada. Turned out it was Davis, and it turned out that they were being controlled by Meg, the cute little blonde pixie who we first met in Scarecrow, and did that weird thing where she slit the guy's throat and got the blood and called somebody, and she was still talking to whoever it is, yeah, in this episode as well, and daddy Winchester has been saying it's a demon. So we know it's a demon, but that's all we know. And we can assume from this episode that Meg is also a demon of some kind. It was a fun episode. Yeah, it was good. I really enjoyed it. And until this week's episode, that probably would have been one of my top ones,

LA: 1:42

right? Well, I like that anytime that daddy shows up, yeah,

Berly: 1:45

anytime we get to see all Jeffrey dame, yeah. And then there was that

LA: 1:49

one scene that I still think about, but still a little perplexed by, but especially in the contrast from that episode to this one and their brotherly behavior compared to last episode

Berly: 2:04

with the pranks and everything. Yeah, lighthearted.

LA: 2:09

I just can't.

Berly: 2:11

Let's dig into this week's episode. Talk about the lore the gore and what we adore about Hell House.

LA: 2:22

Well, I liked this episode for many reasons, one of them being that they're in Richardson, Texas.

Berly: 2:29

I don't think they really were, well, no, but it was a nice little shout out you and I were both

LA: 2:37

that's right down the way from us. Starts out in Richardson, Texas, and we see this old, rundown house, and these like four high school kids at night going in. I feel like every town probably has a house like this. We had one. We had

Berly: 2:51

one. Yeah, the mayor, the mayor's house, or whatever. And we definitely went there. And I was telling you, when we were watching it, that I remember one of the guys that was with us ripping a loud fart and going, be careful. It's the beast of farts or something like that. And at the time, thinking it was so funny, but in hindsight, not funny. It was really stupid.

LA: 3:13

So they go in, and they're, I think, were they saying something about the story of, like, some somebody would go in there, or does that come in later? I think that comes in later.

Berly: 3:21

I think they were talking about it a little bit because Craig, or was it Craig or Greg? Craig, he was with them, so, yeah, he must, Oh, that's right, yeah, he was

LA: 3:31

saying his, he heard it this story from his cousin that, you know, the guy that used to live there, like, did whatever, and he's basically just trying to scare his friends, yeah, and he's this one guy, like, gets ballsy, and it's like, I don't see anything. Guys, I mean, come on, there's nothing scary here. And then, like, all their faces look terrified, and he's like, what? And he turns around, and there's a girl hanging from the rafters. Yes, dead. Well, we

Berly: 3:56

find out later she wasn't. Well, okay, well, oh, spoiler. I'm sorry for now, for now, they think she's dead. They scream. They're freaked the fuck out. And then cut to present day,

LA: 4:08

yeah. Then we're with the boys, Sam and Dean. And Sam has been on some websites, some what. What are they like? Paranormal websites, yeah. And so he heard of this, these kids talking about this story, and he said, you know, it sounds like it might be up our alley. So they head to Richardson,

Berly: 4:27

but first dean put that spoon in Sam's mouth and took a picture, and you didn't sleeping and you didn't like it. When I said, it's because he likes this pretty little mouth. Yeah,

LA: 4:35

I don't, I can't. Okay, moving on, moving Yeah. So, yeah, so Dean's real happy and pleased with himself pranking Sam. Sam's not into it. They invest they do some investigating, and they track down they they talk to the kids that had been there that night, and they all say, like, where they finally or where they originally heard all this from. And it's Craig, Craig.

Berly: 4:58

It all leads back to Craig. Yeah. They tracked down the kids from the story that Sam found on the website, right? Yeah,

LA: 5:05

well, from the kids that were in the and found that yeah, the lady he

Berly: 5:09

was saying, they seem really sincere, based off of what I see on this website,

LA: 5:13

yeah. And then they go there, and they're like, all their stories are different when they talk to each one of them. That was funny, yeah? So they tracked down Craig. He works at a record store, and he tells them of this legend that was told to him by his cousin Dana, that Mordecai Murdoch. What a name. It's a great name. Yeah, was a farmer who lived in the house during the 1930s and during the Depression, his crops were dying off, their their cattle or whatever animals they did have died. And so instead of his daughter's having a slow death of starvation, he killed them. And

Berly: 5:47

when they walked into the record store, they were playing the entrance music for a WWE wrestler as like the song that was jamming out when they walked in the record store. So yet again, that's Strike two on music choices. Here you guys have been Yeah, two in a row. So many good songs, and now a wrestlers entrance, I

LA: 6:08

wonder. Say they switched somebody out, somebody got fired or something. Who knows? Or left? I don't know anyway. So the boys go and visit the this supposed haunted house, and they find they see that there's a bunch of symbols painted on all the walls and on the floor, but that they're freshly painted. So they think that's kind of odd. So searching through the house, they run into these two guys, Ed zedmore and Harry Spangler, and they are professional paranormal investigators. They're college kids just like fucking around. And

Berly: 6:42

they think a lot of themselves.

LA: 6:45

Oh yeah, they're on their horses.

Berly: 6:46

I did like Spangler. The Ghostbusters call out that his name is Spangler.

LA: 6:51

Oh yeah. I thought that was That was clever. That was fun. And they are the ones who run a website called Hell's hounds. Hellhounds lair, which is the website that Sam had found this all this information on, they decided to do a little more research, but they really can't find any evidence to support this legend of Mordecai Murdoch, like it's there's no evidence. And we know our boys are good researchers, right?

Berly: 7:15

They were saying there was a Murdoch there, but he had boys, not girls, right? So, just nothing was adding Yeah,

LA: 7:21

nothing, yeah. So they chalk it up to, this is, like, a bunch of BS not our gig. Like, let's, let's just call this one a spade. That doesn't make sense. Call a spade a spade. Isn't that the same? I think so. But that doesn't really okay. So nothing's adding up. And it just sounds like a bunch of like bullshit, really, they decide, well, really, Dean's like, let's, let's forget this. Like, let's just go get some beers. Head on. Move on. But then they hear that the previous night, a girl did actually die in the house. So it was another set of, like, teenagers, three of them, two girls and a boy, and they go, and two of them dare this one girl to go in or otherwise she has to make out with the boy, which I'm like,

Berly: 8:02

Honey, you could just say no, just say no and walk away. Yeah? Like,

LA: 8:06

Fuck you guys, yeah. But she goes in. You

Berly: 8:08

need new friends, yeah?

LA: 8:10

She goes in. I mean, good for her, though, brave little thing, you know, right? I

Berly: 8:15

want me to

LA: 8:17

she goes in and she runs into this ghost who has a long rope, ends up getting it around her neck and hanging her and it turns out we learned she's like a straight A student had a full ride to UT.

Berly: 8:31

She's adorable too. Yeah, I

LA: 8:33

mean, awful, Yeah, fucking kids, I'm saying the fuck. I'm saying the fuck, a lot. It's okay.

Berly: 8:40

You can say, the fuck Thank you. Thank

LA: 8:42

you. All right, then the next night, the Sam and Dean returned to the house, but it's like the police are there. They've got it taped off, and they're kind of overseeing it so that no more kids try to come in. The boys, our boys, Sam and Dean, Spot Ed and Harry, attempting to get in the house. I'm

Berly: 9:01

happy you clarified our boys, because I wasn't sure which boys you were talking about.

LA: 9:06

Hey, you should know, since they see them. Dean shouts out, alerting the officers to their presence that so they go taking off after them, which allows our boys to get inside. And

Berly: 9:17

it was another ghost bastards shout out. Dean yelled, who you gonna call?

LA: 9:21

Did he really? I didn't catch that. Yeah, oh, I didn't

Berly: 9:25

know. There's another cute little Ghostbuster shot that's

LA: 9:27

funny. Once they're inside, they go down to the basement, and they run into Mordecai, and he's chasing them. He's, uh, he this time, he has an ax, right? An ax has, I know how to speak proper engine, and they blast off. They start shooting them with the rock salt, but it doesn't really slow them down. It's not working the way we've seen it work in the exactly, which is weird. They're like, what the hell. So they break down the door, and as they do, they run past Ed and Harry, and they actually have, like, one of them has the camera up, and they actually capture. Footage of Mordecai in the doorway, because he can't leave past that point.

Berly: 10:04

As far as stunt work goes, that exit out the door that they did. I loved that. Yeah. I mean, Sam full body threw his doll through the door

LA: 10:13

projectile. And, I mean, I pretty

Berly: 10:16

sure that was Jared Padalecki. You could see his face. I'm pretty sure that was him and Jensen Ackles running out that they gave that 110% and I loved it. It was a very fun shot with them tumbling out of the house and Harry and Ed standing there screaming because they got startled from them coming flying out of the house. It was one of, not the but one of my favorite shots of my show well, and I

LA: 10:43

have to give it to our boys, because they're very smooth in this episode, that they don't get caught by these cops, and they keep the poor Ed and Harry keep getting caught. So because they they like fly out of the house, basically run past head and air, head and airy. Yeah. Ed and Harry and

Berly: 11:05

disappear they they're just like, gone. But

LA: 11:08

then the cops show up and they get Harry and Ed, I'm like, what?

Berly: 11:11

How did that happen? Magic. They're

LA: 11:14

good, they're smooth. They're smooth criminals. Yeah, they

Berly: 11:17

are. Them win jesters.

LA: 11:20

Then we're back at another hotel, motel. Motel is this was another. This one wasn't as spacious, but it was Texas out. It

Berly: 11:27

was Texas as, fuck yeah. There was the Alamo on the wall. Yes. There were long horn, Longhorn horn horns, Longhorn horns hung on the wall. There was

LA: 11:37

an armadillo on the table. It was Texas as far yeah, which I was, like, knowing that they're both from Texas and, like, such as, like, stereotypical Texas thing to have those things around. It's like, Come on, guys. You know, it's not like that.

Berly: 11:50

But I'm sure there are some hotels that are totally like that, absolutely, yeah, but I noticed at one point. I don't recall exactly where it was. There was a sign that said Texas roses, and it had, like, the Texas flag, which is such a Tyler Texas thing to see, there's rose signs everywhere. So I don't know there's this Tyler roses. They they have roses all the time. I didn't know that. I don't know why I'm not from the area. I just know every time I've gone there, I see something about roses, huh?

LA: 12:19

Okay, I didn't know he learned something new almost every day. Well, anyway, at the hotel, they're they're trying to work everything out and figure out, like, What the hell is this? Like, nothing's adding up. It's not our usual, like we figured out legend. They did notice that Mordecai, his spirit, had slit wrists, which I didn't see. They didn't zoom in on it, okay, well, yeah, when they mentioned that, I was like, really? I mean, way to be observant in that moment, guys,

Berly: 12:48

there was a lot going on in the scene, though, so maybe we should have gone back and paused to take a look. But there were more important things to see in this episode. Trigger so well, they

LA: 12:57

know that that that was never mentioned in this legend that they've been told by Craig. So they go, they go back to hellhounds lair website, and see that the story has also changed. Now the legend, supposed legend is has changed, and Dean recognized as one of the symbols that was painted on one of the walls in the house. And so they decide that they're gonna go give Craig boy, another visit, right?

Berly: 13:22

He's been talking about that symbol all the time. Yeah, I know that. I know I've seen it. What is it? I don't know. He was even drawing it in the motel, yeah. And so when it finally clicks where he saw it, they know exactly where to go, right?

LA: 13:36

And so I love, like, when they like, say something to Craig, and he's like, Oh, God, these guys. And we find out that the symbol is actually from a Blue Oyster called album cover. And Craig, we know, works in the record store, and he admits that he and his cousin really are the ones that created this supposed legend. They went into the house, painted the symbols on the walls and the floor. They spread the rumor about Marta Mordecai is just like a prank. And even Dana was the one who was hung with that first night when they went in and she just like they had just hung her the certain way and made her look dead just to scare the shit out of his friends. Yeah,

Berly: 14:15

real nice. And they gave TCU a shout out on this episode too. Dana was in town from TCU, yes, but yeah. And Craig luckily feels like shit. He is yeah, he feels terrible about the whole thing, because it was just supposed to be a joke, yeah. And somebody actually ended up getting hurt because of it, so he feels awful. Yeah, so Craig's a little shit, yes, but he's not shitty,

LA: 14:39

Yes, correct? I like that. Sam brings up the idea that Mordecai, maybe Mordecai is a two tupla

Berly: 14:47

Tulpa and paws, because in there, hold on. Wait, wait, wait, I know what he I you know exactly when he's talking about this. Hold

LA: 14:55

on. Let me start over. Hold on, because I was gonna say something. I. Sam brings up the fact that he thinks that Mordecai is a Tulpa, which is is a manifestation of thought. And man, he brings this up while he's in the shower. Well, he was in the shower, he was but he's in the process of getting out, right? But we don't see him. We

Berly: 15:18

see him. Well, give me a

LA: 15:21

second. So Sam brings this up as he's in the, like, getting out of the shower. He's in the shower. We don't see him, but we do see Dean sprinkling, like, chili powder or something. I

Berly: 15:30

thought it was itchy powder,

LA: 15:31

was it? Yeah, like,

Berly: 15:32

can't you get itching powder from, like, a crank, a gag shop or something? That's not nice. Like, where you get the where you get the thing that you can wear it on your hand and shock

LA: 15:42

somebody. But I just didn't know that was a thing.

Berly: 15:46

I know it's a thing. I don't know that it actually works. Okay. Well, anyway,

LA: 15:51

Dean is putting that powder in Sam's underwear as Sam bursts out of the bathroom in nothing

Berly: 15:59

but a towel. Yeah, he comes out. I was like, what if it's a Tulpa, yeah. And I'm like, what have you dropped the towel? Holy shit. My what I was we watched that three, at least three times. Rewind, play, rewind. Well

LA: 16:11

done. Jared padalucki, my goodness. Like kudos to you and your wife, wonderful, yeah,

Berly: 16:18

and your kids, yeah. Good for them too, that they can say, That's my dad. We got, congratulations. We've got those jeans. We got those jeans. Oh my gosh. It was wonderful. It was,

LA: 16:28

I mean, like, so well built, like,

Berly: 16:34

everything's in the right place, the proportions, yes, just it was wonderful. It was wonderful. He was still kind of slick from the shower. Yeah. He did a little his little peck twitch. He twitched his peck at his brother. Uh huh.

LA: 16:51

So that was by far my favorite part of the season so far,

Berly: 16:55

best, best hands down. I remember I put, I shot my hands up into like a touchdown symbol when he came out of the shower, and I literally just left my arms up over my head for the whole rest of that scene. Well,

LA: 17:07

I looked over like, I watched the whole scene, and then when it was done, I looked over at you, and your arms are up, but I thought you had, like, just put them

Berly: 17:13

up because it ended. And you were like, thank you. I put them up when he came out, girl, and then I just froze.

LA: 17:21

I get it. I didn't

Berly: 17:22

bring them back down until I was reaching for the remote to rewind. Oh, my God, oh, man. It was, it was a wonderful scene also.

LA: 17:32

And then when I when they were explaining what a Tulpa is, I was like man, manifestation of thought. Damn. I wish I could do that right now, manifesting that

Berly: 17:41

towel dropping

LA: 17:43

or being right here with me. You know, anywho. So this, this particular symbol, is a symbol that was painted in the house, and it's a Tibetan spirit sigil, and it assists in concentrating mental energy. And Sam is thinking that people who view the website, the hell's what is it? Hell's hell hellhounds. Hellhounds lair, that when they're viewing the website, they are willing, they're like, willing into reality what they are reading. And it's so many of them that it's really, literally, like, creating this spirit in this house. And it keeps changing, the more people are telling the story differently, right?

Berly: 18:26

Every time they change it on the website, the manifestation updates itself. Yeah,

LA: 18:31

so Sam and Dean think so they kind of trick Ed and Harry. They they tell them that they found mordecai's birth certificate, and it turns out that he What was it?

Berly: 18:42

I loved how Hang on. I loved how they were talking to them like we did research. We found his birth certificate at the library, like the way they were talking. I loved that, and they deserved it. The harrietta were eating it up. Oh yeah. So they were like little shits to them, talking down to them and all of that know it alls when they don't really know what they're doing. We've all had to deal with people like that in the past, right? But yeah, they basically say he didn't do any of the things in the story. He actually shot his kids with the gun, and now he's terrified of guns. And if he sees a gun or gets shot by a gun with bullets that it'll it'll kill them, and he'll be destroyed. And then they ask them to upload it to the website so that the tulpa, yeah, will update to do that too. The more everybody sees it, oh no. They don't ask them to put it on the website. They tell them that it's secret and that they can't tell anybody, and that they need to shut the website down, knowing that the guys are going to do the complete opposite, right?

LA: 19:44

So that when they agree, so that's when they get give them all the information, and Sam and Dean plan they go back to the house that night, because they think, Okay, this is it. He now that the story has changed, we can kill him with our guns as they enter in, they're ready. Guns. Guns, up. You. Flashlights ready? Who do they run into fucking Ed and Harry Mordecai shows up, starts swinging that Ax, and the boys start shooting at him, and again, nothing. It's not doing a thing to him. And like, Dean turns to Ed and Harry. He's like, you, you like, put that up on your website, right? And they said, Yeah, we did. But then our server crashed, so nobody saw it, so it hasn't manifested. And Ed and Harry end up getting kind of cornered in this one area of the house, and Mordecai is after them. Our hero, boy, Sam little Sammy. He runs in there, gets mordecai's Attention, basically starts fighting with him with the ax. Mordecai has got him up against the wall, up his on his neck, tells the boys to get the hell out. And Dean's solution to all of this is to light the place on fire. Let's just

Berly: 20:53

burn this shit down. Burn it down. Yeah,

LA: 20:57

I don't remember how to Sam get out away from Mordecai. I don't I don't know if they

Berly: 21:02

should. I remember Mordecai like holding the AX up against Sam and having Sam pushed up against the wall, yeah, and Harry and Ed running by Sam, or Dean must have come and helped

LA: 21:11

him. Yeah. Oh, no, I bet it. I bet it's because the house started to go on fire. So his spirit was probably starting to fade because the house was starting to but it wasn't really a spirit. That's right, okay, it's not important. True,

Berly: 21:25

they survived. That's all you need to know. All four of them survive. All four of them got out of the house before it was a blazon. Yeah.

LA: 21:32

And Dean's thought was that without that part of the legend, Mordecai won't exist if the house isn't there. Now, if

Berly: 21:38

the house isn't there, he's got nothing to haunt right? People aren't going to continue to tell stories about a place that they can't actually go to and see, just a field, yeah,

LA: 21:47

the so the guys end up, which we do have, the scene where, where they're chatting. Poor Sam is clearly uncomfortable and having some itches in certain

Berly: 21:58

places. Yeah? Think I'm allergic to ourselves. Yeah. And then Dean's just cracking up. And then we have the scene where Sam gets Dean back with the super glue on the beer bottle. Oh, I forgot, yes, yes, yes, yeah. These are all scenes that happen just when they're talking about Mordecai and Tulpas and all this other kind of stuff. So

LA: 22:17

the best prank of all that, I think, which is funny but terrible, but they kind of deserved it. Is they're saying goodbye to Ed and Harry. And Ed and Harry are boasting about how they got a call this morning from a big Hollywood producer. They want to start a show with them, or whatever, and they're just like, cocky about it, and they're like, see you later, guys. And as they drive off, Sam admits that he's the one that called them. And Dean's like, well, good job, because I put up dead fish in the back of their their truck, too. Vaccine, yeah, so Ew, yeah. I thought that was funny. And

Berly: 22:52

they drive from Texas to Los Angeles. Is not sure, yeah, that fish is going to be nasty,

LA: 22:58

yeah? And Sam asks, you know, like, can we call a truce in this prank war? And Dean's, like, you know, for now, okay, for now. And that's, that's that one that is Hell House. This

Berly: 23:10

was one of my favorite episodes so far. It was, it was fun for a variety of reasons. Obviously, there's a particular reason, but it was fun. It was a lot of fun. Yeah, I really enjoyed this one.

LA: 23:22

I think the the dynamic of Ed and Harry and then Sam and Dean was kind of a good, good thing. Like, I don't know, it was just cute.

Berly: 23:28

It was really cute. I liked it a lot. But let's get into the lore. Yeah, there wasn't any Gore I adore. I adored this whole episode. I like you said, I adored the dynamic between Dean and Sam and Ed and Harry. Jared Padalecki, Jared Padilla, Jared padlecki,

LA: 23:48

idea Texas. Anyway, I know they're not in Texas,

Berly: 23:50

but it was nice to see it. Yeah, still nice to see it. It was a little dramatized, but hey, yeah, a show about fucking werewolves and ghosts and whatever. So for the lore, we're going to be talking about tulpa. It's a Tulpa when,

LA: 24:05

yeah, when he was yelling about it from the bathroom, I was like, What are you? Tulpa? Tulsa? What

Berly: 24:12

so Tulpa, according to fene.com Buddhism has created a type of Atlas or almanac of the human psyche among the multiplicities, multiplicity. You love that movie I do,

LA: 24:33

what does he say? She maybe, maybe I do. Should touch my puppy, Steve.

Berly: 24:41

I don't know why, but I love it. I saw it was on Hulu or something, and I just died laughing. I didn't even put the movie on. I just died laughing thinking about how happy you would be to know that it was on Hulu. I love my Michael keen, oh, he's great. Well, anyway, among the multiplicities implied by the mind. There is a strange family of mental creations known as Tulpas, which is Sanskrit for to build. It's a Sanskrit world word for to build. While the mind is capable of creating a world of illusion, it can also create any desired object. Jared paddleback.

LA: 25:21

I mean, I gotta tap into this.

Berly: 25:24

This process consists of transforming a visualization into a palpable being. Buddhism asserts to acknowledge the Tulpas are mental creations that become, as if by magic, semi autonomous entities, which that's basically what Sam was explaining in the show, that it's something that you create, and then once it's created, it's kind of its own thing. Yeah, it can kind of take on its own. Yeah, it's gonna do what it wants to do at that point. Yeah. So according to Wikipedia, in the 1990s online communities dedicated to Tulpas spawned on the four Chan and Reddit websites. I don't even know what Fortran is. I don't really either. I've heard it before, but I don't know what it is. These communities refer to Tulpa practitioners as Tulpa mancers. Oh, get this. The communities gained popularity when adult fans of My Little Pony started discussing Tulpas of characters from the My Little Pony television series, the fans attempted to use meditation and lucid dreaming techniques to create imaginary friends. So okay,

LA: 26:36

well, that's

Berly: 26:37

what you're gonna use it for. I thought you were gonna say they were gonna try to bring, like, one of the little ponies to life. That's what they were trying to do. A Tulpa is basically an imaginary friend that's real and can actually do stuff. It's like drop dead Fred.

LA: 26:52

Look at the Why are they all into little my little pony, there's

Berly: 26:56

a whole group of adult people who are into my little ponies. I think they call themselves bronies or something.

LA: 27:04

This just gets weird. Okay, so wait, so

Berly: 27:08

remember they were making fun of bronies on Peacemaker. No, they said the Green Lantern was a brony.

LA: 27:17

No, okay, but so you said that they were trying to manifest imaginary friends, but they were actually trying to manifest one of my little ponies.

Berly: 27:25

But that's what a that's what a Tulpa is. It's an imaginary friend that's manifested into being something I get

LA: 27:31

that. But then why didn't you just say that that's what they're doing instead of an imaginary

Berly: 27:35

friend? Because that's what I copied from Wikipedia. Okay, maybe quit being so nitpicky. Well,

LA: 27:40

no, I was just confused. It confused me because I totally thought you were gonna say they were trying to make one of the My Little Ponies real. I get what you're saying, okay, but

Berly: 27:49

I'm saying I'm just about to criticize my semantics. No,

LA: 27:53

no, I'm not criticizing you at all.

Berly: 27:55

I didn't do it. Wikipedia. Did it Wikipedia? No,

LA: 28:00

no, I'm not criticizing you at all. I just, like totally thought that's what you're gonna say. So then when you said that, that it just threw me

Berly: 28:06

off. But my whole issue is, you believe it's that this is real. You believe you can manifest and make this happen, and you have a whole online community of people, and the thing you choose to manifest is a My Little Pony character

LA: 28:19

that I do not understand, not at all, that is not what I'd be manifesting.

Berly: 28:26

Okay, so according to savageminds.org, topamancers are people who, through extended bouts of concentration of visualization, produce a special kind of imaginary friend they call a Tulpa. So there you go. There's the connection as to why I used imaginary friend earlier. Sorry, I probably should have put this before the no crony stuff. It was me. I'm sorry. Tulpas are understood to be distinct sentient beings with their own personalities, inclinations and relative autonomy through various active and passive processes known as quote, unquote forcing, which I don't like that topomancers spend hours solidifying their impressions of their creations as something more than just an ordinary inner voice. Active forcing means concentrating single pointedly on the tulpa's form and features. Passive forcing is when the tulpamancer finds ways to bring Tulpas into more regular routines, such as through narrating, where tulpamancers chat with or read stories to their creations. So like it for real is like an imaginary, okay, come to life.

LA: 29:40

See, that's disappointing, though I thought might be like, legit, let's manifest that. Make it real.

Berly: 29:49

So topa answers, meet Tulpa, but that's what it is. It's manifested into reality. That's what makes a Tulpa different from an imaginary friend. Oh, okay, yeah. You. Tulpa I don't, I don't think it's real, real, just in theory. That's what makes that's what makes Tulpas different. Want it to be real. I know you do, baby tulpamancers Meet Tulpas in imagined environments called wonderlands.

LA: 30:16

Okay, all right.

Berly: 30:18

These are dream or mindscapes that more fully contextualize interactions and provide a place for Tulpas to, like, hang out when idle. For some reason I'm imagining like the Teletubby world with the baby face in the sun and all that. Yeah, I get it. So that's where they go when they're idle, like when they're not being in a conversation, or they're on pause, they're on pause and they're in their Wonderland. Yeah? They also work to perfect imposition, which, again, these words are just forcing imposition. Yeah, so imposition is seeing, hearing or feeling Tulpas in the real world.

LA: 31:00

Okay? Now I'm interested. I'm ready. I'm ready.

Berly: 31:04

They may even practice Tulpa possession or even switching swingers. I thought switching was more of like sub and Dom like that. You're a switcher that you don't Oh, like that. You'll be the dominant one sometimes, and you'll be the subordinate one sometimes, that you switch, you're probably right. I didn't know, but maybe it is swingers.

LA: 31:22

No, no, no. Swingers are like couples that switch swing swing with each

Berly: 31:28

people now, know, we know nothing about this kind of stuff. We Wow. Okay, we just showed our asses. It's okay. Sorry, we're ignorant. Well, switching with a Tulpa is when the tulpa takes over the host's body, and the host temporarily occupies the tulpa's form in the wonderland. I feel like the

LA: 31:49

tulpa gets a little revenge for all this forcefulness, forcing an imposition.

Berly: 31:55

Yeah. Okay, okay, so the concept of the tulpa as a semi autonomous entity created by one or more individuals focused thought or belief was primarily a mainstay in western eso centric and parapsychological circles. Western occultists inherited their vision, inherited their version of Tulpas from early non Tibetan interpreters of Tibetan Buddhism, like French explorer Alexandra, David Neal and American Walter Evans Wentz David Neal's description of how she experimented with making a Tulpa In the form of a jolly monk while in Tibet and her account of how this mind creature was subsequently seen by others who mistook it for an actual person, and how it became more and more sinister, self motivated and unruly, and that obliged her to dissolve it. Okay? So she made, she manifested her own jolly monk tulpa. And then when she didn't like how it was acting, she said, Well fuck, I guess I'm just gonna kill you. Did anybody else see this? She said that people saw her Tulpa and thought it was like an actual person. I don't believe her. Well anyway, that helped set the tone and terms of subsequent representations of tolfas. Was Alexandra's story about her jolly monk.

LA: 33:28

I need a picture.

Berly: 33:32

This was in like proven Alexandra Neal, she lived from 1868 to 1969 so, yeah, she could have taken a picture. Okay, so both David Neal and Evan winces understanding of Tibetan Tulpas was, in turn, strongly influenced by theosophical teachings. So that's where, like the symbol in the show came into play. Okay, these teachings were related to the possibilities and dangers of quote unquote thought forms and quote unquote Elementals. These ideas were already in circulation in Europe and America long before either David Neal or Evan Wentz ever went to the Himalayas to study with Tibetans.

LA: 34:11

You know fun fact about the Himalayas? I don't. I just tell people die.

Berly: 34:15

People just die there. I don't. I wouldn't call that a fun fact. Oh no, right? When they climb the mountain, aren't there like, hundreds of dead bodies on the Himalayas in

LA: 34:24

Nepal? You know, Michael J Fox has Parkinson's? Yes, he said, When he went there, he went to visit Nepal. I think it was Nepal. It's somewhere in that area that all of his symptoms went away while he was there. Why didn't he move there? That's what I was thinking.

Berly: 34:39

I buy at least vacation there, right? But, yeah,

LA: 34:42

I was like, that's crazy. Like, that's crazy energy that's being put there for that to happen. Yeah, I want to go. I've always wanted to go to Nepal. Yeah. Oh, okay, back to anyway. Sorry, I just

Berly: 34:53

No worries. You said that is a fun fact. Yeah, now I do know a fun fact about the Himalayas area. Anyway. Okay, okay, so while there are no explicit instructions in Tibetan tantric Buddhism for manifesting a Tulpa, various advanced meditative practices do exist, which involve intensive concentration on and visualization of image imagined entities, the dream yoga practices that fall under the umbrella of six dharmas of Naropa in particular involve training and the intentional production of mental forms while in a lucid dream state, and the so called generation or creation stage of Tibetan. Tantric yogas requires the meditator to imagine, call upon and then animate various yidams, or mind bound meditational deities, so as to draw near them, experience them and attain their blessings. I gotta tell you, Tantric Yoga. I was thinking it was something way different, like tantric sex, yeah? Like, where you just do a yoga pose and have an orgasm because of it, or something. Well, yeah, and y'all are, like, together for a long time, yeah? So this is not what I was picturing whenever, yeah, this is a lot that's Tantric Yoga. That's a lot of visualization and all this other kind of stuff that's like discipline, yeah, and calling deities to you, and all this other lot of stuff. Not at all what I thought it would have been. Accordingly, both Tibetan Buddhists and Western occultists have argued that Yidam represent a better analog for Western esotericists and pulp answers, ideas about sentient mental entities than the actual Tibetan word, sprawl, paw. That's that. I don't know. That's the actual Tibetan word, Oh, I see okay for for these Yidam or whatever.

LA: 36:58

I like that word yet them, I

Berly: 37:00

think that's how you say it. Y, I D, A, M, gidoms, yeah, I think so. Basically, the tulpa concept has evolved and circulated to the point where it has escaped far beyond any specifically Tibetan culture, social or linguistic moorings. So, yeah, clearly, look at this episode bronies, man. I mean, it's become its own damn thing, yeah, and that's it. That's all I have on Tulpas, okay,

LA: 37:26

I like it interesting. So to close it out,

Berly: 37:30

was that awkward? Cheers, pada, Lucky.

LA: 37:32

Cheers, kudos. Well done. I mean, all the good things to you, my man, we've

Berly: 37:39

got a quote from Sam to close it out of all the things we hunted how many existed just because people believed in them. Sam Winchester, I believe in you. Cheers. Thank you for listening to denim wrapped nightmares.

LA: 37:57

Follow us on Twitter or Instagram. Leave a review and let us know how we can get involved in the fandom.

Berly: 38:03

This was fun,

LA: 38:04

jerk. It always is, bitch. I.