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Soakie
Jun 1, 2008
Has anyone thought about the possibility that we are creating a tulpa? It's a thought form that is realized through the efforts of a group of people. We might be creating the Slender Man, making him real.

The Toronto Society for Psychical Research did this with an entity called "Philip" in the mid-70's. There was a book written about it, called "Conjuring up Philip." "He" was a fictional person, knowingly created by the group. It was all fun and games until "Philip" started to take on a mind of his own. "Philip" became real, as far as any paranormal thing could be said to be real. So take all this with a big grain of salt.

http://www.pararesearchers.org/Ghosts/Article_Five/article_five.html
has a bibliography for those who are interested in looking into this further.

How long until there is agreement about what the Slender Man looks like? When will he have a specific MO? Can the hidden superstitious heart of the SA goons give Slender Man an independent existence? Think about it, a few hundred or maybe even a thousand goons, all looking at the pictures and creating the stories. I find myself looking at the shadows, imagining how they might fall together to show a lurking Slender Man. TSM pulls so many primal strings: his wrongness to our eyes, the hair on the back of the neck rising, the subconscious "Nonononono" that bursts across the imagination. He drags the monsters out of the back of our modern minds. He is a satisfactory booger man, pressing all the right buttons. Even if we don't really believe in the supernatural, even if our rational minds laugh at such an absurdity...we are cutting him out and sewing him together. We're stuffing him with nightmares and unspoken fears.

And what happens when the pictures are no longer photoshops?

Soakie fucked around with this message at 08:52 on Jun 20, 2009

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Soakie
Jun 1, 2008
The Slender Man needs some weakness, some way to defend against him. An all-powerful creature leaves no hope, gives you no reason to even try to escape. If this loving thing materializes, I want to know how to fight it or even defeat it.

I'm thinking fire. It's man's primordial achievement, and casts shadows of its own. Maybe the shadows from the fire can fight him. Maybe humans discovered fire because of him, the embodiment of darkness and fear.

I don't know, but this thing has got to have a weakness.

Soakie
Jun 1, 2008
Would it be okay to use the Slender Man in a story that might someday be published? The mythos is already so complex and rich, it's too tangled up to attribute to one person. What's the consensus on using him?