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 Posted: Wed Mar 18, 2009 5:25 pm
Wassail!
Hm...I believe in "Vampires" but that can be used to describe anything that sucks something out of something else, which is usually energy in some way.
However...I can't get my mind around being a dragonkin or something...it just doesn't work for me. Is it your soul...or are you just...confused and looking for attention?
I am not trying to flame, I am just trying to figure out if it is not some mental thing, or something. Because we all know as teenagers we come up with the weirdest things when we are going through our power stage.
Like end of the world stuff...best years of my life, let me tell you.
DISCUSS
FFF,
Angus
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Posted: Wed Mar 18, 2009 9:48 pm
Most of the time, it'll be confused and/or looking for attention. As near as I can tell though, it's something like your soul is half human and half something else. sweatdrop
Not entirely sure myself.
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Posted: Wed Mar 18, 2009 10:07 pm
The most common definition I see is the soul of "something else" in a human body. It could be a dragon, a wolf, a marmot, whatever. It's just an animal ("real" or mythological) soul inside a human body.
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Posted: Thu Mar 19, 2009 6:27 am
What Spiral said.
After that, any explaination I've come across doesn't strike me as anything special, usually due to a lack of explaination about the uniqueness of the occurence.
"It's being something else in a humans body." That would require that there is something to souls as there is to species, which most people seem to go for the amorphous blob type souls. Assuming there is something like species for souls, there would have to be a garden variety that makes up the majority of people here now for anyone to be special. Also, this would have implications about being incarnate not being about experiencing, since being in the wrong type of body implies that different souls are ment for certain incarnate forms.
"It's what you were in your last life." The majority of people who are alive would have to be on their first life for this to make people 'special'. And it seems if that's the case, anything beyond simply having a past life is extra detail on being special.
"It's what you were in a previous life." Same as above, but it seems more likely to be less special for people who've had alot of lives, which could potentially be alot of people.
"It's what your true form is." This is about the same as the last life one, except to be special, it'd mean alot of people either don't have souls, or have souls that are of a garden variety in 'form'.
It gets easier to argue with more detail about a person beliefs, or perfered ideas, or to atleast set up hypothetical possibilities.
I don't really find the idea implausible, but it seems to beg someone to play devils advocate (to me).
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Posted: Thu Mar 19, 2009 12:46 pm
I only half agree with Dorian and Spiral. I agree that it's most likely for attention, but I cannot dismiss the possibility of a strong connection or affinity for one type of animal or another.
((I have been working on this reply for ten minutes trying to word it right.))
I think what I've been trying to write for the afforementioned ten minutes is that I think the human souls goes through a cycle in each life as it matures. Perhaps in each life we (or they--as you guys prefer) gain an affinity for an animal because it is our current...soul level? That's not the wording I wanted, but I'm hoping you can understand what I'm trying to say.
I now give up on finding correct words, make of it what you will.
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Posted: Thu Mar 19, 2009 2:13 pm
The only definition of an Otherkin that I can come up with, that isn't too specific but doesn't reject any of the usual ideas, is an inhumanly-shaped soul in a human body. As was said above, people have different ideas of how that happens:
1. Your soul is in the shape of whatever you were in your last incarnation
2. Your soul is in a shape you were fond of or otherwise attached to in a previous incarnation
3. Your soul belongs in a different species, but somehow you got stuck as a human
4. It's the shape of what you've always wanted to be
5. It's the shape of the mythical/never existed creature you are in the afterlife/Other Side/etc.
ETC.
Most otherkin will claim non-human inclinations, personalities, or instincts, as well as a rare-to-frequent sensation of having phantom limbs or body structure that does not correspond to the shape of their physical body. Phantom sensations may feel like wings, tails, spikes, extra or fewer limbs than they actually possess, or that hands/feet/etc. just aren't shaped the way they should be. Eventually, most will connect their personal feelings and experiences to a particular animal or combination of animals, most commonly wolves. Why wolves are so "popular" could be anything from pop culture to an ignorance of other predators to a lot of wolves choosing to reincarnate as humans... I'm no Otherkin or expert, so I really have no idea. Otherkin claim animals as common as squirrels to creatures as exotic as elves and dragons.
~~~
I've met those whose claim to otherkin-ism is believable. I've also met a girl named Katherine who claimed to be a combination of more animals (real and mythical) than I can remember, as well as psi and sang vampire (depending on the time of the month) and... some other stuff. She told me some of her personal history, and it beats me if I should believe any of it. True stories or not, Katherine very obviously had some psychological issues and wasn't very stable. She needed any attention and explanations she could get, even if the attention was forced, the explanations were wild and contradicted each other, and her life was only more and more out of control with everything she did to change it. So yes, I do believe that there are at least a few people out there who are confused and seeking attention.
There are probably also a lot of people who just don't understand themselves and how they fit in the world (read: teenagers and young adults) and latch onto Otherkin-ism temporarily until they find a better answer. I've considered the possibility a few times myself. If anything seemed to fit me, any animal or mythos creature, I might be claiming that even now... but there really isn't, in my case. =P
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Posted: Thu Mar 19, 2009 4:09 pm
Yah it's the soul part that I am kinda like...right of course you do.
In my belief system the soul is recycled and we come back as we are supposed to be: Human. I can believe that some people on a psychic level have certain needs and wants and which what but our soul is always human.
Of course...then there is the idea of the fetch-beast or familiar, our animilistic, primal side that is revealed to us by the Master...but that is something else entirely.
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Posted: Thu Mar 19, 2009 4:50 pm
Angus of the Crooked Way Yah it's the soul part that I am kinda like...right of course you do. In my belief system the soul is recycled and we come back as we are supposed to be: Human. I can believe that some people on a psychic level have certain needs and wants and which what but our soul is always human. Of course...then there is the idea of the fetch-beast or familiar, our animilistic, primal side that is revealed to us by the Master...but that is something else entirely.
There are those also who say that all souls are human, but that a soul can be reshaped--either by oneself or by another, depending who you talk to--into a more animal form. Trauma may lead to it, as a form of coping, or simple long-term distress... or intentional. Again, it all depends who you talk to, and so many people have theories that it's difficult to ascertain which might be most true, or if none of them are.
Very true. I've only heard one idea that one's familiar showed one's "true self" that way, and I dismissed it immediately. From all I've ever heard, those with animal familiars are always human, and those who might be animal or part animal simply never have a familiar. There's a point where I stop and refer only to folklore, to the exclusion of modern theories... that is one of them.
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Posted: Thu Mar 19, 2009 6:58 pm
I don't believe in them anymore.
I think they are attention starved. I also think it is a real psychological symptom/ issue to believe you're other-worldly.
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Posted: Thu Mar 19, 2009 8:08 pm
I've given the generic post, now I want to get a little more in depth.
Why is it that things other than humans cannot have souls? In my view, anything living (and this includes minerals, as per alchemical thought) has a soul. A soul would be the fundamental characteristics of a thing, everything that makes something what it is. As an example, the body is the material that the soul or characteristics are impressed upon, and it's all given life by Spirit, The Breath of God, whatever you want to call it.
That's my view. As to how this translates to otherkin I have no idea. Going by my previous statements, it would seem to me that there would be no way to be put in the "wrong" body since your soul dictates how you're incarnated anyway. Does this eliminate the possibility of animal/mythical characteristics? I don't think so.
Ultimately it comes down to the fact that they're still in a human body as far as anyone can tell. The belief of being "something else" isn't anymore harmful than the belief that Jesus Christ died for mankind's sins.
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Posted: Fri Mar 20, 2009 12:59 pm
Obscurus I've given the generic post, now I want to get a little more in depth. Why is it that things other than humans cannot have souls? In my view, anything living (and this includes minerals, as per alchemical thought) has a soul. A soul would be the fundamental characteristics of a thing, everything that makes something what it is. As an example, the body is the material that the soul or characteristics are impressed upon, and it's all given life by Spirit, The Breath of God, whatever you want to call it. That's my view. As to how this translates to otherkin I have no idea. Going by my previous statements, it would seem to me that there would be no way to be put in the "wrong" body since your soul dictates how you're incarnated anyway. Does this eliminate the possibility of animal/mythical characteristics? I don't think so. Ultimately it comes down to the fact that they're still in a human body as far as anyone can tell. The belief of being "something else" isn't anymore harmful than the belief that Jesus Christ died for mankind's sins. Why must anything have a soul?
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Posted: Fri Mar 20, 2009 3:58 pm
DrasBrisingr Why must anything have a soul? Going to go Gorgias on us eh? LOL Because, some people believe there to be a soul. Some people believe that their soul is that of a dragon or a faerie. Speaking of faeries, if you are a "Faerie-Kin" what do you look like? Is it the cute, fluffy faerie with cute little butterfly wings and a dainty little body? Or is it a grotesque entity that tricks others into mischief?
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Posted: Fri Mar 20, 2009 6:37 pm
Angus of the Crooked Way Speaking of faeries, if you are a "Faerie-Kin" what do you look like? Is it the cute, fluffy faerie with cute little butterfly wings and a dainty little body? Or is it a grotesque entity that tricks others into mischief? Personally, I always thought they looked like Hulk Hogan wearing fairy wings meant for preschoolers. Y'know, just to mess with the general populace.
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Posted: Fri Mar 20, 2009 7:01 pm
DrasBrisingr Obscurus I've given the generic post, now I want to get a little more in depth. Why is it that things other than humans cannot have souls? In my view, anything living (and this includes minerals, as per alchemical thought) has a soul. A soul would be the fundamental characteristics of a thing, everything that makes something what it is. As an example, the body is the material that the soul or characteristics are impressed upon, and it's all given life by Spirit, The Breath of God, whatever you want to call it. That's my view. As to how this translates to otherkin I have no idea. Going by my previous statements, it would seem to me that there would be no way to be put in the "wrong" body since your soul dictates how you're incarnated anyway. Does this eliminate the possibility of animal/mythical characteristics? I don't think so. Ultimately it comes down to the fact that they're still in a human body as far as anyone can tell. The belief of being "something else" isn't anymore harmful than the belief that Jesus Christ died for mankind's sins. Why must anything have a soul? If there's more to a human being than the complex biological machine (and the mind could be a part of this when you consider the complexities of the brain) then that part would have to be something akin to what we call a soul. Of course there's no way at all to tell for certain. This whole discussion is based on the acceptance of the existence of souls.
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Posted: Fri Mar 20, 2009 9:28 pm
Obscurus This whole discussion is based on the acceptance of the existence of souls.
What it does come down to, at least in my view, is that it is human nature to seek mystical answers and connections in everyday life. We need that sense of mystery and wonder in order to thrive, and often it is a strong faith in that mystery and wonder that enables us to survive deep struggles. We need something to believe in, no matter how far-fetched, and many find it more helpful to believe in something mystical that they can't fully explain than to believe only in the easily understood math of modern science.
You don't have to believe that souls exist. Neither do you have to believe that, as most Christians are taught, only humans have souls. Belief in otherkin generally assumes that humans are not the only beings to have souls (or strong spirits, as the definition of a soul is sometimes disputed), and that a soul/strong spirit of one creature may incarnate as another creature... either by choice or involuntarily, depending who you talk to.
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