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 Posted: Sat Jul 26, 2008 9:02 pm
I was thinking about this earlier today. What if someone discovered they were Otherkin or Therian, and didn't like being it? What if they just wanted to be a normal human? I know that wether they like or don't like being Otherkin is inevitable because they are who they are, but that still doesn't mean they can't have an opinion on themselves. Have any of you met an Otherkin or Therian that didn't like being who they are, or kind of has mixed feelings about them being, spiritually, non human?
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Posted: Sun Jul 27, 2008 2:04 pm
Being Otherkin means that you consider yourself, on some level (spiritual, psychological, mental, energetic, and to some, fraction of the physical) other than human, AND choose to identify with that part of yourself to the point where it becomes an integral part of your personal mythology and/or identity.
Otherkin is a belief and a label, not a state of being.
Thus, choosing not to continue keeping that fragment of one's self an integral part of one's personal mythology/identity does mean you (and/or choosing not to subscribe to the label), for all intents and purposes, stop being otherkin.
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Posted: Sun Jul 27, 2008 2:11 pm
Miniar Being Otherkin means that you consider yourself, on some level (spiritual, psychological, mental, energetic, and to some, fraction of the physical) other than human, AND choose to identify with that part of yourself to the point where it becomes an integral part of your personal mythology and/or identity. Otherkin is a belief and a label, not a state of being. Thus, choosing not to continue keeping that fragment of one's self an integral part of one's personal mythology/identity does mean you (and/or choosing not to subscribe to the label), for all intents and purposes, stop being otherkin. I disagree on some of those views. You can't stop being Otherkin. I see what you mean when you say it is a belief and a label, but believing you are Otherkin kind of coincides with being one. You find out your Otherkin and accept it because it's who you are, but you do not like it. There are plenty of instances where people accept something, but it's because they have to, not because they like it. If you were Otherkin and found that out, it would be stupid to lie to yourself saying your not. It's really hard to put into words.
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Posted: Sat Aug 02, 2008 3:27 am
What makes us otherkin is identifying with that part of us that which is other.
I haven't been rakshasa for eons, litterally. I have been a human being, lifetime after lifetime, after lifetime. If I choose to simply call myself human and nothing more, instead of human "and" otherkin then for all intents and purposes, I wouldn't be "otherkin".
Even if I can't change that my soul still has a little "other" to it, I can change whether or not I choose to identify with that other.
We can't change what we've been, but we can change how we view ourselves. Therein lies my point.
Otherkin isn't a state of being, it's a word for a belief that we are what we believe we are.
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Posted: Sat Aug 02, 2008 10:31 am
Miniar What makes us otherkin is identifying with that part of us that which is other. I haven't been rakshasa for eons, litterally. I have been a human being, lifetime after lifetime, after lifetime. If I choose to simply call myself human and nothing more, instead of human "and" otherkin then for all intents and purposes, I wouldn't be "otherkin". Even if I can't change that my soul still has a little "other" to it, I can change whether or not I choose to identify with that other. We can't change what we've been, but we can change how we view ourselves. Therein lies my point. Otherkin isn't a state of being, it's a word for a belief that we are what we believe we are. I see where you are coming now! That makes sense!
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Posted: Thu Aug 21, 2008 6:29 pm
One can have a fascination with something and identify as something without completely liking it. I've heard that people with conditions that are killing them, once they hear that they've been cured and no longer have to fear imminent death, actually become depressed because they've identified as dying for so long. Doesn't mean they prefer to be a dying person. On the other hand, that isn't a community, exactly, so maybe I've missed the point; to tell you the truth, it doesn't really matter all that much to me. Labels don't last. Memory might.
I believe that at several points I was something other than human - a 'spirit' of certain processes. However, I was a jerk at that time in my life (well, death,) and it was being a jerk that got me there. I'd just as well not have been done the things which got me to the point in my life where I stopped being human and started being the consciousness of a process.
Right now, I'm hosted in someone else's body, and I think I'd prefer my own. On the other hand, I'm also not sure I could handle one. I was human in the beginning, long ago, and that's when I made my mistakes. I'm afraid that if I got another body all to myself, with nobody supporting me and providing the sense of empathy that I overlooked in my last (singleton) human life, I might just go back and do the same things all over again...
So I don't feel proud or happy to be otherkin, or if I can't use that label, something like otherkin, no.
It was cool as hell meeting all the other processes, though. Some of them are jerks, but having known the colors gives me a thrill. I don't remember it so well now, but now that it's not a part of my every day life, it's a memory I cherish, know what I mean? It's like when you had a job you hate, then quit it, and realize that you made all these great memories and experiences in that job that you never realized back then due to your own exhaustion or bad mood. Now my bad attitude's gone, so I can appreciate it.
On the other hand, I do feel spiritually human beneath it all. I feel like a human who stopped being human, and now is trying to start again. I just keep an ear to the Otherkin community because I'm curious to see if anybody else has had a similar experience. We all want to know where we've been, I guess.
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Posted: Wed Nov 26, 2008 3:16 pm
Miniar Being Otherkin means that you consider yourself, on some level (spiritual, psychological, mental, energetic, and to some, fraction of the physical) other than human, AND choose to identify with that part of yourself to the point where it becomes an integral part of your personal mythology and/or identity. Otherkin is a belief and a label, not a state of being. Thus, choosing not to continue keeping that fragment of one's self an integral part of one's personal mythology/identity does mean you (and/or choosing not to subscribe to the label), for all intents and purposes, stop being otherkin. Since when do you get to choose? I understand where you're coming from, in the sense that you can choose to not use the term Otherkin to describe yourself anymore, but if you're a dragon, you're a dragon, and calling yourself not-dragon isn't going to turn you into one automatically. O.o Just like I can't look at my skin and go "TAN!!" and have it change. There was a time when I could do such things, but that's before all this and I didn't have skin anyway. XD I can't change my eye color. I could put on contacts and say "Hey, my eyes are black now!!" and for all intents and purposes, to the outside world, they would be black. But really, they're still blue-green, just hidden away.
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Posted: Wed Nov 26, 2008 4:24 pm
Amazing Avatar, Simim.
I can see where you're coming from, Miniar, but Simim is right. You can choose to ignore a part of yourself, but that doesn't make it dissappear.
I can pretend I don't have a stomach, I can even ignore the fact that I do. I can reject all references to it. But I still have it.
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Posted: Wed Dec 10, 2008 2:29 pm
There's a stark difference between pretending your physical self changes, and choosing which part of your personal identity and mythology you want to keep.
Being otherkin isn't a physical thing, isn't a proovable thing, isn't anything really.
You can choose not to identify as a dragon because, quite frankly, "you" aren't a dragon. At best, your soul is draconic for one reason or another.
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Posted: Sun Apr 12, 2009 8:41 pm
Miniar There's a stark difference between pretending your physical self changes, and choosing which part of your personal identity and mythology you want to keep. Being otherkin isn't a physical thing, isn't a proovable thing, isn't anything really. You can choose not to identify as a dragon because, quite frankly, "you" aren't a dragon. At best, your soul is draconic for one reason or another. If you take a banana and eat half of it, is it half a banana, or a banana which possesses the property of being half eaten? We can describe things a different way, and it's true that those descriptions are important, but one has to deal with the phenomenon one is talking about whether or not one recognizes it as a property or an identity. A half eaten banana would probably have similar issues to a bunch of bananas that all have the property of being half-eaten, so you might as well call them the same thing, or very similar things.
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Posted: Fri Apr 17, 2009 5:25 am
Eteles Miniar There's a stark difference between pretending your physical self changes, and choosing which part of your personal identity and mythology you want to keep. Being otherkin isn't a physical thing, isn't a proovable thing, isn't anything really. You can choose not to identify as a dragon because, quite frankly, "you" aren't a dragon. At best, your soul is draconic for one reason or another. If you take a banana and eat half of it, is it half a banana, or a banana which possesses the property of being half eaten? We can describe things a different way, and it's true that those descriptions are important, but one has to deal with the phenomenon one is talking about whether or not one recognizes it as a property or an identity. A half eaten banana would probably have similar issues to a bunch of bananas that all have the property of being half-eaten, so you might as well call them the same thing, or very similar things. Your analogy is inherently flawed because you're using a physical object and a physical, provable, property to represent a mental/spiritual/psychological phenomenon that is completely unverifiable.
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Posted: Fri Apr 17, 2009 10:49 pm
Miniar Eteles Miniar There's a stark difference between pretending your physical self changes, and choosing which part of your personal identity and mythology you want to keep. Being otherkin isn't a physical thing, isn't a proovable thing, isn't anything really. You can choose not to identify as a dragon because, quite frankly, "you" aren't a dragon. At best, your soul is draconic for one reason or another. If you take a banana and eat half of it, is it half a banana, or a banana which possesses the property of being half eaten? We can describe things a different way, and it's true that those descriptions are important, but one has to deal with the phenomenon one is talking about whether or not one recognizes it as a property or an identity. A half eaten banana would probably have similar issues to a bunch of bananas that all have the property of being half-eaten, so you might as well call them the same thing, or very similar things. Your analogy is inherently flawed because you're using a physical object and a physical, provable, property to represent a mental/spiritual/psychological phenomenon that is completely unverifiable. It's still a good point.
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Posted: Thu May 14, 2009 4:38 pm
Obscurus Miniar Eteles Miniar There's a stark difference between pretending your physical self changes, and choosing which part of your personal identity and mythology you want to keep. Being otherkin isn't a physical thing, isn't a proovable thing, isn't anything really. You can choose not to identify as a dragon because, quite frankly, "you" aren't a dragon. At best, your soul is draconic for one reason or another. If you take a banana and eat half of it, is it half a banana, or a banana which possesses the property of being half eaten? We can describe things a different way, and it's true that those descriptions are important, but one has to deal with the phenomenon one is talking about whether or not one recognizes it as a property or an identity. A half eaten banana would probably have similar issues to a bunch of bananas that all have the property of being half-eaten, so you might as well call them the same thing, or very similar things. Your analogy is inherently flawed because you're using a physical object and a physical, provable, property to represent a mental/spiritual/psychological phenomenon that is completely unverifiable. It's still a good point. I gotta agree with Obscurus here. Verifiable it might not be, but perceptible it is (just enough to be a problem, anyway.) You can choose not to call yourself an angel when you feel you've got phantom wings and a strong urge to heal people, but you've still got the feeling of phantom wings and a strong urge to heal people. Even if you wish you didn't.
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