Otherkin

I don't usually get intentionally involved with otherkin. This is not because I have a prejudice against the belief but because the otherkin community, much like a lot of related communities, tends to create a great amount of drama and I just get burnt out on that after a while. However, I do end up encountering those that identify as therians or otherkin by virtue of the subjects I'm interested in and the circles I travel in. Without making any attempt to flatter or offend I'll muse a little on the topic of otherkin.

The majority of otherkin I encounter are of the belief that they are other than human in soul. The dominant theory I come across is that they have been reincarnated into a human body when they originally inhabited the body of another species. I'm not perturbed by this sort of belief and I'm unconcerned if the people around me subscribe to it. To each their own. I believe some relatively strange things myself.

I do occasionally encounter individuals that claim to mentally shift. They claim that their mentality or mind will shift from that of a human to that of their original species. This is an interesting concept to me but this is another belief that doesn't really bother me one way or the other. I seem to recall reading about other types of non-physical shifting at some point but I can't say I remember them right now. This idea of shifting could probably also be elaborated on a lot if the particular otherkin claims to have multiple souls residing in the same body (as I have seen before in the past).

Then we get some people that claim to be able to physically change their form. I almost immediately disregard these claims for a number of reasons, chiefly because it seems to defy quite a few physical laws to an extreme degree. Most of the time when confronted with this kind of belief I'll just listen to what the other person has to say and I may ask questions. I would like to see them physically transform, of course, but I'm not going to demand they do so as that would be rude even if they are capable of doing it.

In some cases it's not really a total transformation from human to animal that is claimed but simply an augmenting of human senses or abilities that would seem to coincide with what the otherkin's original form would be able to do. I think we're all capable of some extraordinary feats when we set ourselves to them and whether one attributes this to the human mind or having been some other species in a past life doesn't seem to matter from a practical standpoint.

Something that I do see more than one would think is a belief among otherkin that eventually some great event will occur and everyone will assume their "true form" again. This may be tied to some story of war on the astral planes, the veil between worlds becoming thinner, or variations on these themes. I don't see this as much different than a belief in the Rapture or the Apocalypse and in comparison it's not necessarily that "out there."

My final thoughts on the subject of otherkin are that they have beliefs just like anyone else. Some of the beliefs are more "out there" than others, even within the otherkin community, but given the whole of world beliefs they really aren't that strange. I think some people may take it too far but this can be said of anything that people are wont to do. Overall, otherkin are (currently) people just like anyone else and are susceptible to human foibles just like the rest of us regardless of what species they may have originally been. With this in mind I try not to treat otherkin any differently than people that identify totally as human and I hope you'll attempt the same should you encounter anyone that claims to be otherkin.