marmanic:

Okay so

I have a thought on this “otherkin” sort of thing. I mean, people who think they are “otherkin” like??? How does that work? Explain it to me please because to me it’s just a person with a wild imagination.

Doing some googling would help you a whole lot, but here’s the gist of it.

The definition I tend to use is that it’s an ontological phenomenon in which one identifies partially or entirely as a nonhuman entity on a nonphysical, involuntary, and profound level. And yes, every one of those words is virtually required.

Tumblr’s about the worst place to learn about otherkinity- trolls happened because people didn’t bother to ask about it and instead made fun of what they didn’t understand (no surprise) and now there’s so much misinformation on this site that you’d be hard pressed to find legitimate otherkin. Thankfully, I’m one of them, so I can help you out a bit and direct you to the others I know.

So it’s mostly either a spiritual belief or a psychological one. You’ll have, say, an otherkin whose kintype is a wolf (kintype being the thing they ID as that makes them fit the definition of otherkin), and they’ll probably exhibit some wolfy behaviours. Probably like playfighting and raw meat and enjoy building dens; though that’s not always the case. As to why this happens, well, we don’t know for sure. In the same way we don’t know for sure what happens after you die, if you go to an afterlife or get reborn or just stop existing.

Some people think it’s spiritual- past lives are pretty common, so are having the souls of other stuff, or other generally spiritual reasons. These beliefs aren’t a delusion, they don’t fit the definition. You can’t prove or disprove spiritual beliefs. Trying is about as good as trying to prove whether or not the Abrahamic God exists. It’s not going to happen either way anytime soon.

It’s also sometimes psychological- you’ll see the old “it was a coping mechanism as a kid but now it’s irreversible and no longer a coping mechanism, simply how I am now” sometimes, same with the very vague ‘brainweird stuff’. Those who believe their otherkinity has something to do with their mind and how it works fall under this category.

There’s more ways to be otherkin; some are cultural too (I know someone who’s a dragon specifically because their entire family are dragons under their cultural / spiritual beliefs), some are religious, some just don’t know and don’t care to find out why. And all of that’s great! All that matters is that you fit the definition.

There’s more to the community than just that, though- different but similar experiences (otherhearted, copinglinking, multiplicity, fictionkind and fictionflickering, for examples), history (our documented history as a community goes back to the 70s, it’s delightful), some traditions and general gathering spots, community symbols and jokes, and all sorts of things.

Though I’ll admit my favourite part of the community is just how stubborn we are to find out things about ourselves. Self-introspection and other means of understanding yourself are so highly-stressed that in some places you’re expected to present all of your findings about why you think you’re otherkin before anyone will speak to you as an equal. (It’s called grilling and I’ll admit it’s not as fun as it sounds, but the fact that we insist on research so much that this can happen says something.)

If you have any other questions, let me know. I’ll do my best to answer.