You know, I have yet to find a real direct post about one of the most fascinating (at least in my opinion) subjects - Otherkin.
What are Otherkin? Otherkin, as described by Wikipedia, are a community of people who see themselves as partially or entirely not human, contending that through reincarnation, spiritual ansestry or other means they are in spirit, not in body, non-human.
Otherkin.net describes it similarily.
Otherkin is a collective noun for an assortment of people who have come to the somewhat unorthodox, and possibly quite bizarre, conclusion that they identify themselves as being something other than human. It is also the label used by a number of communities both on and off line.
I personally support this belief. There can be many explainations for it, the most common being the belief in reincarnation. Another theory states that a traumatic event could cause vacancy in the body, and another spirit "pops" in. There are also numerous psychological explainations ranging from Jungian archetypes into Escapism or maladaption.
At any rate, I wanted to create a thread to hopefully collect varying views on otherkinism, and see if there are any more specific theories as to why this phoenomena may occur.
Also, my apologies for the split post.. typing from a phone sucks at times..
Re: Otherkin and Otherkinism. By: Skywing / Beginner
Post # 3 Jul 22, 2012
I realy don't know much about otherkin, but I do know a little about reincarnation. Reincarnation is not limmited by species, it's just that our human past life memories are easier for us to understand when found. I personally have a few non-human past life memories that I have unearthed, including one as a dinosaur, though I can't fully tap or understand those that are not human, because the memories are not human it is dificult for a human to truely understand them. I suppose otherkin might be people who are better at recalling a particular non-human past life than others, that is just a theory, but as I said I don't know much about them (I'll do a little research on them later)
Very interesting idea. What of mythical creatures? Some otherkin believe themselves angels, demons, elves, dragons... what of those beings?
Especially angels and demon. They're spiritual beings, no physical bodies to put a human soul into. It's these cases that intrigue me the most. Those that believe they are something that has no physical form to begin with.