Can someone please tell me what a therian is and how to tell if you are one? I'm sorry if I sound like a fluff, I just have close to no magical experience. I've heard about Otherkin also, and would like to know what they are as well.
A Therian is a person who feels, believes or knows their spirit is not human but an animal. Often, experiencing visions,or dreams that are vivid of being their type of animal ( Termed Therio-Type) If you do research or track your behavior for any animal like traits, feelings related to animal, a great connection to animals or otherwise example feeling a tail or leg you may be. Every Therian experiences it different.
I searched about Therians online... It's possible you feel connected with animals, but you cannot be an animal in spirit form, in a body. Spirit animals (I don't mean spirit animals of people, I mean animals in spirit form) tend to be a kind of entity; Demons or Angels. Demons or Angels cannot be reincarnated, that's why if you were an animal in spirit you wouldn't be in physical body.
Other kins, are a lie. It works in the same way if you notice. I think the "other kins" are half Demon or Angel, or normal Demon or Angel into a human body? I don't know what crazy stories they have made up. But no matter of that Otherkins don't exist because Demons and Angels cannot be reincarnated. Oh and yeah, I just searched it up...
To sum up, it's impossible to be an otherkin, or Therian or something, because non-human souls cannot exist in human bodies, it's just impossible; as I said Demons & Angels cannot be reincarnated. Now if you feel connection to animals that's a comlletely different thing...
Another name for therians (that some in the psych field have used) is trans-species. Based on the root meaning of "trans-something" this is accurate.
Therians are people who identify as a nonhuman animal in a human body. Some think it's spritual (reincarnation or having the soul of an animal because of some kind of cosmic mistake) some think it's psychological (atypical brain wiring or imprinting being common theories).
*Note that identifying with a species like furries do, can seem similar to being therian, but ultimately these people do not feel they are/or should have been born as, another species.
@Ioakeim
Your post is entirely your belief, and while you're entitled to that, please do not crap all over people who experience something that is subjectively very real and intrinsic to their identity.
(I say all this as a therian myself, who's been in therian communities for about a decade.)
There are problems in the therian/otherkin community. There is a lot of therians that have a wolf theriotype. I think some are fake because they are trying to be cool or like the fashion. Some people don't experience shifts so that alone isn't reliable. The most reliable way of finding a theriotype is by meditating. Otherkin is a name all mythical beings.
The whole belief that Otherkins and Therians have is that they are, in part, not human except in physical body. It can be a spiritual belief or it can be a psychological one (or both). Neither belief involves "half-anything" because that's missing the point of what both are. It's an identity, part of who and what you feel you are. It's not something you "become," either, and has nothing to do with claims of being physically anything other than human.
The thing about identifying as Otherkin or Therian is that it takes time and many that I know are often critical of themselves to the point of wanting to try to disprove what they think is right so they can be absolutely sure in their own minds that this is a part of their identity (because the mentality is that if it is consistent and persistent enough, it is undoubtedly an aspect of them).
Because the claims are about mentality and spiritual belief, neither can be proven or disproven much in the same way that any magical practice or belief cannot be proven or disproven. As it is also an aspect of identity, we cannot tell other people what they are and are not (except that we're all physically human), so trying to say they're fake is a futile effort that completely misunderstands the point of it all.
