The Otherkin Phenomena

A Heads Up for all Otherkin, New and Old.

Every day, a brand new otherkin awakens, realizing that they are X because of one dream, one vision, one thought or memory or experience.
They realize that they are special, if not unique, and are eager to grace the world of otherkin with their specialness.
Often they will not reveal that they awoke yesterday, instead they would rather lie and make themselves out to be better informed than they are.
They've never meditated in their lives, and even if they have they've only done it they haven't used it as a self learning tool, only as a thing to make themselve feel like they are spiritual.
Some haven't even had the good sense to read up on their kintype.
Many of them will believe that their kintype is either unique, or they are somehow extra special in their version of the kintype. They aren't "just" a cat, they are a magical cat that talks and leads a clan of magical cats. They have wings and duties and power and wizdome and the keys to unlocking the universe.
They are quick to warn us about the coming magical war, or the falling of the veil and invariably they have an extra special role in these events, or they'll try and play the humble card and claim they just want to warn people. Offering to lead and protect by claiming they aren't leaders but would do the job if needed.
They pray on those that are new and curious and don't know where they go from day one. Offering all the answers at the low low cost of "follow me without question".
They will tell you your kintype.
They will tell you your purpose in life.
They will tell you who you were in past lives and how special you were to them then and are to them now.
They will offer you whatever they think you might want.
And they will pull all their answers right out of their own behinds or from the behind of the person who gave them their answers. It's a neverending cycle of complete "made up on the spot" bs.

And they are an insult to every last otherkin who spent years questioning, doubting, and studying themselves, trying to figure out who they "are", not what they might have been. They bring shame to every last otherkin who meditates to try and understand themselves. Who reads up on old myths, not looking for answers but looking for questions. They drag the entire otherkin community through the mud and most of us are too cowardly, too frail in our own perception of ourselves, too afraid that we too might be wrong, to see the obvious, and sometimes complete, lack of logic, study, honesty, or whatever else could have started them down this path.
In the name of keeping the piece, or keeping an open mind, we fail to question them or call them out, and thus more otherkin, new and naieve and still barely aware of the concept, tumble down the rabbit hole, eagerly joining those that have all the answers.
There are those that have fallen down there, taken in and even truly believed all the lies and worse that they were fed, lapping up each word, only to realize later on that they lost years to something that they now see for what it was. There are those that have stood and cried "the war is coming!" or "the veil is falling!" or "I'm special damnit!" and then seen that no war came when they were told it would, the veil didn't fall, and the weren't special, not for the reasons they were told they were. There are many kin, still down in that hole, not learning about themselves, not growing, not becoming anything, not overcoming anything, they just stay there, because, after all, they have all the answers.
All the answers is a lie.
The only good answer you can ever hope for will only ever give you more questions. The only way to really know you're getting somewhere is when your answers have only given you more questions, but you aren't so buisy chasing more answers that you can't just stop and see yourself as you are, right now, without answers.

Do not think that finding your kintype will make things make sense, or solve any problems, or answer any questions except, "what is my kintype?".
Do not think that you will Ever find people from your past. Who they were then, and who they are now, may be based off of the same core but we are All the sum of our experiences and as such, the people you knew then do Not exist anymore. They have changed and hopefully, so have you.
You aren't your kintype. It's only a part of you. If you're reincarnated, then you're a human being who used to be your kintype once.
The astral war or the falling veil or whatever "end of the world" they're crying these days, they've been saying it's coming every two years since before the word "otherkin" was invented. Grain of salt doesn't cover it, I reccommend two kilos worth to start with.
Your life can not be controlled by your kintype, like I said, you aren't "an elven princess" today. Whatever else you are, you are also a human being, and you should either at least try to make the best of it, or try and think of some other options.

If you can be an intelligent human being, and conduct yourself in a rational manner, who bases his or her references to being otherkin on serious, thought out, self searching and research, then by all means, you are just what the community needs. Just grab a cluebat when you come in.

Do not think that you will Ever find people from your past. Who they were then, and who they are now, may be based off of the same core but we are All the sum of our experiences and as such, the people you knew then do Not exist anymore. They have changed and hopefully, so have you.

I don't understand what you mean here, can you explain?


And re-read for typos.

Tai

Taiaka wrote:

Do not think that you will Ever find people from your past. Who they were then, and who they are now, may be based off of the same core but we are All the sum of our experiences and as such, the people you knew then do Not exist anymore. They have changed and hopefully, so have you.

I don't understand what you mean here, can you explain?


And re-read for typos.

Tai

Simple... who you were, three lifetimes ago, is not the same person as you are in this lifetime. The people that you knew, three lifetimes ago, are not the same people as they are in this lifetime. So you can not meet your old lover from 400 years ago and think that the two of you will just pick up where you left off. You aren't who you were then, and neither is the lover. All the experiences and influences of all the actions and reactions taken in those 400 years as well as the simple little differences in biochemistry makes it impossible to go 400 years and be the exact same person.
Basic sense.

Huzzah for proper reflection and thought!

I want to ask your opinion Freetha and possibly start a new thread of it hasn't been asked before...

Do you think those who's reason for being Kin is that they were X in a past life qualify as Otherkin? My current thought is leaning toward no. My reason, because being Otherkin is about what you are *now* in this life (as you mentioned) If you aren't a X now but you were then, you aren't Otherkin. Proof perhaps of reincarnation and other realms of existence yes, but not Otherkin as usually defined. Of course, just for good measure, we are all human in the sense that we have human bodies etc...

Thoughts? Like I said I'm leaning toward no but I'm open to being convinced otherwise. Myself? I had to struggle with this because I think if I *was* a dragon then I'm not Otherkin. But I wasn't a physical dragon. After loads of thinking, and I'm not wanting to divulge my personal reflections, I'm an incarnate spirit. I didn't die, I incarnated so as to have a human body and experience human life. Though I didn't know all that would happen in this life. My core identity is that of being a dragon spirit. My human identity is here simply because of this physical incarnation. Again, thoughts? Discuss!

Freetha wrote:

Taiaka wrote:

Do not think that you will Ever find people from your past. Who they were then, and who they are now, may be based off of the same core but we are All the sum of our experiences and as such, the people you knew then do Not exist anymore. They have changed and hopefully, so have you.

I don't understand what you mean here, can you explain?


And re-read for typos.

Tai

Simple... who you were, three lifetimes ago, is not the same person as you are in this lifetime. The people that you knew, three lifetimes ago, are not the same people as they are in this lifetime. So you can not meet your old lover from 400 years ago and think that the two of you will just pick up where you left off. You aren't who you were then, and neither is the lover. All the experiences and influences of all the actions and reactions taken in those 400 years as well as the simple little differences in biochemistry makes it impossible to go 400 years and be the exact same person.
Basic sense.

Yeah, but what about the soul? Sure basic sense says that the literal human would be different, molded from x experiences over x amount of years, but if we're talking about reincarnation we're talking about the recycling of the soul (or whatever definition you want to give the term), this is a place where biochemistry isn't a factor, nature and nurture aren't factors either. In a way, you're absolutely right, but the moment you bring science into the argument you're negating the argument; if we're talking about past life experience which has not and cannot be proven by moden science (yet? Ever? It doesn't matter), its still speculation on both sides. So I don't think its fair to say its impossible for 400 years to pass and two individuals still meet and still find love dispite being the same people or not.

Taiaka wrote:

Freetha wrote:

Taiaka wrote:

Do not think that you will Ever find people from your past. Who they were then, and who they are now, may be based off of the same core but we are All the sum of our experiences and as such, the people you knew then do Not exist anymore. They have changed and hopefully, so have you.

I don't understand what you mean here, can you explain?


And re-read for typos.

Tai

Simple... who you were, three lifetimes ago, is not the same person as you are in this lifetime. The people that you knew, three lifetimes ago, are not the same people as they are in this lifetime. So you can not meet your old lover from 400 years ago and think that the two of you will just pick up where you left off. You aren't who you were then, and neither is the lover. All the experiences and influences of all the actions and reactions taken in those 400 years as well as the simple little differences in biochemistry makes it impossible to go 400 years and be the exact same person.
Basic sense.

Yeah, but what about the soul? Sure basic sense says that the literal human would be different, molded from x experiences over x amount of years, but if we're talking about reincarnation we're talking about the recycling of the soul (or whatever definition you want to give the term), this is a place where biochemistry isn't a factor, nature and nurture aren't factors either. In a way, you're absolutely right, but the moment you bring science into the argument you're negating the argument; if we're talking about past life experience which has not and cannot be proven by moden science (yet? Ever? It doesn't matter), its still speculation on both sides. So I don't think its fair to say its impossible for 400 years to pass and two individuals still meet and still find love dispite being the same people or not.

Just my opinion on it, but I have been reading a book involving monks, so it may pass as wisdom

Firstly: Lovers aren't always or even often in love, really. Sad but true. Second is that the relationships of people vary dramatically according to trivial details. If two people naturally- according to the natural mapping of their souls- adore music, but one of them grew up listening to hiphop while the other had grown up listening to Mozart and Bach, you might expect some friction there. Third thing is that- entirely theory here, understand- some things probably do rub off on souls. These things- small, trivial things, mostly, when compared to the vastness of time and space and all that hoopla- can be just large enough to turn a romantic relationship into a bitter rivalry.

Granamyr wrote:Do you think those who's reason for being Kin is that they were X in a past life qualify as Otherkin? My current thought is leaning toward no. My reason, because being Otherkin is about what you are *now* in this life (as you mentioned) If you aren't a X now but you were then, you aren't Otherkin. Proof perhaps of reincarnation and other realms of existence yes, but not Otherkin as usually defined. Of course, just for good measure, we are all human in the sense that we have human bodies etc...

My personal thought on this topic is that if someone was other-than-human in a past life, then they still count as otherkin if they strongly identify with that life - BUT if they think that life is more significant to them then the events of their current life, well that is of itself more interesting than whether they're human or not.

There are of course two options - one, that people who hold on to a past life are unable to properly deal with this one and they should grow the hell up and get on with living in the here-and-now rather than thinking about how green the grass is elsewhere. The other option is that how we came to be who and where we are is of vital importance, and to ignore the past - even the distant past - is shortsighted and best, destructive at worst.

I don't presume to know which is closer to the truth for any one individual, even myself.

Deros wrote:These things- small, trivial things, mostly, when compared to the vastness of time and space and all that hoopla- can be just large enough to turn a romantic relationship into a bitter rivalry.

My regular life is full of people who I met in some way or another, and we had some kind of significant effect on each other, and it all seemed to be down to chance - I chose one high school over another, say, went to one bar rather than another, met someone I would otherwise have not met, and changed course. It made life look somewhat random.

However some of those people look, on close inspection, to be more "fated". And plenty of aspects of my life, both trivial and significant, I would almost certainly have ended up with one way or another. You take the basic starting ingredietnts - someone of my personality type who was a shadow, living in such a relatively small place as this little country - and it was in fact pretty inevitable that certain people I would meet, certain roles I would take on. Maybe I met someone in a bar who, had my life taken a different course, I would have met in work. Maybe I met someone at a hockey game - but if I went to a different school I'd have met them there, years before. It might be some kind of "fate" or it might just be that my personality and geography means there are limits to the things I will experience. There might be no truth to it at all, but my mind deals with input by framing it in a pattern - human minds are good at that.

Either way, I tend to believe not in "fate" in the sense of if you are someone's lover in one life you will be their lover in another - rather I believe it in the sense of certain people seem to be attached to each other with long elastics, and as such tend to bounce back towards each other from time to time. Sometimes the bounce means you're lovers, sometimes it means murder, sometimes it just means you meet someone with a funny feeling in a bar one night and a chance conversation sets your life off in a different way. But I do think it possible that people of significance are connected to one another, somehow.

Taiaka wrote:Yeah, but what about the soul? Sure basic sense says that the literal human would be different, molded from x experiences over x amount of years, but if we're talking about reincarnation we're talking about the recycling of the soul (or whatever definition you want to give the term), this is a place where biochemistry isn't a factor, nature and nurture aren't factors either. In a way, you're absolutely right, but the moment you bring science into the argument you're negating the argument; if we're talking about past life experience which has not and cannot be proven by moden science (yet? Ever? It doesn't matter), its still speculation on both sides. So I don't think its fair to say its impossible for 400 years to pass and two individuals still meet and still find love dispite being the same people or not.

What about the soul?
Even if it were stripped clean of all input it is still put inside a body (biochemistry) and then has to grow up to an age where it's capable of attraction and attraction based love (experience) and no two lives are exactly the same, there's always a difference in the details.
I didn't say you couldn't fall in love with the current version, simply that No, the current version IS NOT and never can be the same as the version you met and loved 400 years ago.

Freetha wrote:

Taiaka wrote:

Do not think that you will Ever find people from your past. Who they were then, and who they are now, may be based off of the same core but we are All the sum of our experiences and as such, the people you knew then do Not exist anymore. They have changed and hopefully, so have you.

I don't understand what you mean here, can you explain?


And re-read for typos.

Tai

Simple... who you were, three lifetimes ago, is not the same person as you are in this lifetime. The people that you knew, three lifetimes ago, are not the same people as they are in this lifetime. So you can not meet your old lover from 400 years ago and think that the two of you will just pick up where you left off. You aren't who you were then, and neither is the lover. All the experiences and influences of all the actions and reactions taken in those 400 years as well as the simple little differences in biochemistry makes it impossible to go 400 years and be the exact same person.
Basic sense.

Speaking from first-hand experience: it is deeply annoying when someone holds the personality you once held in a past incarnation against you in this incarnation, especially when the core of your personality has drastically shifted in recent incarnations :/.