Otherkin?

[CoryKS]

If one believes in reincarnation, and I happen to be one who does, at least that some souls return repeatedly, it's possible.

Question is, why? Why would a human return as a goat, or a wolf as a human?

One could say, it's a form of karmatic balancing. A promotion/demotion system intended to teach the returning soul until it achieves a higher plane of existence.

Could be a way of placing souls where they belong, according to demonstrated behavior. Say that a human being chooses to ignore the possibilities available in his form, preferring only to eat, sleep, and defecate. Might as well be a cow, right? Or those whose traits run more predatory might be better suited in the skin of a wolf. Perhaps placement in animals with limited abilities might spark some sort of aspiration on the part of the soul to try a little harder next time.

This is all hypothetical on my part; I don't believe a word of it. :shrug:

 

[Xue Sheng]

One could say, it's a form of karmatic balancing. A promotion/demotion system intended to teach the returning soul until it achieves a higher plane of existence.

Could be and as I stated I know little abut Otherkin, but at least so far I have seen nothing about Karma.

But that would be one explanation.

But, and again I could be very wrong and please someone correct me if I am, I was reading today that it started as a new subculture of people identifying themselves as a number of different mythological creatures, such as fairies, unicorns, shape shifters and satyrs. And expanded to animals. Of course I am basing this on one source and I know I need more.

And I still think this is quite an interesting topic.

EDIT
I know we all know what Karma is but I wanted to throw in the definition for clarification purposes

karma

Hinduism & Buddhism. The total effect of a person's actions and conduct during the successive phases of the person's existence, regarded as determining the person's destiny.

 

[Infinite]

Could be and as I stated I know little abut Otherkin, but at least so far I have seen nothing about Karma.

But that would be one explanation.

But, and again I could be very wrong and please someone correct me if I am, I was reading today that it started as a new subculture of people identifying themselves as a number of different mythological creatures, such as fairies, unicorns, shape shifters and satyrs. And expanded to animals. Of course I am basing this on one source and I know I need more.

Ok a little history (why do I know this WHY), Subculture of the Otherkin is broken out of the subculter of Goth's (generic catch all term no one get offended).

Now BACKUP there is an evolution that happens in two different sub cultures that suddenly link together that cause all this to happen.

The Internet / RPG culture often interacts with the goth subculture. Now the Gaming RPG geeks started to create all these little online worlds to interact with each other and have games. Identifying with mythical creatures starts during this process. You want to be related to/ decendant of/ a dragon so your dwarf is slightly cooler than that other guys dwarf.


Now this turns into roleplaying turning INTO animals. Werewolves are a good example both man and beast shape shifters. Now add in that most of the people doing these things are 14 - 25 and you get sex thrown in there.

Sex added to all this creates two splits in the subculture. First it allows for mythical creatures like vampires to want desire and have sex. This creates what is known as the Psychic vampires. Ones that feed off of "life force" rather than blood.

It also created a group of people that were part animal having sex. This is known as furries. Furries have their own subculture entirely and are not directly related to any of the cutlures mentioned above other than common crossings of people an interests.

However Otherkin / Unkin subculture is related to and born out of that process. People started to identify with the soclaized attributes of the new mythical creatures (we had to socialize them to role play them correctly) and projected them.

Now if you believe you are an otherkin / unkin you likely will have a different historical view. This is much like Christians aruging about Christs life. If you are a christian you tend to believe one thing. If you are not you tend to believe something else entirely. Truth is in where you find it.

 

[Cryozombie]

Just a quick note regarding RPG'ers in the Goth Community...

It has been my experience, (having "grown up" within the Chi-goth subculture) that Goth was for a long time a seperate entity, pretty small and elitist, at least in Chicago. We were the Industrial Music capital for a while what with Wax Trax studios here, and bands like KMFDM, MINISTRY and Pigface out and about the city after they recorded. With the Goth/industrial crossover It wasn't unusal to see hard core Rivetheads mixing it up with Goths in places like Neo, Hex, The Original Dome Room, Smartbar, etc... Or for goths to hang in places like The Exit, Basement, Stormies Cafe, and the Crowbar (before it went mainstream) with the Rivetheads... two different subclutures and ideas that became interchangeable thru the music and association. AFTER Vampire the Masquerade came along you had a lot of "Posergoth" show up in the scene... guys and girls would show up at the hardcore goth clubs dressed like the "crow" including full makeup in their White Wolf t-shirts to LARP, and the Regular goth crowd tended to shun them... and it got hard to get an "in" to the scene, even if you weren't one of them... You knew someone who knew everyone, or you got lost... it was pretty cut and dry for a while. It really wasn't until much later when the hardcore Goth/Industrial scene started to die out that the posergoths started to become the mainstream, and, consequently thats when everyone started associating bands like Marylin Manson, Nine Inch Nails (???Why???) and Orgy as "Goth" bands... and Goth came into the mainstream media.

I'm still of the opinion that these "Posergoths" who became the new generation of goth are most heavily influenced by the RPG scene, which is why there is a common belief that they are tied together.

​

 

[heretic888]

However Otherkin / Unkin subculture is related to and born out of that process. People started to identify with the soclaized attributes of the new mythical creatures (we had to socialize them to role play them correctly) and projected them.

Now if you believe you are an otherkin / unkin you likely will have a different historical view. This is much like Christians aruging about Christs life. If you are a christian you tend to believe one thing. If you are not you tend to believe something else entirely. Truth is in where you find it.

In my opinion, this analysis is right on target.

 

[Infinite]

Just a quick note regarding RPG'ers in the Goth Community...

It has been my experience, (having "grown up" within the Chi-goth subculture) that Goth was for a long time a seperate entity, pretty small and elitist, at least in Chicago. We were the Industrial Music capital for a while what with Wax Trax studios here, and bands like KMFDM, MINISTRY and Pigface out and about the city after they recorded. With the Goth/industrial crossover It wasn't unusal to see hard core Rivetheads mixing it up with Goths in places like Neo, Hex, The Original Dome Room, Smartbar, etc... Or for goths to hang in places like The Exit, Basement, Stormies Cafe, and the Crowbar (before it went mainstream) with the Rivetheads... two different subclutures and ideas that became interchangeable thru the music and association. AFTER Vampire the Masquerade came along you had a lot of "Posergoth" show up in the scene... guys and girls would show up at the hardcore goth clubs dressed like the "crow" including full makeup in their White Wolf t-shirts to LARP, and the Regular goth crowd tended to shun them... and it got hard to get an "in" to the scene, even if you weren't one of them... You knew someone who knew everyone, or you got lost... it was pretty cut and dry for a while. It really wasn't until much later when the hardcore Goth/Industrial scene started to die out that the posergoths started to become the mainstream, and, consequently thats when everyone started associating bands like Marylin Manson, Nine Inch Nails (???Why???) and Orgy as "Goth" bands... and Goth came into the mainstream media.

I'm still of the opinion that these "Posergoths" who became the new generation of goth are most heavily influenced by the RPG scene, which is why there is a common belief that they are tied together.

​

So I agree completly notice how I said it was a catchall term at the time. I also pointed out that the RPG culture interacted with the goth sub culture. Ergo they were seperate cultures. Traditional Goth died out around the time that Punk was resurfacing again.

 

[Rich Parsons]

ok, we're going in 2 directions it seems. 1 part is a serious discussion of the idea of souls of animals reborn as humans, the other is a serious and not so serious discussion of gaming and fantasy writing....or am I misreading some things? (possible, that whole being half deaf in my third eye y'know).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Otherkin
http://www.otherkin.net/index.html

It's not the same thing as Scientology.

Bob,

If I have been insulting, Could you please let me knoe publically or privately so I can reflect upon what I wrote and try to understand what was insulting?

Also see theg following:

Otherkin is a subculture made up of people who consider themselves non-human or having a connection to a mythical archetype in some way, usually believing to be mythological or legendary creatures.[1][2] The otherkin community grew out of the elven online community of the early-to-mid-1990s, with the earliest recorded use of the term otherkin appearing in early 1996.[3] Outside of their own subculture, otherkin beliefs are often met with controversy.[4] According to diagnosis criteria put forth by mental health professionals, the belief that one is an animal or can be turned into an animal is termed clinical lycanthropy[5], a delusion of varying severity and significance.

The above quote was from your first link provided on Wiki and it mentioned the history of OtherKin and that it grew from ONLINE elven Community. Most of the online communities I know have some interests that are similiar eitehr for personal or entertainment reasons.

They state that the first usage of the Term "Otherkin: occurred in print in 1996.

I brought up other references that meet the same definition but were using different names.

One mans religion is another man's Joke or play thing. And before you or others get upset, look at the Jedi Religion. It grew out of a book and movie series that most of us are familiar with. Look at those that mis-used power in religions (* pick one from history *) and used religion as their play thing to run or rule a people.

I have no issue discussing Re-incarnation and have no issue with the subject or with the topic.

I thought that Otherkin was more than just a reincarnation following it came from and online elven community and other inputs from authors. I was discussing Otherkin and similiar topics, not trying to discount reincarnation.

If the topic of the thread was about reincarnation I would have been linking Reincarnation related topics. I am sure the staff could split this thread if it is a problem.

 

[Xue Sheng]

Ok a little history (why do I know this WHY), Subculture of the Otherkin is broken out of the subculter of Goth's (generic catch all term no one get offended).

Now BACKUP there is an evolution that happens in two different sub cultures that suddenly link together that cause all this to happen.

The Internet / RPG culture often interacts with the goth subculture. Now the Gaming RPG geeks started to create all these little online worlds to interact with each other and have games. Identifying with mythical creatures starts during this process. You want to be related to/ decendant of/ a dragon so your dwarf is slightly cooler than that other guys dwarf.


Now this turns into roleplaying turning INTO animals. Werewolves are a good example both man and beast shape shifters. Now add in that most of the people doing these things are 14 - 25 and you get sex thrown in there.

Sex added to all this creates two splits in the subculture. First it allows for mythical creatures like vampires to want desire and have sex. This creates what is known as the Psychic vampires. Ones that feed off of "life force" rather than blood.

It also created a group of people that were part animal having sex. This is known as furries. Furries have their own subculture entirely and are not directly related to any of the cutlures mentioned above other than common crossings of people an interests.

However Otherkin / Unkin subculture is related to and born out of that process. People started to identify with the soclaized attributes of the new mythical creatures (we had to socialize them to role play them correctly) and projected them.

Now if you believe you are an otherkin / unkin you likely will have a different historical view. This is much like Christians aruging about Christs life. If you are a christian you tend to believe one thing. If you are not you tend to believe something else entirely. Truth is in where you find it.

I don't know why you know this either, but thank you. For some reason I am finding this fascinating. I suspected somehow that role-playing games were involved but I was not exactly sure.

And I am hesitant to talk much about anything considered religious for exactly the reason you stated.

bands like KMFDM, MINISTRY

Wait a minute… I use to listen to them…. and I still have a Ministry CD….I didn’t think I was a Goth…. I always thought I was more of a Biker back then… (He said with shock and amazement)

 

[zDom]

... First it allows for mythical creatures like vampires to want desire and have sex. This creates what is known as the Psychic vampires. Ones that feed off of "life force" rather than blood ...

Not to hijack an already wandering thread, but:

I've mentally toyed with this idea ...

What if, faith is such a powerful force of existance that believing actually makes things so?

So, the more science we have, the less room there is for magic (as once something is "proven" by science, we no longer have the capacity to believe in other possibilities...)

and,

What if, (this comes from a Christian belief perspective) evil spirits/demons/fallen angels once upon a time COULD cause cause a man to morph into an animal; or could take physical form and feed on the blood of mortals ...

or maybe, the vampire myth grew as a metaphor for those who feed off of lifeforce through sex?

I've often wondered if the mythological gods, vampires, dragons could have all been based on a time when evil spirits/demons/fallen angels were actually able to take physical form.

Anybody heard of Nephirim?

Giants were supposedly the offspring of evil spirits + human females.

Now to bring it all around to "on topic,"

What if those who believe in things like unkin, reincarnation, vampirism are REALLY just hearing mind-whispers from evil spirits/demons/fallen angels who, through the ages, took those "mythological" forms in the past, or who closely associated themselves with/possessed various people in the past?

I've often wondered if those who suffer from schizophrenia aren't really just hearing spiritual voices.

I thought I also read something once about bloodlines that were "tainted" by Nephirim, or something like that, and end up having a history tied in with specific spirit ...

I feel sometimes that there is so much lore that has been lost or disregarded as "mythological" over the ages that would really come in handy.

Imagine being a creature that lives thousand and thousands of years in a plane not quite physical. How easy it would be to toy with the minds of creatures who live only a few decades.

You could even "predict the future" (in the same way that an adult, watching a child, can predict what will happen next ...).

 

[Tez3]

"Giants were supposedly the offspring of evil spirits + human females."

One would hope the births were mythical as well, wouldn't fancy having a labour producing a giant!

 

[tellner]

Evil spirits are often the cause of birth in female humans. If it weren't for cheap vodka and Barry White half my generation would never have been born.

 

[Nyrotic]

From what I have (just) read Otherkin feel they are human in a physical sense, but non-human in a mental or spiritual sense. And this can have something to do with reincarnation and/or having the soul of another species.

If I may ask, what other species and what led to feel or believe this?

Feel free to PM me if you would rather not post it or feel free to ignore me as well.

Thanks
XS

Well...I can't say that any other species influenced my current beliefs, although I was highly associated with the furry subculture a couple years back (Still am, although I'm more of a furry-fan these days). Basically, I thought I was just really obssessed with dragons while part of the furry culture, but even around them I felt 'out of place' when I told a couple of them that "I really am a dragon". But for the most part I was led to my beliefs all by myself, and it was set in stone when a furry showed me a link to an Otherkin website, and then stated how much of a bunch of whack-jobs they were. Oddly enough, I got along real well with everyone there, and was the top 6th poster on their forums for the longest time (I'm still in the top 10 I think, even though I haven't been there in 3 months).

Visit www.otherkin.com for more information, lol. Also, if you're really interested, you can join their forums there. They are very active with something like a 1000+ members.