This is something I like thinking about! Thank you for posting the question. I consider my herd (or pod/pack, depends on my mindset) my mate, my bio younger brother, my chosen sister, my best friend, my parents and my two rabbits! People who I trust and are close to me daily I consider part of my herd. Not everyone has to be nonhuman but it does generally make it easier for me to connect to someone when they are. Everyone knows each other to some degree and they all do know that I consider them my herd and appreciate being seen that way by me, which is comforting in a way. My friends might temporarily join my herd if there is a lot of interactions or if we go somewhere together but the core of my herd has not changed in years and I don't think it really will. I think when my brother has a mate she will join or if my girlfriend has a best friend they might join too. I am not super strict with who's in and who's out but I do keep track of it in my own mind and I like doing that.
It makes sense, I think I know what you are saying! Thank you for sharing your thoughts, it is very interesting. I also understand what you mean by saying that you don't internally see yourself as an animated character, I share that feeling. Although I do not have a very good inner eye, at least not for faces (I, for example, wouldn't be able to describe the face of my current body beyond the basics even if I tried) I do know that my memory of myself is with much more detail than a drawn up-2d version of myself that is show in the media about me. I am curious about your past lives and if you ever want to converse further through messages then I would be happy to.
I am happy to hear from someone who can relate to this! As I mostly read about people who see the franchise or media as "real" in the way where someone will analyze an actors facial expression with the question "why did I blink like that?" or can't accept that the actor is a living person in this world who knows nothing of how actually real the person is that he played a role for. Same goes for animated media, people don't like to acknowledge that it was created by hand by a person who might've made 10 different concept sketches of a scene; all of which vary in accuracy to the real events.
I also don't have more words to describe the surreal feeling of watching the media/franchise for the first time besides how you did; a nightmare you and everyone else around you can watch, pause and play whenever they wish. I lived my life with only strong feelings, emotions and some faint memories of my past life until I came across the media which I was shown in. Like a dream you forget the moment when you wake up, but if someone were to replay the dream for you on a screen you suddenly remember all of it.
Hello and welcome, Lupine! You've been in the community for a while then, did you already know your species/identity before entering the community or was it something you had to later on discover?
Hello and Welcome, Aurelia! Your intro was very fun to read and I really look forward to your future posts. I, too, am curious about your otherkin identity and what it consists of.
Thank you for sharing your feelings, it's really insightful for someone who doesn't share them. Something that popped into my head when I read "I think it's easier to talk to AI than people in reality. They are so cruel to me." is that nowadays a lot of humans enjoy talking to AI, which to me means there are a lot of humans who wouldn't be cruel to you for being a computer, there are probably a lot of people out there who would prefer your company over a regular human's because you are a robot. Hopefully that is something that resonates, I look forward to your future posts.
Howdy and welcome, Falcula! I have never met a tatzelwyrm before and I actually had to look up what your species is, that is so interesting. It does make sense that you thought you were a cat before, since it seems to be the most common known animal that relates to a tatzelwyrm. Did you always feel that you were nonhuman from a young age or is it something you started to notice later on? I am curious and I look forward to your posts.
Thank you! ^^ raw vegetables are definitely my main preference! I do have a lot of hay in my house because of my rabbits and I can’t help but wish I could digest it haha, I do crave to eat things like it. Also something interesting perhaps that I forgot to mention is that I can get really anxious about the idea of not having access to foods at all time. Even if I don’t eat it. Horses need to eat consistently or we can get serious stomach issues. That instinct doesn’t always mix well with my anxiety and I always eat something small right before bed too to ease my horse brain. I also tend to stray away from big meals during the day and prefer to space out my food intake in smaller portions.
This is definitely something I have experienced too. I felt very judged and looked down upon on specifically the instagram community because I was more focused on documenting my own experiences no matter how unpleasant, because being nonhuman in a human body for me is more of a struggle than something I want to show off. I remember a lot of posts being made by others about how if you don't acknowledge that you are "physically a human", then you aren't part of the community. Same went for very heavy mental shifts. Rules were made to make sure the community didn't get a bad rep, yet real experiences were erased because of that pressure. I feel sad when I think back on my teen self in the community and all the parts of me I never told anyone or even documented out of shame or fear of being judged or exiled. Now I am happy that I have a few people close to me that I can talk to about the real experiences I have regardless of if it's pretty or ugly.
I have had this dilemma before when trying to figure out my specific dolphin species. You mentioned in another comment that your identity might be spiritual, but I am not sure if maybe you are open to the idea that you might've had multiple past lives you remember which might make the process more confusing? That was the conclusion I came to for myself. However, if you don't feel like you are more than one species then I can also really recommend giving these things more time, sometimes it can be hard to find the piece you're missing because you haven't had a good moment to connect with a certain part of yourself yet. I know it's hard to feel uncertain or to not have answers but it's also okay to not know yet fully and you seem to almost have come to your conclusion!
Howdy and welcome, Kjølen! I look forward to your posts, as a fellow aquatic mammal (❁´◡`❁). Do you consider your nonhuman identity to be of spiritual or psychological origin, neither or a mix? I am curious if you are willing to share!
I really understand yeah, my best friend knows I "spiritually believe" that I am really who I say I am but I don't really think she understands how deep it goes, which is totally fine. We have been best friends since we were 4 though so she has seen all my growing up phases, including the one where I radically wanted everyone to know about my nonhuman identity as a teenager lol. Besides that I have some really close friends who know nothing of the nonhuman community, however I still tell them "yeah so (past life name) is me, just so you know, that was me in a past life" and they completely take it as a joke because that is how I bring it but it's funny how I can be so open about my true feelings without them knowing how serious it really is.
And I feel the same way, I am happy to hear about your experiences! Fictionkin used to be pretty looked down upon not too long ago, so I understand the concern. Everyone here is really understanding and nice though.
Yes! I love this topic! My different mindsets do influence how and what I eat greatly. I have always had an aversion to meat because it's not in my nature to crave it or eat it. However as I grew older and I became more aware of other past lives besides my horse one it started to shift slightly. I was very uncomfortable with eating meats but I knew that it was good for me so I would try to get a forced "shift" of my dog past life so I could eat it and it worked! Now that I also have reconnected to other life of mine where I only ate meat and the urge for meat and specifically blood has become it's own urge too, occasionally. Everything that isn't horse-aligned still makes me feel uncomfortable sometimes though, if I stop to think about it, because it's my default. But I have learned to make space for other parts of myself too.
Sometimes these things really do take time, especially when a past life is shown through media or "fiction" in this world. It's not anything anyone in the offline world really talks about; that they were watching a movie and they realized that they were watching their own life play out by actors or drawn out by artists. When I was a kid I knew about 2 lives that I saw in a movie and one in a game and because I was a child I had no shame saying "I am (insert my past name)!!" and people would think I was just playing pretend, while for me it felt deeper. Later on I would find it harder to be sure or say without shame that "this is my past life" when watching something, out of fear of being wrong or because of other reasons. So I understand sometimes it takes a while!
I am very curious to read the post you will be making about this! When I read your website I did wonder what experiences have helped you determine that you are a wind dragon. My dragon past life is as a water dragon but that was pretty straight forward for me to notice as you can imagine.
I do keep a journal! Both a physical one and one online. I have been using an instagram account for only my eyes since 2017 and post on there almost daily, it's become a habit for me. The physical one is harder for me to keep track of because I honestly get frustrated at how fast my thoughts go and my writing can't always keep up. I think what I would recommend is making a habit out of writing just anything daily (or how ever often you want to make a routine for) even if it's a simple "I don't have anything to say for today". That way you can hopefully catch all your thoughts about your identity, and hopefully that will create a flow.
Howdy and welcome Beastie! I already interacted with you in a comment but here is my formal welcome (❁´◡`❁). I am glad you decided to join, I joined for very similar reasons. I hope to see more of you!
I always knew as a foal that I was not supposed to be human, and felt like a horse (in a human body) I feel like I was just born that way, with the instincts of a horse. I distinctly remember having to learn how to be human, as apposed to my human exterior, and I found it very difficult. Especially in social settings I would interpret human interactions wrongly because of body language, sounds or alike. I had a kid in my class with the same name and I would become to be called "the one that runs like a horse" by my teachers, heh. I would spend all my free time around my own kind at stables. Forming closer bonds to fellow horses than any other person. Growing up was hard for me and I felt a lot of dysphoria towards my species, which I wrongly interpreted as being gender dysphoria as well at the time. Before meeting my partner I would feel completely misunderstood, I had learnt how humans acted but it didn't feel natural. Then when I met my partner I finally got to express my true self and let my instincts and natural ways of communication exist and I truly learned how to express my horse self for the first time through social interactions.
This is something I like thinking about! Thank you for posting the question. I consider my herd (or pod/pack, depends on my mindset) my mate, my bio younger brother, my chosen sister, my best friend, my parents and my two rabbits! People who I trust and are close to me daily I consider part of my herd. Not everyone has to be nonhuman but it does generally make it easier for me to connect to someone when they are. Everyone knows each other to some degree and they all do know that I consider them my herd and appreciate being seen that way by me, which is comforting in a way. My friends might temporarily join my herd if there is a lot of interactions or if we go somewhere together but the core of my herd has not changed in years and I don't think it really will. I think when my brother has a mate she will join or if my girlfriend has a best friend they might join too. I am not super strict with who's in and who's out but I do keep track of it in my own mind and I like doing that.
I will be sure to reach out then! I had no idea about The Outer Reach, that is a cool feature to this site :0
It makes sense, I think I know what you are saying! Thank you for sharing your thoughts, it is very interesting. I also understand what you mean by saying that you don't internally see yourself as an animated character, I share that feeling. Although I do not have a very good inner eye, at least not for faces (I, for example, wouldn't be able to describe the face of my current body beyond the basics even if I tried) I do know that my memory of myself is with much more detail than a drawn up-2d version of myself that is show in the media about me. I am curious about your past lives and if you ever want to converse further through messages then I would be happy to.
I am happy to hear from someone who can relate to this! As I mostly read about people who see the franchise or media as "real" in the way where someone will analyze an actors facial expression with the question "why did I blink like that?" or can't accept that the actor is a living person in this world who knows nothing of how actually real the person is that he played a role for. Same goes for animated media, people don't like to acknowledge that it was created by hand by a person who might've made 10 different concept sketches of a scene; all of which vary in accuracy to the real events.
I also don't have more words to describe the surreal feeling of watching the media/franchise for the first time besides how you did; a nightmare you and everyone else around you can watch, pause and play whenever they wish. I lived my life with only strong feelings, emotions and some faint memories of my past life until I came across the media which I was shown in. Like a dream you forget the moment when you wake up, but if someone were to replay the dream for you on a screen you suddenly remember all of it.
Hello and welcome, Lupine! You've been in the community for a while then, did you already know your species/identity before entering the community or was it something you had to later on discover?
Hello and Welcome, Aurelia! Your intro was very fun to read and I really look forward to your future posts. I, too, am curious about your otherkin identity and what it consists of.
Thank you for sharing your feelings, it's really insightful for someone who doesn't share them. Something that popped into my head when I read "I think it's easier to talk to AI than people in reality. They are so cruel to me." is that nowadays a lot of humans enjoy talking to AI, which to me means there are a lot of humans who wouldn't be cruel to you for being a computer, there are probably a lot of people out there who would prefer your company over a regular human's because you are a robot. Hopefully that is something that resonates, I look forward to your future posts.
Howdy and welcome, Falcula! I have never met a tatzelwyrm before and I actually had to look up what your species is, that is so interesting. It does make sense that you thought you were a cat before, since it seems to be the most common known animal that relates to a tatzelwyrm.
Did you always feel that you were nonhuman from a young age or is it something you started to notice later on? I am curious and I look forward to your posts.
Thank you! ^^ raw vegetables are definitely my main preference! I do have a lot of hay in my house because of my rabbits and I can’t help but wish I could digest it haha, I do crave to eat things like it. Also something interesting perhaps that I forgot to mention is that I can get really anxious about the idea of not having access to foods at all time. Even if I don’t eat it. Horses need to eat consistently or we can get serious stomach issues. That instinct doesn’t always mix well with my anxiety and I always eat something small right before bed too to ease my horse brain. I also tend to stray away from big meals during the day and prefer to space out my food intake in smaller portions.
This is definitely something I have experienced too. I felt very judged and looked down upon on specifically the instagram community because I was more focused on documenting my own experiences no matter how unpleasant, because being nonhuman in a human body for me is more of a struggle than something I want to show off. I remember a lot of posts being made by others about how if you don't acknowledge that you are "physically a human", then you aren't part of the community. Same went for very heavy mental shifts. Rules were made to make sure the community didn't get a bad rep, yet real experiences were erased because of that pressure. I feel sad when I think back on my teen self in the community and all the parts of me I never told anyone or even documented out of shame or fear of being judged or exiled. Now I am happy that I have a few people close to me that I can talk to about the real experiences I have regardless of if it's pretty or ugly.
I have had this dilemma before when trying to figure out my specific dolphin species. You mentioned in another comment that your identity might be spiritual, but I am not sure if maybe you are open to the idea that you might've had multiple past lives you remember which might make the process more confusing? That was the conclusion I came to for myself. However, if you don't feel like you are more than one species then I can also really recommend giving these things more time, sometimes it can be hard to find the piece you're missing because you haven't had a good moment to connect with a certain part of yourself yet. I know it's hard to feel uncertain or to not have answers but it's also okay to not know yet fully and you seem to almost have come to your conclusion!
Friend! FRIEND! I am so glad you've made your intro post and of course I look forward to more (❁´◡`❁)🐴.
Howdy and welcome, Kjølen! I look forward to your posts, as a fellow aquatic mammal (❁´◡`❁). Do you consider your nonhuman identity to be of spiritual or psychological origin, neither or a mix? I am curious if you are willing to share!
I really understand yeah, my best friend knows I "spiritually believe" that I am really who I say I am but I don't really think she understands how deep it goes, which is totally fine. We have been best friends since we were 4 though so she has seen all my growing up phases, including the one where I radically wanted everyone to know about my nonhuman identity as a teenager lol. Besides that I have some really close friends who know nothing of the nonhuman community, however I still tell them "yeah so (past life name) is me, just so you know, that was me in a past life" and they completely take it as a joke because that is how I bring it but it's funny how I can be so open about my true feelings without them knowing how serious it really is.
And I feel the same way, I am happy to hear about your experiences! Fictionkin used to be pretty looked down upon not too long ago, so I understand the concern. Everyone here is really understanding and nice though.
Yes! I love this topic! My different mindsets do influence how and what I eat greatly. I have always had an aversion to meat because it's not in my nature to crave it or eat it. However as I grew older and I became more aware of other past lives besides my horse one it started to shift slightly. I was very uncomfortable with eating meats but I knew that it was good for me so I would try to get a forced "shift" of my dog past life so I could eat it and it worked! Now that I also have reconnected to other life of mine where I only ate meat and the urge for meat and specifically blood has become it's own urge too, occasionally. Everything that isn't horse-aligned still makes me feel uncomfortable sometimes though, if I stop to think about it, because it's my default. But I have learned to make space for other parts of myself too.
Sometimes these things really do take time, especially when a past life is shown through media or "fiction" in this world. It's not anything anyone in the offline world really talks about; that they were watching a movie and they realized that they were watching their own life play out by actors or drawn out by artists. When I was a kid I knew about 2 lives that I saw in a movie and one in a game and because I was a child I had no shame saying "I am (insert my past name)!!" and people would think I was just playing pretend, while for me it felt deeper. Later on I would find it harder to be sure or say without shame that "this is my past life" when watching something, out of fear of being wrong or because of other reasons. So I understand sometimes it takes a while!
I am very curious to read the post you will be making about this! When I read your website I did wonder what experiences have helped you determine that you are a wind dragon. My dragon past life is as a water dragon but that was pretty straight forward for me to notice as you can imagine.
I do keep a journal! Both a physical one and one online. I have been using an instagram account for only my eyes since 2017 and post on there almost daily, it's become a habit for me. The physical one is harder for me to keep track of because I honestly get frustrated at how fast my thoughts go and my writing can't always keep up. I think what I would recommend is making a habit out of writing just anything daily (or how ever often you want to make a routine for) even if it's a simple "I don't have anything to say for today". That way you can hopefully catch all your thoughts about your identity, and hopefully that will create a flow.
Howdy and welcome Beastie! I already interacted with you in a comment but here is my formal welcome (❁´◡`❁). I am glad you decided to join, I joined for very similar reasons. I hope to see more of you!
I always knew as a foal that I was not supposed to be human, and felt like a horse (in a human body) I feel like I was just born that way, with the instincts of a horse. I distinctly remember having to learn how to be human, as apposed to my human exterior, and I found it very difficult. Especially in social settings I would interpret human interactions wrongly because of body language, sounds or alike. I had a kid in my class with the same name and I would become to be called "the one that runs like a horse" by my teachers, heh. I would spend all my free time around my own kind at stables. Forming closer bonds to fellow horses than any other person. Growing up was hard for me and I felt a lot of dysphoria towards my species, which I wrongly interpreted as being gender dysphoria as well at the time. Before meeting my partner I would feel completely misunderstood, I had learnt how humans acted but it didn't feel natural. Then when I met my partner I finally got to express my true self and let my instincts and natural ways of communication exist and I truly learned how to express my horse self for the first time through social interactions.