Prompt, or food for thought

[dragonwolf]

ysabetwordsmith mentioned in a previous post that she's doing a poetry fishbowl. The current one is about "DNA, genetic engineering, and evolution."

In that line of thinking, I thought I'd throw this out as sort of discussion fodder:

How do you think Otherkin came about? Don't be afraid to go into detail (I don't think DreamWidth has a word count limit to their comments, so go for it).

Comments

[graemebones]

That all depends on your personal theory on otherkin (or theories, as appropriate). And even then, I can't begin to make a generalized statement on Otherkin. I can only tell about how my personal story goes.

See, once upon a time, God's* like, "You're being incarnated. Go."
And I'm like, "Huh? Okay."

And that's my personal story.


*or rather, another angel speaking on behalf of God.

Hmm...

[ysabetwordsmith]

The prevailing explanation I have found is reincarnation. One soul may travel across many bodies over time, not necessarily the same species, sex, etc.

Another theory that seems applicable in some instances is crossover to magical creatures, such as faeries, which tends to run in family lines and can thus pop up otherkin who aren't reincarnated. Closely related, turning on genes that are usually dormant can bring up an affinity for animal species.

Coming from a different angle, a strong enough totem bond or other spirit connection can create a similar effect. This version pops up among some therians.

The otherkin community is strongly polygenetic, so there's not going to be "one true explanation" to cover everyone. This is fine. It's fun to discuss possibilities.

[arethinn]

I like ysabetwordsmith's use of "polygenetic", at least if the question is meant to be "how is it that someone is, or becomes, otherkin?"

If you are referring to it as a general phenomenon - "why should this be happening at all?" - well now, that's a big one, and I don't have a good answer to it. Like many people I went through a "magic is increasing, the Veil is thinning" kind of phase, but, well, it might just be my perspectives on time, but it's been a long time comin' with little result, if that's what's going on (although I suppose there still could be some critical mass not yet reached).

[all_adream]

My tradition is Tibetan Buddhist, and we tend to believe that every being appears to do what most people call reincarnation (and I'm happy to go into detail if there are questions), and my feeling is just that some incarnations feel most unfinished, or happened most recently, or that there are similar reasons that people/beings *feel* strongly like another form. I also think that sensitive beings can pick up and feel the energy of others, and so just as we can feel angry simply because the guy next to us, or on the phone with us etc. is angry, we can possibly feel that the energy of another with whom we interact is 'ours'. *shrug* I think there can be many ways of viewing all of this--