Therianthropy Is A Thing

[stromboli]

Just when you thought you had your head around furries, here come the Theriantrhopes.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Therianthropy

I've known about Native American Skinwalkers for like 30 years because I have live among Utes and Navajos and know something of their legends. They don't talk about it much because it is kind of a serious belief with them, on the order of a satanic cult that can take on the powers of wolves to hunt and run in packs.



They apparently consume Peyote and a variety of native herbs that transform them, along with paying homage to Coyote or some other N A deity.

Having myself sampled Peyote and Mescaline on a few occasions, I can put some credence to it. You feel like you are empowered and can see in the dark, literally. Wacky shit. Spent one night running around in the desert, so I can say it is a real possibility at least in the sense of a belief.

Also the Nagual
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nagual

Basically the Mesoamerican version linked to pre-Columbian Shamanism.

And now we have Therianthropes

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wMDh2yZOLwQ&feature=youtu.be&t=3m25s

I swear, these kids are going to the dogs. 

Maybe people here know something about it, I don't know much. Pretty sure there will be a movie along any time now. They have done movies and shows on Skinwalkers, why not? Probably be an Adam Sandler movie on Netflix in the near future.

The Mormon religion is really down on this stuff because their missionaries encountered Skinwalkers when they started missions among the  N A back in the 19th century. There are stories of missionaries in wagons and later automobiles being harassed and attacked by Skinwalkers that could run as fast as a horse or even a car.

Shape shifting goes all the way back to ancient days and I believe there are mentions of it in the Egyptian religion of the Pharaohs. Haven't seen any of this mentioned except on Youtube but I'd be willing to bet that it will hit the religious radar fairly soon, so don't be surprised if you see a fundamentalist outcry in the near future.

[Hydra009]

Yeah, people will believe all sorts of wacky stuff.  I forgot who, but I read about a famous atheist (Randi, maybe?) who challenged people to prove supernatural stuff.  One guy was adamant that he could do it, but when it came time to actually prove it on camera, he would always chicken out, giving one excuse or another.  Pretty telling.

[stromboli]

The Navajos are pretty serious about it, at least the ones I've known. Many years ago I knew a few and befriended a few, so they have opened up a little bit about it, but not much. There is a lot of secret folklore in the Mormon religion about confrontations between Elders and Skinwalkers, so I learned about it from a young age.

http://skinwalkerxfile.blogspot.com/2008/12/broken-trail-of-mormon-skinwalker.html

http://johnrustywire.blogspot.com/2010/01/skinwalkers-they-come-when-you-are.html

Some wacky shit.

[AllPurposeAtheist]

Obviously time for the end times.. Satan is taking over Utah Strom..and I bet that kratom turned you into one of those wacky satanistic people.. I know it did to me too..

[Hijiri Byakuren]

Just when you thought you had your head around furries, here come the Theriantrhopes.

I became aware of them about a decade ago when I was getting heavily into mythology. The more recent term for therians seems to be "otherkin," though people who identify with one label or the other claim there is a difference between the two. Every one I've run across is an SJW, so on top of being crazy they're also very obnoxious.

[Hydra009]

Oh man, Otherkin.  Those people are something else!

But I think that there's enough of a difference between therians and otherkin to consider them distinct, though there's an awful lot of bleed-over. The former is a fairly long-lived shamanistic idea of shapechanging into an animal, while the later is a modern subculture that apparently grew out of elven-related literature - from identifying oneself with elves to virtually everything else.  Though both may exhibit species dysphoria (people who consider themselves to be a non-human animal), therians seem more prone to clinical lycanthropy (people who think they can transform into a non-human animal).

The Amazing Atheist tried to cover the Otherkin community, but got a lot of heat from otherkin upset that their community would be "bullied" by the negative coverage.  Afterwards, on the Drunken Peasants, he said that he liked how furries at least aren't delusional like the otherkin - furries like anthropomorphic animals and may even dress up like them, but they don't actually think that they're not human beings.

[Mr.Obvious]

My take on the Otherkin community is that likely there are some who are convinced they are a wolf or a dragon or a mountain or Mr. Spock or whatever... trapped inside a human body they don't belong in. Most likely, those individuals suffer from some form of schizophrenia or some other form of psychological problem. Some probably identify with some form of animal or whatever, because of the attributes they assign them, without "actually" thinking they are, for example, a beaver. But there are most likely a lot who claim they actually are 'X' trapped in body 'Y' and who do it for attention and to show what a special snowflake they are. It's stuff like that that not only prevents people with severe psychological problems from seeking help, because hey 'apparently I'm not the only one and it's normal'. And people who aren't psychologically ill but 'trans' tend to get discredited by this attention-whoring as well. Same thing for people who claim to have 'headmates'. It's attention-seeking and making the self more interesting to oneself but has negative effects on people with schizophrenia or multiple-personallity-disorder who would come across this community if they were to look into what they feel to be wrong with them. It's insensitive, obnoxious and harmful in that way.

And look, I get it. I actually get 'otherkin' and 'headmates' doing this for attention. When I say they are doing it for attention and don't really believe it themselves; it's a grey area. During puberty I was a very unhappy guy. I hardly had friends. I was antisocial. And above all else, I was so full of myself. My problems, I believed, were just there because no one else understood me. I was convinced of that. I was different. I was special. I was worthwhile and I had a valiant struggle in my existence that no-one else could possibly understand. I refused labels and came up with ideas for what made me different and I convinced myself they were true. And the more I pretended these things to be true, the more withdrawn I became from real social contact. And the more I withdrew, the more I started living in a world inside my head. And the more I did that, the more convinced I became about my own specialness and greatness and thus the more shit I came up with; continueing the spiral.
If you'd asked me if I actually believed all of that crap about myself, I would've been able to reply with honesty and sincerety that I did. But deep, deep down, I think I always knew it all stemmed from my own frustrations with not fitting in and that the problem lay with me and not others but that I was to full of myself to admit that. I guess it was kind of 1984-ian, as I had two contradicting ideas simultaneously in my head, allowing me to continue believing in shit I knew was something I invented myself...

Short version: otherkin and people who claim to have headmates need to get out there and join some hobbygroups or something. They need to meet people, interact and stop withdrawing inside their own head.

Or at least... that's my two cents. Sorry for derailing the thread.

[Baruch]

This is pretty common in early societies and active shamanism is still found in corners of Indonesia (among non-Muslims) even if it probably is rare now in Siberia after 500 years of Russian occupation.  My own neighbor who helps with my Mom, is what I would call a Lakota spirit-warrior ... though I don't think he imagines any animism/totemism ... since our ancestors have beaten up the Native Americans so much, physically and culturally.  And no, the traditional men's lodge or women's lodge mysteries are not talked about, nor should they be ... not even in the same village/encampment (part of taboo).

As a mystic I take these aboriginal beliefs and practices very seriously ... relatively free of the false consciousness of moderns.  And I can hardly consider modern people to be free of mental illness.  Early people had different ways of dealing with life, both normal and abnormal ... and the Lakota were more progressive on gay men (berdache) then the rest of America has been until very recently.  With the last of the aboriginal people and practices, go our last hope to survive the demise of modernity.  There won't be anyone left who can survive outside the Matrix.

[stromboli]

My spirit animal is the Great Horned Owl. As a young man I was introduced to one that a friend of mine kept. It is an amazing bird, almost ghostly white and practically invisible in the forest, with the exception of it great luminous eyes. Many years later I was hunting with my black powder rifle, in camo and sitting in a thicket of willows, when a great horned own flew up and landed right in front of me looking for quarry. It was close enough I could have poked it with a stick. For what seemed like half an hour, I sat there regarding that beautiful bird. finally I twitched enough for it to see me; it hooted, focusing its eyes on mine and then flew off.

Then after that when I lived in Syracuse Utah, another one nested not far from my house. We had voles (field mice) all over the area. It used to come to the peak of my neighbor's garage or the tree out in front of my house and sit and watch for prey. I saw it dive down and take one many times. They are dead silent and lightning quick. I have always had an affinity for Raptors- my brother and I rescued and raise a Sparrow Hawk when I was 12. I've had Sparrow Hawks, Golden Eagles and Horned Owls perched on my hand. The majesty of those birds is unmatchable.



Honro las viejas formas

[PopeyesPappy]

I read Carlos Castaneda's first five books when I was in high school. Does that count?

[stromboli]

I read Carlos Castaneda's first five books when I was in high school. Does that count?

Up to the point when you figure out Castaneda was a complete liar. And I read them too.

[PopeyesPappy]

Up to the point when you figure out Castaneda was a complete liar. And I read them too.

I don't know that I ever considered them anything but fiction... 

[stromboli]

I don't know that I ever considered them anything but fiction... 

In my case I read them after being referred to Castaneda by a Hispanic friend who asked my opinion. He was halfway sold they were true and I took them with a similar attitude, so it wasn't until I read something- I think it was a Rolling Stone article- that exposed him. I thought the books were pretty good, if not convincing. It was a big letdown.

[Baruch]

Yes, fraud in folk anthropology is a bad thing.  Even well meaning anthropologists can be fooled by their own prejudices and by overly helpful natives (Margaret Meade).  Most people love raptors, particularly owls.  My spirit animal is the crow however.  Got it during a visit to Dreamtime when I was about 40.  At least I didn't have to camp out on the plaines all by myself, awaiting some vision ;-)

[stromboli]

Yes, fraud in folk anthropology is a bad thing.  Even well meaning anthropologists can be fooled by their own prejudices and by overly helpful natives (Margaret Meade).  Most people love raptors, particularly owls.  My spirit animal is the crow however.  Got it during a visit to Dreamtime when I was about 40.  At least I didn't have to camp out on the plaines all by myself, awaiting some vision ;-)

Crows are amazing birds. I feed them when I get the chance, because they recognize individual people and will actually befriend you if the need arises.