Causes of Feeling Nonhuman that are NOT Therianthropy

Bilocation is when someone actually splits themselves. It has nothing to do with a tulpa. For a tulpa, the "real" body is inactive while the tulpa performs the actions. In bilocation, both selves act, usually independently.

In the "new parlance", the tulpa is an imaginary friend. I can imagine an imaginary friend being an animal, but how would that cause anyone to feel like an animal?

And that's not even touching all the psychological reason why one might feel nonhuman!!!

Some of which include;
Depersonalization, dissociation, just about any disorder that might effect how one communicates with others (being on the autism spectrum for example), growing up with pets/minimal human socialization as a young child, the list goes on and on!

Also having any of these DOES NOT make you a fake/lesser therian, nor does it make you lesser as an individual. It's just who you are, and that's beautiful

(2018-01-12 5:33)WolfVanZandt Wrote:  Bilocation is when someone actually splits themselves. It has nothing to do with a tulpa. For a tulpa, the "real" body is inactive while the tulpa performs the actions. In bilocation, both selves act, usually independently.

In the "new parlance", the tulpa is an imaginary friend. I can imagine an imaginary friend being an animal, but how would that cause anyone to feel like an animal?

So, what's it called when a tulpa is involved? Where can I read more about tulpas being used this way?

Well, if a Tulpa starts off in the mind, a person needs to know animal behaviors to develop that tulpa if it's nonhuman. I don't see why it couldn't bleed through to the person creating the tulpa. It might only be temporary.

(2018-01-12 9:34)Xce Wrote:  And that's not even touching all the psychological reason why one might feel nonhuman!!!

Some of which include;
Depersonalization, dissociation, just about any disorder that might effect how one communicates with others (being on the autism spectrum for example), growing up with pets/minimal human socialization as a young child, the list goes on and on!

Also having any of these DOES NOT make you a fake/lesser therian, nor does it make you lesser as an individual. It's just who you are, and that's beautiful

Yeah, those could be reasons a person feels nonhuman and not actually identify as a nonhuman creature. Growing up with pets could be either way, depends on how much a person imprinted on the animal.

Before now, I've never heard of the imaginary friend connection. When I told Coyote about it, he was incredulous (to understate his reaction). I honestly don't know where you can find out about it.

I see one site on the first page of a search calling the newer version a "TV trope." But the Wikipedia article traces it to theosophy and the modern trend to 4chan and My Little Pony. (???)

I agree that tulpa usage could conceivably make a person feel less human, but have you seen any instances that it actually does?

If you mean that the tulpa is temporary, then you are most definitely right. Tulpas take a lot of energy and I've never heard of an instance of it being kept up for, say, days. If you mean that the modern usage is temporary, then I most certainly hope so.

One thing about New Age philosophies that gives me serious problems is the tendency to trivialize ancient principles. Those things can be seriously dangerous if used by people that don't know what they're doing. One example is the Complete Idiot's Guide to Shamanism's contention that a beginner shouldn't worry about the shamanic realm because nothing there will hurt you. "Idiot" is entirely correct.

(2018-01-12 1:59)Wolf Daughter Wrote:  

(2018-01-07 6:01)Future Wrote:  Daemons aren't really tulpas though, are they? I've been on that forum too, and there's a very strong sense of "our daemons are just an animal representation of our minds and we are fully conscious that they are not separate beings but merely facets of ourselves that we develop and talk problems out with." From everything I've heard about tulpae, they're supposed to be mindforms that are created but eventually have their own separate consciousness, yes? Daemon do not.

Daemon is a word with a lot of different meanings. I think of them as spirits that don't need to be animals and could be helpful or benign. They aren't necessarily evil.

Some people use the word in a way that means one's animal soul, because that's how it was used in "His Dark Materials". Although, in the books, the animals were a physical representation. "Dæmons are the external physical manifestation of a person's 'inner-self' that takes the form of an animal. Dæmons have human intelligence, are capable of human speech—regardless of the form they take—and usually behave as though they are independent of their humans." I think this does confuse a lot of young Therians because most say they talk to their theriotypes.

So, this is kind of a grey area. But is it? Our theriosides don't have human intelligence. Or can our inner animals have intelligence because it's part of a human body?

This is probably not useful, but I find the Greek mythology daemon definition closest to home:

wikipedia Wrote:a supernatural being working in the background, with no particular bias towards good or evil.

...in other words they are invisible agents that do things such as make winds blow and leaves rustle. You could hardly argue human-level intelligence for something that does something repetitively with no biases and no awareness. They are more like natural phenomena, or machines.

Although you were probably talking more about the Christian representation of demons (note spelling), in which case the "inner demon" is more like a spiritual entity.

Anyway, just a tangent I felt like pursuing.

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(2018-01-13 1:31)WolfVanZandt Wrote:  Before now, I've never heard of the imaginary friend connection. When I told Coyote about it, he was incredulous (to understate his reaction). I honestly don't know where you can find out about it.

Was this when he still had his old site up?

I don't remember exactly when all this was, but there was a trend amongst people to come to therian forums claiming tulpas. Though I am a skeptic myself and probably not the best person to talk to, to me tulpas sounded as just identities people claimed to have imagined into existence.

Compare that to the experience of a therian, where are theriotypes are not something we chose and our traits are aspects we learn about ourselves that might be animal in nature, troughout our lives... the Tulpa concept just becomes another incredibly trivial example of tumblrkinism. Where kids discovering their identity realize they are not therians, but still want to play along, simply pick a form of identity that is entirely up to their imagination.

You might imagine, how a therian, might find this irritating.

You might also imagine, how someone with any actual knowledge of what the original Tulpas were, might find this even more irritating.

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(2018-01-13 0:58)Wolf Daughter Wrote:  Growing up with pets could be either way, depends on how much a person imprinted on the animal.

My experience of growing up near animals actually involved an issue with my therianthropy at the time. As a wolf therian pup, I was naturally "afraid" of loud noises. They would trigger an instinctive response to look for shelter. It wasn't really fear, it just felt like an urge when I heard loud noises. I had problems socializing with dogs because of it, because dogs bark and that is a loud noise. Flush toilets and vacuum cleaners were also a problem.

I didn't have my first interpersonal relationship with a dog until about a decade after I learned about my therianthropy.

Given this, I wonder how much is it really possible that therianthropy is imprinted on us from spending time with animals. It seems more likely, that we are born therians, but that those with therian predispositions are sometimes more likely to have more meaningful bonds with their pets.

LP,
Dusty

"Was this when he still had his old site up?"

We live together. You're right, Dust. A lot of the offline therians are still in traditional mode and don't keep up much with Tumblr. So when we've been talking about Tulpas for years and we find out that the Mod Squad has rewritten the dictionary - well, yeah...irritating.

I believe that there's a physiological component in therianthropy, but it wouldn't surprise me if imprinting is a nontherian path to "feeling like a nonhuman".

I was going to try a potentially controversial suggestion on this subject.

Basically, TG has a much higher % of LGBT+ than the general population. I've heard LGBT+ people mention that they once believed themselves to have a non-human identity, because of how alien they felt within their bodies.

Do you think it's possible that some people think of themselves as therian, but are in fact only LGBT+?

LP,
Dusty

I'm not so sure there is a higher frequency. The canvases I've done tend to show no statistical differences in homosexuality and bisexuality between the Were and Mainstream communities. The most common theory I've heard is that we're more accepting so that people are more open about their differences.

A common working definition for studies that I've seen is for bisexuality a person is capable of having an orgasm with either a male or a female partner. In that case, I suspect that all healthy, mature people are bisexual since, provided that there are no strong inhibitions, all you really need is friction.

(2018-01-14 15:05)WolfVanZandt Wrote:  I'm not so sure there is a higher frequency. The canvases I've done tend to show no statistical differences in homosexuality and bisexuality between the Were and Mainstream communities.

Our own research shows that there are 10 times as many in our population as in the general population:
https://forums.therian-guide.com/Thread-For-science-D-Gender-ID

LP,
Dusty

(2018-01-13 1:31)WolfVanZandt Wrote:  I agree that tulpa usage could conceivably make a person feel less human, but have you seen any instances that it actually does?

The Tulpa probably wouldn't be the direct cause of feeling nonhuman. Could a person accidentally create a tulpa when trying to find a therioside? I just see most of the youths in the community give names, personality traits, and characteristics to the theriosides. Many claim they talk to their theriosides, and the "theriosides" talk back. I think it could be easy for a young person to confuse a tulpa with a therioside, which could easily lead them to confuse normal behaviors and sensations with being nonhuman.

(2018-01-13 1:31)WolfVanZandt Wrote:  One thing about New Age philosophies that gives me serious problems is the tendency to trivialize ancient principles. Those things can be seriously dangerous if used by people that don't know what they're doing.

I completely agree with this. I don't want to trivialize these older beliefs or spread incorrect information about them. Maybe I should just list imaginary friend. Although, I think that would turn away the youths in the community that I'm trying to write this for. I'm trying to make content to help them ask themselves more questions and think more. "Maybe you accidentally created a tulpa." would hopefully make them more curious to seek information and an alternative to Therianthropy rather than "Maybe you accidentally created an imaginary friend."

Now I'm questioning mentioning tulpa because it's really a much more complicated concept and not exactly imaginary friends. Spirit teachers and guides are also a much more complicated subject that really gets watered down a lot too. We're talking about youths as young as 10-13 years old. So, what are we supposed to do?

(2018-01-13 21:16)DustWolf Wrote:  I was going to try a potentially controversial suggestion on this subject.

Basically, TG has a much higher % of LGBT+ than the general population. I've heard LGBT+ people mention that they once believed themselves to have a non-human identity, because of how alien they felt within their bodies.

Do you think it's possible that some people think of themselves as therian, but are in fact only LGBT+?

It could be possible. Depending on an individual's living situation, it might be easier to explain those feelings with Therianthropy. If an individual is surrounded by people who don't accept LGTB+ and that individual was also raised that way, then Therianthropy could be a safe alternative explanation that the individual could keep to themselves without feeling guilty or ashamed. But it would be really difficult to determine if this actually happens or not. So, I'm not sure if I would add this to the list that I plan to share more publicly.