My Explanation

I think people are therians because of their past lives. Even psychological therians!

I think that spiritual therians have a soul that yearns for the days when the body it had was that of a particular animal. For example, a wolf, spiritual therian has a soul that misses when it was a wolf, and as a result, your soul will make adjustments to how the body feels to relieve that thirst.

I think that psychological therians still have a past life, but not always one that it wants to go back to. A psychological therian's soul may revert back to the ways of a past life in the form of shifts because it was more recent, and it is just more used to the behaviors of that life.

A psychological therian that comes about as a result of trauma has a very similar theory. I think that they too have a past life, but maybe not a soul that wishes to return. Instead, the trauma causes some sort of self defense in the soul and it reverts back to a time when things were simpler, and less difficult.

There are very likely holes in this theory, but it is something, and it is as close as I can get to explaining all of it. It is really difficult to explain something as complex and misunderstood as therianthropy, so I hope this can spark some other ideas and conversation!

That's an interesting explanation! I for one do believe that I've had past lives, and I have memories of them. However, all of the memories are of being a human. There is a possibility that I was an animal in a past life and just don't remember it, but at least for me, I don't think so. Always open to the possibility, though.

When I first encountered therianthropy (being a were), everyone naturally assumed reincarnation was the name of the game, so I kind of accepted it. But over the years I've come to find that I'm not really that spiritual and that belief in reincarnation is not necessary to justify therianthropy. I also don't believe in souls and stuff.


All that said and accepting that OP clearly stated that the theory has holes. I just wanted to point out -- this is not to prove or disprove anything, it's just a curious tidbit that I noticed:

For some reason, many therians seem to have a similar theory of reincarnation, that is not linked to the traditional belief of what reincarnation is or how it works. For example, the belief that us being therians means we were animals in our previous lives, is not compatible with a traditional view of reincarnation, where it is very unlikely if not impossible that someone who is born a human would have been an animal in their previous life.

This is because the traditional notion of reincarnation is based on a concept similar to karma, where what you are born as depends on the benefit to society you were in your previous life. However in the traditional view, animals are seen as driven entirely by instinct and therefore incapable of choosing to benefit society, and therefore making it impossible for them to accumulate enough karma to advance to being born as a human.

Longer thread discussing all of this in more depth:
https://forums.therian-guide.com/Thread-Why-I-think-people-are-therians-opinion?pid=213834#pid213834


The reason for this difference could be explained by simple american (most people on TG are from English-speaking countries) ignorance of traditional Asian spirituality. But whether you agree with this or not, it is curious that this "version of reincarnation" is so common among therians.

Perhaps it has something to do with how I encountered it as well, which is... that it's simply common among therians and passed between us as a kind of therian (sub)culture. Along with tails and now recently, masks and quads.

LP,
Dusty

(2023-11-15 21:17)DustWolf Wrote:  When I first encountered therianthropy (being a were), everyone naturally assumed reincarnation was the name of the game, so I kind of accepted it. But over the years I've come to find that I'm not really that spiritual and that belief in reincarnation is not necessary to justify therianthropy. I also don't believe in souls and stuff.


All that said and accepting that OP clearly stated that the theory has holes. I just wanted to point out -- this is not to prove or disprove anything, it's just a curious tidbit that I noticed:

For some reason, many therians seem to have a similar theory of reincarnation, that is not linked to the traditional belief of what reincarnation is or how it works. For example, the belief that us being therians means we were animals in our previous lives, is not compatible with a traditional view of reincarnation, where it is very unlikely if not impossible that someone who is born a human would have been an animal in their previous life.

This is because the traditional notion of reincarnation is based on a concept similar to karma, where what you are born as depends on the benefit to society you were in your previous life. However in the traditional view, animals are seen as driven entirely by instinct and therefore incapable of choosing to benefit society, and therefore making it impossible for them to accumulate enough karma to advance to being born as a human.

Longer thread discussing all of this in more depth:
https://forums.therian-guide.com/Thread-Why-I-think-people-are-therians-opinion?pid=213834#pid213834


The reason for this difference could be explained by simple american (most people on TG are from English-speaking countries) ignorance of traditional Asian spirituality. But whether you agree with this or not, it is curious that this "version of reincarnation" is so common among therians.

Perhaps it has something to do with how I encountered it as well, which is... that it's simply common among therians and passed between us as a kind of therian (sub)culture. Along with tails and now recently, masks and quads.

LP,
Dusty

I will note that reincarnation in traditionnal Buddhist philosophy is by no means the only belief of reincarnation apparent in the various religions. Western reincarnation theory is actually different from Buddhism in that it believes in the soul; Buddhism never names the soul or implies a duality of body and mind; in the west it stems from Greek philosophical religion like platonisn or orphism among others. Reincarnation is a very common spiritual belief observed to originate independently across many different cultures.

I have “memories” of an incarnation as a dead or dying wolf. There is also a sort of collective which is the forest. I think they were fabricated by my unconscious mind for the purpose of self-preservation or soul-preservation. They aren't exactly real memories, but they are deeply meaningful for me. There are components that are true emotional/somatic memories (memory fragments from very young age). My unconscious mind combined raw instinctual memory with known facts about wolves, cultural lore about ghosts, and a creative reinterpretation of history. To put it differently, “based on a true story” of humans and wolves. From this experience I think past life memories in general are likely to be constructions (but not always).

Spiritually is more orientated in moral and practical guidance for me. But I think concepts about the soul, you, me, us, them, gods, humans, animals, etc. are illusions or impermanent. So I don't believe there is a literal soul that passes from one body to the next. There is something like consciousness, there is life.

I just had a dream of stalking hunters in a forest, I would suddenly run at one of them, leap for their throat, and then wake up.

Dunno if that counts as a dream shift but it was definitely an interesting dream to have! I don't know if that also counts as a past life either because I don't have anything other than that dream.

Alliana, it appears we now even share dreams! Thanks for bringing that up!