The actual difference between psychological and spiritual therians

Hi!

So I have been in the Therian community for about 1 year and 3 months plus. I've actively looked at the terms and its definitions and looked at what terms are fit for my identity.

But one thing I've always been very confused about is the actual difference between spiritual and psychological therians. I see different meanings. Some people look at how a therian's perspective is about their therianthropy in general. Others solemnly look at where they believe their therianthropy comes from, they strictly believe that you're only a psychological therian (for example) if not having a psychological explanation for your therianthropy would mean you do not experience therianthropy at all.

I usually call myself both. Generally, I tell people that I believe in a multi-dimension theory and that my therianthropy comes from a connection with a wolf and fish self in another dimension. But at the same time, I also know that my therianthropy is simply my explanation of why I experience behaviors, urges, and instincts that do not align human behavior, which would indicate I also think it's a psychological thing.

My perspective on my therianthropy is also both spiritual and psychological. When I experience a shift voluntarily, for example, I know just fine that is due to the power of suggestion. But at the same time, I also believe I have triggered the dimension paths crossing one another.

So what am I supposed to look at? Is there an actual 'rule' to figure out if you're a psychological or spiritual therian? Or is it something you can just weigh for yourself, mainly including your general perspective?

You don't have to be one or the other. You can be both simultaneously. If both explain your experiences equally well, perhaps you're both

(2020-09-28 22:13)JessyeD Wrote:  You don't have to be one or the other. You can be both simultaneously. If both explain your experiences equally well, perhaps you're both

This.

The division exists because I split the aspects in the definitions on the guide website (which has been copied everywhere) several years ago. The reason I split the topics was to prevent therians who weren't spiritual from removing content that looked like nonsense to them.

I'm not spiritual myself, but I try not to allow my biases, to negatively impact others.

LP,
Dusty

@DustWolf So you actually sort of created the split? If so, that's actually quite funny considering that the whole community is using the terms as actual differences.

I don't know whether there is a difference in experiences, but it's about how people interpret experiences. I think it might have to do with temperament and preferred modes of perceiving (through the senses or intuition) and judgment (thinking or feeling.) I don't know though. Many people are a combination of both. I favor the materialist view, ie. psychology. But since joining TG I've thought about what it means to be an animal within the framework of spiritual traditions that are already familiar to me.

I'm both myself, like 90-95% spiritual but a bit of my experiences might be psychological.

I'm also both psychological and spiritual. I believe it's something you can weigh in for yourself, since it's personal for the individual only and only you can decide whether it's spiritual or psychological (or both, in mine and others cases).

(2020-09-28 23:30)Kyra Wrote:  @DustWolf So you actually sort of created the split? If so, that's actually quite funny considering that the whole community is using the terms as actual differences.

The split between spiritual and psychological reasoning has been around for years, it wasn't really due to any one person, but rather a change in community perspective/understanding. The division seems largely to have happened sometime in the early 2000's as therians moved away from spiritual reasoning and more towards psychological reasoning, largely I suspect, in an effort to sound more "legitimate" to non-kin.

It's a pretty simple split: if you believe you're a therian due to things like past life memories, species dysphoria, etc., then you would primarily be a spiritual therian. If you feel you're a therian due to mental wiring due to things like mental shifts, phantom limbs, etc. then you would be a psychological therian. This thread on identity vs. experience might be interesting?

That being said, there are those of us, myself included, who fall into both categories. I feel as if I've had past lives as a wolf, but my human brain is not defaulted to "human" but rather is wired now for something else (wolf) that experiences shifts, phantom limbs, etc. Thus, I'm a wolf soul in a human body, so both spiritual and psychological.

(2020-09-30 0:47)elinox Wrote:  

(2020-09-28 23:30)Kyra Wrote:  @DustWolf So you actually sort of created the split? If so, that's actually quite funny considering that the whole community is using the terms as actual differences.

The split between spiritual and psychological reasoning has been around for years, it wasn't really due to any one person, but rather a change in community perspective/understanding.

Of course I seemed to state the opposite, but ultimately this is a matter of perspective and I'm glad there are perspectives unlike my own.

I did want to say this isn't about my ego or something. There is a clear pattern of people who have seen and then propagated content from the TG website on Amino and other social platforms. You have to remember that TG has been around for years and... say 5 years is a long time for someone who was 12 and impressionable when they found TG and are now 17 and trying to define themselves edgily. I think the impact our decisions have on the future generations of therians do matter.

I don't remember "psychological" and "spiritual" being split in this manner and with these words before I split them in this manner and with these words on the TG website. Though our experiences always differed and I did not invent the differences.

LP,
Dusty