The genetic explanation

Hey all,

For clarification I should state that I experience therianthropy as a state of permanent integration with wolf aspects. My nature is part human and part wolf and I am neither and both. Beside that I also experience dreamshifts.


I used to believe that I must have been a wolf in a past life or something, but after discussing this in the community, I've changed my mind somewhat:

(2019-08-13 20:06)DustWolf Wrote:  Yesterday I caught the tail end of the STDC and the topic was dreamshifts.

While talking to the others and basically being willing to admit that I am wrong and learn something, I've come to an important realisation.


To date I've always seen my dreamshifts as experiences by some wild wolf somewhere, being somehow expressed into my dreams. Either being past life memories or somehow having a wolf's experiences beamed into my mind (I think it's called astral shifting, or it's even more supernatural cousin: bilocation shifting). The problem is I don't really believe in these things and I always found the experience difficult to square with how I think the world works. Of course, therianthropy itself is difficult to square with how I think the world works, so this wasn't new.

But after that conversation, I'm beginning to think that the dreamshifts are instead more -- the dreams of a wild wolf who has lived my human life. This wild wolf is me and thus is always with me in my life. I just don't allow myself to think like a wild animal while I am awake, and therefore the way the wolf sees the world kind of surfaces while I am asleep, in my dreams. I like this explanation a lot more, because not only does it fit just fine with my experiences, it also doesn't require anything supernatural, to make sense.

Well, short of the fact that I am somehow a wolf without being related to one. But I'm sure there is a perfectly reasonable explanation for this as well.

My current theory to explain my therianthropy, is that it is inborn. We are born therians.

I've noticed that while none of my ancestors are wolves in the sense that I am, the traits I ascribe to my therianthropy, some of them are present in my family members. I believe that by a freak chance, the traits required for someone to be a wolf while being human, have manifested in me specifically.

This may seem unlikely, but firstly: It isn't. There is this thing called convergent evolution, sometimes when natural organisms are faced with the same problems, they come up with the same solutions. The way a wolf mind works, works for many wolves who are animals living in a social setting. Humans live in a very similar setting, maybe for some humans like me, the wolf mindset works as well.

Secondly, genetics is random by nature, and is bound to produce all kinds of variants, eventually.


The way therians are spread out in the world makes sense with this explanation. However even if I am correct and it is genetic, it does not necessarily mean it will be inherited. I do not believe two therians having a child have much of a chance of producing a therian child. Knowing many therians over the years as a staffer for this forum, I know that most therians have very little in common with other therians. Everyone is affected by therianthropy differently.

Take this to a Punnett square, assuming a wolf therian has 50% of wolf traits and two such therians have a child, the child will have a 25% chance of inheriting enough traits to also be a therian. And in the real world as said, the odds are much smaller still. If you think your sibling or parent is also a therian, odds are they are lying to you to make you feel better. Almost nobody I know on TG has other therians anywhere near where they are IRL.


I do believe that while we might be born therians, not all therians end up looking up Therianthropy online. I think a big contributing factor to people ending up in online therian communities is some kind of hardship or abuse in life. When we've undergone abuse, we end up more strongly motivated to look for answers and we tend to find online therian communities. This is my explanation why, if you ask, most therians will answer that they've been through abuse in online polls.

I guess people who are therians who've had normal childhoods just aren't very likely to ever look us up.

LP,
Dusty

I endured abuse but never really researched my condition online. It never occurred to me to explore myself or why I was born with the beasts inside of me. I was the odd and eccentric child and it never changed. I explored many things regarding humans and animals but online communities were not something to explore as sources of information, mainly because I saw them at that time as social gathering places instead of places of knowledge.

Nowadays, with recent life changes and discoveries, I've decided with selective caution to explore online communities. If I had never physically encountered another Therian and eliminated the thought I was entirely alone, I doubt I would have explored anything regarding myself. I had already submitted to believing I was some freak that had to stay quiet and hidden and play pretend I was 100% human inside and out to survive or thrive. In reality, a can of worms got opened up and tossed on me and turned me mentally and emotionally inside out.

When I thought I was alone I was dealing with life quite well. Now that I've discovered I'm not alone I am desperate to belong to what I am; to attach myself to the world I never knew existed beside the human world.

what genes exactly are "therian genes?" nothing about us is different from anyone else except for our feelings and views of ourselves. i suppose some people may have more primal thinking engrained in their mind from birth, which can influence feeling less than human, but that primal instinct still doesn't equate to being a therian.

(2021-05-02 5:07)WolfdogPaws Wrote:  what genes exactly are "therian genes?" nothing about us is different from anyone else except for our feelings and views of ourselves. i suppose some people may have more primal thinking engrained in their mind from birth, which can influence feeling less than human, but that primal instinct still doesn't equate to being a therian.

Everything about our psychology is a combination of two factors: predisposition (which is genetic) and environmental (which is how you were raised, how people treat you, etc). This means that anything about you that wasn't caused by your environment, is in fact genetic. It's not limited to to anything you consider to be an instinct.

I, for example, am genetically predisposed to prefer to find my place in a hierarchy. Many relatives on my father's side do this. I didn't need to be taught to accept it, as soon as I was in an environment where it existed (my workplace), I sought out my place in it and felt right about having a position in it. European cultures (where I grew up) do not do hierarchies in families like Asian cultures do (where my father's family is from), yet this trait we share. This shows that the trait is genetic.

This is a trait that I consider to be a part of my therianthropy. Wolves prefer hierarchical relationships in their families and so do I. I don't think my ancestors are all wolf therians. I think to be a wolf therian you also must have many other wolf traits, that I have. Acceptance of hierarchy is just an example.

LP,
Dusty

Also, keep in mind some environmental influences over time end up being marked into the genetic makeup of the individual. That's how many species acquired their genetic behaviors or design to begin with.

Humans have had the debate for years whether or not you can be genetically homosexual or if it is purely choice. Even within the community I have literally talked to gay friends and co-workers and bosses that differ in their belief. Some said they were born that way. Some said they chose it. Some said they are genetically predisposed to it and it influenced them to choose it. In the end, I accept that all of those around me that say they are homosexual ARE what they say they are, whether it is genetic or what they feel they are.

Within the therian community, I see the same. Now, whether or not the end result IS that we are genetically predisposed to have therian genes within us does not influence how I look at other therians. If they say they are therian, then I am inclined to believe them. However there are catches to blindly acknowledging therians based on pure choice.

I can smell therians. They smell drastically different to me than pure humans. They smell like animal and nature. Humans smell like food.
I also found I cannot help my reaction to an encounter with an actual therian. I immediately go into the exact behaviors my beasts would have with another beast. It is an uncontrollable behavior.

For someone to come to me in person and claim they are therian but not smell or display counter behaviors to mine discounts, to me, their authenticity of the therian claim.

But what of their claims? Does that make them any less therian? Are they believing they are because of various factors and beliefs? Does it mean I should cast them out from me as posers or imposters?

In the end, no. Not unless their beliefs are false to them and they have malicious reasons for cloaking themselves as therians. My ancestors would take in anyone that wanted to be in their culture and guide them to becoming a part of their tribes regardless of genetic predisposition. And that is how I choose to relate to therians. I may be genetically therian inside, but I also believe other elements play in my therian makeup.

If another comes to me and says they are therian and does not smell therian, I will guide them within my culture and teach them what I am with non intent to change them in the process.

I attribute the wolf in my psyche to environmental factors, but this would not have happened without the predispositions. One is I believe most therians are Highly Sensitive people. This is a neurological minority (about 20%) which has been observed in different species. Highly Sensitive people would probably be more empathetic, more aware of the environment and could more easily imagine how an animal sees things.

Another predisposition is I believe Structural Dissociation is a factor in the development of therianthropy in the modern world as I explained in another thread. (It might be different in cultures that are close to the earth but I don't know.) Some people dissociate more readily than others. I also believe creativity is a necessary predispostion. Many therians are artistically inclined or tech geeks who are also creative people.

Hey everyone,

Today I've had a conversation with a therian friend. He was explaining his new view of therianthropy (we had both relatively recently started therapy for our psychological problems and these yielded some realizations) and I found that it all aligns very well with the views expressed in this post of mine from 2021:

(2021-04-13 0:06)DustWolf Wrote:  My current theory to explain my therianthropy, is that it is inborn. We are born therians.

I've noticed that while none of my ancestors are wolves in the sense that I am, the traits I ascribe to my therianthropy, some of them are present in my family members. I believe that by a freak chance, the traits required for someone to be a wolf while being human, have manifested in me specifically.

This may seem unlikely, but firstly: It isn't. There is this thing called convergent evolution, sometimes when natural organisms are faced with the same problems, they come up with the same solutions. The way a wolf mind works, works for many wolves who are animals living in a social setting. Humans live in a very similar setting, maybe for some humans like me, the wolf mindset works as well.

Basically, what me and my friend recently learned -- and what I think might be a valuable lesson to other therians out there -- is that likely a lot of people have these survival instincts, that we call wolf traits. But people like me and him who grew up in abusive (or well: unsupporting) families, used those survival instincts to well, survive. And this is what made those traits be as prominent in our psychology, for us to associate better with wolves than humans.

I don't know exactly where the line should be between "people with canine-like traits" and "born therian". How much of therianthropy should be psychology -- that is, were we born therians, or were we born inclined to become therian-like. That is a philosophical question. But I think the important realization is that therian traits are human traits, which are animal-like, and we've become more animal-like than human-like as therians, because our environment forced us to try to survive and animal traits are good for that.

I think maybe this tells me that therianthropy is not what I thought it would be. Perhaps I romanticized it as having something that actually physically links me to wolves and canines. But I still think that, actually understanding your therianthropy is valuable, and I'm a bit closer today.

LP,
Dusty

Put simply, I don’t believe in reincarnation. I don't think a soul, spirit or what have you can rise up from its body and be placed in another. For that, we would have to see the soul as something concrete that is separate from the body and two can move about freely to another body by its own will. Or sheer force. Life, for me, is just a result of convening incidents that lead to a being that can breathe, function according to its best of abilities, then dies. Seeing souls as concrete would mean that we can measure or substantialize them, even give them names if we'd like to. A creature's meaning is simply to exist until its bodily functions wear off, wither, then cease to be. What I do believe is that there is a thing known as life force and instincts that drive a being for survival. Whether it is successful at those influences the duration of its life.
So, for me, personally, I don't know why I am therian either, but I am quite careful dipping my toe in reincarnation theories, with all due respect of course to those who do.

(2024-11-24 12:15)DustWolf Wrote:  I don't know exactly where the line should be between "people with canine-like traits" and "born therian". How much of therianthropy should be psychology -- that is, were we born therians, or were we born inclined to become therian-like. That is a philosophical question. But I think the important realization is that therian traits are human traits, which are animal-like, and we've become more animal-like than human-like as therians, because our environment forced us to try to survive and animal traits are good for that.

That could be true and it would make sense in my situation, but I didn't fully feel related to just canines at first. I went through a period where I was primarily feline (big cats, leopards or jaguars to be exact), and now I'm primarily canine.
I've always desired the ability to shapeshift, and that stemmed from wanting to be able to hide and defend myself as far as I remember, but why would the primary relation change suddenly/over time?

My personal theory of therianthropy has shifted significantly since I first found the community in the late 90s; if you read the AHWW FAQs you'll see that therianthropy is described as spiritual and there isn't really any further interpretation beyond that, so that's the mental model I applied to myself. But as an atheist and fairly rational and scientific minded person I always struggled a bit with the spiritual nature of it, as Dust mention's it's a romantic notion. I'd love to think I had the soul of a wolf or somehow human and wolf spirits coexisted within me to explain my therianthropy, but it sounds like something from a fairytale and in the end I just couldn't really make myself believe it.

I began to ascribe my therianthropy as a coping mechanism for my sexuality by the mid-00s when I stepped away from the community. I even got outed as therian to my parents before I eventually came out to them as gay. It was like I'd found something to try and camouflage my sexuality which society had tried to shame me for, with something else, just even weirder and harder for people to understand. But it turned out it was more than just a camouflage; I still shifted periodically, I still went through periods of deep yearning to be a wolf, still slipped into animalistic behaviours. When I returned to the community, twenty years later, aside from a bewildering explosion of new terminology I found psychological therianthropy was now an accepted theory for this experience and it felt very validating. My belief is that therianthropy is psychological, that it's most likely in whole or in part a neurodivergent trait or collection of traits.

Many years ago I used to be a big fan of a talk radio host by the name of Thom Hartmann (I went through something of a political awakening during the Iraq war and listened to a lot of lefty American talk radio back then on the internet), who would often speak about ADHD as a remnant of our hunter-gatherer past, and I'm pretty sure that's likely the origin of a lot of my animalistic experiences – because humans are animals and for a lot of our evolutionary history we weren't all that different to any other apex predator. That I have an affinity to wolves vs some other predator, I can't hugely explain but I grew up around dogs and of course werewolves are prevalent in our culture and always captivated me as they represent so many things I've always deeply desired.