Funny how I just returned and this thread popped out for me.
Did a lot of thinking this past year and I also dug deep into shamanism (Siberian and Northern European mainly) and this post just rings true for me where I am at currently.
Did a lot of work with totem and power animals and some surprising stuff happened to me that have led me to believe there is indeed some form of resonance at play.
Shamananic shapeshifting...
I definitely feel like my therianthropy results from imprinting on a certain animal rather than being born this way, even if it did start from a very young age. Growing up I didn't socialize very much, and I spent a LOT of time mirroring my cat, who I was abnormally close to. I feel that led to a lot of my more feline habits. Especially since I had that cat from when I was three until my early teens.
I haven't figured out yet why my theriotype went bobcat instead of housecat, but I do feel like my therianthropy results from the mental health problems and neurodivergence I've been dealing with since I was young and didn't start getting help for until I was 18.
I'm not well-versed in psychology and I haven't discussed my mental problems with a professional as often or as thoroughly as I should, but I've been wondering if my phantom shifts and mental shifts may be a form of dissociation that's linked to that feline imprint from a young age. The only thing I haven't been able to explain is why I'm shiftier when I'm NOT having mental health problems. I haven't had a shift in weeks and I've been more stressed than I've been in months
That's something I definitely consider when it comes to me.
Like: I was born loving nature and animals. And I did treat them properly without needing teaching from the very start.
That of course isn't something I remember but stories my mom told me about.
So the connection was there, I loved nature, imitating animals or simply spending time with them. Didn't get along with other kids though.
My Childhood was bad. And now having discovered therianthropy and my dog kintype I'm thinking stuff like that.
Why a dog? I do associate bad things with being a dog, I feel like people treated me like one. So it definitely seems to be influenced by life. (In my case.)
definitely. but everyone's therianthropy is different i think. there's not one single cause or anything. personally i believe i am a mix. part of it is that i was born predisposed to non-humanity, and then i formed a large connection to canines which makes me act like one and such. however the main reason im a therian is simply that i feel like i should be a canine rather than human, not that i like them or that i act like them etc.
I very much agree with the molding portion of what you said. For me I've always felt animalistic deep down ever since I was I'd say around 6-7 years old but I never knew what that meant. But when I heard about what therians are I felt like that was me. I just didn't really know what I was yet. And I feel like I've tried to have a more animalistic connection towards different creatures over the years because I didn't know what felt just right to me yet. If that doesn't make sense, I like thinking about it as when I was younger I thought I was bi but then that didn't feel right. So, with time as I got older and had more experiences, I found a better identity for myself. As someone who is a psychological therian, this makes a lot of sense to me. But overall I think that a little bit of both comes to mind for my situation. My brain was just wired differently and I've felt like something's off in terms of being just a normal human but I've also developed a connection towards certain animals. Which in turn is the formation of my therianthopy.
So, if the question is what *causes* that connection, I don't usually spend much time or sleep thinking about that sort of thing. But, once we get to the point that we're saying that it is there, and for whatever reason I am a "person that is in some manner like a coyote", that is more or less how I feel. But I'm really interested in the musical analogy here:
(2020-07-27 18:09)Blayz Wrote: [ -> ][...]
I grappled with this question for years. The best thing I have to offer as an explanation for this is an analogy based on the musical principle of Resonance. If you have two tuning forks that are matched in frequency, you only have to strike one to make the other one ring.
DustWolf Wrote:Ultimately if anyone looked deep enough into their Therianthropy they might find that the reason for their animal traits is... that they're a person who is like that animal.
That is how this therian connection thing works, in my mind. We are born or are shaped into having the ability to 'resonate' aka 'connect' with a certain creature. Oh but, what about the identity part of it?
When you have notes playing with compatible frequencies, the result is a chord. When this happens, you can no longer pick out individual notes. You experience the waveform as a single sound instead.
That is a good analogy for the identity side of therianthropy. We connect, identify and resonate with said creature so strongly, we no longer experience that as a separate entity. It is now a part of ourselves. 
[...]
I very much like the idea of resonance and harmonization and so on here. I think I maybe have a different idea for harmonization in that sense. Usually, I think of harmonization more as bringing two different things together into something that sounds beautiful as one -- but I think that can still apply here. As a therian, I have coyote aspects, but I also have human aspects. And they have to come together into one thing that is, still, unique compared to just the coyote note and just the human note.
Also, now my brain is stuck on timbre (the part of sound that makes two different instruments sound different, even when they play the same note), but I can't really think of a way to incorporate it into this metaphor. I guess, it's its own flavor for the sound, in some sense? Perhaps it could be the personality a person brings to that chord; the chord will always still sound like the chord, but certain aspects of it (is it cheery and bright? Is it rich and dark?) are still unique to the individual playing the notes. Or something like that. And of course, timbre can change depending on how a musician plays an instrument, in the same way people can bring different personalities to the notes they play at any given time. Maybe that's stretching the metaphor too far, though 
I think for me its a mixture of imprinting and weird brain wiring (I’m autistic.)
Therianthopy helps explain experiences that always bothered me because no one else I knew understood them.
I grew up with a cat, and was always fascinated by them as a kid, devouring all kinds of books and media about them (fiction and nonfiction.) I pretended to be one, and imitated my cat's body language to try and communicate with her. I didn't have good role models growing up (family issues) and so she became my role model.
I have a lot of trauma surrounding dehumanization. Due to my Tourette's and other issues, I've never had a chance to NOT be perceived as "other," but I've started thinking of myself less as a "subhuman" and more as a "nonhuman."
I still don't feel like I was socialized or even born the same as someone who feels human. However, thinking of myself as "nonhuman" has helped me treat myself with more respect and understanding.