I do have some experience with tulpas- Back in...2012, I believe, I tried to create my own tulpa. I spent weeks doing research out of fascination, which eventually led to a few months of actually bringing my tulpa "to life". The experience was, in all honesty, a bit overwhelming because of how new it was to me. But I kept my tulpa around for a year or two until I just kind of stopped paying attention to it.
Anyhow.

Very informative and thought-provoking, what you have posted. Thank you for this intro thread.

I never bothered with research. I just had my experiences and feelings that have persisted as long as I can remember. They were fairly obvious. Later, I learned all I could about bears but before I knew my inner feelings I didn't do any special research.

I see it as studying animal behavior, features, and even mythology. Every once in a while I look something up about wolves but I didn't have to do a ton of research to confirm that I was one. For at least 5 years now I've had lupine characteristics. When I first joined the therian community the idea that one had to research and question their theriotypes was pushed onto me so heavily that I dropped the wolf identity for a different animal, which at the time I was absolutely sure beyond a doubt was correct. I used to think I was an albatross and a fox, and I was always having an internal battle with myself of whether or not my experiences were valid. Turns out, they weren't. I made the identity up. When I started thinking of myself as lupine again, the internal battle was gone. It was just silence in my head, because I knew that it was correct. It just felt right.

My point is, I didn't really need to do much research to know that I was a wolf. In fact, it just threw me off even more. I think that it was partially my fault though, as I trusted the outside facts more than my internal gut instinct.

"Doing research" just means putting my experiences in a logical row. Kinda like what I'm doing with my journal, now. I wanted to figure out what therianthropy meant to me, how it started, looking to my journey, seeing how my therianthropy affected me. My research is looking for the entirety of the story, both of my therianthropy and behind my therianthropy. It's mostly a great deal of using what I've learned and comparing that with my experiences. It involves a lot of introspection.

This came up during a conversation on how to discover kintypes in the shoutbox, I believe. For that, it was relatively simple. My theriotype was less of a part in my therianthropic journey. I have done purring, and I have done some roaring. I've "seen" myself with saberteeth. Those were cues of a variety of cats. I've tried using it for research, but that was futile. In the end, it always ended as a research of what animal I resonate most with, inside.

I don't do research.

My draconity manifested when I was a child by factors that I cannot remember, and it stuck with me since then as well as into adult life, my current day to day.

I have *tried* to research and compare my experiences to more rational animals, but it does not compare to how I experience my draconity, thus, lying to myself in such a way is pointless.

I do experience some fluidity between lizard and dragon though, and there are certain situasions where one will be more dominant than the other.

All in all my experiences are based on feelings, desires, species dysphoria, and animality.

On a topic coffeebear had mentioned in the shout box I would like to create a little thread for it.

( staff feel free to move this thread, I am not quite sure where to put this )

What does “ doing research “ mean ?


To me it means reflecting upon past events, noting down behaviour and things you have or would have with your kintypes and further learning about them ( books, documentaries, pictures, even news articles )

Wow this is very helpful Eli, thank you so much for making this thread. I've been trying to find a straightforward answer to what these things are for months! I'm definitely going to have to do more research, especially on the different totem animals. I strongly suspect mine has, or at least had something to do with a salamander.

Totems, Animal Spirits, Tulpas, Daemons, etc. may seem similar, but they’re actually different concepts. The below was mostly taken from my TG interview on Therian Talks.

Totems and animal spirits are the most similar in that a totem is a representative of a species as a whole. Animal spirits, similarly, are individual representatives of that totem. So, you could have Dog the totem (capitalized ‘D’) and then perhaps work specifically with a beagle, as a representative of Dog. Or you could simply work with the idea of ‘dog’ and what that means to you; things like loyalty, obedience and silliness can be associated with dogs as spirit guides.

Both totems and animal spirits fall under the category of Animism.

Similarly, a shadow totem embodies something you fear, or is actually an animal you fear or dislike strongly. Common shadow totems for many people would be things like bugs and spiders, snakes or sharks.

A Tulpa is intentionally creating a mental construct. Sort of like inventing a conscious persona that you can talk to in your head. It’s my understanding that tulpas are like an imaginary friend: you talk to them, bounce ideas off of them, ask for advice, etc. within your own mind. It’s not a separate entity, but rather an extension of your own consciousness.

Daemons are like tulpas in that you intentionally create a useful thoughtform to work through ideas or problems with. Daemons were made famous though as being external entities, like totems, in Philip Pullman’s trilogy His Dark Materials where they appeared as an animal, alongside their human counterparts. Totems and daemons are not the same thing though.

Tulpas and daemons are internal mental constructs, whereas totems and animal spirit guides are external entities.

Also, depending on who you ask, you can have either one totem for life, or you can have more than one that can change depending on where your life’s journey takes you. I tend to believe that totems come into your life to teach you a lesson, unless you reach out to them first.

Finally, totems, animal spirits, tulpas, daemons, etc. are not the same thing as therianthropy. Therianthropy is what you are, inside. Whereas totems are external forces that are independent from you and your identity. Many therians have totems that are completely different species than what they identify as so if you’ve found and worked with totems, that doesn’t automatically mean you are that same species. However, there are some therians who do work with the same species as their animal guide. But it’s not necessary for the two groups to be the same.

If you’re new to the idea of therianthropy and have yet to figure out what animal you are, it can be helpful to reach out to a totem or animal spirit directly to try to learn more about yourself. However, meditation takes practice and to get the most honest answer it’s recommended you repeat the process many times before coming to any one conclusion.

And as a warning, take what you learn in meditation or in working with a totem and animal spirit with a grain of salt. You need to make sure to do research into the species itself and pay attention to your own habits and behaviors before coming to any absolute conclusions. Identity is a learning process and it takes time!

I have an "animal name" but it's not like a name for my kintypes. As a therian/otherkin, I go by Flash. Neither my theriotype or kintype are named and they probably won't be, I also don't understand naming them as they should be you, or at least a part of you, not something else entirely enough to have its own name. Although some beliefs don't match up with that and that is perfectly fine, in my experience, I don't think therio/kintypes should be named unless for a special reason they already had a name. I personally don't feel separated enough from my vulture or drake for them to ave their own name as I am them, we are one.

I use my drake as a name which is a whole entire other thing, I like using the word drake as a name online and that helps decipher me from others, it's like a nickname for me. It's more the opposite of what we are talking about but if anyone is interested, what are your thoughts on using your therio/kintype as a name for yourself?

I feel like *if* my wolf self has her own name, it's probably just like... a growl, or something. Wolves don't give each other names like Shadow or Luna. Nothing wrong with calling yourself something like that, but that's something you as a human are assigning to your theriotype.