Research for me is looking inside myself, first. I thought I was a wolf at first because of how much I loved them. But When I found I was a therian, I took a step back from finding my 'type' and tried to learn myself first.

I did a lot of looking internally and journaled to keep track of my habits and behaviours and traits. This research can affect finding your type! After I had a good understanding of myself, I tried to apply it to other animals. Shifts (if you experience them) can sometimes be enough to narrow down your type, like for my I had very canine/doglike phantom and mental shifts. But lots of canine act similar.

So that's when I do some external research, I'm looking at dog breeds and suddenly I find the Shiloh Shepherd, a dog breed I didn't know existed. I found they and I share a lot within personality, vocals, and phantom shifting. Even my mental self image looked exactly like one.

In short research doesn't have to mean looking at animals and their behaviors, watching doccumentaries, reading about them, etc. It can be useful, but only if you know yourself first. Don't let outside sources make you relate to animals just because you found a new one you think is cool and unique.

Best of luck,
~Fernweh

So happy I see others who actually agree with me! I’m glad I found this post.

I don’t really have much to add, since you guys pretty much said all the points I wanted to say, but another thing I wanted to add was the theriotype edits and animations of past life memories. I know it’s not that prominent in the community, but I still see it and it bothers me. The most common thing seems to be being run over by a car. I get that for some species, but there was one that I saw where it was a serval that got run over by a car. First off, that is extremely rare to happen, since servals don’t even hang near cars ever at all really, and second off, it’s highly unlikely for a serval to be run over by a Honda suv.. especially out in the savanna…

Anyways, I completely got off track there. What I was trying to say was that the theriotype edits pretty much do the same damage that wearing gear and doing quads does to the community, even if it’s not seen as much. There have been quite a few people who lie about what their theriotype is just to make those edits so they can “look cooler”. There’s also been a lot of people lying to themselves about what experiences they’ve actually been feeling, just so they can fit the animal they wanted to be but know that they’re not. I’ve done the same thing for a while… and I’ve noticed it with a lot of people.

And finally, there has been people who immediately contemplate “wait what if that’s my fiction kintype” whenever they see some character they like after watching a movie/show or something because they could relate to them. But my thought on it is how do you know you’re still gonna relate to that character like, 10-20 years from now? You may relate to them now, but that’s probably because you’re younger + characters are purposefully created to be relatable to their audience. However, I do believe it depends on why you relate to that character. If it’s mainly because you just like them or because “they’re just me-core!!!” then I’ll become skeptical..

Well that was a lot more than I thought I was gonna add. And I did get off course for some parts, but hopefully I got my point across. And without being rude.

(2024-07-20 15:27)Lupus Ferox Wrote:  Can someone tell me what an alterhuman is exactly? Wouldn't it be better to narrow this down to the nonhuman community? I heard reports by some therians who favor the word nonhuman over the other one, alterhuman. It's just a small discrepancy I would like to stress just this once, so I hope you don't mind. Otherwise, posting this was more than okay.

I just need clarification on what an alterhuman is exactly. As for the rest, I consider this post to be quite brave for a young user.

It's an umbrella term that was meant to include therians, otherkin, and a bunch of other things that don't fall under them under one term. To my knowledge it was coined by Alt+h (which I think is: https://www.alt-h.net/ it has a definition on their page). I don't really use the term for myself since it would group me with experiences that don't have anything to do with me and I don't really want to be referred to as "human", but I've seen it used a lot recently. It's not really specific to nonhumans.

(2024-07-20 21:09)WanderingForests Wrote:  

(2024-07-20 19:20)ArisazuTheRodent Wrote:  

(2024-07-20 5:15)WanderingForests Wrote:  I see getting hit by cars or getting shot by hunters. I saw one where a bear got hit by a car. A bear?? I'm pretty sure that would do more damage to the car than the bear. If you're gonna lie, at least be smart about it.

I actually have heard of bears being run over by cars, and even though it seems impossible, it does happen.

The reason why I was pointing out the serval one is because it is pretty much flat out impossible to drive out in the savanna with a car like that, especially in the areas where servals live. There’s a reason why there are cars specifically made for driving in the savanna.

Also, you are actually correct about the hit damaging the car more than the bear, but even though they don’t look nearly as bad as the car, they can still die from the impact.

yeah, it could happen, but it is less likely that a 600 pound grizzly bear would die from a car. Not saying it's impossible, just less likely than something like a fox or a cat.

True. I can agree with that.

(2024-07-20 19:20)ArisazuTheRodent Wrote:  

(2024-07-20 5:15)WanderingForests Wrote:  I see getting hit by cars or getting shot by hunters. I saw one where a bear got hit by a car. A bear?? I'm pretty sure that would do more damage to the car than the bear. If you're gonna lie, at least be smart about it.

I actually have heard of bears being run over by cars, and even though it seems impossible, it does happen.

The reason why I was pointing out the serval one is because it is pretty much flat out impossible to drive out in the savanna with a car like that, especially in the areas where servals live. There’s a reason why there are cars specifically made for driving in the savanna.

Also, you are actually correct about the hit damaging the car more than the bear, but even though they don’t look nearly as bad as the car, they can still die from the impact.

yeah, it could happen, but it is less likely that a 600 pound grizzly bear would die from a car. Not saying it's impossible, just less likely than something like a fox or a cat.

(2024-07-20 5:15)WanderingForests Wrote:  I see getting hit by cars or getting shot by hunters. I saw one where a bear got hit by a car. A bear?? I'm pretty sure that would do more damage to the car than the bear. If you're gonna lie, at least be smart about it.

I actually have heard of bears being run over by cars, and even though it seems impossible, it does happen.

The reason why I was pointing out the serval one is because it is pretty much flat out impossible to drive out in the savanna with a car like that, especially in the areas where servals live. There’s a reason why there are cars specifically made for driving in the savanna.

Also, you are actually correct about the hit damaging the car more than the bear, but even though they don’t look nearly as bad as the car, they can still die from the impact.

(2024-07-20 7:57)DustWolf Wrote:  

(2024-07-20 5:15)WanderingForests Wrote:  

(2024-07-20 2:31)ArisazuTheRodent Wrote:  So happy I see others who actually agree with me! I’m glad I found this post.

I don’t really have much to add, since you guys pretty much said all the points I wanted to say, but another thing I wanted to add was the theriotype edits and animations of past life memories. I know it’s not that prominent in the community, but I still see it and it bothers me. The most common thing seems to be being run over by a car. I get that for some species, but there was one that I saw where it was a serval that got run over by a car. First off, that is extremely rare to happen, since servals don’t even hang near cars ever at all really, and second off, it’s highly unlikely for a serval to be run over by a Honda suv.. especially out in the savanna…

Hi from someone who was a coyote in a past life and got hit by a car and died lol

I just wanted to add this... personal experience of mine in case it helps someone.

When I was first discovering my therianthropy, I had a dream that I had found some horses with a brother wolf who had black fur, that we killed them and then got spotted by humans and tried to escape (I remember the chicken wire fence). That we got chased around the local landscape, the forests and the bendy roads. That I thought I got away, but when jumping over a stream I felt my hind legs give our suddenly, which would have probably been a bullet wound. That I fell down and felt the cold feeling of blood loss wash over me, until I was no more.

For a long time, I was sure that these were my past life experiences. But I realised over the years that it was just a dream. It was a dream I had while thinking about my therianthropy... it was the kind of dream it would make sense, for a person who is part wolf, to have. My therianthropy is no less real because that experience was just a dream.

I realise some of you identify more spiritually and the past life explanation may seem more appealing to you. But just try to remember that you are a human who is part animal as a therian. It makes sense for your animal part to influence what you dream about. It makes sense that your human part would dream about it too if your therianthropy is important to you. Sometimes, what exactly happened and where you were is not that important, it's just a dream.

In english the phrase "to dream" also means to envision things you wish were true. It is this way for a reason. It makes sense for you to dream being the animal physically. It makes sense to dream up the physical proof you've always wanted to have as a therian. But it's not to be interpreted literaly. It doesn't mean it actually happened.

LP,
Dusty

I totally get where you're coming from, and I've taken all of that into account. However, I did not discover my past life through dreaming. I first started wondering about it when I realized how heavy of deja Vu I got whenever I looked out the car window at night if we were driving down a road with trees on the side of it. Then, I wondered to myself, "What do I remember from here?" I continued to push my memory and tried to figure it out. After a while of trying (and a lot of nighttime car rides) I had a flash of memory from trotting down a road at night. There was a highway nearby, and a town further in front of me, but I was just on the road and was walking. It was vacant.
For a while, I was satisfied with that. Until I started wondering why I got deja Vu in the headlights of cars. For some reason, I remembered standing on the road at night with a car hurtling towards me. I put two and two together, and eventually realized I was most likely hit by a car in a past life.
I realize that past lives might not be real, and this might just be my imagination, or a dream I had when I was little. However, this explanation makes most sense to me. I don't fully believe in anything, really, especially something with no real proof that it exists, but it is easier to say that I was hit by a car in a past life rather than explain that I could have been but I also might not have been but I also might not have even had a past life, etc.

Can someone tell me what an alterhuman is exactly? Wouldn't it be better to narrow this down to the nonhuman community? I heard reports by some therians who favor the word nonhuman over the other one, alterhuman. It's just a small discrepancy I would like to stress just this once, so I hope you don't mind. Otherwise, posting this was more than okay.

I just need clarification on what an alterhuman is exactly. As for the rest, I consider this post to be quite brave for a young user.

I agree with OP, though Siris brings up a good point; there's different types of spiritual origins for therianthropy that I've heard people describe. Not all of us view ourselves as reincarnations into human bodies, either. Something about the idea never sat quite right with me when I was younger, as if it was not entirely correct or an incomplete description when others brought it up. I've never really viewed my nonhuman experience as being relegated to the past as remnants and memories..I'm this here and now, and the majority of my experiences have taken place in present day.

I think spiritual needs to be noted doesn't always mean past lives.