You might find this paper discussing the Body Schema interesting: https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10605253/ It's rather long, but it does go into phantom limbs.

From what I remember it noted that the brain didn't necessarily reorganize after the loss of a limb, and continued to "expect" signals from it. I think this may have implications for those of us with past lives if what is carried into the present results in the formation of those circuits during childhood development.

Also, this paper discusses the possible mechanisms behind phantom pain: https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/pain-research/articles/10.3389/fpain.2025.1419762/full

Randomly opened my old neuroscience textbook because a friend wanted to borrow it, and landed my eyes on phantom limbs!

Now keep in mind the researched concept is about amputated humans, not alterhumans, however, it mentions a fascinating fact: These phantom sensations are acknowledged to exist even for some humans born without limbs. Meaning, even if your physical body doesn't develop the limb, your brain can still store its representation, and proactively contributes to your perception of your body.

I'd love to see a screening of an alterhuman brain because it makes me wonder, what activates in the brain during phantom shifts? Do we have "additional nodes" in the somatosensory/motor cortex for extra limbs? Considering that humans still have a tail bone, it wouldn't sound crazy that the brain sometimes assigns it a full tail...

Thoughts?

Hey folks, in about 16 days (September 17th-18th) there will be a scheduled server update for the website. We're currently unsure of the length of time the site may be down for while this occurs. It could be as few as several minutes, but it could potentially be much longer. The site will be down entirely during this time, but the discord server will still be up and running just fine.

So if in a bit over 2 weeks, tg seems to just be gone, you will know why. It's nothing to be concerned about. I'll post any further information we get here in the time leading up to the reset, and answer any questions I'm able to. During the downtime, if it lasts longer than expected, we will share updates on the discord server.

On behalf of the staff team, we thank you in advance for your patience, and apologize for any inconveniences.

Hey there library dwellers!

Just a heads up, Custard has decided to step down from staff, and will also be taking a step back from TG for a while.
She'd appreciate if everyone give her space and not DM her about TG-related issues.

We know she's a very busy fox, and the team thank her for her time on staff and all that she contributed over that time. We wish her the best of luck in her future adventures and hope she gets some much-deserved time to relax. <3

- Fern & the TG staff team

Walk-ins, possession and soul shattering are different from therianthropy, like apples and oranges. But you could have a salad with both apples and oranges in it.

I disagree that possession experiences come from outside of you. That is an illusion created by the brain. The environment can influence your perceptions, but such entities come from inside. They are a part of you, whether they're temporary or permanent.

I think soul shattering is a psychological condition which is likely related to trauma, or maybe another condition like abuse by a narcissist. It makes a person feel like they've been shattered, and trauma almost literally shatters the mind and sense of self.

i actually had an experience that i guess would fit the definition of a walk in
I have the soul of a coyote , I dont know if its a past like or just how I was born. arpund early 2024 I think I started to feel like I was recently killed , and I would get nightmares of past memories i had never had before. I would lash out like a scared coyote and couldn't explain these new emotions because I had learned how to mask those reactions and emotions before.
I looked inward and realized it felt like I had an additional soul , like I was housing another being. after about a month I just stopped feeling it. the unknown emotions and reactions stopped , the feeling of housing another being with my body stopped too. my experience is probably a one off thing that cant really be used as I already identified as a coyote on a spiritual level , and this soul walk in didnt change that , but I felt like id share my experience anyways !

Hello! Im currently making a therianthropy binder and have a question about one of the reasons why somebody may think their therianthropy may be spiritual. The cause im wondering about is a walk-in soul event.
Ive found out that walk-in souls are souls who choose to incarnate into an established body rather than a newborn infant. The original soul thay inhabited the body returns to the spirit realm. Sometimes the two souls can inhabit the same body during the transition period. Some people believe that the walk-in can be permanent or temporary, and that the original soul sometimes returns. Walk-in events cause a person to feel as if they're in the wrong time and place, in the wrong body, or maybe even on the wrong planet.

The question i have is: is this considered therianthropy?

Because I found an article titled "Are You a Therian?" by Strill that suggests that walk-ins aren't considered a part of Therianthropy because the soul is an outside source and that this is more like a possession. The possibility of a walk-in being temporary also disqualifies it from being Therianthropy, which is a permanent part of a person's identity.


Another cause I found is soul shattering.
What ive found about soul shattering is that unlike a soul which originally was multiple parts, soul shattering or splitting can occur while the soul is outside or inside of a physical vessel. This can occur because pieces of a soul need to learn or have certain experiences to continue their spiritual growth, or it could happen because of traumatic events. Sometimes, the soul pieces are not human, but when they join with parts of a human soul, it can result in a person identifying as a therianthrope.
I would like to know more about the soul shattering but can't seem to find more stuff about it.

Hey guys,

Just a small update: If you added your pin and are under 16 years of age, your pin may appear up to 15km away from where you placed it, for other users. This is obviously done for security, because some of you pups would probably not have heeded our warnings regarding not placing the exact location.

It should still be quite good enough for people to know if they live near you or not, without having your exact location.

LP,
Dusty

Thank you Dusty! I knew some users had an issue with the map but I didn't know it was broken. Maybe we'll see more Therians being added nearby to some of us soon!

And of course, thanks for giving us your spare time. TG appreciates what you do for us. *Pats wolf head*

Hey everyone,

So... Therian Guide forums have had a map feature since like... 2014. But I guess we never really mentioned it on the forums? So I thought I'd make a post now.

Here it is:
https://forums.therian-guide.com/usermap.php

It can also be accessed by clicking "Our Sanctuary" at the top and then "Therian Map".

To those of you who are accessing this page without being logged in, the user map is, for obvious reasons, only accessible to TG members.


Many of you will know that the map has not been functioning for a long time, but I finally got my act together and patched it up. I also added a few quality of life improvements, such as making it more compatible with mobile phones, and I added some descriptions onto the map itself, to clarify how it's used:

Quote:This is the Therian Guide user map. It shows the approximate location of our members, according to what they themselves entered.

To add yourself to the map, provide a city name or country name or similar into the "Your pin location" field below and click Lookup to find it. The form uses Google Maps, so whatever location Google Maps can find, should work here.

To remove your pin, simply enter nothing (or clear what's there) and click Lookup.

Remember to never share your exact location online!

So, as you can see I have also finally added the requested functionality to remove a pin. Simply change your pin location to blank and click Lookup and after you click OK your pin will vanish.

I realize a lot of this was long overdue, but please try to understand that I do the coding for this in my free time and I don't really have a lot of that.


If you have any further questions about the map, you can post them here onto this thread and I'll try to answer.

LP,
Dusty