We are not completely animals, obviously. As therians we still have our human sides, and I think that human side is largely where the spiritual aspect you speak of comes from, though there's no reason to completely discount that there might be spiritualism in some form in the animal world. Humans and animals are not as different as most people think, afterall, and it drives me crazy when people assume we are and that humans know everything, even about creatures we can't communicate with. Many therians, also, when speaking of their therian experience as spiritual are probably referring to why they are therians; displaced soul, past life, etc. But I think as humans with an animal side, it can be quite natural for spirituality to meld with animality. In addition, every therian experiences the "ratio" or balance between their human and animal side differently. Some might be really deep in their animality and don't thrive unless they are out in nature, others cannot for multiple reasons live a life skewed more towards a wilder, animal life either because they experience more of their human side or some other logistical, personal reason.

That said, there shouldn't be belittling among different views and lifestyles. Psychological therians are no less legitimate than spiritual therians and just because one person doesn't have the same views and experiences doesn't mean they can claim others are sick. As you said, it's incredibly harmful and presumptuous making assumptions about a life that no one other than the individual experiencing it has no actual knowledge of. Especially when there is a very clear distinction between a "sick" individual and genuine therianthropy in my opinion, and that's the belief that one can physically shift. That's lycanthropy a recognized clinical condition with very specific symptoms. Psychological therianthropy is just a different lens of therian experience, not better or worse.

I do also agree with your point that one thing like wearing gear does not signify therianthropy, as we've been discussing in other threads. It's so much more complex. Therianthropy as you said is a path, one that only the individual experiencing it can make decisions on about where it'll take them.

(2025-03-15 18:40)Volchara Wrote:  Because...sometimes you want to weed out those who really don't understand what it is and how terribly bad it is sometimes and how harmful it can be

That's not going to happen. Many people only pay attention to what rings true to them and then make their own interpretations of labels, and "take" them for themselves. There is unfortunately nothing we can do about that, especially when a niche community gains more recognition in the mainstream.

What we can do is stay true to ourselves and keep our own communities strong. But without gatekeeping too much and telling other people what they can be or not. Parts of your post were rather inconsiderate, do you really know how the people behind those posts actually live and feel? Maybe their experience seems shallow or contradictory to you, but that doesn't have to be true on their end.

Hi everyone!
I am Volchara

Therianthropy used to be a designation of the fact that a person feels like a beast
And now therianthropy has turned into...spiritual
And any attacks of brutality are considered not normal
Some even say that therianthropy is not a forest, not green clothes
But "spiritual"
And this is very common in our Russian therian community
Like...some of these spirital have forgotten what it really is!
If they are animals, but they sit on their asses at home and write on the Internet what very spiritual animals they are - then they are not animals at all
An animal is such only when it finds any way to feel free and truly not human, and does this to be happy
If a "therian" just complains about his life, says that he would like to be a dog, then this is just a desire to run away from problems
Yes
Therianthropy is definitely not green clothes and the goblincore style, it is not a quad, not quad gear
It's all about traveling, finding your place in nature, perhaps helping your animal relatives)
Of course, you can wear goblincore clothes, love this style
You can freely wear quad bike equipment to feel more animalistic and so that others know what kind of animal you feel like
Yes, every theri can do all this! Of course
But this does not imply therianthropy
But it can brighten it up)
I would like all newbies to know about this
Because...sometimes you want to weed out those who really don't understand what it is and how terribly bad it is sometimes and how harmful it can be
Personally, I've been going wild lately and am going a little crazy because of this
It's both exciting and bad

More about spiritual ones
I don't mind, okay
But sometimes spiritual animals cross the line! And they call some psychological theri sick, which really offends me and some of my friends

But many newbie "therians" hide behind the fact that they are spiritual and therefore do not justify their experience in any way
Which looks strange
I hope everything will be weeded out soon

I hope many will agree with me

It is an intriguing theory, though psychology based theories always tend to be hard to prove - if they can even be proved at all.

A primary ingredient of that recipe being dissociation makes sense. But I might even suggest that this includes disassociation. To sum it up briefly: dissociation is involuntary, whereas disassociation is voluntary. But they can in some cases result in similar symptoms. At the core of both concepts though is that disconnection from someone, something, oneself, or the world. Though a child may not necessarily be dissociative because they have not experienced a form of early stress or trauma, they may choose to disassociate depending on the circumstances.

As a rough example: a child who can't seem to find any other classmates who have the same interests as them might then choose to disassociate themselves from their classmates. They may feel disconnected from the concept of friends because of these circumstances, and that disassociation can then potentially lead to a connection with therianthropy. From what I can see, humans don't tend to function very well when completely disconnected. They need to be connected to something, someone, a concept, a goal, a philosophy, anything. And perhaps therianthropy is just one of those things.

In this way then, obviously those who experience dissociation are more likely to identify as alterhuman (and this has been seen on many occasions where those with DID have reported experiencing animal-like identities). But I believe disassociation can play a part too, which is not inherently dependent on neurodivergency, trauma, or personality (though may still be affected by such traits). Anyone has the capacity to disassociate.

And obvious disclaimer: I am not a medical professional, I am just guesstimating.

I see what you mean. As a biological male, I am an outcast in the Therian community. but thats alright!

This is an interesting way of looking at it, Lopori! There certainly is logic behind what you're saying.

Men do want to have plans to do things in group, while women often do introspection, care about emotions, about others. They are more predisposed to talk about them, while men often keep them for themselves. I am not a furry, however. I don't suit at least, do introspection, but am perhaps not as communicative as women tend to be. I care about emotions of others, not just the ones close to me, but taken as a whole.

I know this is not about me in particular. I just wanted to chime in and say that this may explain why there are more women in the community. Loved your take on this as well.

(2025-02-23 14:03)UniqueUsernameTADA Wrote:  One reason that I think that there are more AFAB therians is that young girls are generally more encouraged to be interested in animals than young boys. I believe that therianthropy usually develops when someone is a young child, whereas furries can choose to become one at any point.

Horse-girl+

Therianthropy sometimes develops a little later, I was late teens (still pretty young in the grand scheme). But yeah I get what you mean about girls and animals.

One reason that I think that there are more AFAB therians is that young girls are generally more encouraged to be interested in animals than young boys. I believe that therianthropy usually develops when someone is a young child, whereas furries can choose to become one at any point.

Personally I believe innate sex differences account for a lot, conditioning reinforces it but why reinforce it if it's not already there? Humans like any mammal are sexually dimorphic due to fact that sperm is cheap and eggs are expensive, and that affects behaviour. Hormones make a difference too. Some emotional and behavioural changes occur when trans people take HRT, an example would be frequency of crying and amount of aggression. That seems to be a really common change. HRT doesn't change everything, as the trends I'm proposing illustrate, but it does have an effect.

There are a lot of trans men and female non-binaries in otherkin communities, people who have gone to lengths to present and behave in a masculine manner. And yet, the female coded social behaviour never quite goes away. Because the sex demographics haven't changed. The furry fandom has a high transfem population and the activity based socialising is still prevalent. Old habits die hard.

The therian and otherkin communities also are big about self acceptance and introspection. Males typically are much less inner focused than females are, though this may less be due to innate sex differences and more to do with conditioning.