Otherkin News

Trigger warnings: The comments on this post mention an eating disorder (anorexia). The linked article contains snakes and brief mentions of plastic surgery. The linked video also contains these, in addition to profanity, and a lot of offensive, sexist hate speech about women's bodies. There's also some remarks equating spiritual beliefs with mental illness. It's the whole "catch 22" where the patriarchy gives impression that only beautiful women will be treated with respect or like their ideas are worth listening to, but then it turns out that women who do their utmost to be beautiful are treated hatefully and assumed to be unintelligent anyway.

July: A model named Valeria Lukyanova, 23, in the Ukraine, "believes she is from another planet - possibly Venus, but she isn't quite sure - so isn't really human like the rest of us. [...] She genuinely believes she's from another planet. 100 per cent. She's not making any money from her life - not even from the seminars she gives - which is originally why I thought she was doing this."¹ The VICE documentary series "My Life Online" ran an episode about Lukyanova this month. The full episode (over 20 minutes long) can be viewed on the official VICE site.² In it, Lukyanova talks briefly about her memories of her past incarnation and her spirituality, but this is not the focus of the documentary.

I am not aware of whether Lukyanova is involved with communities of people who identify as extraterrestrials, the starseed community, or anything similar.



Sources

1. Martha De Lacey, "The voices in her head, internet trolls and an OBSESSION with perfection: Inside the world of 'real life Barbie' Valeria Lukyanova." 2013-07-25. Daily Mail Online. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-2377832/Human-Barbie-Ukraines-Valeria-Lukyanova-new-Vice-documentary-Will-Fairman.html

2. William Fairman, "Space Barbie." My Life Online. Vice. http://www.vice.com/en_uk/my-life-online/space-barbie-full-length

Summary: News from 2012 regarding topics of interest to otherkin and therianthropes (therians), including: a new study on clinical lycanthropy, an anthology of non-supernatural otherkin and therian romantic fiction, a survey of therians and furries, a Tarot deck for people who were extraterrestrials in past lives, a therian-inspired art exhibit, advances in the technology of wearable animal ears, other transhuman innovations, and the death of Stalking Cat.

Trigger warnings: mental illness, death.

2012-01. A new academic article about clinical lycanthropy was published in The Journal of Psychiatric Practice, focusing on the case study of Ms. A., 47, who believed herself to be a snake.¹ The syndrome of lycanthropy recognized in psychiatry has some traits in common with spiritual therianthropy as discussed in the therianthrope community, in that the subject believes himself or herself to be or become an animal. The syndrome itself isn’t a mental illness, and doesn’t consistently correlate with any specific mental illnesses. Clinical lycanthropy is distinguished by delusions of physical transformation, and presence of other mental illnesses; all but one case of clinical lycanthropy have quickly responded to treatment. People in the therianthrope community, on the other hand, generally don’t believe they physically transform. The new article itself is behind a pay-wall. You can get the gist of the article through an irreverent informal commentary on it in the Neurotic Physiology blog.²

2012-09. Good Mourning Publishing is working on assembling an anthology of short romantic fiction titled Shifting Hearts, "in which at least one of the love interests is Otherkin/Therian. Any identification of otherkin or therian is accepted. No vampires, p-shifting, or paranormal themes; strictly real world depictions. […] The submission deadline is December 31, 2012."³ To my knowledge, this is the first book of its kind. Personally, I’ve heard rumors that a member of the therianthrope community is writing the preface for it; is there a public post by the person in question to confirm this rumor?

2012-09-05. A multidisciplinary team of scientists (sociologists, anthropologists, and social psychologists) called the Anthropomorphic Research Project (ARP) released results for its surveys of furries, bronies (fans of My Little Pony), and therianthropes.⁴

2012-09-05. An interview with Patricia Cori, co-author (with Alysa Bartha) of the Sirian Starseed Tarot. In the interview, Cori said she intended the oracle deck as a tool for “starseed awakening,” to assist the “the starseed [extraterrestrial] beings currently incarnated [in human bodies] on the planet, here to assist in the great transition that we all are beginning to recognize is well underway. […] In the generations of children since the 60’s, I believe, many very special souls are coming into the life experience highly conscious, with many gifts. They are starseeds from other planets and systems that are quite possibly more evolved than ours.”⁵ The starseed community has been active for several decades, but their community remains separate from the otherkin and therianthrope communities.

2012-09-11. Valerie Daval’s art exhibition of paintings inspired by therianthropes, featuring animal-themed reinterpretations of classic paintings. “Therians believe that while they have a human body, some important part of their mind, identity or spirit is that of an animal. […] Therians Dream is a series of portraits about metamorphosis between human and animal form.”⁶ Caution: the linked page includes artistic nudity.

2012-10. Following the release of Necomimi, the wearable cat-like biofeedback ears by Neurowear, an independent business emerged, called Emoki, offering diverse modifications built upon that hardware. Emoki offers the Necomimi headset, plus their own variety of interchangeable animal ears: bunny, bear, and fox, with more to come soon.⁷

2012-10. Transhuman week on Wired magazine, featuring the latest experiments and predictions about high-tech enhancement of the human body and mind. Trigger warnings: surgery, physical injuries particularly to eyes and extremities, vivid descriptions and photos thereof.

2012-11-05. Stalking Cat, 54, died. Famous for modifying his body to resemble a tiger, which he called his totem animal, Stalking Cat was active in the furry community,⁸ but I haven’t found evidence that he was active in the otherkin or therianthrope communities.


- O. Scribner

( Sources )