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frameacloudSummary: In California, a large study is looking for participants. Researchers want to see if psilocybin helps treat the participants' phantom limb pain. The study isn't about therians or otherkin. Many therians and otherkin experience phantom limbs, and some of them have made observations about how psilocybin and other psychoactive substances influence their phantom limbs. This article is an eight minute read, plus a bibliography.
( To continue reading this article, click here. )
frameacloudAugust: Khamaseen revived their personal web-site, Feral Limbo. The web-site contains their essays about their personal draconity and chimerical therianthropy. This includes "Body being: my experience of phantom limbs," and an essay each about their experiences of being marbled cat, giraffe, and horned owl. Khamaseen plans to further improve the site.
Khamaseen, Feral Limbo. http://www.ferallimbo.com/
Research essay on phantom wings
Jul. 11th, 2013 06:00 amframeacloudPublished in July on Birds of a Feather, a blog about otherkin and therianthropes who identify as winged creatures, is an informal research essay by Faileas, "Wings." It's based on surveys of otherkin and therianthropes, regarding how they experience their sensations of phantom wings.
The essay has a copyright from 2005, so I'm not clear on whether this is a new essay.
Faileas, "Wings." 2013-07-02. Birds of a Feather. http://birdsofafeather.feralscribes.org/wings-faileas/
frameacloudIn a recent study in Sweden, published in the Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, an experiment induced supernumerary phantom limb sensations. They investigated it in more detail by conducting 11 experiments on 234 participants. The tactile illusion works like this:
"the participants sat at a table with their right arm behind a screen so that it was not visible to them. The right hand of the volunteers was then touched by the researchers with a small paintbrush, while they imitated the same movement with a different paintbrush up in the air so that it was visible to the subjects. [...] 'most participants, within less than a minute, transfer the sensation of touch to the region of empty space where they see the paintbrush move, and experience an invisible hand in that position. Previous research has shown that non-bodily objects, such as a block of wood, cannot be experienced as one's own hand, so we were extremely surprised to find that the brain can accept an invisible hand as part of the body.'"1
Brain scans demonstrated that the participants could really feel the invisible hand. "'Taken together, our results show that the sight of a physical hand is remarkably unimportant to the brain for creating the experience of one's physical self,'" Arvid Guterstam [lead author of the research] explained."2
I include this news here because supernumerary phantom limbs are a common experience among therianthropes and otherkin.
- O. Scribner
1. Sarah Glynn, "Non-Amputees Experience Phantom Limb Sensation." 2013-04-11. Medical News Today. http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/259003.php
2. Ibid.
The study in question:
Arvid Guterstam, Giovanni Gentile, and H. Henrik Ehrsson, "The Invisible Hand Illusion: Multisensory Integration Leads to the Embodiment of a Discrete Volume of Empty Space." Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience 2013-04-11 doi:10.1162/jocn_a_00393
frameacloudSummary: If a person's idea of their body doesn't match how their body is shaped, putting water in their ear can temporarily change that.
A person’s inner ear (and other parts of the vestibular system) gives them their sense of balance and sense of their body’s position and movement. It also has something to do with a person’s sense of the shape of their body (body schema). If you put water in a person’s ear, it can temporarily change their senses of balance, position, and body schema. (Different things happen if the water is warm or cold, or which ear it's put into.) This practice is called vestibular caloric stimulation. It’s useful because it sometimes helps treat people who have problems with those senses. It can also show things about the relationship between the inner ear and the body schema in the brain.
For some people, their body schema doesn’t match their physical body. Either the person has a body part and feels like it isn’t theirs (somatoparaphrenia), or they’re missing a body part and feel like it’s still there (a phantom limb). People have to learn more about the body schema in order to treat these. Likewise, studying these will help people learn about the body schema. Treatment of these can involve trying to repair the person’s body schema. One of the ways to do that is by showing the person a type of optical illusion, called “mirror box therapy,” but that’s another story. You can also temporarily treat both of these conditions by means of vestibular caloric stimulation. That is to say, these are problems that can be helped by putting water in a person’s ear.
Sometimes people who have had a stroke or become paralyzed on one side end up feeling like one of their body parts isn’t theirs. The sufferer develops far-fetched beliefs about how the body part got there. (It’s called a somatoparaphrenic delusion.) Since there isn’t necessarily anything wrong with the body part itself, doctors try to repair the person’s body schema. A 1991 study showed that putting water in the sufferer’s ear can temporarily change their body schema, so that they feel like the body part is theirs again.
People who have lost a body part (amputees) sometimes feel like the missing body part is still there. Even if the person knows nothing is there, the “phantom limb” can feel very real. Phantom limbs happen because the person’s brain still has that body part in its body schema. The brain gets confused about why it isn’t getting sensory messages from the limb anymore, so it makes things up to fill in the blank. Sometimes a phantom limb even feels like it hurts. You can’t just use pain killer on a body part that isn’t there.
A study published in 2001 found that vestibular caloric stimulation can do things to phantom limbs. When the researchers put water in the ears of amputees who never felt phantom limbs, it made the amputees temporarily feel phantom limbs. When the researchers put water in the ears of amputees who had suffered phantom limb pain, the phantom limbs stayed there, but they stopped hurting.
I heard about these discoveries in recent post in a non-academic blog (io9), but when I read the sources, it turns out that these aren’t very recent discoveries. Please note, I’m not a neurologist or any kind of doctor. I’m an interested layperson. I can’t guarantee that I got the facts right. If you're curious about this stuff, you should talk to a professional who has studied it in particular. I’m including this article in Otherkin News because therianthropes and otherkin often report that they have, so to speak, a body schema that doesn’t match their physical body. Any information and discoveries about the formation of the body schema in the brain could lead toward helping them understand why theirs might be that way.
- O. Scribner
Esther Inglis-Arkell, “The weird way to eliminate—or evoke—phantom limbs.” 2013-01-20. io9. http://io9.com/5976618/the-weird-way-to-eliminateor-evokephantom-limbs
Edoardo Bisiach, Maria Luisa Rusconi, and Giuseppe Vallar, “Remission of somatoparaphrenic delusion through vestibular stimulation.” Neuropsychologia 29: 10 (1991), pp. 1029–1031. http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/002839329190066H
J. M. André, et al., “Temporary Phantom Limbs Evoked by Vestibular Caloric Stimulation in Amputees.” Neuropsychiatry, Neuropsychology, & Behavioral Neurology 14:3 (2001), pp. 190-196. http://journals.lww.com/cogbehavneurol/Abstract/2001/07000/Temporary_Phantom_Limbs_Evoked_by_Vestibular.8.aspx
Current events from the last few months
Jun. 8th, 2012 07:33 amframeacloudTrigger warnings: news coverage, phantom limbs, amputation, occult (magic, divination)
Summary: Since last March, I took a vacation from researching for Otherkin News. From time to time, I did bookmark some things that I wanted to write articles about. In short, lately we’ve had: ongoing as well as published academic research of otherkin, wearable cat ears that use brainwave sensors to express your mood, over a dozen new and republished books by the Silver Elves, and a scientific study of a person who had phantom limbs corresponding to body parts that she’d never had.
In science
Phantom limbs: She felt fingers that she’d never had
A study published last February in Neurocase described a woman (“R.N.,” age 57) who had been born with an incomplete right hand. After amputation of this hand at age 18 due to an accident, she developed a “phantom limb:” she felt like her hand was still there. What made this case unusual was that her phantom hand included phantom fingers that she’d never physically had. Her phantom hand was complete with all its fingers.
Initially, her phantom hand felt shortened and painful, but after mirror therapy (a common treatment for phantom limb pain), her phantom hand took on completely normal proportions.[1]
Although this study is not about otherkin or therianthropes, it is of interest to our community. Some otherkin and therianthropes experience phantom sensations of body parts that they’ve never physically had, including tails.
See also: an earlier article on Otherkin News, regarding a study published in the Annals of Neurology about a woman, 64, who developed a supernumerary phantom limb: a third arm.[2]
Community research: Survey of furries, therianthropes, and otherkin
The International Anthropomorphic Research Project conducted their Winter 2012 survey of furries, with questions that included otherkin and therianthrope issues, determining the overlap of the three communities. The survey took place online as well as in person at Anthrocon 2012, a furry convention. The survey opened in 2012-03,[3] and is now closed to further submissions, saying, “A summary of the collected data will be available on this website shortly.”[4]
Innovations in technology: the Necomimi
Neurowear, a company specializing in high-tech fashion, recently released the Necomimi. As described in a previous Otherkin News article,[5] the Necomimi is a headband that includes brainwave sensors and a pair of animatronic cat ears. The sensors detect the wearer’s emotional state, and expresses it by moving the cat ears.
Neurowear released the Necomimi in Japan on 2012-04-28.[6] Neurowear’s official store says that the Necomimi is $99.95 US, but is currently sold out due to overwhelming demand, but they’re taking backorders.[7] Neurowear says they’re planning on releasing new models of the Necomimi with different ear shapes.
Some people have independently created animatronic ears inspired by the Necomimi. On Instructables, a community site where inventors and makers share their ideas, Abetusk tells how to build animatronic cat ears, although these are controlled by a remote, not by EEG.[8]
So far as I know, these inventions were not produced by any participant of the otherkin or therianthrope communities. However, they maybe be of interest to these communities as an example of a way that new technologies can augment the human body.
New published works
New and republished books by the Silver Elves
The Silver Elves, a family of elf people who have been writing about elven issues since the 1970s, and who consider themselves to be part of the otherkin community, have published and republished several books of their writings. During the past few months alone, they’ve released these:
- The Magical Elven Love Letters, Volume 1 (collected essays and poems from 1979 to 2001) and Volume 2 (from the 1990s) have been republished with new covers in 2012-03. They also published Volume 3, which includes writings from the 1990s and from their move to Hawaii in 2008.
- The Book of Elven Runes, a handbook for creating and using an original oracle (not Futhark runes) designed by the Silver Elves, was republished in 2012-05.
- The Elven Book of Changes: A magical interpretation of the I Ching. An elven interpretation of the ancient Chinese oracle. Released 2012-03.
- The Elven Book of Powers: Using the Tarot for magical wish fulfillment. Released 2012-05-24.
- The Elven Book of Dreams: A magical oracle of Faerie. A dream symbol interpretation handbook. Released 2012-04.
- The Book of Elven Magic: The philosophy and enchantments of the Seelie Elves. An elven perspective on spirituality and ceremonial magic. Released 2012-05.
- What an Elf would do: A magical guide to the manners and etiquette of the Faerie Folk. As summarized by the authors, this is a “view of how elves see and interact with the world of the Normal folk as well as with Otherkind of all sorts. It is designed to help the elfin everywhere to move through the often mysterious cultures of mankind with confidence and ease.” Released 2012-06-02.
- Arvyndase (Silverspeech): A short course in the magical language of the Silver Elves. A grammar of a constructed language designed by the Silver Elves. Released 2012-05.
- Caressed by an Elfin Breeze: The poems of Zardoa Silverstar. Approximately 90 poems by Zardoa of the Silver Elves, some from over 30 years ago.
- Eldafaryn: True tales of magic from the lives of the Silver Elves. “a series of vignettes from the lives of the Silver Elves starting in the present and going back and forth through time describing their lives, their magic, their philosophy and their unique view of the world.”
- Magic Talks: Being a correspondence between the Silver Elves and the founders of the Elf Queen’s Daughters. Released 2012-06-02. From the summary provided by the authors: “Magic Talks is a collection of letters between the two sisters who are the founders of the Elf Queen's daughters (in 1973), Arwen and Elanor, and the Silver Elves, Zardoa and Silver Flame. This is the first book in a series of Tulku internet correspondence beginning in November of 2011 and ending in February 2012. Arwen and Elanor are also the original publishers of the ‘Magic Elf Letters’ sent out from the Elf Queen’s daughters. They published three letters a week for about three years. In the early 1979 the Silver Elves carried on these letters calling them “The Magical Elven Love Letters” and continued writing and publishing them for the next 30 years…”
Academic article: Laycock’s “We are spirits of another sort”
A new academic paper all about the otherkin community (and therianthropes as well, under the same word) was published in Nova Religio, a peer-reviewed journal about alternative and new religious movements. The article, “We are spirits of another sort: Ontological rebellion and religious dimensions of the otherkin community,” is by Joseph P. Laycock, Ph.D.
A regular in the vampire community, Merticus, briefly summarized Laycock’s article.[9] Merticus says the article cites the writings of several participants of the otherkin community.
A regular in the therianthrope community, Citrakāyaḥ (a cheetah) read Laycock’s full article, and then thoroughly covered his responses in “A laycat’s review of ‘We are spirits of another sort.’” He says that Laycock emphasizes that the otherkin movement is not a religion, although it is often spiritual, and in some ways resembles a religion.[10]
Media exposure of therianthropes
During 2012-02, the furry news blog, Flayrah, listed several newspaper articles that mentioned therianthropes in addition to furries.[11]
New blogs
Birds of a Feather: by and for bird-people, created 2012-02.[12] This blog is full of essays about being therianthropes and otherkin who identify as birds. Authors include Acies (an eagle), Akhila (raven, leopard), GreyGhost (gryphon), Meirya (hawk, phoenix), and Tsu (swan). The blog accepts essays submitted by others.
I’ve seen a lot more otherkin-related blogs created recently, especially those hosted on Tumblr.com, but I’ll have to address them in another post.
More?
Due to my hiatus from the otherkin community during the past several months, I’m behind on my reading, and I’ve missed out on a lot. The above list is likely very incomplete. I’m going to need a lot of help filling in all the gaps.
If you or somebody who you know recently created new writing, art, or other creative works about otherkin or therianthropes, then please let me know, so that I can list them here next time. Please feel free to e-mail me about any such new discoveries at any time. That would be very helpful! Thank you!
- O. Scribner
( Sources )
frameacloud
A “phantom limb” is usually a body part that is subjectively sensed by an individual where a corresponding physical limb is not extant. In one unusual case, a 64 year old woman developed a phantom arm when the corresponding arm was present but paralyzed by stroke. They call this third arm a “supernumerary phantom limb” (SPL), which is apparently unusual but not unique. Its traits are also unusual: she can see it, she can move it, and she can use it to scratch an itch. Her experiences have been objectively confirmed by means of scans that show intriguing kinds of brain activity while she uses the ghostly arm. However, is this for real?
When this piece of news was recently featured1 on the popular blog, BoingBoing, they linked to an article2 on SwissInfo (“an enterprise of the Swiss Broadcasting Corporation”) that was published on April 1st. That’s a suspicious date to publish any information at all, especially of an outlandish nature. Could this phenomenon be an April Fool’s hoax? Perhaps not: it seems that it wasn’t invented on April Fool’s Day. Another article3 about the same woman’s SPL was published earlier in Science Daily, in March. This article links to the original reference4 in the Annals of Neurology, the “official Journal of the American Neurological Association,” having been received last September. It’s safe to assume that a peer-reviewed journal is a reputable source.
Amazingly, it’s possible to confirm someone’s subjective sensations of a phantom limb. She’s not just claiming to be able to see and feel it: it’s been scientifically proven that she can. The aforementioned Science Daily article summarizes what was observed in the woman’s brain scan: “imaginary movements of the paralyzed left hand showed dominant activation in areas associated with movement in right side of the brain. When asked to scratch her cheek with the SPL, areas of the brain associated with movement and vision were activated, which confirmed her report that she could see and move her SPL. In addition, a measurable sensory response was also detected when she scratched her left cheek with the SPL.” Her sensations are as real as she says they are, even though the SPL itself is not perceived by others.
Consider the philosophical implications. Science tells us that if we mean to seek truth, we should look to those physical things which can be perceived by the five senses, and which can be measured by devices, because these are the things that can be proven real. Meanwhile, many spiritual concepts are necessarily beyond objective proof, because spiritual things reside outside of the five senses, and cannot be measured by the gadgets that supplement our senses. This means that we can't be as certain of the truth of spiritual things. It’s a very practical line of reasoning. What, then, do we make of this? This woman’s senses are telling her that this arm exists, and it was confirmed that her nervous system does indeed perceive it. In a certain way, her SPL is adequately real: it’s right there, it is sensed and measured, and nobody was lying about it. What is to be believed, when even these five senses can give information so different from what would be objective truth? If any person found that xir sensory information differed from that of other people, should xe place more confidence in xir own senses, or should xe rely more on the second-hand reports of other people?
Therianthropes and otherkin may be saying, “A supernumerary phantom limb, an SPL? So that’s what it's called.” It’s a familiar concept to them. Some therians and otherkin experience phantom limbs that correspond with limbs that have never been present on any human body, such as wings. A few of these people even describe sensations as vivid as those of the woman in this study. (You’re bound to find them while browsing through Winged Eternal,5 a forum for discussing phantom wings.) Speaking as someone who has been actively involved in their community for almost a decade, I haven’t heard of any therians or otherkin who have had their SPL sensations examined by brain scan, like this woman. If someone performed such a study on a therian or an otherkin, that could be big news.
