majidemah

[majidemah]

I’ve quit being otherkin for good! Now I’m otherkin for evil

[majidemah]

The Lens of Human Perception

There’s a topic I’ve realized I haven’t discussed here, so I figure it’s time to write something about it. As usual, due to the length of this essay, the bulk of it is under the cut.

I’ve seen a lot of posts going around by people exploring nonhuman past lives, especially those which aren’t possible here/now (i.e., angels, dragons, etc.), and describing any memories they have in very human terms. Things like walking down streets, gathering in gardens or libraries, standing before a judge in court during a trial. I think this is the result of a lack of awareness of a phenomenon we all deal with, but which is rarely (if ever) discussed directly.

Every memory you have, from the broadest strokes to the finest detail, is filtered through the perception and understanding we have here/now. We’re experiencing three-dimensional space, with a (relatively) constant and linear flow of time, seeing the world by way of reflected light and hearing things by way of vibrations in the air around us. Unfortunately, because those things are the only way we’ve experienced reality in this lifetime, we are literally incapable of properly modeling other forms of reality in our minds. It’s a limitation of being here/now, and having the kinds of experiences we do.

A (slightly extended) example: It’s pretty common to be taught about nets of polyhedra in school these days. As a refresher for those who haven’t dealt with the concept in a while: Polyhedra (singular “polyhedron”) is a three-dimensional figure made up of flat planes joined at some angle. One of the most common polyhedra is the cube. Six flat faces, joined at right angles. A net of a polyhedron is a way of “unfolding” the faces of a polyhedron into a two-dimensional shape. That two-dimensional shape can then be folded through the third dimension to recreate the original polyhedron.

Nets aren’t limited to unfolding three-dimensional objects, however. Theoretically, you can create a one dimensional net of a two dimensional polygon (it’ll just be a line, but it counts). More significantly for this discussion, though, you can create three-dimensional nets of four-dimensional shapes. Some of you may be familiar with the concept of a hypercube (sometimes called a tesseract). In the same way that a cube can be thought of as being made of squares arranged in three dimensions, a hypercube can be thought of as being made of three-dimensional cubes arranged in four dimensions. (There are multiple ways of representing a hypercube in three dimensions, but all of them are by necessity inaccurate.) Now, I’d like you to take a moment, and try to imagine a proper four-dimensional hypercube, and how it unfolds into a three-dimensional net. Then try to imagine that three-dimensional net folding back into a four-dimensional hypercube.

It is, quite simply, impossible to do accurately. Our brains are simply incapable of truly visualizing four-dimensional space, and the way objects behave in four dimensions, because we’re limited to experiencing only three of them. Similarly, it is impossible to truly comprehend how reality functions outside of here/now, because we’re limited to experiencing only here/now. Brains are amazing things, however, and will try their hardest to fill in the gaps with something, even if that something is inaccurate.

When it comes to remembering nonhuman incarnations, this means that our brains will grab whatever feels closest to what you’re unable to understand, and use that to fill in the gap, regardless of if it actually fits or not. As a result, those kinds of memories are inherently unreliable, since they’re (in many ways) just our brain’s best guess about what actually happened.

I’ve taken to referring to this problem as “the lens of human perception”, since it occurs due to filtering things through the understanding we can have by perceiving the world the way humans do. Like any imperfect lens, it leads to our view of things being distorted, and because of the way brains work, we generally aren’t even aware that the distortion has occurred. And so we redefine things in terms of here/now without even realizing we’re redefining our own experiences.

Being aware of the lens of human perception can be helpful, however. It lets you consider the context of your memories, and figure out where the gaps in your understanding are getting filled in. You can then make an effort to explore those gaps, and refine your understanding to get a clearer picture of how things actually were. It’s difficult sometimes, and takes some work to do effectively, but it can be worlds better than getting caught up in misunderstandings about your own experiences.

So if you’re exploring memories and notice that things are very similar to the world around you, take some time and question things. Think about what it is that you might not be able to understand within those memories. Reflect on what unconscious associations you might have with the here/now things your brain is using to fill in the gap. Use those associations as a starting point to explore further, and refine your understanding into something more accurate to what you really experienced. You may not be able to remove the distortion from the lens completely, but you can at least compensate for it. With time and effort, it’ll help you be more certain about your experiences, and know that you have a clearer view of yourself. And believe me, it’s a great feeling when you get there.

[majidemah]

I've been stepping away from the Alterhuman community and it's making me think that 80% of the distress people may feel over understanding their identity goes away if you stop just spiraling over it by constantly questioning every why and how.

Honestly I think it's a thing I miss from old blogs where a lot of what was shared was mostly active experiences, aka, idk "I have a prey drive. I went on a mountain retreat with friends and processed rabbits we caught. This was a deeply spiritual experience and gratifying to my carnivore instincts" instead of "I confirmed marten because otter was 9% wrong on Vibes and I think my DNA is not human because I feel bad in my body. Here are 12 words I coined for my very specific precise experience of it." or other things that are more... Describing oneself without ever stepping outside of your own identity to actually experience things.

Maybe this makes no sense. I just think a lot of what the Tumblr nonhuman community amounts to rn is kinda paradoxical and ridiculous, especially with therians, because it's just a bunch of over thinking and no acting. Like no wonder you feel dysphoric about being an animal you've spent the last fucking 10h spiraling in your own head about deeply human concepts watching a deeply human screen. Tear apart a pomegranate with your teeth you'll feel better. Jesus. Put some enrichment in that beast.

🐾

[majidemah]

random poll time! i was curious about the gender distribution of the alterhuman community so i made this. please only answer if you are otherkin, therian, fictionkin, otherhearted, holothere, archetrope, plural, or any other label under the umbrella

(im very sorry about the lack of options, i hit the maximum which is 12. again, if you are not alterhuman please refrain from voting on the poll. thank you :])

[majidemah]

oh wow i did not realize how many years it had been since i updated this blogs bio..........didn't even have the right pronouns anymore (i mean i still use he, i just hadn't even added "it" ... and i still had dfab on there LOL)

[majidemah]

It's kind of interesting to start hitting a time in my life where... i've kind of said most things about my identity at least once, somewhere. Not that i don't have things left to write, reword, say in better prose, or again because the first time was a passing thought in a chat with no archive.

But i'm not anymore, in the phase of joining the community, and rediscovering my every angles and needing to word it. It's mundane now, when I feel something bird-like. It's not a "ah, so that's what it was all along!", it's just me. It's a double edge, because I then sometimes forget how complex that web of experience is.

Today was mundane. I was just me, just a bird. Nothing much to say, from my perspective.

Today, I woke up later than usual. The sun was already up. I'm not used to this, as I usually wake and sleep with the sun, but i stayed up later than usual yesterday. Diurnal, like roadrunners.

Then I was quite pleased to see it was actually quite sunny. I wanted to sunbath, so i took out my bearded dragon in the garden, and sunbathed with her. She took on darker spots to soak up the sun, i wore a black shirt to mimic the patches of skin roadrunners show to do the same.

In the afternoon, I helped my family clean up my grandfather's house. I sent a message to another bird, inquiring whether she, an owl, would be interested in one of my late grandmother's owl statue collection.

I remarked how strange it felt for my neck to not be able to look upward how i wanted to. How bizarre the human activity of cleaning up spider webs felt, my arms-wings-talons straining to reach the roof.

Tonight i'm eating sushi. The raw fish always feel particularly birdy to me, I think it's the sensation of it. If I didn't stop my bird side, I'd want to swallow it whole, as birds do.

It's all so mundane. it doesn't even register as a particularly bird like day to me. I didn't do anything that made me shifty, that brought out the roadrunner in a way that supersedes the human. So many things that I just forget to mention, after a while. Obvious to me and only me.

[majidemah]

angels can be transgender but in the sense of like. hey i wish i had a body. hey i wish i wasn't made of light i wish i had flesh and blood. like you. i wish i had skin, i wish i had eyes. i wish i could tan. i wish i could get a tattoo. i wish i could be marked by the things that affected me, instead of being immortal and pure and unblemished. i wish i could show it. i wish i didn't have to go into battle and come out without a scratch, i wish i could fall and i wish i could scrape my knee. oh shit

[majidemah]

ALTERHUMANS I AM SUMMONING YOU

let's start a chain

everyone reblog with your alterhuman toxic trait

mine is that I forget that I'm not actually the size of a cat, which usually ends up with me stuck in a box

[majidemah]

sounds pretty based to me

[majidemah]

in the heaven. straight up 'jorking it'. and by 'it', haha, well. let's justr say. My halo

[majidemah]

Word otherkin will be 22 years old

An upcoming anniversary in the otherkin community: On July 9, 2012, the word “otherkin” will have been coined 22 years ago. It was coined in the Elfinkind Digest, a mailing list which is active to this day. On that date in 1990, one participant, Torin, used the word “otherkin” as a variation on the earlier word “otherkind.” Both phrases were casually improvised as an abbreviated way of referring to people who identify as other kinds of creatures.  

(Source: Elfinkind Digest #71. The archive of this document is still extant, and I have read it. Thanks to the mailing list moderator R’ykandar Korra’ti for making this primary source available to me while I was researching our community’s history book, the Otherkin Timeline. Thanks to Torin for permission to share this information.) 

Right now, the word “otherkin” is nearly 22 years old. That means that any otherkin who are currently in their teens weren’t even born until after the word had been coined. There are lots of otherkin who have considered themselves to be otherkin, of a kind, even years before the word had been coined. Detractors sometimes claim that otherkin is merely a passing fad popular among youth, but this is evidently not the case. 

Any thoughts on the significance of this passage of time? Where were you at, as an otherkin, 22 years ago? Anybody want to make plans for the 9th, to set it aside as a day for thinking about otherkin things? Maybe a party for reminiscing, maybe even with costumes and artistic “glamour-bombs”? 

[majidemah]

[majidemah]

it keeps clearing when i close the app, but then it comes back every time i get a notif, including the ones that dont show up in activity, like for blogs i have notifs for posting. i also seem to have an ask in the inbox i cant see, so if anyone recently sent me an ask try to resend it 🤔

have a ghost note on this blog that wont go awayyyyy

[majidemah]

Nonhuman culture is being one of those kids who scratched and hissed as a means of self defense, but then you got bullied so much because of it you stopped, but you're slowly going back to your kitty ways and healing :3

Nonhuman culture is...

[majidemah]

have a ghost note on this blog that wont go awayyyyy

[majidemah]

Nonhuman expressions of affection are great. Purring. Exposing weak points as a show of trust. Head bonks. Preening and chewing. Nuzzling. Biting. Intertwining tails. Feeding each other. Little chuffs, chatters, beeps and squeaks. Fluffing up of feathers, fur or other things. Dancing to impress. Cleaning their fur, scales, feathers or skin. Sharing body heat. Ears pointing toward those you care about to show your full attention is on them. Slow blinking.