Otherkin: Difference between revisions

'''Otherkin''' are a subculture of real people who identify as not entirely human. Each individual comes up with their own reasoning for how and why they are otherkin, and what kind of being they are.<ref name="scribner simple">Orion Scribner. "A simple introduction to otherkin." ''Orion Scribner'' (personal site). Created September 16, 2013. Updated May 19, 2014. Accessed July 22, 2020. https://frameacloud.com/nonfiction/introduction-otherkin/</ref> Most otherkin believe they are nonhuman in a spiritual way, or otherwise somehow non-physical, such as from reincarnation, psychology, trans-species dysphoria, or metaphor.<ref name="fieldguide"/> All otherkin know that they are physically human, in that they look like humans, were born like humans, and live in the way that most humans do. However, some otherkin believe their own bodies are different from most human bodies, such as having genes from supernatural ancestors.<ref>{{cite book |title=The Psychic Vampire Codex: A Manual of Magick and Energy Work |year=2004 |publisher=Weiser Books |isbn=1-57863-321-4 |author=Michelle Belanger |author2=Father Sebastiaan}}</ref> Joseph P. Laycock, assistant professor of religious studies at Texas State University, considers the belief to be religious,<ref name=laycock>Joseph P. Laycock. [https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1525/nr.2012.15.3.65 “We Are Spirits of Another Sort”: Ontological Rebellion and Religious Dimensions of the Otherkin Community]. ''Nova Religio: The Journal of Alternative and Emergent Religions''. Vol. 15, No. 3 (February 2012), pp. 65–90. University of California Press</ref> but most otherkin firmly disagree with being classified as a religion. This is because otherkin are not a formal organization with leaders or members, they do not agree on any cosmological or spiritual beliefs (some otherkin do not believe in spirituality at all), and otherkin independently come to the conclusion that they are other than human, sometimes without even knowing anybody else felt that way. By definition, otherkin is not a religion, and is not similar to a religion.<ref name="scribner simple" />