This little ditty is about a topic that apparently sparks a lot of controversy. A topic that seems to circulate tumblr but, from what I’ve seen on the outside, has died down a bit. That’s not to say it still isn’t screeched often (mostly by trolls), but where I frequent, it does finally net less attention now. So let’s talk about oppression in regards to otherkin.

What is oppression?
The distinction between oppression and discrimination is important and it saddens me to see places like tumblr use them interchangeably. When you use the word oppression with the word discrimination, it is inferred that you are talking about the ‘law’ kind of oppression and not the ‘feeling’ kind of oppression. There is a big difference between the two. When you say “we are oppressed” you refer to the ‘law’ kind of oppression as opposed to saying “we feel oppressed” which refers to the ‘feeling’ kind.

Because people learn a lot from word-of-mouth, and word of mouth can be very inaccurate, let’s look at some dictionary definitions:
“a situation in which people are governed in an unfair and cruel way and prevented from having opportunities and freedom”, “a feeling of being very uncomfortable and worried”- Cambridge Dictionary
“unjust or cruel exercise of authority or power”, “something that oppresses especially in being an unjust or excessive exercise of power”, “a sense of being weighed down in body or mind”- Merriam-Webster Dictionary
“the cruel or unfair treatment of a group of people.”, “the act of subjugating by cruelty, force, etc or the state of being subjugated in this way”, “the condition of being afflicted or tormented”, “the condition of having something lying heavily on one’s mind, imagination, etc”, “an oppressing or being oppressed”, “a thing that oppresses”, “a feeling of being weighed down, as with worries or problems; physical or mental distress” – Collins English Dictionary
“the exercise of authority or power in a burdensome, cruel, or unjust manner”, “an act or instance of oppressing or subjecting to cruel or unjust impositions or restraints”, “the state of being oppressed”, “the feeling of being heavily burdened, mentally or physically, by troubles, adverse conditions, anxiety, etc.” – dictionary.com

Thus it is easy to see there are two kinds of oppression.
Law; when an authority/power instates laws (which are unjust, unfair, burdensome, cruel and/or are excessive) against a specific group of people which prevents/prohibits them from opportunities and freedoms that other groups have.
Feeling; feeling weighed down/burdened/distressed mentally and/or physically.

To demonstrate the difference between discrimination and oppression; “As an example, consider the Jews interned by the Nazis from the 1930s to the end of the last war. The victims were selected for internment because they were Jewish (which is discrimination) and they were then made to live in appalling accommodations and lost their businesses and valuables (which is, of course, the oppression).” Miranda 2015

Are otherkin oppressed?
Short answer: no.
Long answer: There are no laws to my knowledge that single otherkin out and prohibit us from anything other people are allowed. We are legally allowed all rights and freedoms others are allowed, we have no special laws prohibiting us or demanding we pay more etc. We can get jobs, married, holidays, emigrate, citizenship, education, insurance, therapy, and medical treatment, we can own land and houses, use banks, shop, and vote. We pay bills and are subject to every law, no more and no less, that everyone else is subject to (in reference to a first world country as that is where I live). We are treated as normal humans with the full human benefit attached.

Can otherkin feel oppressed?
Is oppression an emotion? No. Is it a ‘feeling’? Yes, it can be thought of as two types of ‘feelings’. One is a combination of feeling the effects of being oppressed, the other is “a feeling of being weighed down, as with worries or problems; physical or mental distress”. One feeling does not always accompany the other.
Take the legal age to vote, drink or drive for example. Many people (myself included) would agree that teenagers and younger haven’t accumulated enough life experience to make those decisions and actions. However, this is quite literally the oppression of any age below 18 (Australian laws). When I was those ages, I didn’t feel oppressed, I wasn’t even thinking about those things, and now that I can I still don’t care about voting, driving or drinking. I was quite literally oppressed, but I didn’t feel oppressed.
People can falsely attribute discrimination and bullying as oppression when the definition is unknown. Social discrimination is not the government directly oppressing people, social discrimination is up to the whims of the specific community. The student body at a primary school can exclude the known gay people from their games. While this is bullying and discrimination, this is not oppression.
Someone can be clinically depressed or feel like they’re suffocating when in a party environment. They could be described as feeling oppressed. If someone is physically pinned down on the floor, they (as in their body) are oppressed.

So if someone were to not understand the definition, they may think that they feel legally oppressed, when in actual fact, they are not. Which then leads them to claim they are oppressed, when in actual fact, they are not. Someone can, however, feel oppressed even if they are not legally oppressed, just as someone can be legally oppressed yet not feel oppressed.

To sum things up-
While we may be discriminated at times, and we do have the capacity to feel oppressed, otherkin are not oppressed.

For someone else’s essay on otherkin and oppression see here.

Some otherkin have kintypes that they consider to also be linked to past lives. Some consider their soul to have been reincarnated into their human body and that’s why they’re otherkin. This means that some otherkin will remember their past life, and sometimes this seemingly happens all once during their ‘awakening’. Many people, when they first discover their past lives, want to seek out others who they knew. They search high and low, dip in and out of otherkin and past life communities, sifting through forum post after forum post, digging up old mail and email lists, encountering one false alarm after another. Many searches end fruitless and the person moves on with their life, while some people find just one or two people they know and continue on with their human life.

Personally, I don’t encourage searching for people you knew in a past life now. It was the past, people change, some people don’t ever remember you, and there’s no point clinging to what was. I’m not going to look for the village elders I once knew, they are gone, dead. I will treasure my memory of them, and I will miss them, but I will not search for them again. Things will never be the same as back then, there’s no point trying to live an old life when that life is gone. I’m here and I’m human, time to live.

Here are some tips if you do want to search around-

1. Don’t hassle the communities
Ask around, find forums, chat groups and such, but don’t start bugging people. There’s curiosity and then there’s obsession. Be respectful, be patient, message people in private, don’t have your ‘confirming conversations’ in full public view. Not everyone’s searching too, not everyone’s from the safe life as you, not everyone cares about you. Don’t be the kind of person that’s entrance makes others leave the group chat, it hurts your chances of finding anyone and also hurts your overall reputation.
Don’t start unrelated conversation or pester unrelated groups. If you were a dragon in a past life and are looking for your rival dragon, don’t go into the daemon community or prehistoric mammal therianthrope community and ask for other dragons. Likewise, don’t ask about draconic past lives in a community for cute cat pictures. There’s a time and a place for everything, people are more likely to engage in active, positive conversation when they aren’t frustrated because of your constant topic derailment.

2. Don’t ask leading questions
One of the easiest ways for someone to lie to you is if you ask leading questions. In other words, questions that have a significant portion of the answer within them. They won’t have to think much about an answer, you do the thinking for them. All they have to do is repeat back what you ask.
When you’re asking around don’t say “I’m from the south corner of Atlantis, I had long white hair tied back in a bob, pointed ears, wore a dark blue tunic with silver highlights, and walked with a limp. Is my wife here? She had short silver hair, yellow eyes, pointed ears, wore flowing blue and purple robes with golden highlights, and loved to sing and arrange the green herbs and flowers. We used to visit the clay gardens together nearly daily”. Instead say “I’m from Atlantis, are there any other Atlantians around to chat about past lives with?”
Withhold your information, withhold your past life. Give people the most basic of information, don’t elaborate unnecessarily. You want them to fill in the hard blanks that you intentionally leave.

3. Watch out for manipulative behaviour
Stranger danger, it should go without saying. People lie, people manipulate, people backstab, and people steal. A person you meet on the internet could claim to know you, but actually is lying through their teeth to take advantage of you. Not everyone is 100% honest.
Don’t succumb to the “I just met you, we were lovers in a past life, I’ve got no cash left in my bank account, can I have a quick buck, I’ll pay you back later.”
Don’t just follow them like a love-struck puppy, make use of hindsight and think about their actions objectively. This person is a stranger you’ve just met and never seen before, be cautious. Don’t be afraid to call them out on bad behaviour. They may actually be someone you were best friends with in your past life, but people can change.
If you’re a minor, don’t just go meeting them in real life without backup (school friends, parents, etc.) or a second opinion/parental guardian permission. If you’re an adult, don’t just sacrifice your job and this life and go hop on a plane to meet them. Have patience, spend a year or two getting to know them first. You have the time.

4. Don’t give out your (human) personal information
Like number 3, it should also go without saying to not give away your full name, home address, phone number, passport details or any identifying pictures (especially if you are a minor). This person may say they know you, but how can you trust a stranger on the internet you just met? Con artists and scammers exist, and they have no qualms in getting their daily bread at your expense.
Meeting someone who may be ‘the one’ is exciting, and things can be swept up in a wild flurry of emotions, when you’re in that state it doesn’t take much to overlook a selfie here and a birthdate there. Remember to count the days you’ve been in contact with them and be aware of how much information you are sharing. Also remember to make sure their information they give is consistent, if they say they’re a cis female one day then they’re agender the next, call them out on it.

5. Don’t feel bad if you can’t find anyone
The chances of actually finding someone are impossibly slim. Imagine the sheer amount of reincarnation going on 24/7, now add in more than one universe. Who’s to say your friend will end up in the same universe let alone in the same lifetime as you while you search? Or even in the same country, speaking the same language, near your age, remembering that life with you, searching as well, and wanting to meet you?
First the chances of finding someone is slim, then the chances of meeting them face to face is also equally slim. If you are a minor, good luck trying to go overseas, or travel anywhere far without a stable income, plus the addition of attending and focusing on school makes things almost impossible. As an adult, do you really want to dish out your hard-earned cash and take precious time off work to go travelling? What if you’re still in university? What if you’re homeless?
If you somehow even manage to find and meet up with someone, what if you don’t like each other now? What if you hate who they are now? Remember, the person you remember is from a past life, they will be different now. And what if you can’t stay together for long? You’ve just found them again, can you deal with leaving them after all that effort?

To conclude; when people first find out they’ve got a past life, they may want to find the people they once knew. Such a challenge can be a long and perilous journey, including monetary costs, travelling physical distances and many days of being strung along by posers, with the only reward being you’ve found a person you once knew. It can be fulfilling, it can be disheartening, you can even give up or never try and still have a happy and satisfying life. If there’s one thing you come away from this; past lives can be complicated so you need to be smart about them.

This can be considered a short essay/rant on the current status of a community topic.
It seems to me that these days otherkin, and those questioning, place such a heavy burden on phantom limbs. “You’re not otherkin unless you have phantom limbs”, “I have phantom wings so my kintype must be winged”, “I’ve never had phantom limbs so I must not really be otherkin”, “If you don’t have phantom limbs you’re just faking it/wishing it” etc. Some people are turned away from communities if they don’t experience phantom limbs, some people are berated and shunned because they don’t experience phantom limbs, and some people convince themselves they are (or are not) otherkin because they do (or do not) experience phantom limbs.
Otherkin is having a nonhuman identity. Nowhere in there is phantom limbs stated to be a prerequisite. Not every otherkin experiences phantom limbs.

Something that otherkin these days seem to ignore when placing phantom limbs on a pedestal is that ‘non-otherkin’ can experience them too. The brain often tricks itself into/by emulating various senses (see: imagination, dreams, hallucination, etc.), phantom limbs can be thought of as simply a more ‘complex’ version of this. By focusing on a limb or kintype, an otherkin can trick themselves into experiencing phantom limbs or other shifts. People can also trick others into feeling extra limbs too (see: rubber hand experiment).

Phantom limbs, and shifts in general can be easily fabricated unconsciously or consciously by the brain under the right circumstances. There’s even a name for it; cameo shifting.

Phantom limbs don’t make you otherkin, how you perceive them and their cause is what ‘makes you otherkin’. Even then, it doesn’t really make you otherkin, it’s just typically effected by your identity. Any old Joe can experience what they think are ‘phantom limbs’ and those that aren’t otherkin can have an ‘altered’ body maps (see: body dysmorphia, trans* communities, clinical lycanthropy etc.). Some people feel wings from slouching or bad posture, some people get weird legs or feet from sitting on them, some people get pointed ears or horns from wearing headphones or tight headgear, and some people self-induce them by obsessing over otherkin and wanting to be otherkin. All of these can be perceived as ‘phantom limbs’ by people.
Anyone can self-induce phantom limbs if they try hard enough. It is highly not recommended as altering your body map and perception can have serious consequences (you are literally altering your perception of reality and how you perceive yourself to interact with it. In other words; you’re willingly self-inducing a delusion. What’s to say self-inducing fangs won’t then lead to speech problems? Things can actually spiral out of control, paranoia about reality being the whale that swallows minds quick. Seriously, changing your ‘reality’ can be a dangerous slippery slope.). I can’t stop people from self-inducing things, just as I can’t stop people from breathing or playing football, and I know I sometimes ‘play pretend’ to make myself feel more comfortable, but be aware of the potential dangers and what you’re actually doing.

Strong, continuous willpower/belief gets you nearly everywhere when it comes to altering perception i.e. self-inducing phantom limbs. Believe it and you’ll feel it. If you truly believe for long and hard enough, your brain will eventually fill in the blanks for you. How you reach that willpower/belief varies from person to person: some use music, some do guided meditation, some just focus on it, some dream, some remember the feeling from a past life, and some just recognise they’re otherkin then “poof” phantom limbs, the list can go on. Making them ‘go away’ is the difficult part since it feels real (try believing you don’t have a mouth or an arm).

Overall; people seem to glorify phantom limbs when they’re actually quite uncomfortable and boring, and, not everyone that experiences them are otherkin and not every otherkin experiences them. Otherkin is a varied experience, focusing on just one aspect only and basing your entire identity around it is dangerous and narrow-minded.


Some further reading, not owned or done by me, on phantom limbs and supernumerary limbs (please read through their sources also for even further reading)-
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supernumerary_phantom_limb
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3468806/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3102884/
https://therian.fandom.com/wiki/Phantom_Shift
https://therian.fandom.com/wiki/Shifter%27s_Disease
http://project-shift.net/on-cameo-shifting/

What is it?
Physical shifting (or as it’s more commonly know; p-shifting) is when an otherkin physically becomes their kintype and it typically occurs over a short period of a few seconds to a few minutes. It’s a hot topic within the community, some people believe it’s possible and claim to p-shift, some people believe it’s not possible, others believe it’s possible but aren’t able to p-shift, and others again believe it’s not possible right now but sometime in the future things may be different.
Personally, I’m in the end camp. I think that currently, as per the information available to the general public, p-shifting is not possible. In the future, humanity may one day advance enough to p-shift but until then, we can’t. I’ll believe that someone that can p-shift when I see objective proof of such an ability (i.e. studies that have replicable results objectively proving a human body can truly p-shift).
Before I even get into this, I’m considering p-shifting from entirely a scientific angle (I’m also dusting off my high school chemistry, physics and biology knowledge). This is because it’s a supposedly a physical thing. Physical things can be detected and analysed by science, physical things obey the laws of this physical reality, and a human physically turning into another animal within the span of a minute isn’t exactly something that can’t be picked up by science instruments. I understand spiritual shapeshifting is a thing (see; Shamanism) and I respect that, but again, something as significant as the complete change of an entire biological entity is something that is physically observable (and also something that interacts with our physical plane thus must obey its laws) and therefore observable and recordable via scientific instruments.

Is p-shifting possible?
Short answer; no. Our current grasp of the laws of physics do not allow us to change our entire biology to become something else. Maybe in the future someday technology will allow such things to happen, but in this day and age it is not possible.
There seem to be many people out there that claim to p-shift, however when confronted, they typically give a response such as: “You won’t believe me anyway”, “I don’t trust anyone to record it/I can’t record it”, “If others find out, the government/CIA/whatever will hunt me down!”, “If you’re questioning me, you don’t deserve to see it”, and/or “I can’t tell you because it’s a secret from the shadows”. If not, their excuse is either “It takes years to see a change”, “I can’t do it stably yet” or “I gave you proof!” said ‘proof’ being a picture from the internet, a photoshopped picture, a badly cut together video, a picture of claw/bite marks or fur/feathers/scales on a bed, and/or a picture of a messy room. There are even times when people that claim to p-shift threaten and harass skeptics.
A typical example of someone that claims to slightly p-shift are those that claim to be able to grow wings and fly with them, or claiming to grow gills and breath underwater with them. Let me tell you, it takes quite a few new muscle groups, organs and other modifications (like bone density) before you can even dream of flying (that’s not even touching on how humans are horrifically un-aerodynamic and just how energy intensive flight actually is). Breathing underwater also requires an entirely different set of lungs to even be able to collect the oxygen, and that’s not taking into account of our significantly larger oxygen requirement than fish.
But anyway, moving on with things. It’s possible to trick yourself into thinking you’ve physically shifted or can p-shift, all you need to do is close your eyes and think/focus hard enough. The effect can be counteracted once you open your eyes or move your body too much as external stimuli serves as a reminder to the brain. It’s also possible to delude yourself into thinking you’ve p-shifted or can p-shift. Those that aren’t otherkin can do this too, it’s called using your imagination. Some people even struggle with it and require psychiatric treatment (see; Clinical Lycanthropy).
Phantom limb sensations can cross over partially with p-shifting in the sense it is possible you can mistake a phantom limb for a real limb. Again, this can happen to those that aren’t otherkin too (see; Rubber Hand Experiment. Also see; Body transfer illusion).

The science of p-shifting-
There are many problems that arise when the subject of p-shifting reaches science. I’ll address some of them here simply for the layman and then some for others.

1. Energy
E=mc^2 we’ve all seen the equation. Energy equals matter times the speed of light squared. If you want to rearrange mass, you need energy. The mass in question here is your body, which is made of cells, made of molecules, made of atoms. To rearrange your body, you must rearrange your cells, molecules and thus atoms. Your body already uses quite a bit of energy to prevent just that. With enough energy you could break the bonds i.e. melt yourself, but you’d need to change the atoms themselves and atoms don’t exactly create energy when they move, it’s quite the opposite. So where does this immense amount of ‘excess energy’ come from?
Well ATP can hardly be stored in our bodies so we convert any excess energy to fat (in which we really pull the short straw, we net so little energy in so much mass). Do you have enough fat stored to release more energy than an atomic bomb? Hint, you don’t. Even the act of expending that amount of energy would horrifically scar and deform you at best, leading to your death.
Also, chemical reactions take time. The faster you want the reaction to be, the more energy you put into it. So now increase an atomic bomb tenfold and you may be getting close for just one cell to change. The average human contains approximately 37.2 trillion cells. We’re now getting a grasp on just how much energy is required. Just for a one way trip mind you, you can’t just ‘snap’ back into human, you’ve got to go through the same process but in reverse.
To separate just one mol of hydrogen bonds (very common in your body since the body is supposed to be up to 75% water, water being a kind of hydrogen bond) you need about 23kJ. That might sound like a lot, but a spoon of peanut butter is 568kJ. What you need to remember is that hydrogen bonds are among the weaker bond, and one litre of water contains about 55.55 moles. That’s 1,277.65kJ. Again, you are up to 75% water. And this is just for the hydrogen bonds, not including other covalent and ionic bonds (which are significantly stronger). This is also just for atomic bonds, not the atom itself (as talked about earlier).

2. Cells
Let’s talk about DNA. From what I know so far (also due to my own personal experience having blood taken and tested nearly once a month, and having MRIs, CAT scans, full body bone scans, ultrasounds, karyotyping and numerous X-rays), the otherkin body is no different from a normal human. If I was somehow physically nonhuman, I’m pretty sure I wouldn’t even be here. So the claim that otherkin have different genes and that lets us p-shift doesn’t hold water from my perspective (and this isn’t even getting into the whole “where do this nonhuman DNA come from?” since evolution is quite an important thing). DNA is very fragile in the sense that even a single change can have major ramifications on your phenotypes. If your DNA isn’t human then you don’t look or biologically behave as human, it’s quite as simple as that. We’ve had 200,000 of existence as the Homo sapiens, we still carry around Neanderthal DNA, how does a species evolve parallel to humans, look perfectly like humans and is supposedly able to interbreed with them? Chimps share 98.8% of DNA with us and we can’t even crossbreed with them, how does someone that is able to so radically change their mass interbreed with us let alone crossbreed with us? Also; the whole dominant/recessive genetics only work for monogenetic traits, so we can’t just have some kind of ‘p-shifting’ gene (that’s ignoring the fact that there’s no evidence of said gene to begin with).
More on DNA; you’d have to perfectly change the DNA of each and every cell to change the way you look. You would have to not only deconstruct your own cells and DNA, you would then have to figure out how to create and activate the correct genetic sequences for a different animal. Mammals may be similar on a genetic level, but each gene is has very small crucial parts that prevent you from, say, being an unguligrade. Brain cells are complicated enough as is, now try and change them to fit a smaller or larger skull. Would you be self-aware enough to recognise you were once human, let alone change back into a human?
More on biology; properly p-shift i.e. to truly become your kintype, you need to 100% be that thing. You can’t be part-kintype part-human, your body would attack itself. And let’s talk chromosomes real quick. Humans have 48, wolves have 78. We would need to make an extra 30 chromosomes in each and every cell (and also change the remaining 48 to become wolf chromosomes) to become a wolf. We consider a lot of DNA to be pointless, so how would we know which parts to change? How would our bodies know how to change our chromosomes? If it did, it would need to be innate, genetic, in the DNA. But to do that you wouldn’t be 100% human or 100% wolf (if you somehow got there), making any kind of p-shifting a one-way trip, meaning you can’t just p-shift half way for p-shift back into a human.
Next; lets talk about the good ol’ conservation of mass. If no mass is being created or destroyed when p-shifting then how does someone p-shift into a sparrow, let alone p-shift back? If your mass stays the exact same then how does someone p-shift into a whale and back? I’ll use the wolf as an example; humans have a high body-fat percentage, where does it go? Wolves have more bones than humans so where does all that extra calcium come from? Humans have large brains compared to our body size, it doesn’t fit into a canine skull so where does it all go? Another example being cats; adult humans have ~206 bones, adult cats can have >230 bones. Where does that extra bone come from? Birds are short a few bones, as are bats, and anything with hooves. Each animal typically has a different bone:fat:muscle:organ mass ratio. If you claim that you just ‘change the atom type’ well that requires a significant amount of energy (see; Atomic bomb). You can look up just how much energy it takes to split one atom, that’s not even encroaching on the high precision necessary to tailor just one atom to your liking (let alone every atom in your body) and then make them bond exactly how you want.
So where does the extra mass and weight come from? You can’t sit in a pool of extra mass to use it, and you can’t just reabsorb any mass you discard should you somehow actually p-shift. You can’t magic mass out of this air and your mass won’t just magically come back either. So it literally can’t come from anywhere.

3. Heat
The amount of energy you would expend to rearrange your atoms, as said before, would be immense. But when you expend energy, you also release heat at the same time. If you p-shifted all at once within a minute, you would create so much cellular friction that you’d burst into flames. You would literally cook yourself trying to just rearrange your cells (that’s not even getting into changing the atoms themselves).
Your brain (i.e. you) can’t survive a temperature higher than 40°C without taking damage. Needless to say, p-shifting would involve changing your brain, thus subjecting your brain to the same temperatures as the rest of your body i.e. your brain you melt. That’s ignoring how your core temperature would go through the roof (43°C denature the proteins in your nervous system, that’s also what kills you in high fevers). You would end up a literal human torch (but with hopefully less fire).

4. Pain
Now I’ve been talking about cells, energy expenditure and heat, time to link it together. Pain. Unless you were somehow able to ‘cut off’ all pain receptors from your brain and change it so that you literally can’t perceive pain, you will most likely die of circulatory shock. Just the act of your bone twisting in your leg is literal agony, most people can’t even stand growing pains or period cramps, now try breaking apart literally every cell in your body. You wouldn’t make a properly visible change, maybe burst a few blood vessels at best, before passing out. If you were to somehow live through it, you would be traumatised. I’ve seen multiple times supposed p-shifters claiming that “it’s a strange tingling sensation”, the worst being “it hurt a bit but I got used to it”. Just getting rid of your skin would put you on a pain level of literally getting skinned alive (at best). Try lengthening and deforming your bones, shifting your organs and growing new ones/shrinking old ones.

But what would happen if p-shifting was possible?
Now that’s a question that really gets the mind going. Would p-shifting be a one-way street? Would only some humans be able to p-shift? Would other animals be able to p-shift? Would we be able to make inorganic, inanimate matter p-shift similar to organic, animate matter? How would your body know what to change into?

From looking at just myself; as I am a shapeshifter, what would I p-shift into specifically? Would I then be able to shapeshift at will after? Since I am a god, would I then be physical evidence of divinity?

Looking at other otherkin and therians (not to mention fictionkin); what would happen to human laws and animal rights? Would animal testing continue? Would human testing become legal? How would you confirm someone’s identity? Would otherkin be evidence of angels/demons/fae/dragons/etc? Would we be able to study prehistoric animals via therians? Would we be able to confirm the existence of aliens? Would our identities just be a product of imagination or would we be able to prove something more? How would exploration (space, sea, land, bodily, etc.) be effected? How would the food and animal product industry be effected (meat production, silk production, etc.)? Would human be added to the menu?

We’d have some problems such as foreign matter within/attached to the body; braces, surgical implants, substitute teeth/bone, etc. If you were to p-shift, your cells would change but these foreign bodies would not change with you. Those with a pacemaker or false teeth would have to somehow remove them or accommodate for them with their new form. Would foreign matter include what you’ve eaten? What is in your bloodstream? If you ate chocolate and then p-shifted into a rat would you die? Would drug (and other) mules have an easier/harder time? We coexist with (and are also made up of) massive quantities of different species of bacteria and fungi, what happens to them?

The question of “what would happen to plural otherkin?” is a confusing one. If multiple otherkin inhabit one body, what would the body p-shift into? How would that be determined? Since the brain itself would physically change too, how would that effect the system? Would you lose people in the change? You the body physically split, giving each person their own form (implies a kind of asexual reproduction)? Would you gain people in the change? Would the body become a chimera and meld the various forms together? Would the body shut down and not p-shift? Would the body die from too many identity inputs?

Let’s also look at the mind itself here; other animal brains are not human brains. Parts of yourself (if not everything about yourself) would be lost, just like in language translation. Your brain is your memory, and it is chock full (and also not genetic), by p-shifting you are changing your entire brain structure and in some cases, losing parts of it. Would a wolf brain be able to facilitate you in your whole? Would a bird brain be able to facilitate you in your whole? Would a lizard brain be able to facilitate you in your whole? Just how much would you forget? How much of “you” would be lost? How much of your humanity would stick around? How would you cope if you then became human again? Would we be able to consciously become human again or would we have to be externally forced? Many otherkin don’t like admitting that our personality, our identity/ego, is a product of our human life experience and biology. If we were to lose our humanity, we lose ‘ourselves’. How would that be counteracted? Would we make some kind of external body to ‘download’ and ‘upload’ ourselves from and to?

In conclusion-
Scientifically, from what’s currently accessible to, and know by, the masses, p-shifting isn’t possible. Now all this isn’t to say p-shifting is impossible period, there may be some secret magic or scientific way to p-shift, I don’t know for sure. There could be super top secret underground government labs testing for ways to shapeshift, there could be some obscure occult group living in some off-the-grid haven that can all p-shift, I don’t know. There is a possibility since it is the unknown, but from my own observations and knowledge of science, that possibility is currently incredibly slim.
If (or when for the hopeful) p-shifting is scientifically possible and easily accessible, the impact it would have on the health field is massive. Lost limbs regrown, eyesight fixed and enhanced, ability to breath underwater, ability to fly, ability to alter genetic disfigurement and illness, enhanced physical defence preventing more workplace accidents, sex change becomes simple, albino people having the option to change, blind, deaf and dumb people having the option to experience the opposite, neurodivergent and neurotypical people having the option to experience and live as the other, and so much more.
Overall, for p-shifting to be scientifically possible there are some points to overcome;
1. Pain tolerance
2. Energy consumption
3. Cell change and method
4. Temperature control
5. Mass origin
Until these are overcome, in my eyes, p-shifting isn’t possible.

There seems to be two schools of thought about the correlation between ‘past lives’ and ‘kintypes’, one says “everything’s a kintype” while the other says “only some are kintypes”. How you learn about the past lives and what counts as a past life is a topic for another time.

Some will say that all past lives are kintypes. Every past life you remember/have, no matter how small or indistinct, is a kintype.
For example; you have 3 past lives, each one is a kintype.
Another example; you have 49 past lives, each one is a kintype.
If we assume all past lives are kintypes-
-Each and every past life is an identity in their own right
-There is no difference between the ‘past’ and the ‘now’
-Could imply that only those with past lives can have kintypes
-Could imply anyone with a nonhuman past life they know about has a kintype and is thus otherkin
The pros of all past lives being kintypes-
-The moment you discover a past life you instantly know of a kintype
-(Human) past life community can offer assistance and resources
-Could encourage soul searching in new otherkin
-Could help normalise otherkin to the layman by giving a closer reference point for understanding (i.e. past lives)
The cons of all past lives being kintypes-
-You entire identity hinges on whether or not a past life is true instead of multi-step questioning
-Could be stepping into plural territory
-Could easily cause confusion in memory
-Confusion surrounding having a kintype without memory of it, and also potential denial of a kintype without a past life attached
-Too much soul exploration means you could end up with 50+ kintypes
Some further questions-
-Why would every past life be a kintype? Would it just be by definition or something else?
-How would every past life be a kintype? Will of a higher power? Fate? Mechanic of time?
-Could you put them in chronological order and chart your kintype ‘evolution’? Could you work together and chart other worldly histories?
-How would this effect identity? Would having many identities and experiences cause trouble?
-What would this mean for the non-otherkin reincarnation and past life communities? New friends? New competition?
-Can past lives be ‘created’ (merging souls, soul grafting, imprinting, etc.) and if so, do they count as kintypes? What would they fit in with the other past lives?
-Would you experience phantom limbs and mental shifts of each kintype? All together? Cycle through them? Periodically?
-What happens to psychological otherkin?

Now, others will say that only some (or sometimes none) are kintypes. Not every past life you remember/have is a kintype.
Some in this camp will argue that only the lives that have had the most profound effect on you are kintypes. For example; you have two past lives, a pangolin that survived a wild fire and was later kept as a pet by a passing tourist, and, a fish that lived and died at a fishery. Only the pangolin is a kintype.
Some will say only the most recent lives are kintypes. For example; you have 6 past lives, but only the first 2 are kintypes.
Some don’t know the specifics of what defines the differences and say “you’ll know it’s a kintype when you feel it”.
If we assume not all past lives are kintypes-
-Only certain past lives could be kintypes
-There is a difference between a ‘past’ identity and the ‘now’ identity
-Could imply not every otherkin has a past life
-There is a difference (or an extra step) between otherkin and humans with past life memories
The pros of this-
-Could mean less confusion with memory and current life
-Can ‘move on’ from past lives and not forced to identify as your past
-Could be easier to keep track of kintypes
-Could be more encouraging for psychological otherkin
The cons of this-
-You not only have to consider if a past life is true, you then have to consider if the past life is a kintype
-Community will have internal debate on what kinds of past lives could be kintypes and thus can easily be divided
-Easier to deny the past and potential kintypes you don’t like
-People may favour certain past life ‘styles’ and ignore any ‘strange’ past lives
-Potentially less help and resources from the other past life communities
Some further questions-
-What makes a past life a kintype? Strength? Lifespan? Amount remembered? Similarity to the ‘now’ life? Spiritual significance?
-What makes a past life not a kintype? Innate feeling? Time? Mundane? Too ‘old’? Belief?
-How do you discern difference between kintype and past life? Where is the line? Can the line move? Is it even a line?
-Could the increased skepticism be harmful? Could it be discouraging to newer otherkin? Decrease self-assurance in otherkin? Could it be helpful? Introduce more critical thinking?
-Would there be more infighting than if all past lives were kintypes? How severe would the fights be? Would there be more elitism? More segregation?
-Is a past life kintype a conscious choice? Unconscious choice? Product of your environment? How you grew up?
-Could it be measured or compared in some way? Amount of kintypes vs past lives?

I believe that not all past lives are kintypes, I see there is a difference between the two albeit it is a deceptively small one. It has to do with the nature of past lives and the definition of otherkin. Past lives are the past, otherkin is now.
We have an example that is an exceptional comparison and model for our needs here; our own lives right now. It may be more difficult for the younger members of the community (say around the 14 year old mark) but for the older members (20 and onward) the comparison should be obvious.
Are you the same person as your 7 year old self? Do you have the same likes, dislikes, hobbies etc? Do you have the same personality and act the same way? Do you identify as your 7 year old self?
You know you lived through it, you know you were there, you were that person, you felt the same things, you did those things. But that was the past, are you truly the same person now?
It is exactly the same with past lives. You may remember being an elf, growing up as an elf, hunting and crafting as an elf, attending elf gatherings etc. but, are you the same person? Do you identify as the same person?
Otherkin is identity in the now, you identify now, not later or before. Past lives are not the now. The past is the past, things change. We evolve. Are we the same person as we were a decade ago? Are we the same person as we were a century ago? Are we the same person as we were a millennium ago?
But then again, it can be hard for some people to let go of the past. Some people don’t want to change and will fight to stay, what they perceive to be, the same, and that’s ok. Everyone’s different and this is my opinion and observations.
I guess it comes down to what people say constitutes as ‘identity’ and the strength of identity. Personally, I believe otherkin is when you identify as nonhuman. For me it’s not a half-hearted thing, it is an identity strong to the point of forgetting your own humanity, but not strong enough to stop you from constantly being subtly aware of your humanity.
It’s possible to be otherkin and have past lives that are kintypes. It’s possible to be otherkin and have past lives that aren’t kintypes. It’s possible to be a psychological otherkin with past lives. It’s possible to be otherkin and not know if you have any past lives.
If someone doesn’t acknowledge a past life they may or may not have, they may then dismiss any ‘otherkin’ actions they possibly do and ‘train’ themselves out of it, meaning they wouldn’t even consider themselves otherkin, meaning they wouldn’t identify as nonhuman, meaning they wouldn’t be otherkin.

So to conclude this, while some people believe all past lives are kintypes, other people don’t believe this to be true. Both have assumptions, both have potential pros, and both have potential cons. Both could be correct if looked at from different angles but reaching a comprehensive answer would involve the larger, age-old debates on what constitutes an identity, how strong identity is, what time is and how time effects identity.