Did you ever see Dr. Seuss' "Hooperbloob Highway"? Your setup looks very reminiscent of it. The idea is that new souls, before being sent down to Earth on the Highway, are given the choice of what they're going to be, and a demonstration is screened for them of all the pros and cons of being a human. All the likely scenarios are shown with the future kid and his dog. It's never pointed out directly, but someone really observant would come to the conclusion that a dog gets practically all of the perks of being human and doesn't have to take exams.
*Laughs!* I almost thought of adding, "For more information, see Dr. Seuss's 'Hooberbloob Highway,'" but I didn't end up doing that. I haven't seen it since I was seven. I wasn't sure whether I remembered it well enough to make the comparison.
Ah, I believe I've seen that--the animated version of it, at least. I'd completely forgotten the name, as I've only seen it once, during some Seuss-a-thon or another on Cartoon Network.
I'm glad I'm back, too! Between Midterms and Finals, I didn't have any creative energy left over to make comics with, even though I did have spare time. Now that I know that happens, I'm going to have to prepare for it by making enough extra comics to upload during that time period next quarter.
Yao? (can I call you Yao? I have a habit of shortening names like that...)
Your avatar rocks. Or perhaps I should say is beautiful. Well, both of them. A quick perusal of the rest of your usericons suggests that they are not your art alone. Who is responsible for this one?
Heck so many folks do: "Hey, Yao, back to work !" "Go for this Yao" "Yao, yeah Yao, what are Yao doing there ?"
******
The icon you see here was a gift from Likeshine.
I have other art from her, which I need to scan for more icons. Especially now that Live Journal has added so many more spaces to my account. I think I have 80 loaded, but there is now room for more than 50 additional ones.
Hah-hah, this also reminds me of a webcomic by the name of Misfile--wherein a pot-smoking angel accidentally refiles two people/souls--resulting in one gender swap and one erasure of the last two years of the other character's life. The angel is exiled to earth, and more or less tries to help the other main characters/fix his mistakes. More or less. Dealing with weird stuff hijinks ensue.
Hm. But beyond that....
Why might people characterize their otherkin-ness/therianthropy/what-have-you as "I have an X soul in a human body?"
Hmmm. There are a couple of interesting assumptions about worldviews that could be derived from this statement. There are a lot of interesting ideas about how the world fits together, period, found in otherkin/therianthrope communities. I think I'll explore some of the possible implications of belief found in that statement.
First of all, that all (or a great deal of) things have souls, not just humans. It implies that cats, horses, coyotes, geese, fish, iguannas, and so on, all have souls, or can have souls.
This runs contrary to the beliefs of several theologies or religions, but I'll ignore that, because this community is nothing if not electic spiritually. ^.=.^
Next, it suggests that not all souls are created equal, in a sense. That they are different, depending on the sort of being they were *supposed* to reside in.
(Again, contrary to various religious beliefs. Hinduism comes to mind, where I think the dogma goes that a soul is a soul is a soul, regardless of whether it is in a human, a cow, or an earthworm this incarnation. But I'm not going to speculate about the gamut of beliefs on reincarnation found here.)
I think most people's conception of a soul includes the idea that they are unique, like fingerprints, works of art, or personalities, as well as eternal. But this suggests something more than that, that perhaps souls and bodies interact in a specific way, and that nonstandard soul/body matchups can create a dissonance. Examples of this dissonance or difference might show up in an individual's personal thought patterns, habits, or views toward/interactions with human society. They have some reason or intuition to believe that they are different, nonhuman in some way. Does a soul contain certain inborn patterns adapted for one kind of existence, then?
Answers to that question probably sound similiar to debates concerning how much of human behavior is innate and how much is learned or socialized. So how much of what is innate is a result of genes or biology, and how much is from something more immaterial in nature?
How do souls and bodies, or spirit and matter interact?
Is it plausible to claim that the apparently high number of theri/'kin with other psychological conditions* is a result of this soul/body mismatch?
*Stuff like:(Aspergers, autism, ADD/ADHD, chronic depression, Synthaesia, anything else you'd care to name, I'm not trying to discriminate against anyone here for anyreason,)
At the same time though, no soul seems to be any better or any worse from this viewpoint. I can't think of anyone who believes xirself to possess a nonhuman soul that also believes they are spiritually handicapped in some way, so a cat, dragon, or elf soul is probably just as good as a human soul. There are plenty of "just plain ordinary" humans with spiritual faith and ability as well. So that capability is probably universal.
I'm don't really have a conclusion to this post, I'm just throwing out the sorts of things that came to mind after reading the comic, and then came to mind as I thought some more. But I'd be curious to know if anything I've extrapolated here matches up with personal belief or obsevation, where I might be way off, or what you might think on the nature of souls or spirits.
Interesting speculation there, zuki san. I am very firmly of the belief; as, I expect, are all otherkin (or they should be!); that there is nothing particularly special about humans that sets them above other animals on any scale of 'worth'. Humans just happen to have a more adaptive intelligence and hands.
Spiritually speaking, I think it has to be an all or nothing situation: everything alive has some kind of soul/life essence, or nothing does. Therefore, if souls and the divine do exist, it's not too outrageous to wonder whether there is ever any 'mismatch' in birth. But, I would also expect the unborn soul to be quite malleable and adaptive to its form. Sure, there might be some quirks and 'habitation' issues, but I don't think the soul would be in the wrong body as such. People for all of history have had strong identification with animals, so if that is due to souls, it's been going on for a long time, and probably isn't some kind of mistake - although this comic was very amusing and illustrative ^.^
Very interesting theory about the soul/body mismatch leading to various atypical psychological issues (among which therianthropy itself could be considered). I started postulating a purely scientific, neurological argument to the case, and then realised that it didn't conflict with your theory at all! Which came first, the therianthropy or the other unusual behaviour patterns? Impossible to tell.
Another possibility to think on would be that these kinds of conditions often affect the creative, the imaginative, the spiritual. Artists, writers, musicians, psychics and magic users, all kinds of open minded and sensitive people. Perhaps the otherkin condition is something that allows us to catch a wider glimpse of our nature than afforded to 'normal' humans, maybe allowing us to perceive our own differences (soul or otherwise) or maybe just giving us a more balanced and inclusive perception of our place in the universe.
After all, to come back to my original hypothesis, life is life is life. We're all not so different, human from otherkin from animal, at the heart of things.
Mmmm, Chai. I love the stuff. Reminds me of the chai/something else ice cream milkshake I picked up the other day at Baskin Robins--it tasted like chai tea and gingersnap cookies. Delicious.
Good one! Love the little WTF?! marks around the cat's head - although if the angel has been leaning on that lever for a while, shouldn't all the babies coming out the chute be cats?
It made me wonder: how many human souls get into *animal* bodies?
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
no subject
no subject
no subject
no subject
That is fantastic.
no subject
no subject
no subject
no subject
no subject
no subject
no subject
no subject
no subject
no subject
no subject
And see that a cat soul gets mis-assigned.
no subject
Your avatar rocks. Or perhaps I should say is beautiful. Well, both of them. A quick perusal of the rest of your usericons suggests that they are not your art alone. Who is responsible for this one?
no subject
Heck so many folks do:
"Hey, Yao, back to work !"
"Go for this Yao"
"Yao, yeah Yao, what are Yao doing there ?"
******
The icon you see here was a gift from Likeshine.
I have other art from her, which I need to scan for more icons. Especially now that Live Journal has added so many more spaces to my account. I think I have 80 loaded, but there is now room for more than 50 additional ones.
(Reply to this)(Parent)
no subject
A soul gets knocked into the wrong body?
*love* that poem. :)
no subject
no subject
Hm. But beyond that....
Why might people characterize their otherkin-ness/therianthropy/what-have-you as "I have an X soul in a human body?"
Hmmm. There are a couple of interesting assumptions about worldviews that could be derived from this statement. There are a lot of interesting ideas about how the world fits together, period, found in otherkin/therianthrope communities. I think I'll explore some of the possible implications of belief found in that statement.
First of all, that all (or a great deal of) things have souls, not just humans. It implies that cats, horses, coyotes, geese, fish, iguannas, and so on, all have souls, or can have souls.
This runs contrary to the beliefs of several theologies or religions, but I'll ignore that, because this community is nothing if not electic spiritually. ^.=.^
Next, it suggests that not all souls are created equal, in a sense. That they are different, depending on the sort of being they were *supposed* to reside in.
(Again, contrary to various religious beliefs. Hinduism comes to mind, where I think the dogma goes that a soul is a soul is a soul, regardless of whether it is in a human, a cow, or an earthworm this incarnation. But I'm not going to speculate about the gamut of beliefs on reincarnation found here.)
I think most people's conception of a soul includes the idea that they are unique, like fingerprints, works of art, or personalities, as well as eternal. But this suggests something more than that, that perhaps souls and bodies interact in a specific way, and that nonstandard soul/body matchups can create a dissonance. Examples of this dissonance or difference might show up in an individual's personal thought patterns, habits, or views toward/interactions with human society. They have some reason or intuition to believe that they are different, nonhuman in some way. Does a soul contain certain inborn patterns adapted for one kind of existence, then?
Answers to that question probably sound similiar to debates concerning how much of human behavior is innate and how much is learned or socialized. So how much of what is innate is a result of genes or biology, and how much is from something more immaterial in nature?
How do souls and bodies, or spirit and matter interact?
Is it plausible to claim that the apparently high number of theri/'kin with other psychological conditions* is a result of this soul/body mismatch?
*Stuff like:(Aspergers, autism, ADD/ADHD, chronic depression, Synthaesia, anything else you'd care to name, I'm not trying to discriminate against anyone here for anyreason,)
At the same time though, no soul seems to be any better or any worse from this viewpoint. I can't think of anyone who believes xirself to possess a nonhuman soul that also believes they are spiritually handicapped in some way, so a cat, dragon, or elf soul is probably just as good as a human soul. There are plenty of "just plain ordinary" humans with spiritual faith and ability as well. So that capability is probably universal.
I'm don't really have a conclusion to this post, I'm just throwing out the sorts of things that came to mind after reading the comic, and then came to mind as I thought some more. But I'd be curious to know if anything I've extrapolated here matches up with personal belief or obsevation, where I might be way off, or what you might think on the nature of souls or spirits.
no subject
Spiritually speaking, I think it has to be an all or nothing situation: everything alive has some kind of soul/life essence, or nothing does. Therefore, if souls and the divine do exist, it's not too outrageous to wonder whether there is ever any 'mismatch' in birth. But, I would also expect the unborn soul to be quite malleable and adaptive to its form. Sure, there might be some quirks and 'habitation' issues, but I don't think the soul would be in the wrong body as such. People for all of history have had strong identification with animals, so if that is due to souls, it's been going on for a long time, and probably isn't some kind of mistake - although this comic was very amusing and illustrative ^.^
Very interesting theory about the soul/body mismatch leading to various atypical psychological issues (among which therianthropy itself could be considered). I started postulating a purely scientific, neurological argument to the case, and then realised that it didn't conflict with your theory at all! Which came first, the therianthropy or the other unusual behaviour patterns? Impossible to tell.
Another possibility to think on would be that these kinds of conditions often affect the creative, the imaginative, the spiritual. Artists, writers, musicians, psychics and magic users, all kinds of open minded and sensitive people. Perhaps the otherkin condition is something that allows us to catch a wider glimpse of our nature than afforded to 'normal' humans, maybe allowing us to perceive our own differences (soul or otherwise) or maybe just giving us a more balanced and inclusive perception of our place in the universe.
After all, to come back to my original hypothesis, life is life is life. We're all not so different, human from otherkin from animal, at the heart of things.
no subject
What a beautiful comic! :D
no subject
no subject
no subject
"Tea-break in Heaven". Heh, I like that.
*grin*
no subject
no subject
It made me wonder: how many human souls get into *animal* bodies?
no subject
no subject
Except cats. Cats know they are divine begins and won't hesitate to let you know.