hi, I'm aphelion alifer (he/they), and this is my blog! you can call me aphelion (pronounced "uh-FEE-lee-un"). my name means furthest from the sun (aphelion), or a winged creature existing in freedom in the distance (aphelion alifer). this isn't my real name, but it's what I want to be called by at least on this blog for privacy reasons.
I'm 20 and have been around the nonhuman community for at least 10 years as of writing this. I support all kinds of nonhuman identities, experiences, and beings. my blog is directed towards any nonhuman looking for a safe space, specifically those who are physically nonhuman (shapeshifters, extra limb growers or wing growers/avians, etc), but anyone is welcome. I also consider myself to be spiritual, a reality shifter, furry, and witch, so I might reblog things other than nonhuman stuff. I mostly share posts relating to my experiences, thoughts, things I like, etc. on this blog, I prefer not to talk about my mental health struggles, but I might reblog posts related to mental health. this blog is SFW.
just your average avian (wing grower), winged werewolf, and overall celestial beast-thing. since childhood I've had a strong calling to the sky which is how I've known that I am meant to have wings in this life. also spiritually some kind of horned black kite resembling maleficent's phoenix form, but I suspect that I could also be some kind of dark fey fictionkin as well or have my soul origins be tied to maleficent's universe. I also consider myself kind of maned wolf hearted due previously identifying as a winged maned wolf but haven't for a while now, still figuring myself out of course like everyone else!
I also have felt like I am not from this universe overall which is why I consider myself to be a celestial beast/being, and I have had past lives here on earth to learn lessons about humanity and to break karmic or generational cycles/traumas. I feel as if this is possibly my last physical reincarnation on earth, and i will return to the astral realm or my soul's home origins once it's my time.
I'm the author of "Nonhumanity: A history", a document that is a timeline of the nonhuman community and also serves as an archive for older articles and websites. it can be found here: Aphelion Alifer - 2024 (google.com)
I also have a forum you can join dedicated to physical shifters/nonhumans, but it's open to anyone of any species and identity!: Home | Creaturecavern
I believe in good energy and keeping bad vibes out, and I'm not here for discourse or fights! I block freely, but DNI if you're any of the following: anti-pshifters/anti general nonhuman identities and experiences, right wing/trump supporters, posts and condones illegal and immoral behavior, homophobia/transphobia and are pro-ship. especially please fuck off if youre a pedo/zoo/necrophile regardless of recovery status. I'm sure there's more I could add to this list that I'm not thinking of, but thats it for now :P
thanks for taking the time to read this and check out my little corner of the web, I look forward to being on this journey with like-minded individuals!
just a reminder that I have a survey open for p-shifters and other physical nonhumans. I am gathering community data for my upcoming book "The Bestiary of Yourself"! if you would like to participate if you haven't already, now is your chance!
NOTE: By submitting your responses, you are agreeing to your data being compiled and used in my upcoming book "The Bestiary of Yourself", a
as long as i am working on the book, the survey will be up! once my book is published, it will be closed. since posting the original survey, ive also added some new additional and optional questions if you would like to edit your answers. it's not required, but figured i would mention it ^^
petition to stop saying physical alterhumans "know they're human." we're not. I don't know where this bullshit came from, but it's like y'all don't know what the word 'physical' means. it is not delusional to say your body is not human, it is a fucking fact. hell even if it is from delusions you shouldn't have ableist fucks telling you your body is not what you say it is.
to those who need to hear it: no one knows you better than yourself. no one has the right to say what you are, no one gets to dictate how you feel and how you see yourself or how others see you. you are not human, you are a physical alterhuman and you are valid. <- this is directed toward the 0% human physical alterhumans
If the entirety of your political stance within a certain sphere, be it furry or otherkin or queer or otherwise, revolve around being "less woke" than the rest of it, or being "anti-woke" when "woke" simply means to be aware of the state of politics, how minorities are affected by said politics, and the violence minorities face, then you need to think about why you find so much pride in being ideologically closer to Nazis and fascists and actively aiding them than the rest of your community actually doing work to benefit us.
No, seriously. Your identity doesn't exist in a vacuum. You need to think about how your politics intersect with your identity and how that intersection affects your community. I'm not saying you can't be a therian without being insanely political aware, but I am saying that there isn't a point in interacting with other therians if you can't be inclusive and respectful.
Even if this is a troll just looking to make physical therians look bad, I still think it's worth discussing. I see genuine physical therians hold similar beliefs all of the time, and I think they only hold these beliefs because they don't think about the implications of their beliefs and where those beliefs might lead them.
When im having strong wing shifts its both very joyous and kind of annoying because theyre much bigger and wider than what im used to so I start trying to avoid knocking things down with them but theyre not actually there so what really happens is I start moving really weirdly. This event just led to me stubbing my toe
Yoo big news I got some decent shapeshifting results (the bridge of my nose widened, and my eyes changed a bit)ā¦ anyway I decided that Iām going to share the method I used to get these results.
Shapeshifting method (requires being able to use energy manipulation and trigger phantom and/or astral shifts):
first off get in a comfortable position that allows for shapeshifting into your form, next what you are going to do is trigger a phantom shift for the part of your body you are shifting (you can also do this astrally so long as you can feel them). Next you are going to circulate your energy through the part of your body that you are shifting until your energy feels interwoven with your physical form, then what you are going to want to do is attempt to push both your energy and physical form into the mold of your phantom features, essentially just keep doing this until you get results.
I didnāt get major results until 30 minutes in and Iāve been practicing shifting for years so try not to get discouraged.
i think there are some labels or instances where folks claim to be physically nonhuman but then say that they still realize that they or their bodies are human. nonhumanity is kind of a spectrum and i understand that there are people still connected to their humanity, but to those who aren't, don't be afraid to say that your body is also nonhuman. you're allowed to be free. even if you might be "human presenting", it doesn't automatically make you human for looking or acting like one when you know who you are on the inside. sometimes it just takes a while to translate onto the outside. š
just a reminder that I have a survey open for p-shifters and other physical nonhumans. I am gathering community data for my upcoming book "The Bestiary of Yourself"! if you would like to participate if you haven't already, now is your chance!
NOTE: By submitting your responses, you are agreeing to your data being compiled and used in my upcoming book "The Bestiary of Yourself", a
the difference between physical therianthropy and clinical zoanthropy
(was originally going to be a reblog of this ask but then it got toooo long and too laborious for me to let it get lost under someone else's post, and i figured more people who need to know would see it more easily as its own post)
[ CW: clinical talk, possible "reality checking" AND reality variance, mentions of medical abuse + transphobia ]
[ note: every "you" is the general "you". ]
TL;DR at the end!
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[IMAGE ID: a screenshot of an anonymous question sent to tumblr user @juice-wings . the ask reads: "This is probably a dumb question, but what's the difference between physical alterhumanity and zoanthrope?
I mean, at what point it's considered as psychotic? What makes it psychotic? Isn't this two the same thing, but one of them is like a medical term with prejudice?]
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i will try my best to answer this point by point, from my perspective as someone who is physically therian/nonhuman and a zoanthrope, self-ids as neither delusional nor nondelusional, and is part of a physical plurality:
what's the difference between physical alterhumanity and zoanthrope?
(i'm going to assume you mean physical therianthropy in specific for focus' sake)
the difference, in my opinion, is in your personal proximity to forced medicalization against your experiences of transformations and animality.
firstly, being physically therian means identifying yourself as a nonhuman animal on a physical level, to do with your physical body. the definition in its vagueness includes all physical experiences that have to do with internal or external biology, such as organs, hormone cycles, visible bodily features, ability or disability, genetics, etc.
more relevantly, the broadness of this definition includes experiences that originate from any cause--whether or not that cause is labeled "delusional/disordered" by normative human standards (orthohumanity--as opposed to alterhumanity), or oneself.
physical transformations or shifts can also be included under physical therian experiences, but not all physical therians physically transform or shift--and on the flipside, not all who physically transform or shift identify as physically nonhuman or therian.
(physical shifters, in specific, are their own culture, but they have contributed greatly to the formation of the early were/nonhuman communities that later gave rise to the modern therian/nonhuman communities. physical shifters may also have their shifting affected by delusions or disorders, but physical shifting is not solely caused by delusions or disorders.)
in contrast, being a clinical zoanthrope means that others have medically persecuted you / would medically persecute you as "delusional" for specifically experiencing uncontrollable transformations and animality. for example, the first time we (as a plurality) half-morphed as Stag's deer, we couldn't control our body. regardless of whether or not we had intent to harm others, being out of control while transformed went too far against orthohumanity's standards of "order", and thus was labeled "disordered", and that label of "disordered" was used as manufactured consent to coercively commit and overmedicate us.
how medically persecuted is medically persecuted "enough"? well, i don't judge legitimacy by making up a "pecking order" of trauma. in my opinion, if you relate, on any daily-life-impacting level, to the following experiences:
your legal, medical, and/or bodily autonomy have been negatively impacted as a direct cause of the wrong people seeing your uncontrolled transformations and animality AND/OR
you're hiding your transformations and animality out of probable fear of the above happening, but physically struggle to contain it even for your safety
then you may be a clinical zoanthrope.
besides the forced medicalization, the commonality between all zoanthropes is experiencing 1) transformations, 2) animality, and 3) loss of human(ized) self-control.
we transform, whether it's human-to-animal or animal-to-human or animal-to-animal. and we experience animality that can be in sync with a true self, or animality that can conflict against a true self. and we experience these bodily changes and animal turns to such a degree that we lose the self-control that humanity and humanization expects of us.
(i'm not sure if i've encountered a zoanthrope who doesn't consider themself transformed in some way, but navigating orthohuman perceptions would leastwise have them using transformation as a "cover story" of sorts. i'd welcome them the same anyhow!)
altogether, the experiences overlap, but physical therianthropy is an umbrella self-identifier that can label any physically animal-bodied experiences of any cause, while clinical zoanthropy is a specific reclamation related to being medically persecuted as "delusional" for experiencing uncontrollable transformations and animality in particular.
additionally, physical therians as a whole tend to feel their animal form reflects their true self. some zoanthropes may also experience this synchronicity, but other zoanthropes may not.
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I mean, at what point it's considered as psychotic? What makes it psychotic?
(i'm going to assume you mean what's considered "delusional" in specific, as "psychotic" denotes a broader range of symptoms than just "delusionality")
according to the DSM-V (pg. 4 of the in-linked PDF), "delusion" denotes a belief that is
fixed and held fast even when contradicting evidence is presented to the believer
"implausible" and "incomprehensible" to others in the same (sub)culture the believer lives in, due to the belief being "bizarre" AND/OR the belief being without (sub)culturally-"valid" evidence
the DSM-V's section on "delusion" also gives examples of beliefs that may be distressing, but doesn't state that delusions in general are inherently distressing--because they aren't. a belief considered "false" by others can certainly impact you and others around you negatively, but it can also affect you in more neutral or even positive ways.
even though personal distress is the most common cause for someone to receive medical attention, personal distress is not necessary for somebody to be deemed "delusional" in a clinical sense. in fact, the diagnostic criteria for "delusional disorder" is only that 1) a delusion is present for one month or more, and 2) there are no symptoms of other psychotic disorders we could attribute it to.
from my point of view as someone who self-ids as neither delusional or nondelusional, this makes the label of "delusion" somewhat subjective--even when the label's given by clinicians "objectively".
this is because the label of "delusional" marks a break from "consensus reality"--that is, what is assumed to be in existence for everyone. but what is "consensus reality" varies by (sub)culture, time, and place. for example, in progressive spaces, transgender people have been more and more accepted as part of consensus reality over time; but in conservative spaces, transgender people defy their idea of "reality" and are therefore labeled "delusional / mentally ill / insane" relative to that. and while the science and sociology supporting trans peopleās existence is considered āvalidā in the culture of progressive spaces, in conservative spaces they are āinvalidā relative to their āalternative factsā.
thus, in my opinion, the point where "strong belief" becomes "delusion" is relative to 1) what is accepted as consensus reality by the institutions in your (sub)culture, time, and place and 2) how much your belief contradicts those institutions' definition of "consensus reality" and "valid evidence".
and the subjectivity in differentiating these points means to me, it's just as legit to accept the label of "delusion" from others as it is to self-identify as "delusional" as it is to reject labels of delusionality altogether.
that's why my definition of clinical zoanthropy is not that we're "delusional" in and of ourselves, but that we are persecuted as "delusional"--because not all of us consider ourselves in "delusion" for our beliefs, some of us actively reject defining ourselves by relation to consensus reality because of the oppressive institutions that socially construct it.
to sum it up, there is no universal objective measure of "what's considered delusion" because there is no universal objective measure of "consensus reality" vs "break" from that reality. the most effective way to determine if you're "delusional" is simply if you, personally, feel like you can communicate and understand your needs and experiences best through choosing to frame them as "delusion".
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TL;DR--
physical therianthropy is a self-identifier for any physically animal-bodied experience in the human world, originating from any cause, "delusional" or not
clinical zoanthropy is a specific reclamation for being medically persecuted as "delusional" (esp. with systemic loss of autonomy)
this persecution is on account of zoanthropes experiencing transformations, animality, and loss of what self-control orthohumans expect
physical therians' and some zoanthropes' animal forms are reflective of a true self, but some zoanthropes also experience an animal form as conflicting / nonrepresenting of a true self
beliefs are clinicalized as "delusions" if they are fixed against contradicting evidence, and are also "bizarre" to the surrounding (sub)culture AND/OR lacking in (sub)culturally-"valid" evidence--personal distress is not necessary for diagnosis.
what is part of consensus reality, and what is defined as "valid" evidence, is relative to the belief-holder's (sub)culture, time, and place. this makes "delusion" also subjective and relative of a label.
you may accept others calling you "delusional", choose to call yourself "delusional", OR reject labels of delusionality based on what you, personally, determine works best for communicating and understanding your own needs and experiences
not all zoanthropes self-identify as "delusional" for the above 3 reasons
this was a really, really interesting read, so thanks to op to that incredible explanation. I've always struggled to know what the actual difference between physical theriantrophy and clinical zoantrophy is, and I'm glad you explained it so clearly.
it's a bit chilling because it puts into perspective a lot of things for me. because I'm a physical otherkin, I actually identify as holothere, but I don't identify as having clinical zoantrophy and never claimed to have it mainly because of lack of knowledge.
and it makes me think, a lot, about the fact that the only reason why I'm not classified (and I don't personally classify myself) as a clinical zoantrophe is because I have never been to a doctor to ask for a diagnosis, and I've never talked about my physical nonhumanity with ANYONE. because, basically, I know what would happen. I know I would get hospitalized, my family would worry about me, they would think I'm crazy.
but reading about experiences of the community, especially from those clinical zoantrophes. like, bruh, I experience transformations and have experienced them all my life, and for me my wings and my talons and my watcher body is as real as it could get. I have actually experimented before with other physical transformations of my own body, like changing the shape of my talons, hiding and extending my wings in and out of my back, making my ears pointy and making my feathers grow along my face and in front of my ears, etc (I once transformed it into an owl shape, just to see if I could). my transformations are minimal because watchers are humanoid, so their shape is pretty close to a human shape. but the watcher's characteristics are there.
I was even able to grow a tail once or twice. physical changes are not easy, but I'm able to do them, and for that I'm so grateful.
however, I don't consider these transformations delusions or hallucinations or anything of those sorts because, even tho they're real to me, I'm aware that humans wouldn't be able to see them. we watchers have a some kind of spell that hides our true physical appearance to humans' eyes. this spell is a godsend, because even though I'm a watcher without powers, at least I have that.
but, coming back to the topic. by definition, if I were to go to the doctor talking to them about these physical experiences, I would be locked up for sure. and that's why I've never told a soul in my real life about my physical experiences, even those I'm out as otherkin to a bunch of people, out of fear. because I know what would happen the moment I'm honest, they would try to change me, they would lock me up, and it would be horrible. so I shut my beak and keep my transformations to myself.
that's why I believe humans would label me as a clinical zoanthrope if they got the opportunity, but because my transformations are relatively small and I'm able to hide them, they wouldn't notice. yes, I relate a lot to clinical zoantrophes here in the community, but I wouldn't label myself as that. the moment I would dare to speak to someone about my experiences, yes, they would medically persecute me, because I can't really control my transformations. luckily they are subtle and I can hide away in my room if I'm having one, but. yeah.
we turned the water off and expect to start working on it when we can. but me and him discussed prioritizing the health of the animals and all the things that come with it. theyre very old and need daily medication.
the negligence of the homeowner (both to the leak and the animals) leads us to our need to move out in about 6 months to a year. ill be here writing, jus support me when you can.
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