We're all freaks, my dude

“If I am not for myself, who will be for me? If I am only for myself, what am I? And if not now, when?” ~ Hillel Sideblog; nephesh mavar, android-aligned, fictive pluran, archangel extranth, and dog-badger-person -- this is my alterhuman post containment blog. Im 21+ jewish alterhumans pls interact

[song-system]

Any other Hypermoble people Who Do Quadrobic's? If so Do You Have any Tips as how to Not Become a Puddle when You Fall /lh /srs

[kinarchist]

We’re getting testing right now to determine what type of Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome we have (likely hEDS, maybe cEDS) so! Hypermobility! Yes! Not sure where y’all are with physical therapy, mobility aids (or need for them), etc, but I can share our experiences. We feel like regular quadrupeds after using forearm crutches and having our body map them as legs, and they do give us an extra workout, so I sorta consider any walking/running/etc we do with them to sorta be quadrobics? But especially when running with them, hopping over distances, etc, it definitely helps to have the crutches so we don’t have to be in a painful position that could stress our spine or wrists. Physical therapy to strengthen our joints also! Very good! Honestly it’s surprised us how much it helps. If you can’t get in-person therapy, you can still look up exercises to target and strengthen different joints on your own. Bracing up can help, but I’m no expert in that. Anything to protect your wrists, neck, and back will go a long way.

Basically just modify what you’re doing so you don’t fall in the first place! Quadrobics exercises don’t tend to give alternative ways of doing them if you’re disabled or otherwise need to accommodate your body for it differently, so you gotta figure out how to change it to work for you. Just like any other exercise.

Hope that was helpful? Wish you luck :o

[housetiger]

breaking ground on #AHWikiProject! it wasn’t much, but i added some info on more plural self-advocacy that’s happening to the Rights Movement section of the DID article. the info came from my post on the history of plural self-advocacy for alt+h, which contains a lot more stuff, but this was probably as much as would be accepted as reliable by wikipedia. if you have more sources, maybe consider adding something yourself!

[gh0stspxce]

Alterhuman Pride Flag

alterhuman (from alt+h’s home page) A subjective identity which is beyond the scope of what is traditionally considered ‘being human’. (adj) A person with such an identity. (noun)

symbolism: black represents a lack of/absence of light. this represents being “without” humanity, to any degree and in any manner. purple represents ultraviolet, as in the medusan and transspecies flags; it’s a colour beyond what can be seen by humans and represents existing “beyond” humanity. magenta represents a colour that’s entirely removed from the visible light spectrum - the “something else than” human. the white alt-key (⎇) is the symbol representing alterhumanity, in white which represents all colours of visible light combined into one. this stands for the many experiences united under the alterhuman umbrella.

comments, links, svg, and thanks under the cut:

Keep reading

[kuttithevangu]

some angel facts for tonight courtesy of Rabbi Isaacs: 

- in Torah angels never do anything supernatural. They just show up and say stuff and then leave. Or maybe fight you if you’re Jacob. It’s the prophets who start assigning them miracles to do 

- we don’t say the blessing for the new month before Rosh HaShanah because we don’t want to remind the angel of death what day it is, he is bad at calendar (also hates loud sudden noises, i have a lot in common with him it seems)

- one time an angel drop-kicked a dude off the temple porch and we know it was an angel because it left a hoofprint on his shoulder. Angels have hooves specifically like baby cattle, we learn

- the seraphim lost a set of wings when the temple was destroyed! it was the pair they used for singing! OH NO!

- angels just look like whatever God wants them to look like at the time, which is why so many of them (all of them in the Torah) show up looking like men (aside from their calf feet, presumably). There’s no particular suggestion that an angel who looks like a human is “in disguise,” it’s just that’s what the angel needed to look like to do that job, I guess. Sometimes people who are special notice that a dude is an angel but not necessarily because they see anything other than a dude who happens to be an angel 

(if their job is to be screaming and on fire they’re shaped like a thing that would scream and be on fire???)   

- demons hate peas 

[sorekbekarmi-deactivated2022051]

The Sheydim Follow-up

The reasons for avoiding an abandoned building in the Talmud are, in this order - 1) it might collapse on you, 2) someone might think you’re going there to commit adultery, 3) demons.

Doors and windows shouldn’t be airtight because demons like to be able to come and go

It’s not a good idea to drink water or eat food that has been left out in the open overnight, because that may now be food which has been taken from by demons.

When you’re moving into a new house than no one has lived in, it’s auspicious to 1) study Torah in it first, or have children do so or 2) pay someone else to live there first for a week, in order to acclimate the local demons to their new building and neighbors

Many Jewish customs like breaking a glass at a wedding, dousing the havdalah flame in wine, and even hanging mezuzot and wearing teffilin, may originally stem from anti-demonic practices

Angels and demons only speak and understand Hebrew, no other languages. Therefore, certain prayers in Judaism are deliberately said NOT in Hebrew (usually in Aramaic) to avoid unwanted listeners. For example, halachma anya in the pesach liturgy invites all who are hungry to come and eat. We say it in Aramaic to avoid inadvertently inviting hungry angels or demons in.

It is polite to knock on a synagogue door before being the first one to enter in the morning, because religious demons may have been using the synagogue during the night. That’s right! Some demons set themselves up as minor gods with their own human worshipers, some are neutral or independent, and some are observant Jews! Who knew.

Demons aren’t immortal, they seem to have long life spans but do eventually pass away. Also, they live in specific places, they have homes and home countries, like people. They don’t have corporeal bodies, because Friday evening the sun started to set as God was creating them, and God had to leave them unfinished because Shabbat was starting. But they are not fallen angels, nor are they humans. They’re just their own thing.

[sorekbekarmi-deactivated2022051]

Oh I forgot a bonus tip

Leaving water out for 24/48 hours makes the chlorine evaporate, so you can offen your sheyd water to your plants and they will appreciate it more than tap water

[vagabond-sun]

I'm a singlet who's not so educated on plural stuff and would definitely like to learn more; is there any sort of specific "system dictionary" like exists for general alterhumanity? That includes definitions of terms like fronting, what "roles" are, etc.?

hmm. pluralpedia is a site that exists, i guess, but i have to say that knowing terminology does not an education make.

to use your own example, knowing the definition of 'role' won't inform you of the discourses surrounding them and how they're very often applied in dehumanizing ways even within the plural communities. there's context and nuance n shit. and in an identity group where half the people inside it are regurgitating the harmful, pathologizing narrative that psychiatry forces on us, that's essential.

so where would i point you instead? in order of relevance:

morethanone.info covers the basest basest shit, including five (5) terms which i think, frankly, is about all you need to know as a singlet to get by. like one of them wee tourist's phrasebooks.

the plurality playbook was an internal document at google for introducing coworkers and employers to plurality, so it's pretty much perfect for what i assume are your purposes.

healthy multiplicity is aimed at plurals, but its 101 section is still worth a read, particularly for its linking to the OG site on medianhood, which is under-represented in guides, i tend to find.

Alt+H's blog post on plural self advocacy is useful if you want to understand some of the history that's shaped how we've been percieved and how we've fought back against it. also my cohost wrote it and ze's a good egg

i hope you see that overall, i'm advocating for you to look for writing on experiences over definitions. if you know me at all, you might notice a theme here, because that's true of pretty much any identity group. it's one thing to know what a word means, it's another to actually understand the thing that it describes. this will get you a lot further.

[kinarchist]

the side-effects of the second covid vaxx dose are the closest i have ever experienced to having a cold or flu in the 6 years i’ve inhabited a mortal body

all I am is 6/10 sore all over and it’s still enough to freak me out and make me cry a little and kinda panic. and that’s pretty much my only symptom so far. :x

This is why i coined ‘extranth’ y’all :V people take for granted that they tend to have some experience in a mortal body first and then i come along, literally never been sick before, and i’m losing my fucking mind a little.

[flock-of-changes]

Once upon a time, maybe 3-4 years ago, I did something that I will argue radically impacted the therian + otherkin communities at the time. More than just arguing that species dysphoria existed, or that we deserve morphological freedom and respect at the same time, or even actually modifying my body. No, I didn’t realize what my contribution was until I’d talked to someone else about what I did:

I asked for help. 

Keep reading

[ohevoyev]

religious gay love and religious trans love is so deeply important to me. loving other people is how we love god and how god loves us. which makes religious lgbt love so potent and powerful, and truly meaningful. like god wants you to love this person, wants you to love yourself, made you so you could be a vessel for love. there is so much beauty in that. just think about it.. religious lgbt people your very existence is a love letter to your god.

[sweetestsecrets]

“People pray to each other. The way I say ‘you’ to someone else, respectfully, intimately, desperately. The way someone says ‘you’ to me, hopefully, expectantly, intensely …”

— Huub Oosterhuis, epigraph to “Sanctuary” by Jean Valentine, Door in the Mountain: New and Collected Poems 1965-2003 (Wesleyan University Press, 2004)                                             (via memoryslandscape)

[holyisthenameofmyruthlessaxe]

The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson: ‘351′ c. 1862

[chandelyer-deactivated20241003]

“But in the end, stories are about one person saying to another: This is the way it feels to me. Can you understand what I’m saying? Does it feel this way to you?”

— Kazuo Ishiguro, in his Nobel prize (2017) acceptance speech.   (via halcynth)

[kinarchist]

it’s gonna take a lot of exhausting research to get together a more solid hypothesis of how I got here and what i’m even doing.

like first I have to catch up in SPN just enough to figure out what happened during The Fall Arc(tm), because as much of that damn show isn’t relevant to me, that has continued for years to be an issue that nags me and feels like it may actually have occurred.

But that means like. Having to watch the show. And lemme tell you -- i just do not find Supernatural that engaging and really don’t wanna watch it. My “source” show is not interesting to me.

But beyond that, I gotta get back on listening to this Jewish demonology podcast, because this + some later episodes on angels will help inform a lot of how I stitch this together. Plus I have to finish reading this Trachtenberg book on Jewish Folk Magic + Myth, poke around some other ones, etc etc. I have Books waiting.

I have a lot of collecting to do. x x Figuring out a specific Jewish cultural way of looking at all this is difficult.

[permanenteclipse]

Share your unheard-of beliefs/reasons

Hey folks!

I have always been interested in people’s diverse reasons for “why” they are ‘kin, despite having none of my own. It fascinates me to hear what people believe in, and many of the reasons I hear I end up tucking away as a possibility for myself – it’s a bit like… shopping knowing I’m not gonna buy but it’s so much fun just to browse.

Naturally, I especially take an interest in beliefs I’ve never heard before. That’s why I’m making this post. I’d like this to be an opportunity for people to open up about and make known beliefs and reasons that don’t get a lot of the spotlight. Reasons that have never been discussed or even acknowledged.

What this post isn’t for: reincarnation/past lives, parallel lives, misplaced souls, shards, archetypal, imprinting, experience taking, brain abnormalities, coping. Y’all are amazing and so valuable to this community! But this is a space for those with beliefs that are never (or almost never) talked about.

What it is for: spiritual beliefs! Psychological beliefs! Both! Neither! I welcome everyone with a belief they feel has gone by ignored or never mentioned to come on here and share. This is a judgment-free zone, no personal belief can be “wrong” or shameful. I’ll probably reblog many responses too if I get any.

[kinarchist]

In all honesty, I still don’t have a full picture of why I’m here in all the ways I am. But I will say that I have a wild hypothesis about what happened during my immersion in the mikveh to finalize my conversion to Judaism, and how I took on my fursona’s name as my Hebrew name. Ever since then, I’ve been experiencing a wild variety of quoiluntary things that make me feel like my fursona species in all sorts of different ways. There’s a Jewish tradition of name changes causing/correlating to actual change in your soul or life, so I can’t help but wonder if taking on that name bestowed me with more characteristics of it than I intended?

Tl;dr I hypothesize that G?d transformed my soul in some way during a major Jewish ritual and now I’m a furry therian :V

It’s such a loose idea that I haven’t got much to back up yet, such that I worry I’d be laughed out of Temple if I brought it up :V but like. Idk it’s all i got \o/ If other Jewish alterhumans/nephesh mavar wanna chime in, feel free.

[anoldlilbat]

Right, so kffers. 

Kffies. Kin for fun folk. More appropriately named as “a majority appropriating terminology from a marginalized subculture and the identity experience connected to it and spreading misinformation faster than we can dream to keep up all while speaking over and trying to silence us”.

Kffers are becoming mainstream while we are left behind and in some cases erased.

Anti-kin were annoying for spreading misinformation and horrible for being abusive dicks who helped spread misinformation like wildfire but they were never the powerhouse that these people have unexpectedly become. Being an abuser (anti-kin) who wants a certain kind of person (otherkind/ fictionkind) to stop existing and/ or shut up and be unseen isn’t trendy. Cringe was trendy but abuse generally isn’t.

But doing something that’s fun, like pretending to be an animal or a cartoon character, roleplay basically, is something that can be picked up and spread easily because on the whole it is an attractive idea. Really it’s just a rebranding of self-inserts and roleplay, two wildly popular things. Except I guess people feel better about themselves when they call it kinning and kinnies instead of self-inserting and roleplay? Who knows. But they’ve become a loud majority rather than a loud minority.

Combating a majority and correcting people is exhausting. It’s exhausting to read, it’s exhausting to write, it’s exhausting to think about. And I don’t believe it’s the answer. 

It’s too toxic. 

It’s not toxic in a “we are now the toxic abusers”, it’s toxic in a “this is bad for our mental health” kind of way. As in, always correcting kffers and non-kin on what otherkinity and fictionkinity are is detrimental to our well being because rarely does it come connected to positive emotions (expect perhaps for a few people who are especially keen on educating the world). 

So once again I’m talking about spreading positive information and fostering accessibility. 

I try to look for a solution and am frustrated one doesn’t exist, when in some ways the solution is right there, every moment, waiting for us if we have the energy. 

It’s just for us to talk in the open. To have our own voices in our own hands and not be afraid to share them.

Even if you think your writing isn’t good. Even if you think your art isn’t good. 

It doesn’t need to be good, it just needs to be something you enjoy, something that brings light and goodness in your life. Whether it’s sharing your experiences in a small way, or doodling about being an animal, or describing the history of your kintype’s people, or three sentences, or more introductory works and dictionaries. 

So many times a post in the tags has said, “I wish I could contribute something wonderful how others do but I’m not good at it.” Comparing your work, your efforts, your voice to someone else’s isn’t necessary. You’re not them and you don’t need to be. You’re yourself. And your voice is wonderful.

I know that is almost more to ask, because it isn’t a canned bit of writing the way correcting non-kin and kffers can be.

And I do think we need more libraries and more archives to organize some of this writing and our websites. In that way, we foster the accessibility of this content, content that most of us enjoy reading and engaging with to begin with.

Truly I believe that is healthier, and in some ways will go further.

It will never silence the mainstream. Kffers may fade as anti-kin have over the course of a few years, especially with how quickly even their language use has changed. They’re not people who are spending a huge volume of time creating content with longevity. Tik tok is as ephemeral as instagram. Even tumblr, with its endless reblog chains, is less ephemeral. 

We’re the people with longevity. 

We’re the people who can help lift each other up, can help struggling newbies find a home, and can carry our voices forward.

No one else can do this but us.

And that may be the real solution. 

And this is a hill I need to die on more, to repeat more, to remember more. I repeat it so much.

Our voices in our hands. 

I truly believe we can do this, and we lose nothing in doing it. Every bit of content creation, every whisper, that is something wonderful.

[liongoatsnake]

The Feelings Surround and Usage of the Words "Species Dysphoria" & "Transspecies" Survey

The Feelings Surround and Usage of the Words “Species Dysphoria” & “Transspecies” Survey is interested in the rates of species dysphoria within the nonhuman, alterhuman, therian, and similar communities, the level of usage of the term transspecies, and the overall perception of these terms within the communities. This survey is going to be left up for a long period of time in order to gather as much data over as wide a spread of people as possible. You are free to change your answers for as long as the survey remains up. All submissions are entirely anonymous.

The information will be used in an upcoming Othercon convention panel.

  https://forms.gle/qhLMUugtA1xv5kis6

[aestherians]

I def agree that otherkin terminology has been butchered to hell and back, but I think that it's a bit different than important psychological terms being used. "Triggered" became a meme bc someone used it against people who actually had ptsd who they were harassing. I think that comparing to those terms specifically doesn't make a whole lot of sense (to me at least) bc its comparing mental disorder terms to otherkinity, i'd rather compare it to spiritual terms being misused (like guru or smudge)

The thing is, there aren’t really any perfect comparisons. ‘Guru’ and ‘smudge’ are important terms in their respective religions and spiritualities too. We have to contend ourselves with imperfect comparisons because, really, the alterhuman communities are the only communities of their kind.

At least I can’t think of any other communities that are identity-based with a limited focus on creating the identity and more of a focus on discovering the traits you already have, with an empirical/ontological approach, and where spirituality is in no way inherent or necessary to be part of the community.

@who-is-page you’re the religious studies major, I’d love to hear your input.

[who-is-page]

There really isn’t a perfect and ideal comparison that I am currently aware of out there in existence, unfortunately. 

It’s an awkward situation to be put in, because the fact of the matter is that outsiders have a tendency to either classify otherkin and therianthropes as a bizarre form of religious community, or as individuals suffering from some sort of mental health problem– two assumptions that are both obviously incorrect, and neither of which I particularly want to run the risk of reinforcing, even accidentally.

However, even with that said, it has to be noted that because outsiders put us into those categories, we are, as a community, experiencing problems adjacent to what individuals who are actually in minority religious groups, and to what individuals who have stigmatized mental health problems, face. As someone who studies religion and as someone with diagnosed mental health problems who has a spouse in the psychology field, I would say that this appropriation of terminology and sort of forced sterilization and rebranding of nonhuman concepts that make people uncomfortable is something that honestly fits into both categories with terrifying ease.

From the religious (and cultural, since the two sometimes are inseparable) side of things: how often have you seen religious imagery with important significance to marginalized or otherwise targeted groups be taken up for fun costuming, or as an excuse to be belligerent and party, or be completely otherwise miscategorized and misused by people who have no actual connection to anything or anyone related to any part of it? While they try to make justifications for their horrible mutations and theft, while simultaneously belittling or possibly even actively working against real people and real communities who speak about how turning their beliefs into a costume or pretending that they no longer exist is legitimately harmful? You see this happen with pretty much every goddamn indigenous religion in existence, you see it happen to plenty of forms of neo-paganism, you see it happen on Day of the Dead, you see it happen on St. Patrick’s Day, the list goes on and on. There’s much more in-depth discussion to be had with each of these examples individually, of course, but these are just a few examples of how when things are interpreted as ‘religious but not that Perfect Ideal Western Christian Religion model,’ they’re blatantly viewed as lesser and treated as such, almost vitriolically.

From the mental health and neurodivergent side of things: how often do we see mental health terminology taken from those it is meant to help and either watered down until it’s functionally meaningless–”oh hahaha I’m soooo ADHD!”–or twisted and warped into something meant to actually hurt those it was originally designed for, out of some sort of righteous concern trolling or bizarre idea that certain mentally ill individuals are a threat to society or some similar nonsense–”syscourse,” the stereotyping as all people with NPD as being inherently abusers, the horrible abuse and stigmatization that people with schizophrenia and other disorders that have been utilized in horror movies and similar face–rather than being used seriously and with nuance?

You all get my point here. What we’re seeing happen to nonhuman identities is pretty much the consequences of both misclassifications on part of people outside the community, and isn’t new or surprising in any regards. So while it makes perfect sense to draw those comparisons–because they’re certainly not entirely inaccurate–it’s still important to have a disclaimer for their imperfection and explain why they work if/when you do.

Honestly, as a trans person who experiences phantom genitalia and who knows non-alterhuman trans people who also experience phantom genitalia, I, personally, have always found it useful to put my experiences as someone who is nonhuman and trans in relation to each other. Because in both communities I see my involuntary identity purposefully misrepresented for, ultimately, the sake of either directly hurting me or turning me into a joke so that they can hurt me later on. I’ve had people, in person, call me a pedophile and offer to “help” me kill myself because I am transgender. Online locally and online more nebulously (on Tumblr, Twitter, places where I’m more anonymized), I’ve also been threatened and told to die, been called a predator and a danger to both myself and others, because I am nonhuman/alterhuman/whatever word you want to use. I’ve seen plenty of people try to forcibly associate being transgender with crossdressing with “just being a tomboy,” much in the same way I’ve seen people try to forcibly associate being nonhuman with wearing mascot costumes with “just relating to something.” I’ve seen people die or kill themselves in both communities, and I’ve seen outsiders openly weaponize that against the individuals within those communities in a disgustingly celebratory manner. Where I live, both of these aspects of myself can get me fired at my workplace or turned down for a job, even if I’m the most cis-passing, Normal Hugh Man out there.

But, see, I’m allowed to say these things by rule of Internet Jungle Law because I am trans, and because I have both experience pools to draw from. So even though this would, in my opinion, also be an equally valid comparison to draw (and probably slightly more accurate than the other two), it’s yet another thing where someone has to add a massively disclaimer about understanding systematic oppression (very much what trans people experience) vs. more disjointed efforts at community destruction and mutation (what we could argue nonhuman communities are currently seeing) in order to even mention it, much less have an actual discussion on it.

So, yeah. There’s really no perfect comparison to draw without it being considered inappropriate by someone, somewhere, even possibly when you put massive, flashing DISCLAIMER! signs all around it and are potentially even drawing from your own experiences.

[kinarchist]

Hey singlets?

Don’t make “jokes” that could imply that you don’t believe plurals exist, think poorly of us, might reject us, etc.

If you hear “thanks for not letting one system you don’t like give you a bad impression of all plurals” from your friend, your response should not be a joke about things that give you bad impressions of plurals (like ... just plurals existing. that was the “joke” in this case i had to deal with) Just like how, as a queer person, I’m sick of fakeout “jokes” that make it look like someone wants to spew some hate, and then they twist it at the end so it’s pseudo-supportive or whatever. “I can’t support polyamory. Greek and Latin roots don’t belong together” is another one I hear a lot that makes non-support of a marginalized and vulnerable group into a literal joke. Like my stomach doesn’t drop so hard at “I can’t support polyamory” that I’m too afraid to laugh.

Like, if your “joke” is at its core about you, a person with power over another, joking about how you have that power and can use it to deny them rights, personhood, or acknowledgement? It’s not funny.

Singlets, y’all have so so much power over plurals. Our existence is a literal debate to y’all, and if y’all decide we don’t exist because we aren’t like you, then you have every ability to strip our rights away. Like on an individual level, even. DID is still so stigmatized I don’t doubt a singlet with a lot of malice could attempt to involuntarily hospitalize a system just for being plural, let alone the fact that y’all have more control over public perception of plurals than we do and continue to allow the public perception of us to be violent serial killers (with or without added transmisogyny*)

If you think plurality is unbelievable, it’s the fault of singlets for never letting us actually tell our own stories or speak for or represent ourselves. If you find serial killer plurals easier to believe than plurals with 15 Homestuck fictives in their systems? That’s your fault. Not ours. One Billy Milligan will never be as common as the thousands of systems with fictives. But y’all wanna keep paying to see people make-believe a marginalized experience and pretend we’re all killers, monsters, or fantasy creatures.

So jokes about how funny you think it is to doubt plurals are actually terrifying. Don’t make them.

* The history of transmisogyny in film and pop culture is also directly tied to the trope of “a female personality that makes the man cross-dress and violently murder women in bathrooms” and the transmisogyny/pluralphobia combo present in that trope isn’t lost on me as a transfem pluran.