Hey! I was wondering if I could ask what pshifters are? I've only heard the phrase in context with the therian/otherkin community.
P-shifters are a community of people who are practicing, and/or experiencing physical shifting. At least, that's how we were taught it, when we first began. We aren't sure if this definition has changed in light of newer definitions, or events, but that's how its always been for us.
This term has shifted and changed over the years to accompany ANYONE who is within the community or aims to achieve it, when in the past it was only for those who were trying to or have already p-shifted. We last saw the information change around 2013-2015, where things got much crazier and p-shifters were definitely attacked and witchhunted by other groups. We are all called p-shifters by outsiders but no longer call each other p-shifters except to identify each other.
P-shifters can be all forms of things -- we personally identify with being the literal, physical species of a were. (Branching off of the concept of "werewolf" but fitting into what species we are.) This means we physically see ourselves as inherently nonhuman, neither animal nor human which gives us the ability to morph between the two. Others believe themselves to be nonhuman -- a mix of human most of the time and animal within. And some may see themselves as something else!
P-shifting, or physical shifting, is the act of changing one's form into that of another form, usually one that they are intimately aware and connected to from years of practice -- voluntarily or even involuntarily.
P-shifters emerged from AHWW long ago alongside therians. We all kind of used just therian back in the day but diverged when the topic of shifting physically into our forms came up. We eventually split into two -- we called ourselves, the p-shifters, "were---" (or therian, or lycan, and so many others i cannot list all of them its been so long), while the other group went on to morph into the therianthropy/otherkin community we all know today :3
Anyone else is free to give their input! Thanks for the question :3
(Apologies if we didn't exactly answer your question it was slightly vague for us, so we just covered what we could think of.)
