Therianthropy

Modern therianthropy, Therianthrope or therian for short, is someone who identifies on a non-physical level as an earthly animal, which can be either extinct or extant. A therian's experience varies widely within the alterhuman community, but therianthropy is always a mental phenomenon (Psychological, Spiritual, etc.). This means that most therianthropes understand they are physically and biologically human, even though they identify mentally and spiritually as an animal.

Therianthropy can be surrounded by misinformation or confusion about the identity, with most Therians are willing to admit and accept that their way of life is "weird" , but its also this self expression that represents the relationship between both humanity and animal kind. Therianthropy is about the discovery of the animal within. While therians are not stressing that Therianthropy is the only kind of personal animal philosophy/spirituality, they are, however, stressing the differences between Therianthropy and these other 'ways of life' or spiritual beliefs. While it is not uncommon for therians to spend or change a good portion of their lives to feel more euphoric, it does not always happen.

Most therianthropes identify as mammals or currently living animals, though it is not uncommon to see therianthropes who identify as extinct or even fictional animals. There is not a hard distinction between any kintype, though individuals with mythological or fictional animal identities may have experiences that are best supported by the otherkin community. It is entirely possible to have more than one theriotypes.

The majority of Therians are private about their non-human identity and keep more animal-like behavior under control while in public. The ability of therianthropes to control their actions during shifts, when they feel and act more instinctual and animal-like, this is what makes Modern Therianthropy separate from other mental disorders such as clinical lycanthropy. However, it is possible to be a clinical zoan/lycanthrope and a therian.

Some therians don't know what causes them to identify as non-human.^{[citation needed]} Therianthropy is a subjective belief based on personal experiences and not on scientific fact, with most Therians being "self-labeled" or "self-identified". Therefore, both spiritual therianthropy and psychological therianthropy are legitimate and acceptable in the community. Their experiences, such as shifting, is essentially the same. Therianthropy in itself is not a choice. However, therians are commonly mistaken for furries, who enjoy the concept of animals with anthropomorphic traits, with 15% cosplaying as them. According to a study by Dr. Elizabeth Fein, associate professor of psychology at Duquesne University in Pittsburgh, it’s important “to distinguish between furries, who are fans of anthropomorphic animals … and therians, who on some level believe they are a creature other than human.”

It is also agreed upon that a therian can not pick and choose a theriotype, the animal which is an individual's identity. Some individuals enjoy the experiences associated with therianthropy, some do not, and others are indifferent to being a therianthrope. Sometimes it can take months or years for therians to find their right theriotypes.

Statistics

A pie chart made by Furscience involving the statistics of furries, furries & therians, therians and otherkin.

In a Therians make up about 4.0% to 10.0% of communities such as the furry fandom and alterhuman communities in general.

A pie chart made by an anonymous user involving the statistics of neurodiversity in the therianthropy community.

Therianthropy, in itself, is a rather rare occurrence. Up to 65% of people strongly disagreed with believing they were a non-human animal while only 6-7% of people strongly agreed with this statement. Up to 75% strongly disagreed with believing they were a mythical/fantasy being, while 5% strongly agreed. Therian-furries were most likely to feel more non-human and have a greater desire to be non-human, view humans, as a group, more negatively, engage in more positive delusion, feel a stronger bond to animals, experience considerably lower psychological well-being, like animals more, feel a greater sense of spirituality or psychology and feel more connected to nature.

According to science writer Micheal Bond, who interviewed a therian and many others, states that most therians felt "off," separated from humanity, and their "estrangement" had separated them from a "normal" life, and defined who they were as an individual as a whole. This sense of isolation and separate life's reminded Bond of autism spectrum disorder (ASD), a term used to describe a condition that comes in many varieties, in which one has a brain that functions in a way that exhibits restricted/repetitive patterns of behavior, interests, and activities. British psychologist Helen Clegg made the first comprehensive study of therians' mental health, and about 7.69% of participants were diagnosed with ASD. 15.38% of therians were also diagnosed with ADHD.^{[citation needed]} Bond also assumes that autism and neurodiversity is not the only cause; and could also be due to childhood trauma, developmental issues, a strong fixation on animals that lasted for a long period of time, or other causes; eg. Therians have awakened from a dream and realised themselves because it felt so real, or a book because they know themselves in that world.

Etymology

The word Therianthropy originates from a portmanteau of Greek words. Thirío [θηρίο] or thēríon [θηρίον] means beast or wild animal. Anthropos [ἄνθρωπος] means human or person. Loosely translated to "animal person".

In historical contexts the term autism is used to describe people in mythology and folklore who could change shape and become were-creatures. One book raises the possibility that the term Therianthropy may have been used as early as the 16th century in criminal trials of suspected werewolves.

"Between 1521 and 1600 several men were sentenced to death in court for "lycanthropy" or therianthropy (becoming a wild beast), and such cases were recorded into the eighteenth century. In fact, during one extended period some thirty thousand cases of werewolf possession were reported to authorities. In God's name, inquisitors sometimes hacked these people apart to search for the telltale wolf hair supposedly everyone on the planet started celebrating 🎉 🎉 🎉 🎉

There are currently no documented cases of the term being used to describe similar situations to that of current, modern day Therians, but there are many well documented examples of what could be considered Therianthropy.

One of the first known written and published appearances of the word "therianthropy" can be seen in "The Religious Systems of China" written by J.J.M De Groot in 1901. The usage of therianthropy can be found on page 171 of Volume IV, Book II "On the Soul and Ancestral Worship, Part 1.

Therianthropy was also used to describe spiritual beliefs in animal transformation in a 1915 Japanese publication, "A History of the Japanese People from the Earliest Times to the End of the Meiji Era."

The term has often been used by archaeologists to describe animal-human figures found in prehistoric rock art such as the "Dancing Sorcerer" at Les Trois-Frères in southwestern France. Theriocephaly refers to beings which simultaneously share human and animal traits, such as Egyptian Gods.

The word "therian" also has a clear meaning within science and biology. Therian, in taxonomy, means a member of the mammalian subclass, Theria, consisting of marsupial and placental mammals and their extinct ancestors.  

Modern day usage of the word is thought to have originated in the early 1990's, when users of the werewolf newsgroup Alt.Horror.Werewolves (or A.H.W.W.) began discussing their spiritual and mental connections with animals, asserting that they were in fact their therioside.  At first, the term Lycanthrope or Werewolf was most commonly used, but Therianthropy became more widely accepted as it catered to all species, and not just wolves. A.H.W.W. is credited the birthplace of the online Therian community.

History

See also: History of Modern Therianthropy

On November 16, 1992, Alt.horror.werewolves (AHWW) was created, which originally would be considered an other-hearted group, but over time they began to speak about their theriotypes and now is considered a therianthropy group. Just 2 years after the inital release of AHWW, the first Howl happened on November 4, 1994, and now is considered Therianthropy Day, an unoffical holiday celebrated by therians worldwide. This then rose the popularity in therianthropy, causing it to become recognized as its own community.

Symbols & terms

Symbols

See also: Theta-Delta

The therianthropy community has a mass variety of symbols and terms used within the community. One of the most known is the Theta-Delta. Although it isn't official, it is regularly used by therians on apparel, accessories, crafts, etc. The gallery below is a full list of different variations of the Theta-Delta:

Terms

Some terms used within the therianthropy community include:

• awakening, the step in which oneself discovers they are a therian or alterhuman
• theriotype, the animal that oneself receives as part of being a therian. This cannot be picked or chosen.
• vocals, sounds that correlate with oneself's theriotype (e.g. oneself is a dog therian, therefore oneself's vocals would be necessarily barking and howling)
• quadrobics, the act of walking, running, jumping or doing tricks on four legs
• gear, a set of apparel used to connect oneself with their theriotype (e.g. oneself is a dog therian, therefore oneself woud have a dog mask, dog tail, dog paw gloves, etc.)
• shifting, an involuntary or voluntary event in which oneself will act like or feel like their theriotype. Shifting can be controlled, but involuntary shifts are necessarily harder to control. These can also be negative or positive, long or short, frequent or rarely occuring, and strong in material or very weak; still showing signs of human behavior.
• species dysphoria, an involuntary event similar to gender or body dysphoria (within transgender individuals or individuals in the LGBTQIA+ community) whereas oneself mentally struggles with comprehending their species & their current body as a human which may not correlate with their species identity as a therian. Not to be confused with body dysphoria, whereas oneself mentally struggles with comprehending their body which may not correlate with their gender identity.

You can see more terms here.

Shifts

See also: Shift (Therianthropic)

Shifting is a common term used to describe when a therian becomes mentally or physically connected to their theriotype without an impact on their actual human body. Some forms of shifting can either be positive or negative experiences, and have different variations of strength and frequency. Not all therians can shift and some do not shift frequently. Therians that have a complete inability to shift are called contherians, while other alterhumans that cannot shift are simply called non-shifting alterhumans or (classification, e.g. other, coping)kin/link/hearted. Examples of shifting may include:

• rolling around
• pouncing
• running, jumping or walking on four legs (quadrobics)
• laying down or sleeping like oneself theriotype
• doing vocals correlated to oneself theriotype
• becoming easily overwhelmed or scared in large, public places (normally for wild theriotypes such as wolves)
• feeling phantom limbs or parts of a theriotype

A research survey on Therian Amino discovered many shifting alterhumans believe their shifts make them less dysphoric and "more animal," while a select few don't necessarily enjoy their shifts at times. It also discovered that the most common shift was a mental shift, with phantom shifts following from behind, and that 8 in 10 shifting alterhumans experienced mental shifts frequently. Shifting alterhumans had somewhat short shifts, but only 10% had frequent shifts that lasted from 20-30 minutes to a full hour.

Some shifts tend to overlap oftentimes or shifts will trigger other shifts. For example, having a phantom shift and then a mental shift, or a sensory shift during a mental shift. Cameo shifts go under all shift categories, but are mainly recognized under mental shifts. You can have more than two shifts at once as well- for example, sensory, phantom and mental at the same time.

Types of shifts

See also: Common Therianthropic Shifts

Types of shifts include:

• Mental shifts; shifts in which oneself acts more like their theriotype
• Phantom shifts; feeling phantom limbs or parts of a theriotype
• Sensory shifts; shifts in which oneself's sensory experience changes to that of their theriotype's. For example, improved hearing of a wolf theriotype.
• Dream shifts; shifts in which oneself is their theriotype in a dream
• Cameo shifts; shifts in which oneself has a shift of an unknown or unconfirmed theriotype

Age range

Therianthropy has no specific age limit, but most therians are awakened at 8 to 18 years old.

The term for a young therianthrope, usually under the age of 10-13 or are 10-13, is called "Nestling therianthrope". However, currently there is no term for older therians that are still considered minors (14-17), but there is a term to describe older therians. Often used in the furry fandom as well, the term greymuzzle is used to describe people over 40 years of age that identify as a therian.

Note that all therianthropes ARE therianthropes, and you do not need to label yourself as a "nestling therianthrope" or a "greymuzzle," These age labels are a choice and are used for fun.

Known therians

Some well known therians are:

• Leonie
• Autumn J.
• Therian Territory
• LycanTheory
  • LycanTheory, due to zoophilia allegations, is heavily disliked in the therianthropy community.
• Opal/5tinky.cat
• Pink Dolphin
• PhenicFox

Subcategories

As the online community grew, some people felt the need to coin new terms for different or varying experiences. Here are some of the following:

• Ambitherianthropy
• Cladotherianthropy
• Contherianthropy
• Suntherianthropy
• Vacillant Therianthropy
• Psychological Therianthropy
• Spiritual Therianthropy
• Polytherianthropy

Misconceptions about Therianthropy

See also: Common Misconceptions

Skeptics might argue that identifying as Therian occurred after finding the online community,^{[citation needed]} but Therianthropy is not a group identity. It is a personal identity with the majority of Therians feeling non-human and/or exhibiting species-specific behavior before finding and participating with the online community.* Therians often share memories from childhood of having always experienced a vague feeling of being other than human.

"You must be born a therian"

A common misconception in therianthropy is that you must be born a therian, for many spiritual therians this may be true, but for psychological therians it may not be the case. When you hear the word "become", you may associate it with the word "choosing". The word choosing implies a voluntary action, while the word become implies becoming something, it neither implies a voluntary nor involuntary action. So yes, in a sense someone can become a therian, but they cannot choose to become a therian, as therianthropy is an involuntary identity. Becoming something involuntarily is possible yes, it's like being traumatized, you don't choose to become traumatized, but you still become it. Some of the reasons as to how someone may involuntarily become a therian are; imprinting, trauma, neurodivergence, soul walk in, ect.

"Therians and furries are the same thing"

Furry is a term to describe someone who takes interest or enjoyment in the concept of anthropomorphic animals/creatures, many furries partake in a activity called fursuiting, which has lead to the misconception that a furry is someone who identifies as an animal.

Therian is a term to describe someone who involuntarily identifies non-physically as a non-human animal.

The difference between the two is that one is an interest/hobby, while the other is an identity. While the two don't inherently overlap, there are some who identify as a part of both communities.

"Therians act like animals 24/7, and bark/hiss at people in public"

This is another common misconception, most therians are private about their identity and do not wish to express it in public, of course there is shifts, an event in which someone may feel as though they are more like the animal they identify as, these events or phenomenon's may bring on sudden animalistic urges or sensations, but should not be uncontrollable. Uncontrollable urges or actions are a sign of a possible psychological issues and should be discussed with a professional such as a therapist, psychiatrist, psychologist, or doctor.

"Therianthropy is only spiritual"

The idea that therianthropy is inherently spiritual has been a very common misconception as of recent years due to the rise of "TikTok Therians". While yes many therians on the platform will claim that their personal identity comes from spiritual causes, it just may not be the same case for all therians. Some may believe that their identity stems from some sort of psychological cause such as a trauma reaction, or imprinting.

See psychological therianthropy for more examples of non-spiritual causes

"Therians are delusional/mentally ill"

some terms to explain some things.

• Reality is defined as what is real or has been proven to exist.
• A false reality is a belief or claim of the existence of a reality that is not real/true
• an unknown reality is a reality that neither falls into a false reality, nor reality itself, It is unknown if something exist and so its reality is unknown.
• a non-physical self is the idea of a self that exist outside of the physical body yet remains apart of the person, examples of this are the mind and soul.

Anti's/haters tend to use this claim as an attempt to disprove therianthropy and to purposely bully or attack therians.

The claim however is not true for a multitude of reasons, to start, a delusion is defined as a belief or claim that contradicts reality, an example of this is flat earth believers. Flat earth believers still believe the earth is flat even with physical evidence stating otherwise, they continue to believe something that goes against what is reality, they have made a false reality. Therianthropy on the other hand does not involve believing something that has been proven to be false, it involves personal opinions and beliefs that cannot be proven as neither true nor false

Therianthropy itself is described as an involuntary non-physical identity as a non-human animal. If someone was to identify physically then it would be contradicting reality as there is physical evidence that the body is human, but with a non-physical identity there is nothing to contradict it because without physical matter there is no way to prove whether something truly exist or not. An example of this is the mind, some scientist claim that it does not exist because there is no physical matter to observe, and yet the concept of thoughts and feelings provide evidence to go against it, leaving the claim of whether it exist or not unanswerable and up to personal opinion.

This can go the same with the question of if the soul exist, there is no physical matter and yet the soul is describe as the embodiment of the self, us living and having unique identities supports the claim that it exist, and yet there is no physical matter to truly answer this, once again leaving it unanswerable and up to personal opinion.

This brings us to what causes Therianthropy, in the therian community it is commonly believed that therianthropy stems from either spiritual causes(the soul) or psychological causes (the mind), and it is also most commonly suspected that one of the two is the non-human part of the self (as in the mind or soul itself is non-human), to which neither of the two can be proven to truly exist or not, and so it cannot contradict reality as it falls into a unknown reality and does not claim that anything that is real is false.

So in short, Therians are not inherently delusional because an identity that is non-physical can not contradict reality as it is unknown if a non-physical self truly exist in reality, if it was scientifically proven to not exist, only then could it be considered such, but that has not happened and so it can not be considered a delusion.

Now is it a mental illness then? No, a mental illness is defined as something that causes distress, mood/emotional problems, or struggle in ability to function, an example of this is depression, to which it commonly brings an individual some level of distress and abnormal mood change, as well as potential issues with functioning.

Therianthropy by definition is just a non-physical identity, and while you may hear some therians say they feel sad because they are human and that it can cause distress, this itself is not therianthropy, this would be labeled as species dysphoria, and just like gender dysphoria it could/would be classified as a mental illness/disorder. Species dysphoria and therianthropy are not necessarily connected, it has been noted that some non-alterhumans have experienced species dysphoria, and even with this feeling they still do not identify as non-human, as for them it is usually only temporary

1. 1. Shifters.org Encyclopedia - http://web.archive.org/web/20060821231231/http://www.therianthropy.org/SO/terms-t.htm
   2. ↑ ^{Jump up to:2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3} "7.1 Prevalence - Furscience ." Furscience.
   3. ↑ ^{Jump up to:3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 3.5} Cooperman, Jeannette. (8 June 2023) "Trapped In The Wrong... Species?" The Common Reader.
   4. ↑ TheEmeraldSystem (22 January 2022) Autism Spectrum. FANDOM Wiki: Neurodiversity Wiki.
   5. ↑ Clegg, Helen. Collings, Roz. C. Roxburgh, Elizabeth. (28 Aug 2019) "Therianthropy: Wellbeing, Schizotypy, and Autism in Individuals Who Self-Identify as Non-Human." Brill.
   6. ↑ Therion - Wikipedia.
   7. ↑ Anthropos - Wikipedia.
   8. ↑ Ramsland, Katherine, The Human Predator: A Historical Chronicle of Serial Murder and Forensic Investigation Berkley Books, 2005, pg 30. https://books.google.ca/books?redir_esc=y&id=VtduoGffUgEC&q=therianthropy#v=snippet&q=therianthropy&f=false
   9. ↑ “The Soul in Philosophy and Folk-Conception Willful Change of Men into Beasts.” The Religious System of China, by Jan Jacob Maria de. Groot, volume IV, book II, Brill, 1892. https://archive.org/details/religioussystem04groo/page/170
   10. ↑ Brinkley, F. History of the Japanese People from the Earliest Times to the End of the Meiji Era. Project Gutenberg., 1855. https://archive.org/details/historyofjapanes00briniala/page/n6
   11. ↑ "Dancing Sorcerer" at Les Trois-Frères - http://www.ancient-origins.net/history/shamanic-explorations-supernatural-realms-cave-art-earliest-folklore-007027
   12. ↑ ^{Jump up to:12.0 12.1} "Foundation's Edge: The History of the Online Werecommunity, Jakkal, 1999. http://web.archive.org/web/20010620111439/http:/www.were.net/foundation.shtml
   13. ↑ Ulfrvif (Jun 9 2018). The Types of Therian Shifts - Chapter 1: Introduction to Shifts. Wattpad.
   14. ↑ ^{Jump up to:14.0 14.1 14.2} (3 March 2024) Shifting Alterhuman Experiences & Opinions. Canva Presentation.
   15. ↑ Theeee, (Jan 10th, 2024) https://www.quotev.com/story/16311912/Therianary-Therian-dictionary/1. Quotev