Kin Type & Multiple Lives

I was thinking about something -

Say someone remembers several past lives.

For example, a life as a horse, life as a fae of some sort, a human life, and a dragon life.

How do people generally decide how to classify themselves, or is it completely an individual decision? Would someone in that situation define themselves as someone with multiple kin types, or would it depend on if they even felt like any of those entities in this lifetime?

Just something that made me wonder <!-- s --><img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_e_smile.gif" alt=":)" title="Smile" /><!-- s -->

It's definitely an individual decision.

I would say that it would first depend if there was a connection to any of the entities in this lifetime. If the person felt a connection to more than one, then that individual could classify themselves as multiple or choose the one they feel most connected to. Once they decide there is a connection to more than one, it's a personal decision afterwards.

It's an overwhelmingly personal and individual decision.
Just deciding to label oneself as otherkin is an individual decision.

There are as many theories on the nature of the soul as there are otherkin.
Many don't believe that we have a "true form", some that there's even no such thing as a "soul". All in all, there's no way to know what is the "truth" in the matter.

For me, the difference in what one's true "kintype" is depends on whether or not you WERE something, or ARE something. I have been human before, and a weird wolf/cat/baboon-thing, and probably many others. But I still AM a shinoar. I just happen to be human currently again. In the case where IS multiple things, I think people often either end up conglomerating them into a single creature, turning those aspects of selves into "individuals" and ending up as a "multiple", or identifying that which feels stronger.

What a coincidence, I was just thinking along these same lines on another board.

Basically, I echo a lot of Shiari’s thoughts on this.

I believe that there is a core being, one which remains the basic foundation for a life’s essence. So no matter the experiences and other lives lived, that groundwork remains constant.

In the end, it comes down to the individual to decide which feels like what to them.

For me, I consider myself to be an atypical case of otherkin. I do not "have the soul of X" in a human body; I *am* X and happen to have the ability to steal bodies and bind myself to them - for lack of more politically correct terminology. So past lives, to me, are irrelevant to my otherness.

I dont even classify myself, honestly. I just call myself a merged. I have had past lives, but they are really more like hitting a restart button on a game to me, not necessarily more or less important. the few times I allowed myself to be "affected by fate" and actually be BORN into a body rather than just doing a walk-in were bad experiences.

I categorize my different aspects so I can understand them, I don't bother trying to categorize myself. It'd be like trying to put all the pieces of a tetris game into a box with a hole the shape of a square in the top.

I'm guessing one way to do it would be to go with the one that comes to the front more often. That may not be the one you spent the most time as, but the one that's most relevant to what you're supposed to be doing in this life.

I think i agree with Archer.

It seems to me that there is a main essence. The essence seems to be able to be coated with this and that, maybe even cultural impressions, but it remains the same underneath coatings.