Welcome to Otherkin Phenomenon, or OKP for short.

Otherkin is an umbrella term that encompasses the belief that all or part of someone's personal identity is something other than human. This can be explained by mental wiring, psychological reasoning, past life memories, spirituality, etc. There are subgroups under this including, but not limited to, therianthropes, angels/celestials, demons, vampires, fae, elves, dragons, walk-ins/multiples and fictionkin. Otherkin choose to identify with that non-human fragment of themselves to the point where they count it as a permanent and ingrained part of their personal mythology and/or identity.

OKP is focused on discussions regarding otherkin and the various sub-types that tend to fall under that umbrella term. Everyone is welcome here, regardless of nationality, gender, sexual preferences, race, religion/spirituality, political persuasion, personal creed, etc. whether they identify as 'kin or not. However, most discussions will focus on the experiences associated with being 'kin.

Sharing the experiences, thoughts, feelings, the discovery process, if you're questioning, etc. that goes along with being otherkin is highly encouraged here.

OKP has always been a place for intelligent, critical-thinking. Please treat other members with respect and courtesy, but questioning and even asking the tough questions is allowed. We expect our members to act in a civil, adult manner at all times (outside of the appropriate sub-forums, of course!).

Please read the rules before joining and posting.

Once you've created your intro thread, one of the staff will reply with questions to make sure you're active and then after you've answered their questions you'll be granted access to the rest of the forums. As our staff does have their own lives offline, please try to be patient as activation may take a few days.

This forum dates back to 2008, so it's one of the oldest otherkin forums still around.

Let's keep OKP a safe, fun and interesting sanctuary for 'kin like it's always been!

Thanks for reading and welcome to OKP!

Otherkinphenomena.org is known as a place where members use a scientific way of exploring their beliefs. But what does that mean? Very often, we are met with the accusation of being elitist, of harassing people with questions, of trying to prove everything we feel inside, or of forcing new members to reveal everything about themselves, only to pick at them afterwards.

These accusations make me sad, because that is not what we do, or want to do.

We don't want anyone to prove anything. Heck, we can't prove the existence of otherkin, gods, or other things that people believe in either. The "scientific method" doesn't require people to reveal every little part of ther psyche, or to submit complicated figures and formulas in order to support their beliefs.

The two main traits we share are curiousity and skepticism. I'm aware that the latter is often frowned upon in the "esoteric" community. Some people feel that, if someone wants to believe that they are an elven princess who can shoot sparks out of her fingers, they should be "respected" by believing them and treating them like the elven princess with spark shooting fingers. However, I disagree strongly. In my opinion, it doesn't show respect to support outworldish claims, it just makes things worse. Most, if not all, people who haven't done a lot of self-discovery but jumped to the most exciting conclusions usually get to a point where their world view shatters and leaves them with nothing but the broken pieces of something that used to be a big part of their lives. I have seen this happen. It hurts much more than a few questions and thoughts and needs a long time to recover from.

That is why I don't see anything wrong with being a little skeptical with oneself. It doesn't hurt to check your health before claiming to be a vampire, for instance. On the contrary! Finding out you have been suffering from some disease all along doesn't only destroy your vampire self perception but is also dangerous for your health. When you've seen a doctor and got yourself checked out, you can still return to the metaphysical explanation.

A newcomer to OKP will be asked questions. As I said, we are curious and want to learn from other people's experience. But we also want to help, and it is our idea of helping people to ask them questions and share our knowledge with them - which involves the knowledge about the pitfalls of self-exploration (or a lack thereof). "I don't know" is just as valid as an answer as "I don't want to talk about it".

Every forum is different, every community has to define its rules and procedures. This is what we chose for ourselves, what we feel is the right thing to do. Unless stated otherwise, no question is meant as an attack - and if it is clearly marked as one, please report that person to the mods. <!-- s --><img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_e_wink.gif" alt=";)" title="Wink" /><!-- s -->

If you're looking for a cozy place where each and every belief is accepted and it is forbidden to question anything, OKP might not be for you. However, if you're brave enough to explore the depths of your own mind, we will gladly accompany you on your journey.

i just installed 5 new forum styles:

* getaway darkblue
* idlaunch_black
* prostylize_darkblue
* x-vision
* x_silver

please let me know what you think! also, if you feel you want something totally different (darker? lighter? rounder?), discuss it here and i'll see what i can do. <!-- s --><img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_e_smile.gif" alt=":)" title="Smile" /><!-- s -->

there have been cases in which it wasn't clear if a member of the staff was talking for themself or as a mod/admin. people have been talking back, disrupting more than one topic with useless arguments.

from now on, we will use the following method:

- black font: the staff member is talking about their own experience/opinion. feel free to discuss.
- red font: they are talking as a staff member. their word is final, so talking back will not change anything other than your warning status (rule 1.3). at this point, everything you have to say in this matter should go to the staff member or an admin via pm and not into the topic.

of course this implies that non-mods are not allowed to use red font for entire posts (one word is okay). this should make things easier for us all.

the rules have been updated accordingly. thank you for your attention.

the okp staff

the okp staff proudly presents our new chat! <!-- s --><img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_e_smile.gif" alt=":)" title="Smile" /><!-- s -->

<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://main.otherkinphenomena.org/chat.php">http://main.otherkinphenomena.org/chat.php</a><!-- m -->

be nice to fluffbunny, he is our resident irc bot. <!-- s --><img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_e_wink.gif" alt=";)" title="Wink" /><!-- s -->

edit: thank you, archer!

Archer Wrote:For those who prefer standalone IRC clients:

server irc.ircstorm.net
channel #okp