JREF Forum - View Single Post - Correlation or Causation? The Internet and Alternative Religion

Foodbunny · 26th October 2003, 02:46 PM

Here is the post that should have been here :/

The Internet is a great tool for spreading information. People who would be afraid of the social consequences of buying a book about lesbianism in their local book store or reserving a Wiccan spellbook at the library can quickly and mostly anonymously find a wealth of information about the taboo topics that they are interested in.

It is also a great tool for role play. From people in IRC channels rolling the dice to see if they can cast Magic Missle at the darkness from people making up personas to gather the attention they feel they need, many folks don characters to fulfill some need or desire they have.

This has lead to what I feel is a kind of one-up-manship in some areas. People trying to make the best web design, tell the most tear-jerking sob story. And possibly, the most alternative of alternative religions.

I am not talking about your momma's alternative religion. Wicca, Satanism, that's all passe in the cool Internet kid's club. I'm talking about Otherkin, Multiples, Soulbonding, and Otakukin. A vocal and very internet active group of people quite sincerely posting about how they are really a wolfdragon living in a human that shares it's body with Rei Ayanami and Alucard. It's a mash of past life experiences, alternate universes, totemic animals, shamanism, and multiple personality disorder -- though don't tell them that.

When most of the people posting in a group are experiencing intense depression it is clearly not caused by neglecting real life for their fantasies, but instead magical ley lines that have been corrupted. They chat endlessly in their live journal communities and ezboards about how some stupid mundane brushed up against their phantom wings and how angry it made them. All of these community groups have the same basic rule: Do not question the claims of others. What is true for one person is true for the group, and nothing must be looked at critically.

What interests me about this is not so much the beliefs themselves, which are essentially role playing taken to an extreme, but rather the evolution of these communities.

Many moons ago it was fringe enough to be a furry and create a persistant anthropomorphic character. After a couple of years more and more people began embracing furry culture, and in reaction a small, vocal group began deciding they really were these characters. Soon a lot of people were deciding that they really were their characters, especially if their characters were dragons, and the Otherkin were born. The approached their otherness in different ways, some claiming to have been a dragon in the past life, some claiming that they got a dragon's soul that was meant to go to another universe, some claiming they were biologically born part dragon and that a Seeming had been put on them to make them appear human.

But some people couldn't pick just one character to be, or one animal they identified with. So both multiples and hybrids were born. Some people decided that they had several different souls in them that were each clear and distinct seperate people from themselves, and that these people could take control at times. Others decided to just mash their totemic animals together and you got leopardwolves, feline horses, and the ever present and incredibly popular wolfdragons.

In recent years, in a move demonstrating incredible creative laziness, and with the introduction of more and more preteens to these communities, came the Soulbonders and Otakukins. Soulbonders are somewhat like Multiples. They believe fictional characters, especially animated ones, live in their heads or souls, and talk to them, worry about them, and occasionally take control of them. It's Imaginary Friends with spirituality smacked on in an attempt to make it less laughable. Otakukin are people who believe they were fictional characters in a past life in an alternate universe. I really was Penny from Inspector Gadget and I have the memories to prove it.

As part of the escalation of weirdness, any of these subcultures can and frequently are mingled, with dragons soulbonding dragons from video games and multiples counting anime characters among their personalities. And the rule of not questioning the claims of each other persists.

So what this post about is less these subcultures and more about this. Would these communities thrive without the Internet? How likely is it that Jane the 27 year old writer would have decided that her hardboiled detective was real and living in her, only he was half dragon and lusting after Sephiroth from FF7 if she hadn't been a part of a furry community 10 years ago and witnessed the escalation of claims? Would Bob the angry teenager feel the need to claim that he only broke things when Raphael the Ninja Turtle was "fronting" if just playing a really hot cheeta was still enough to get him the online attention he craves? How much of this insanity is caused by the Internet's ability to quickly transfer information creating a situation where the attention seeking change fads swiftly and how much would exist in a world where the Internet did not exist?

26th October 2003, 02:46 PM	#2
Foodbunny Hell Ninja Commando Join Date: Mar 2002 Location: Dallas, Texas Posts: 399	Here is the post that should have been here :/ The Internet is a great tool for spreading information. People who would be afraid of the social consequences of buying a book about lesbianism in their local book store or reserving a Wiccan spellbook at the library can quickly and mostly anonymously find a wealth of information about the taboo topics that they are interested in. It is also a great tool for role play. From people in IRC channels rolling the dice to see if they can cast Magic Missle at the darkness from people making up personas to gather the attention they feel they need, many folks don characters to fulfill some need or desire they have. This has lead to what I feel is a kind of one-up-manship in some areas. People trying to make the best web design, tell the most tear-jerking sob story. And possibly, the most alternative of alternative religions. I am not talking about your momma's alternative religion. Wicca, Satanism, that's all passe in the cool Internet kid's club. I'm talking about Otherkin, Multiples, Soulbonding, and Otakukin. A vocal and very internet active group of people quite sincerely posting about how they are really a wolfdragon living in a human that shares it's body with Rei Ayanami and Alucard. It's a mash of past life experiences, alternate universes, totemic animals, shamanism, and multiple personality disorder -- though don't tell them that. When most of the people posting in a group are experiencing intense depression it is clearly not caused by neglecting real life for their fantasies, but instead magical ley lines that have been corrupted. They chat endlessly in their live journal communities and ezboards about how some stupid mundane brushed up against their phantom wings and how angry it made them. All of these community groups have the same basic rule: Do not question the claims of others. What is true for one person is true for the group, and nothing must be looked at critically. What interests me about this is not so much the beliefs themselves, which are essentially role playing taken to an extreme, but rather the evolution of these communities. Many moons ago it was fringe enough to be a furry and create a persistant anthropomorphic character. After a couple of years more and more people began embracing furry culture, and in reaction a small, vocal group began deciding they really were these characters. Soon a lot of people were deciding that they really were their characters, especially if their characters were dragons, and the Otherkin were born. The approached their otherness in different ways, some claiming to have been a dragon in the past life, some claiming that they got a dragon's soul that was meant to go to another universe, some claiming they were biologically born part dragon and that a Seeming had been put on them to make them appear human. But some people couldn't pick just one character to be, or one animal they identified with. So both multiples and hybrids were born. Some people decided that they had several different souls in them that were each clear and distinct seperate people from themselves, and that these people could take control at times. Others decided to just mash their totemic animals together and you got leopardwolves, feline horses, and the ever present and incredibly popular wolfdragons. In recent years, in a move demonstrating incredible creative laziness, and with the introduction of more and more preteens to these communities, came the Soulbonders and Otakukins. Soulbonders are somewhat like Multiples. They believe fictional characters, especially animated ones, live in their heads or souls, and talk to them, worry about them, and occasionally take control of them. It's Imaginary Friends with spirituality smacked on in an attempt to make it less laughable. Otakukin are people who believe they were fictional characters in a past life in an alternate universe. I really was Penny from Inspector Gadget and I have the memories to prove it. As part of the escalation of weirdness, any of these subcultures can and frequently are mingled, with dragons soulbonding dragons from video games and multiples counting anime characters among their personalities. And the rule of not questioning the claims of each other persists. So what this post about is less these subcultures and more about this. Would these communities thrive without the Internet? How likely is it that Jane the 27 year old writer would have decided that her hardboiled detective was real and living in her, only he was half dragon and lusting after Sephiroth from FF7 if she hadn't been a part of a furry community 10 years ago and witnessed the escalation of claims? Would Bob the angry teenager feel the need to claim that he only broke things when Raphael the Ninja Turtle was "fronting" if just playing a really hot cheeta was still enough to get him the online attention he craves? How much of this insanity is caused by the Internet's ability to quickly transfer information creating a situation where the attention seeking change fads swiftly and how much would exist in a world where the Internet did not exist?