No, this site is a site for fans of Werewolf fiction. If you want Werewolf fact, then you go to a Werewolf site like the Werelist or the Weresource.

It's hard enough to distinguish role playing from actual therianthropy here since both are welcomed. It doesn't hurt to have clarification when the reality is being discussed.

The Therians I hang around with are among the first in the community and they most certainly had no previous exposure to the idea except for the exposure their own life gave them. Although I was a little later to the community, I knew nothing about it the many years before when I recognized what was going on within me.

It's entirely possible that the confusion stems, of course, from the extreme discombobulation offered by the Internet. A young Therian bombarded by the pseudointellectual and New Age granola that's blasted at them from every turn would confuse anyone. To those I strongly suggest that, as soon as you can, get off the Internet and associate with some real life Therians and try not to let the Internet ball you up too badly.

But, to point out one of the problems in your reasoning here, "To find others like you" and "asking about the condition" are two completely different things. Further, I haven't condemned. Condemning entails applying a moral qualifier to an action or thought - that is, to say that it's good or bad.  Now, I'd like for you to show me where I've done that.

No, not at all. I'm not elitist about therianthropy. As Therians, any Therian is potentially as good as any other Therian. As Humans, any Human is potentially as good as any other Human. And so forth.

What I am very concerned about is that Therians, especially new and young Therians are bombarded by a wide variety of information ranging from useful to absolutely, disasterously bogus, on the Internet and it's not always easy to tell the difference. Even solidly established sites as the Werelist can be drastically misleading. The Internet, as far as I'm concerned, is never a good resource for information about Therianthropy. It's like a handbook, unless you know it all ready, it won't help you.

There are several book sellers that cater to the "mercenary" community. In principle, that is - in actuality, they usually cater to the mercenary wannabe community. The problem with that, I noticed long ago, is that books that tell you how to build bombs will give you explicit directions on how to build something that is calculated to  blow up in your face and, unless you already know what your doing, using one of those books can quickly land you in the hospital.

I see information on the Internet that I know from experience will blow up in a Therian's face. Now a lot of Therians are going to have to learn the hard way, but I hope to save many of them some pain. So, where I'm not elitist as far as individual Therians are concerned, I may well be elitist where information is concerned. Over 55 years, I've done a lot of damage, seen a lot of amazing things, and lived through things that I look back and say, "How did I make it this far."

So Therians should feel quite free to ignore me - I don't take offense to that - but I won't take too kindly to complaints later if they ignore me and get burned.

And the final point is that ignorance and the suspension of judgment is better than bad information. Too many Therians are in such a hurry for information that they will take it uncritically from anywhere. I've had to help too many Therians that "overdrove their headlights" only to end up somewhere that they really didn't want to be - stuck and hurting. Better to prevent that if possible.

shadowfox wrote:

I agree fully. Aside from putting a label to my therianthropy and showing me there are others, i have found little useful information. I just wish i could find a real life group. I just dont think i could make it to Alabama to go to the Howls and yours are the only ones anywhere close to my area.

I'm with ya on this one. The internet can't get you very far. It's nice to know that there are others like 'us' so to speak, and that there is some sense of community for Therianthropy, but in terms of relevant and reliable information...the internet lacks it greatly. I like your notion WolfVanZandt, on it being like a handbook. Unless you know it already, it's pretty useless.

Finding a real life group over here seems...tricky to say the least. Currently I'm in no state to be travelling around the country much, being a jobless student relying on the leftovers of last years loan, and not knowing how to drive yet.
I'd love to go to a howl, and I will have to look into them over here in the UK, as to my current knowledge, they seem non existant, or are kept very very quiet to the general public.

It's funny. When I first found out about the therian community, I was grousing at SnowWolf about there not being any Weres around Alabama and he let me knwno pretty quickly that there are about 1000 Weres in Alabama and that we have the largest Howl in the US. Then I started looking around and, sure enough, you can't swing a  dead cat down here without hitting a Therian.

What I'm saying is, don't give up. I know of several therians in Tennessee. You might be able to get a Howl up there and, if you can get some established members of the community to show up, more people will show. Post it on the Werelist, the Weresource, and/or here. At least put a line out and see if you can get some bites.

And although I'd be glad to come to Tennessee to support a Howl, Foggy Ol' England is just a tad too far for me....



But I do know (or have known) Therians in England so I bet there's a lot more than you might think, Grem.

I would love to see a perennial Howl established in Britain. Maybe the British, Irish, and Scottish Howlers can even get together.

WolfVanZandt wrote:

It's funny. When I first found out about the therian community, I was grousing at SnowWolf about there not being any Weres around Alabama and he let me knwno pretty quickly that there are about 1000 Weres in Alabama and that we have the largest Howl in the US. Then I started looking around and, sure enough, you can't swing a  dead cat down here without hitting a Therian.

What I'm saying is, don't give up. I know of several therians in Tennessee. You might be able to get a Howl up there and, if you can get some established members of the community to show up, more people will show. Post it on the Werelist, the Weresource, and/or here. At least put a line out and see if you can get some bites.

And although I'd be glad to come to Tennessee to support a Howl, Foggy Ol' England is just a tad too far for me....



But I do know (or have known) Therians in England so I bet there's a lot more than you might think, Grem.

I would love to see a perennial Howl established in Britain. Maybe the British, Irish, and Scottish Howlers can even get together.

Foggy Ol' England? We're not THAT bad for fog! Just rain instead
It would be great if there was a Howl somewhere nearby for me, although I think that might be asking a bit too much. The main cities I can get to are Sheffield, York and Leeds...London is a bit out the way for me...and very very pricey to get there, especially on my non-existant finances!

Although, I'm still very quiet about Therianthropy, and me being a Therian; with the exception of 2 extremely close friends, no-one knows. I've always been the 'quiet, nice guy' who gets on with everyone. I hate been so concerned with what people think of me, and not just worry, but know that if I was to be open about being a were, I'd become that 'weirdo' of the area. Not because I AM weird, but because of the misconceptions people have of Therianthropy and because it's seen as 'different.' So trying to go to a Howl just yet is a rather intimidating idea for me at the moment.

Yeah, his town seems really REALLY....reeeeaaalllllllly uptight about almost everything. Its almost scary to the point of being a plot for an episode of the Twilight Zone, just in my opinion. lol Wouldnt you say so, Grem?

From what I read, that does seem to be a big difference between the UK and the US. Colleges in the UK tend to be conservative where, in the US, they tend to be liberal. Here, there's a premium in being different in certain ways - as long as the difference isn't conservatism.

Yeah, that seems very true from what I've seen and read too. In the UK, anything that changes that 'norm' tends to be frowned upon until it's managed to stick around long enough to 'settle in' as part of the norm. Even then, it's held at arms length. The example I like to give is Religion; Religion has been present here for...well...quite a long time! The UK as a whole though isn't particularly religious, with the majority claiming Atheism or Agnosticism. So religion isn't the 'normal' thing, and specifically around people my age and below, a person who can say they are religious is usually treat slightly different, and in some cases (schools mainly) teased for it.
Even with 'adults' it seems that religion can give them sufficient reason to treat another differently. Although I wouldn't say this in the case of Christianity, as that does have a firm hold here even though it isn't a major factor in a ot of peoples daily life. Islam and Sikhism have a pretty rough time here, as particularly the older generations, and due to that some of the younger groups, get quite defensive, not liking the 'change' to the country. The change being the development of these 'foreign' religions.

I make it sound rather depressing living here, but the UK does have a lot of good points too! Really! That is just how things are here, I'd say it's getting better. I could write streams on this subject, but really wouldn't want to put you all to sleep!

i have always felt animal like with a special connection to dogs and wolves, dogs seem to respect me rather than show affection especilly the cleverer ones when i look them in the eyes
also i love meat and have especialy craved it over the last couple of days, it seems to go hand in hand with anger
i always feel alive at night and have an urge to run in the forest and get away from things, i have insomnia and im regulary still up in the early hours of the morning
also i can see what you are on about with large crowds i like my own space and will only tolerate crowds when im drunk.
im not quite sure whats different about me but even though im popular and some people may even look up to me im definately different from my friends

I feel the same things soooo many changes in my disposition have been happening... I used to be so timid but I got in a fight at a concert I pushed another girl down then felt bad and helped her up... then I've been sooooo hot like today before work my arms felt like they were going to burst into flames... also I've had weird visions latley sooo weird of ones its rediculous... and they've all been when I'm concious... I think its going to happen on my 20th birthday thats  not this friday but the next I'm scared will i loose all control hurt my family? friends? will I still be me accept the part of me thats a wolf just shows itself... I gues will I know right and wrong will I be a savage beast or can I control myself

The best way to find out about yourself is to pay attention and let life take it's course. If you try to hard you'll end up making up a lot of the rules yourself and you won't end up with any real answers. Many Therians are trying all together too hard. Instead of enjoying life, they're wasting it by angsting over details that, frankly, don't matter at all.

You don't have to find you inner self. You know where it is - it's right there inside you. At 14, it's not fully developed. What it is will become clear as you get older if you don't keep it crammed inside you (as many of us end up doing to later regret). Just let yourself be yourself.

If you mean "Is therianthropy a system of belief?" Then no it is simply the state of having (for lack of a better term) an animal "soul" (it's harder for me to put into words properly since I'm not a therian myself).

If you are talking about whether it is just something that you believe about yourself or something you actually discover that is another story: From what I've heard from the therians on the board all of them realized at a certain point that they were therians, but if they hadn't been willing to believe it they would have rejected it. In other words therianthropy is something you discover but you need to keep an open mind in order to do so.

I have always known, just didn't know the name. I know we aren't really talking about it, but an Awakening seems plain silly to me.