i believe that the polite response is generally, "how nice!" :)

*laugh* Yes, most likely.

I'm curious what your not-so-polite response would be, though. If you have one...

My response: What do you mean by that?

Ah, that is not an easy question. I could point you at a variety of "otherkin" sites to get a general idea, but even those don't capture my experience, as far as I can tell.

I am a skeptic at heart, who experiences and perceives a wide variety of things that I don't think most people experience or perceive. I try to maintain an open perspective on anything I don't have enough evidence on to pin down, and even the things I do decide to pin down are done with a light touch. I do not believe that seeing is believing; seeing is evidence, perhaps, but not proof.

I have, I think, a pretty good grasp on what other people experience and perceive in the main. I have an understanding of "consensual shared reality" that allows me to make a living, to not generally be perceived as more than eccentric, to co-exist with other people. I don't know that I believe that that shared reality is "Real", but I understand that I can take that as a working hypothesis and, well, it mostly works.

There's a good chunk of my experience that's outside that shared reality, and I often don't know what to do about that. One of them is that I experience myself primarily as Faery, and it appears to show to other people who do not necessarily include the idea of Faery in their worldviews. I am regularly accused of flitting when I move by otherwise "sane" people. I had one playpartner comment that it was my apparent fairy nature that made playing sexually with me okay, that stuff that would otherwise have made her very uncomfortable were somehow light-hearted and playful.

And yes, that means somewhere in the back of my head my self-perception includes dragonfly-ish wings, much like my Pfil tattoo has.

Which is a whole 'nother bag of worms, and I've said plenty already, so I'll stop there. *grin*

that I wouldn't give a rat's ass if you were Baba Yaga and wanted me to come visit your hut that rests on chicken legs. I wouldn't give a flying fig if you were an albino zombie gunslinger. Nor would I care less if you were Rainbow Bright with her boyfriend My Little Pony Dick.
I knew what you were about when I put you on here. I'd still like to pick your brains and claim that I know you to the scared natives.
**grin**

Hee! The scared natives! I like it.

My inner third-grader responds, "No DUH."

I think you're probably bonkers.

I live in a difficult place, when it comes to faery and magic. As a writer, these are concepts I employ every day and, for the purposes of writing, believe in quite fervently.

As a person, I'm an atheist, although frankly I believe I'd be more likely to accept Faery than God, should one have conclusive evidence that one (or either) exists. I can, on some level, accept the possibility of a world(dimension) of faery which is at right angles to our own, and which is not easily accessible by most people. In part I can accept this because of some inexplicable personal experiences; in part I can accept this because I expect there are in fact more things in this world than are dreampt of in my philosophy; in part I can accept it because I would very much /like/ it to be true. I do not care to live in a world without magic; this is why I stop reading the Black Cauldron books before the final chapter of The High King.

I don't care to live in a world without magic, but at the same time it's difficult for me to accept, without clear-cut evidence, that it actually exists. This is part of why I write: to create worlds in which it does. Because it *should*, dammit.

For people for whom it does, well. I suppose I envy you. Maybe magic, like God, has to be taken on faith. I understand why people think there must be an order to the world, directed by something with a greater capacity for detail than humans have. Maybe if you believe, it's easier to see it there. Perhaps it's easier to see the divine (or fae, as the case may be) in oneself if one is already wired for belief.

But I'm not, and so I tend to think that people who are are a little bonkers. Whether it's faery or God or what-have-you, well. As long as you're not trying to convince me to your way of thought, if it works for you, that's good. I'll just be over here, thinking you're a little bonkers. :)

I probably am a little bonkers. To quote ($DEITY help me) GURPS: just because you delusional doesn't mean you're not right...and just because you're right doesn't mean you're not delusional.

I cannot possibly provide the evidence that makes me say "I am Faery" to anyone else; it is a personal perception, and I do not expect anyone else to believe it. Hell, I can't say I believe it 100%, because I don't believe anything 100%. On the other hand, there are clearly people for whom it explains their perception of me very well. (See at least one response above for an example. *grin*)

All I can say is that I have perceived things where "I am Faery" is the simplest explanation (and "I am completely delusional" is nearly as plausable). I choose to take "I am Faery" as my working hypothesis because I have no basis on which to choose between that explanation and the explanation that I'm bonkers. Frankly, I like the Faery explanation better, and if I have to pick one to go on with no convincing evidence either way, I'm going to pick the one I like. *grin* But I am going to keep both options open. (I still keep the possibility that I will wake up one morning and everything will be fundamentally different open, though I do admit I assign that one a very low probability.)

Most of my spiritual or metaphysical beliefs are like this. I could make a number of similar assertions that I "believe" on a similar basis. Some of them overlap with many other people's experience ("This emotion that people call 'love' has power, but does not conquer all" is perhaps a good example) and some don't.

From that perspective, I am completely anti-wired for belief, and in some ways, that makes it easier to accept things most people would consider odd, because to me they're not dramatically more odd than the idea that (nearly) everyone agrees that the clear sky is blue, except when it's black.

Since I get asked similar questions about a similar but yet different question.. I'll throw them at you..

Fairy, how?

Physically? Mentally? Emotionally? Spiritually?

Do you believe yourself a fairy in a human body? A fairy in a fairy body? Is fairy a concept you identify with but don't consider to be literally true?

Are we talking mundane world truth here, or mythic truth?

Does thinking of yourself this way change how you live your life?

And finally, what does it actually mean to you.. how does feeling/believing this about yourself actually make you different to someone who doesn't?

Ouch. *grin*

I hesitate to answer some of these questions, because they're squarely in the 'I have no basis on which to choose and so I've picked one' field, and answers will sound definite. So assume everything has that disclaimer on it unless I say otherwise.

Fairy, how?

It is fundamentally a part of who and what I am, in ways that are both internal and yet appear to manifest to other people.

Physically? Mentally? Emotionally? Spiritually?

Mentally/emotionally/spiritually: I'll lump these together because they're all easy. It is my perception that being Fae is a fundamental component of my self, my soul. It affects the way I look at the world, what gets me excited and what gets me down, and it appears to affect the way people around me perceive me.

Physically: Okay, I'm going to mangle this horribly trying to turn it into words. I'm going to use an analogy which captures the gist while completely bolluxing the details, but hopefully it'll make sense, at least.

Quantum particles have different possible energy states. Some energy states have a much higher probability than others. Me being physically Faery (wings and all) is one low-probability energy state that I can sense, if I let myself. I'll note that putting my not-quite-there-in-this-state wings into somthing that is nominally solid (a chair, a wall) is really quite a disconcerting sensation.

Note that I'm not suggesting that quantum energy states explain what I'm sensing, just that trying to explain it intellectually needs some sort of basis for comparison, and it seems like a similar concept to me.

Do you believe yourself a fairy in a human body? A fairy in a fairy body? Is fairy a concept you identify with but don't consider to be literally true?

I believe that my body in its current state is essentially human, and that the probability of that changing somehow is small. I believe that I have a fairy body but that it is unlikely to manifest in a form that many other people can perceive anytime soon. (Some people perceive it now.) Human and fairy are not the only two options, of course, just to make things more complicated.

Are we talking mundane world truth here, or mythic truth?

Yes. Mundane world truth in the sense that this is, fundamentally, how I experience life. Mythic truth in that I believe that the myths and legends have a basis in reality, in the sense that they have a basis in phenomena that are perceivable by a non-trivial number of people.

Well, that was quite a mouthful. *grin*

Does thinking of yourself this way change how you live your life?

I don't know that I have any basis to answer the question, since I have no other reference point than my own self and perceptions. Does saying those particular words change anything? No.

And finally, what does it actually mean to you.. how does feeling/believing this about yourself actually make you different to someone who doesn't?

Again, it's hard to say, because at the end of the day I'm locked in my own head. I can only perceive things outside me through one of my senses, and so I can't say.

I can speculate that your average Mundane's life is a bit more boring, though, and quite a lot less complex. I doubt that most people have both a sufficiently divergent experience and the intellectual need to understand it to have spent the time trying to wrap a system of philosophical belief around it. *grin*

Feel free to ask more or for clarification or something. It's not easy to put all this into words that aren't just misleading.

Cool, me too (as you probably knew). Though I *am* an elf.

Yeah, I think she explained it pretty well in her set of answers. (I'm an elf too; I started this thing back in 1990 because I was trying to find more of us. Because I was pretty sure we were out there. And because I have an active hope that somewhere out there, this does mean something.

Oh, I'm also the elf she mentioned telling about this online. Hiya! ^_^

To echo a similar thought ...

Well, of course you are. It's one of those things that's obvious without it having to be stated.

I'm basically with Kit here, though she expressed it better than I can.
My reaction to somebody claiming to be a fairy is pretty much the same as my reaction to somebody claiming they have a soul. I don't believe in either concept as a 'real' thing, but if it makes people feel good to believe, then power to them :) (Obvious exception being where people believe to the point that they go jumping of high buildings in the belief that fairie wings/power of deity will carry them to safety. Then it's time for the kind people in white coats.)

Unless, of course, faerie wings/power of diety do carry them to safety. :)

I would say, "Cool! I'm Feri, too!" But in my sense, it means I'm studying the Feri tradition of witchcraft. And I'm a little Faery, too, sometimes :) BTW, do I know you? You live in Littleton?

Yes, I live in Littleton (well, unincorporated Jeffco). I don't think we've actually met, though I know I've looked at your userinfo a few times and thought, "Hrm, maybe we should get together."

Feel free to drop me an email (ysabel at livejournal.com).

every day another one of my friends proclaims this. if people can 'be' dragons (which aren't even bipeds), i don't see why not faeries.

i'll stick with animal totems for the time being, myself.

This seems like an appropriate place to tell you, seeings how I've just friended you and all, that I have a lot of trouble respecting self-proclaimed "otherkin" and am happy to be friends with such as long as they respect my wishes not to be involved in conversations pertaining to. Sort of same thing goes with my BDSM friends... but... just so you know. =/

Not the greatest way to say "hi", huh? I'm sorry.

I don't mind in the slightest. I'm frankly more than a little skeptical of claims of "otherkin" and rather a lot skeptical of my own claims.

If you assume I'm simply delusional on the subject, then you'll be agreeing with the dissenting judges in my head (it's a very close vote), and we can go on about our merry ways.

I don't make lots of BDSM posts in my personal journal either, for the record, but there are a few.

*groks*

I thought you might.

It's not easy to put this sort of stuff into words and have it make any sense to most people... Some of the comments helped me to compose certain thoughts well, I think.

Hi! I'm an elf, and one of Pace's wives. I'd like to read more about you; mind if I friend you?

Not at all. I'll peek and probably friend back shortly.

Sorry to collapse your thread, but I really wanted to chime in to this incredibly awesome thread. I'm so envious! I wish I could have gotten such a great discussion going on my angel post. But then again, you asked very clearly and explicitly, and I only asked implicitly.

You being Faery makes a lot of sense to me, and this thread has spawned some interesting thought processes about my own nature. Thanks for pointing me to this! (:

Seemed like a relevant point after seeing yours. *grin*

I'm glad you liked it.

I don't see what all the fuss is all about. Is seems perfectly simple to me. Sure, I'm certain that bits of it can get complex, but that's life- mythically imbued or otherwise. I think that a life without a good bit of complexity would get horribly dull.

I think the greatest contribution of internet communication is that it's not only given us a better understanding of people in general, but of ourselves, as well. For all of the infinite variety to be found in the world amongst the peoples of the world, the vast majority have the same values. True, there seems to be a bit of trouble at times in how those values are expressed, but I say "To each their own, but leave mine alone". I suppose I'll have to get that tattooed somewhere sometime, but it'll be near the bottom of what's now a rather lengthy list.

Read and thought-upon.

I'm pretty well in the Lyonesse's camp of not having enough data upon which to found an understanding of your circumstances and reality. But then again, I accept the possibility, and strongly defend any person's inherent right to self-definition and also their right to self-assess the correct (for them, because that's all that really matters) level of self-revelation.

Heck, you know of me, and you know a little bit about me now via the [redacted]mush and the [redacted]list I just joined, and you know that /I/ believe certain things about myself and the broader system which I serve as part of its instrumentality. Whether we accept the notion of fictional Lerfolk (as vide Gameplayers of Zan), or the folkloric/existential notion of Elves (of which my central core may well be one by birth), or the many notions of Fairy/Faery/Feri (of which I have had some prior, intense, formal experience), the centrepoint is that we simply ARE. That's good enough for me. Always.

Respect continues!

M.