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So you think you're a wolf? Animal souls

Me:

Ever wondered why there are so many of us on the 'net right now?

Interviewer:

Its been assumed your just another net-cult, admittedly cuter than most, but just as suspicious. Cults gather a following. Its just a fashion.

Me:

Well, here are a some other answers. There are alot of different ways in which someone can be furry. Some have passions for cartoon characters (toonophiles), or for soft or plush toys (plushophiles), some have the same sorts of feelings about the animals they share their lives with. Alot of us believe we are misplaced souls. Soul of a wolf in the body of a human and so on.

Interviewer:

I thought only humans had souls.

Me:

Yeah, right. Only humans have souls, only humans have intelligence, only humans go to heaven, only humans use tools, only humans this, only humans that.

Rather neat isn't it?

Set yourselves apart from the rest of creation. Everything else is subordinate to your needs. You can kill without conscience can't you. Last wolf in England - kill it. Last wild boar - mmmm tasty. Last dodo - squark. Last tiger?

Someone was predicting that the tiger would be extinct by 2020 or sometime around then. That really is a load of old bull. There's an obvious way to save the tiger, its just so obvious that you can't see it. Can you guess what it is?

Interviewer:

Re-introduce captive bred tigers into the wild?

Me:

Nope. I'll give you a hint, it isn't the tigers that are the problem.

Interviewer:

Fit the remaining tigers with satellite tracking devices so they can be watched by people who will shoot poachers on sight?

Me:

The technology option - no, that's not it. The obvious solution, note that I didn't say it would be the simplest or the most popular, the obvious solution requires less technology.

You just don't get it do you? What do you think you are, observers of the natural world? Perhaps consumers would be a better description. Don't you see what has happened by denying your ape heritage, and setting yourselves apart from the rest of creation? You can't even acknowledge that you are part of the problem!

Okay, rant over. Its just exasperating to find that we furs can understand without the slightest effort that we are part of nature, whilst most of humanity cannot. I don't suppose I'm any more intelligent than you are. Its not the fur, the actual layer of body hair, that makes me think this way either. Its just that the way our society, unstructured as it is, views the world is different to yours.

Interviewer:

Getting back to animal souls

Me:

Yes, so why do we have animal souls and not human ones? Some cosmic blunder? Friday afternoon in the packing department, everyone wants to get off home, but "Oh no!" they've run out of human souls. "Open a box of wolf souls, no one will notice, and we'll meet the quota no problems".

Perhaps it happens because there's a surfeit of animal souls, and not enough appropriate bodies for them to occupy. And what would cause that - mmmmm? Perhaps being driven to extinction? Might explain why there is a predominance of large carnivores, animals from the top of the food chain - the ones who compete directly with humans.

Interviewer:

Do you have an animal soul?

Me:

Yes, though I'd perhaps modify the classification. I'm going to express my opinion again, and this time I'm fairly sure that this view is not held by others.

I don't see a soul as being a single atomic (by which I mean that it cannot be reduced further) entity, but rather it is divisible. When something dies, the soul is released, but not necessarily in one piece, it may break into fragments. The fragments can then be incorporated into a new body, perhaps joining with other fragments along the way. Hence, it is possible to get mixtures. Also it might be possible for a soul to be "added" during a lifetime. There wouldn't be a set volume that made up "one whole soul".

Try thinking of a soul, not as a solid object, but as a fluid like mercury. When two blobs of mercury touch, they flow together and form a new blob, similar to the two original ones.

Interviewer:

And when something dies the mercury is released again?

Me:

Yes, but it doesn't soak into the carpet, or evaporate away. It drifts around until it finds another soul, or a body.

Interviewer:

So our bodies contain this soul-liquid, what if they overflow?

Me:

That's where the mercury analogy breaks down. Souls would have to be made of a different kind of matter than the kind we are used to. Call it Aether if you like. It might have some other interesting properties too.

Anyway, its not much more than an interesting theory. But it can be used to explain those who have multiple phenotypes, and different sorts of past life memories.

Interviewer:

What's a phenotype?

Me:

I'm not sure where the word came from, I think its originally means physical appearance. Within our community we use it to the kind of creature that is our animal side. My phenotype is wolf.

Some furs have multiple animal sides, such as wolf and bear, lion and eagle, and so on in addition to their human side. It was difficult for me to understand how this could happen using the simple "animal soul in a human body", because their would be two animal souls in one body. You might expect some kind of multiple personality behaviour, but the few I've met seem to show both aspects at once, a kind of merge between the two creating a new single entity.

Interviewer:

So you have animal (wolf) and human aspects to your soul?

Me:

Yes, I believe I do. Of course, some think they have only one soul, the animal one, and the human behaviour is learned - they were raised by human parents after all.

Interviewer:

You don't agree?

Me:

All I can say is that it doesn't feel right to me that my behaviour is learned. I really can't say how it applies to others. But if you accept that multiple phenotypes are possible, then I think you also have to accept that human- animal mixes are possible. After all, to us humans are not a special case. Your just another kind of animal.

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