So, what does it mean to be other-hearted?
Well, basically:
Other-hearted individuals are people who identify with non-human things through a strong connection that is personal to them. There are also the fiction-hearted, who strongly identify with fictional characters or species. They are not to be confused with otherkin, who identify as non-human.
Reasons people can be other-hearted:
-You strongly relate to the thing on multiple levels, and you see yourself in the thing. (synpath)
-You strongly resonate with said thing.
-You feel very close to that thing, perhaps, in a friend/family bond.
-You hold the thing very close to your heart, it’s something dear to you, and means something to you.
-You want to be that thing, you look up to it like a role-model, you admire them.
-You choose to act like that thing, maybe to the point it’s like an alias.
-You feel a spiritual or mental connection to that thing without identifying as it.
-You feel like you are that thing without identifying as it.
-You feel like you should be that thing, yet not identify as it.Those are all reasons people are other-hearted, and I’m sure there’s a lot more. In summary, many other-hearted people feel like their hearttypes are their family, or that they are a lot like their hearttypes, or want to be.
What do other-hearted people experience?:
Other-hearted people deeply empathize with their hearttypes. Other-hearted may or may not have cameo shifts of their hearttype, although it’s not too common. Other-hearted people may feel as if they resonate deeper with non-humans and other worlds rather than this one. Other-hearted people may apply spiritual and psychological aspects to their hearted experience, or sometimes they just feel it as it is.
Whats the difference between kin and hearted people?:
Kin identify AS their kintypes, while hearted people identify WITH their types.
For kin, it’s a deep, core identity, and who they truly are in soul or mind. Literally. They experience things that cannot otherwise be explained, and often have memories, phantom limbs, yearning/longing and nostalgia.Hearted people might feel they are the thing at heart, but they are not literally the thing, and the reasons they feel connected to the thing can be explained. They do not experience memories, phantom sensations, etc.
Kintypes are what you are. Hearttypes are what you relate/resonate with.
However, both experiences are just as meaningful to them.
There’s a few things I wanted to comment on, here.
Other-hearted may or may not have cameo shifts of their hearttype, although it’s not too common.
From the other-hearted people I’ve had conversations with regarding our experiences, cameos actually do seem to be common among some. Fact is, we don’t KNOW how common it is because there’s only a handful of us discussing our experiences at all, so I might refrain from making fact statements like this when we really don’t have enough collected experiences to know what really fully constitutes other-hearted experience.
Hearted people might feel they are the thing at heart, but they are not literally the thing, and the reasons they feel connected to the thing can be explained.
I’d say that there are otherkin who can explain exactly where they think their experiences come from. Most psychological kin have a pretty solid explanation of what they think happens in their brain to cause their feelings, for example.
Meanwhile, I actually don’t KNOW why I feel so deeply, so strongly about my cat- and Alice-heartedness. I have guesses, but these aren’t exactly conscious things. Some of mine are, but some of them aren’t.
They do not experience memories, phantom sensations, etc.
I actually do experience phantom sensations related to my cat kithtype. It’s something I’ve heard from more than one other-hearted person, as well.
I think we should maybe refrain from making matter-of-fact statement posts about these experiences and perhaps focus more on opening up discussions about what other-hearted people experience, because we really don’t have enough conversation and experiences shared yet to really HAVE a “this is what other-hearted people typically experience” post, yet.
Yeah. Also, I feel like we definitely need to acknowledge before we start trying to set hard and fast guidelines that a lot of this is very blurry, and may overlap.
For example, “you feel like you should be a thing but don’t identify as it”? That’s a reasonably common experience for both trans and otherkin people before they have a full sense of their identities. While there’s nothing wrong with identifying as hearted and later realising you’re kin, it seems like defining it that way encourages an arbitrary split over experiences that the otherkin community is well equipped to handle, even if they eventually turn out not to be kin experiences.
(Also, I feel like “are the thing at heart but not literally the thing” is also very hairsplitting. Some people get very strict with their definitions of literal, and don’t like applying it to their kintype even though they essentially feel like the thing. I’ve known plenty of kin who would say “I’m a dragon in heart/soul/spirit, but I’m not literally a dragon” because to them literally means physically as well, and they don’t identify with the experience-trumps-biology model.)
I feel like the vaguer we get with this the better, at least for now while the community is defining itself. Kin is “identify as”, hearted is “identify with”, and there’s plenty of grey area between the two where people may not fit either of these labels exactly.
They’re different experiences, but also I think in some sense they’re a spectrum. A bit like how autism is a spectrum even though there are a ton of very different, and in some cases unrelated-seeming, ways of being autistic.
Added thought: as someone who’s experienced both hearted and kin feelings, I’d maybe liken them to a spread of thoughts, feelings, experiences etc. with two “cores”.
I’m on mobile so I can’t draw this, but imagine two circles marked “kin/as” and “hearted/with”. Between the two there are a lot of floating concepts, some closer to one circle than others (e.g. “dysphoria” is closer to “kin”), but both of which can be experienced by pretty much anyone in either circle; it’s just more common when you’re in one circle or another.
I think the key to defining your experience is probably not which traits you have, but how you feel about them at the end of the day. If your core experience of this is “this isn’t Me At My Core but it’s important to me/shapes me/has some powerful influence on me” then it’s hearted. If your core experience is “yeah at the end of the day this is Who I Am” then it’s kin. If you’re not sure then you’re not sure and that’s okay too! Or you may be “kinfluid” or something who the fuck knows. And there are always gonna be edge cases and people who define the boundaries slightly differently and yeah.
So yeah, think of these, like all labels, as sloppy bubbles. We can generalise, but ultimately where you and your experiences fit is down to how you feel about them.
