There are two elements to discovering a kintype; questioning, which is a process, and awakening, which is an experience. Specifically, questioning is the process of figuring out if your experiences are elements of an awakening. Sometimes an awakening is so aggressive and obvious that no questioning process is necessary, however, most of the time when considering if something is a new kintype, it’s a good idea to go through a questioning process.

There is no right or wrong way to go through questioning; everyone’s questioning process is different. Questioning itself is an attempt at gaining deeper self-knowledge, and for many metaphysical fictionkin, questioning is a deeply personal process whose details are difficult to share or explain. It can involve meditation, journaling, astral travel, canon research, and anything else.

Here are some thoughts and ideas to get you started on your own personal questioning process, written specifically for metaphysical kintypes but applicable to other types of kin questioning.

General Questioning

How to approach questioning when you don’t have a specific kintype or source in mind.

Without a specific canon or character in mind, what do you feel started you down the path of questioning?

• Were there things like dreams? A sense of wrongness? A sense of longing?

Do you feel like your body is supposed to be different than it is now?

• If so, in what ways?
• Does it feel like an ‘ideal’ appearance, or do you feel emotionally attached to it in some other way?
• Do you feel like there are any inherent flaws to this concept of this other body?
• Do you feel like you can somehow innately understand, remember, or conceptualize the way existing in this body would feel, and how it’s different from the one you have now?

Do you feel difficult to explain emotions or attachments to somewhere you’ve never been?

• Where is it, and what is it like?
• What kinds of emotions does it make you feel?
• What kinds of details or specifics, if any, do you feel like you innately know or understand about this place?

Do you feel like there is someone specific missing from your life, despite not knowing who?

• What type of relationship do you conceptualize thinking about them? A friend? A romantic partner? An enemy? A family member? Something else?
• Are there any solid details about them that just seem right? An appearance? A scent? A tone of voice? Or anything else.

Are there elements of the natural world on this earth that seem wrong, or elements that seem to be missing?

• Does it feel to you like science or magic should work differently than they do?
• Do you feel like you have an inexplicable understanding of the way magic or science should work?
• If so, can you describe specific elements of how they should operate?
• When you look at a map of the world, are the continents the right shape?
• What color should the sky be? How many moons or suns are in it?
• Are there any flora or fauna you feel like you’re familiar with but they don’t exist here?
• Are there any specific technologies that you feel familiar with that don’t exist here?

Are there elements of the social structure and culture that you currently live in that seem foreign or wrong despite having been raised in them?

• Do you conceptualize certain things to be taboo that are not, and vice versa?
• Do you have superstitions that no one else does and you don’t know where they came from?
• Do your cultural norms around relationships, romantic or otherwise, seem odd or unusual? What do you imagine should be the norm instead?
• Are there particular social customs you feel should be observed that your current culture never taught you?

In general, the more of these questions that you can answer in a detailed way, the more likely it is that your feelings are part of a metaphysical kintype awakening of some kind.

Once you’ve answered these questions for yourself, ask if the answers to them line up with the details of a world or characters in a specific fictional universe that you’re familiar with.

If they do, then you can continue on to specific source and kintype questioning. If they don’t, it’s likely that the kintype you’re questioning is either an otherkin kintype, or that if it is a fictionkin kintype then you aren’t yet familiar with the source material that depicts it.

Questioning a Specific Source

What made you start questioning this source? 

• Was it a feeling? A dream? A rumor? A compulsion toward it? A repulsion away from it? A connection to something you’ve felt or known about yourself?

What does the world depicted in this source make you feel?

• Does it feel familiar? Does it make me feel nostalgic? Homesick? Unsettled? An urge to escape?

Are there unusual things that are inexplicably familiar about the world of the source to you?

• Are there any rituals, traditions, food, clothes, animals, plants, geography, etc that you feel like you intuitively know or understand? Do any of these things seem like something that was missing to you in your daily life?

Is there anything about the world of the source as described in canon that stands out to you as wrong?

• Do you have any immediate reactions to finding out information about the source world that goes against what you intuitively understand or expect?

Is there anything about the source world that you guessed or expected that was later confirmed?

• Any strange ideas or ‘headcanons’ that you came up with before you found out that they were canon?

Do you have any intuitive and immediate feelings about the way you would live day to day in the world of the source if you were there now?

If someone asked you questions about the world of this source, would you feel confident, or find yourself answering them intuitively without thinking about it?

Every kin experience is different but in general, the more of these questions that you can answer ‘yes’ or have deep and involved answers to, the more likely it’s possible that the source you’re questioning could be the origin of a kintype.

[Specific Kintype Questioning (forthcoming)]