Teenagers thinking they can actually PHYSICALLY transform into a merperson?

**Mardoll_Star** · 06-04-2014, 12:38 PM

Glad to hear some truth from some other pagan merfolk out there.

I am also pagan, and have had a lot of trouble growing up and dealing with how to process visions, hallucinations, and just differences in my perception. I have long been angry and frustrated by the lack of support for individuals in most societies who are meant to be shamans. When I had these strange emotions and visions begin when I hit puberty there was just absolutely no support for me. It would be great if children who did begin to have prophetic dreams and strange visions were taken aside and taught to cope with these differences in a healthy way and given support instead of written off or shoved aside as just being "kids" or "going through a phase".

That being said, magic is dangerous. I learned that the very first thing I need to do before doing a ritual or spell is to critically evaluate my thoughts, emotions and motivations. IMO, people who seriously practice magic need to above all have an impeccable ability to be honest with themselves about their intentions. If you have issues like anger, jealously, shame and other buried emotions those need to be dealt with in an open atmosphere of honesty and communication with trusted friends or family, if not a professional. Any action taken because of these deep seated unhealthy emotions is liable to hurt someone including yourself. That goes for magical actions or otherwise.

I am also really happy to see you all trying to get some positive truthful information out there to those young people that really do need help and guidance. It's just more evidence for me to know that this community is full of truly compassionate and caring individuals.

**PearlieMae** · 06-04-2014, 01:23 PM

Everyone forgets that the FIRST thing you do before doing ANY magick (and I use the "k" to differentiate from prestidigitation) is to do a DIVINATION.

(Quick Pagan primer: Magick/Spellworking is simply the manipulation of energy towards a goal. Don't want to turn this into a huge Paganism discussion, but I am...well versed.)

As for these kids doing stupid shit, or potentially doing something incredibly harmful to themselves or others are only going to cause harm on the mundane plane.

**Trade Winds** · 06-04-2014, 02:40 PM

Theta:
The pix you found are pretty similar. Her pic is probably just a costume tail taken in a typical blurry shot so it's too distorted to get a really good look. Someone has claimed he'd seen the pic before, but he refuses to go back and search for its origins.

I just wanna prove this chick wrong and kick some sense into these kids. That's been one of my goals since I started hanging with them in 2005. I'll shoot those comparisions over to the kids and see what they think. Not that I feel it'll do any good. Something like, "oh, she wanted a tail like H2O, that's why they look the same!"

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**Trade Winds** · 06-04-2014, 03:01 PM

Originally Posted by Theta

I think a lot of the mermaid delusion stuff, past a certain age, tends to bleed into the Otherkin subculture (I don't know if we have any Otherkin people around on this forum?) I'm never too sure how to feel about Otherkin. On the one hand, I totally get that need to feel special, different. On the other hand, it seems like a slippery slope into a bad place. (Then you've got Otakukin, where the delusion is complete, and that is some scary shit, let me tell you.)

A quick mention here, as otherkin myself: there is a huge lack of mermaids in the otherkin community. I know of only one mermaid-kin who admitted to me she used to be big into the mer-wannabe crap. The rest are level-headed adults. These wannabes also have their own concept of otherkin, which is totally skewed and focuses too much on physical shifting (basically just slapping 'otherkin' over their wannabe status to cover it up as something else). You don't seem them often in the 'actual' otherkin community, though.

**Mermaid Wesley** · 06-04-2014, 03:32 PM

I can vouch for the truth of ikkthu swamptail's statement

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**Mer-lee** · 06-12-2014, 10:50 AM

Just as most of you said, as long as these kids aren't doing anything bad, it's fine. I'll admit, I did try some of those spells. I knew they wouldn't work but I did it anyway. And guess what? Nothing bad happened to me! But you guys are right, sometimes bad things will happen. I also don't like that these people are lying about them being mermaids. Let's think about it. If you were a real mermaid, would you tell anyone? Maybe a parent, but anyone else is a definite no! If I actually was a mermaid I wouldn't be posting pictures of my tail on the internet for everyone to see!

(On a unrelated note, I didn't know there was Tokyo Mew Mew fans in the mermaid community!)

**SeaGlass Siren** · 06-12-2014, 09:04 PM

^ was a tokyo mew mew fan :P keyword "Was".

i have tried when i was younger too lol. but none of the more obvious "kill/potentially harm yourself" ones like BREATHE IN H2O.

**Merman Chatfish** · 10-26-2015, 12:47 AM

I met someone yesterday who tried to make her own potion to become a mermaid...involved vinegar and sardines or tuna and a few other things.

**Ianthe** · 10-26-2015, 03:48 AM

Fortunately, that vinegar and fish mix sounds fairly harmless, if cooked. I think the true danger comes when people (or children) begin attempting riskier or highly dangerous ones, because they don't know what will harm them and what won't. Perhaps it may help to start a form of outreach? a thread on Mernetwork blacklisting some of these dangerous videos or 'tutorials'?

**Talia** · 10-26-2015, 02:11 PM

(Not) Funny thing is, I once answered a question posed in Yahoo Answers with complete seriousness, in which the asker was saying she had begun to drink big amounts of water and her legs itched, and what was wrong with her.

Two autoinmmune diseases come with those symptons (diabetes and Graves disease), so I told her to tell her mother and go to the doctor.

Later I found out that the drinking water happens in The thirteenth year, and the itching is because "scales are growing". I felt like an idiot.

**Echidna** · 10-26-2015, 02:21 PM

Originally Posted by Talia

Later I found out that the drinking water happens in The thirteenth year, and the itching is because "scales are growing". I felt like an idiot.

ye, don't.
Many people use yahoo answers, and someone having the symptoms for real will sooner or later read it and be able to benefit from your answer.

**mersheep** · 10-26-2015, 02:35 PM

There was a short story I remember reading when I was in grade school that I think was called substance X. It was about a formula that made things vanish. The two girl's made the stuff, which was made from things like vanishing cream, paint thinner and other solvents. This was applied to a chair, which did not disappear. Instead the paint peeled off of it. Later one of the girls comes back and noticed the chair was gone. The other girl indicated that the mother threw it out as it was ruined. The first girl replied to the effect that the formula was effective, It did not work the way that they had expected it too.

I also seem to remember that the moral of this story was to be careful what you wish for? That there can be unexpected results, Or the results may be technically true, but not at all what one expects. Such things can result in madness, or other mental stability issues.

As it seems there are other esoteric's here, I am sure there are those whom are ready understand this. The next level is full of tricksters, whom tend to enjoy a rather dark humor. Even the guides can be suspect, if one is seeking power and control over others. It is easy to forget the balance. A little may be good, but a lot to one side can be deadly.

**suzanne86** · 10-26-2015, 03:35 PM

An earlier children's story is that of King Midas and the "Midas Touch."

**Rett** · 10-28-2015, 11:45 AM

When I was around 10 or 11 I joined one of those xD The owner of the site had done it to the tee though, creating a whole timeline chronicling human and mermaid events, a blog that spanned several years detailing her various adventures, pages and pages of description on how everything worked. She even created the basic structure for a supposed language all mermaids used. It was done so professionally that 11 year old me believed it completely. Surely someone wouldn't go through all this work for a joke, right? Took me doing the supposed 'spell' about 2 or 3 times (it supposedly took a couple of months to work) and growing a bit more mature in the mind before I realized that it was a bunch of bull xD I actually checked back on that site about a year ago just to see if it was still active and it turns out the members of the site found proof she was faking it and everything crashed and burned in a bunch of amusing drama :P To this day I find it hard to believe I was ever so naive that I believed in those things :P

**PhaylennMurúch** · 10-28-2015, 05:26 PM

late last year I found a young woman 'advertising' her private mermaid group in the MERMAIDS! facebook group. I inquired because she said she was building a 'close knit, supportive group'. Well according to her the group was going to become a family when they all finished their transformations and left their land homes to dwell in the sea, and I was too old at 30 to be part of the pod because they didn't want any 'moms'. Went so far as to tell me that i was "too old to make the transformation from human to mermaid, only people in their mid to late teens can make a full transformation". Before she figured out how old I was she was all over me asking me to send bottles of sea water to members of the group so they could all do their spells on the same night

**Imogen Finnly** · 10-29-2015, 11:24 AM

LOL
If that child is serious, she is going to have a serious let down when she finds out she has legs.
From what I learned, in certain water magic, the mermaid is a figurative representation.
The only way to be a Mermaid here, is to shell out dat cash moneyz

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