(Apologies for the terrible joke in the title that will become apparent soon enough.)

I was glancing through today's DDs (as I do whenever I should really be doing work) when I came across this comment.

...perfect for animal lovers/therians...

Some of you are probably going to laugh at my ignorance, but my first thought was, "What's a therian?" So, like a good little surfer, I Googled it. And here was Google's response:

A Therian is a member of the subclass Theria.

*Click*

Theria (from the Greek for "wild beast") is a subclass of mammals that give birth to live young without using a shelled egg, including both eutherians (placental mammals) and metatherians (marsupials and their ancestors).

Which was very informative. I had no idea there was a word for what basically amounts to all mammals with the exception of the duck-billed-platypus and two species of echidna.

Then I read the comment again and realised I must have made a mistake somewhere. Back to Google I went.

Then I found the animal people. For those who haven't come across these fascinating individuals, the "Therian Subculture" is a group of people who believe that their soul is partly animal, with the vast majority (for whatever reason) being wolves (tied second appears to be domestic dogs and cats).

I had a quiet moment when I thought about this before I realised (in a moment of seemingly divine inspiration) that this wasn't strange at all. A German housemate of mine (now disappeared back to the Mutterland) once confessed that, in one his past lives, he'd been a medieval castle architect. In fact, he'd visited (in this life) the ruins of one of the castles he'd built. How cool is that?

Another friend of mine knew a bloke who said he was a "Psychic Vampire" (that's a vampire who feeds off emotions, not the regular kind who just read minds). There's a whole online community dedicated to these guys (and their blood-drinking counterparts). Apparently crucifixes and all that jazz are no problem, but they do burn monstrously easily in strong sun. Many confess to applying sun-tan cream pretty much the year round.

Tom Cruise (and a few of his friends) say that, at one time far in the past, they were all-powerful beings who created the universe (seemingly for the hell of it), before becoming lost in their creation. Now they're busily clawing back up again.

And whilst they're struggling to regain their control on this world, one guy I met online is preparing to leave it. It's nothing terrible, it's just that he's come to karmic neutral, and so this will be his last life in this universe before he moves on. I wish him the best of luck.

But how does all this stuff relate to Therians? Well, first I have to share something from a conversation with my dad, strolling along the coast between Seaview and Bembridge on the Isle of Wight. I think the conversation had turned to Young Earthists. But, for whatever reason, my dad came out with a line I'll never forget.

"If someone believes that the moon is made of blue cheese, and it makes them happy, why should it affect you?"

I've done a bit of thinking since that day, and here's my belief, thrown out to the internet winds:

Every single human being on this planet is living inside a spherical bubble. All of what you see, hear, smell and feel is contained in your bubble. You can't see outside of it, and no one else can see in. It's your world, exactly as you experience it. What's true in one bubble may be completely wrong in another. Each bubble is as unique as the person inside it. And the contents of each bubble is completely and utterly real.

So the answer to all these many queer and colourful people is not that they're "crazy" (whatever that means). It's just that their bubbles are more exciting than yours.