Seeing as how Zach's post was a direct call out to me, I feel the need to respond.
First of all, any otherkin who claims that their brain is of x animal is bullshitting to themselves...
Otherkin and therianthropy is all about the spirit. It's a spiritual thing.
This distinction between spirit and mind is all good and well, except for the numerous short comings it has. First and foremost, I don't believe in spirits, or spectres, or souls. If spirits don't exist, then this whole distinction is dubious at best. At worst, it reverts the difference between otherkins/therians and ordinary people right back to being in the mind, which I will address later. Second, I see this distinction as solely an ad hoc excuse to distance yourselves from criticism. Knowing that transpeople find such claims of "having an animal's brain" offensive, you (general) just move the goal posts further down the line and outside the range of our epistomological knowledge, but clearly a distinction exists between otherkins/therians and ordinary people, as I too will address later.
The other fault that I find with even the "moderate and rational" otherkins/therians is that you two (Zach and Random) have both stated that this is either something "you are or something you aren't" and that it is "unchangeable" (see footnote #1). These statements differ drastically with any understanding of spirituality. Spirituality is something that one is in no way instilled with from birth. While certain societies may guide their offspring towards their belief, their is nothing differentiating one person from another in their specific spirituality. I was born Christian, but I can convert to a Hindu, Muslim, or Zoroastrian at any point by obeying their holy texts and practicing their faith. According to you I just can't become a rabbit-kin. At this point, you're not saying that these things are spiritual, but they're an intrinsic part of yourself that you are projecting onto spirituality. A part of yourself so intrinsic it can't be changed or altered. For clarity, I see religion and spirituality as the same.
The other dangerous thing with this "
born this way" argument is that it legitimizes the very claims that you are trying to distance from otherkin/theriantropy. Saying that there is a legitimate difference that one is born with legitimizes the claims of those nutters seeking "species reassignment surgery." Saying that this difference exists actually puts those nuts on par with GID. Who is anyone else, especially one who doesn't feel these "soul-struggles" and "otherkin struggles," to deny them their claims? Even saying it is a "soul" thing is not much different as "hey, I just want to transition because I have a woman's soul" is the first thing that comes to mind. Identity comes from somewhere, saying that some separate identity comes from the soul is only moving it out of where it really comes from (the brain). Not to mention the difference between this identity coming from the brain or soul is superfluous if not non-existant.
The second reason I find this intrinsic-ness dangerous is that in legitimizing the claims of these nuts, you just reaffirm their delusions and could very well guide them away from getting the mental help they deserve. This is a perfect example of benign nonsense (you and Random) fueling the dangerous nonsense (nuts on tumblr). You can't say "we're born different" or "we can't help it" and then act like those idiots on tumblr are just getting such nonsense from thin air.
Finally, in an unrelated note, these nuts are doing a great disservice to transpeople in general. First, by making this something you are "born as" all you do is legitimize the bigots that trans-people have faced for the last, well forever. Now, they can take away the "born this way argument" because you are also born this way. Not only are you born this way, you don't seek to transition to be wolves and dragons, so why would anyone need to transition genders. Second they can assert that their "what's next, people wanting to be animals" claims correct since it literally happened. Also, otherkins haven't been around "since tribal societies." The earliest known mention of them are from online groups in April 1990. I feel that statement is just projected, like how some bisexuals feel everybody is bi. Finally people who would normally be sympathetic to transpeople now see this nonsense and may think otherwise in their acceptance of us. And for what?
And this brings me back to the post you made last time you tried to prove to me how
"otherkin isn't offensive to transpeople." I'm sorry if this is breaking a rule about quoting from other threads, but I find this pertinant for a few reasons. First, I let the topic go to be nice. I don't like arguing about other people's beliefs. I walked away literally to spare you a tongue lashing. Returning to that point, other thing about that post is how it says "Soul-struggles as opposed to the fact that one's gender literally does not match one's sex."
I literally wish I could show you just how dumb that statement is. I wish I could explain how my earliest memory is being upset that I couldn't be Snow White for Halloween. I wish I could explain how when I wanted to grow my hair long as a 6 year old, my parents beat me and physically held me down while cutting my hair. Not to mention how traumatic that was. I wish you could know how terrible it is to repress yourself for almost 20 years, jumping through hoops just to make others happy. I wish I could explain getting envious to the point of crying of other women as they developed. I wish you could know the fear of seeing secondary sex characteristics develop before your eyes and wishing more than anything they would stop. I would like you to see how I cut myself at 13-15 just trying to control some of the pain I was feeling. I wish you could see me and how for the better part of the last decade I was high or drunk more often then I could explain just trying to forget my gender if not OD. I wish you could see how scared I was when I finally did come out to someone, how I was crying tears of fear that they would never speak to me again. I wish you could experience these things, because you can't imagine how much it sucks until you do. That is literally the best way to describe GID, it sucks, it fucking sucks. I doubt therian/otherkin groups have nearly the same suicide rate (30%) that transpeople do. I'm literally in tears right now because when you say things like "soul-struggles as opposed to gender struggles" it trivializes just how horrible my (and others) experiences are. And for what, why does trivialization take place? I honestly don't know. My best guess is so you can be like those pagan kids in High School and rebel against Christianity.
There was one thing you said that was correct. There is a differences between gender struggles and soul struggles. One is real, the other isn't
In closing, I feel Sylvana best summarized my view on this matter
I will be honest, I perceive most/all other-kin as delusional. I am even willing to include furies in that list. However, I would like to say that it just my own opinion and I follow a live and let live approach.
If you want to make this spiritual, then make it spiritual. Stop saying it's something you're "born as" or "something you can't change." Admit it's just meditation in your basement or having a spirit animal. Admit that anyone can be an otherkin/therian. And for the love of God, don't ever say "otherkin-struggles" again. When you say "I can't change who I am" and "If you have to ask, you aren't one" then you two have taken it out of the range of spiritual, not me.
Footnotes
I would argue, though, that one can't have the spirit/soul/what-have-you of something that only started existing after you were born
Not to mention I can't just go "Oh, that's bad-ass, so therefore, that's me" 
"If you have to ask, you most likely aren't one."
