[quote=Ian Topham]So are we talking about people who think they are from another world?  Maybe I am one.  A lot of people say I am not from this planet, often within minutes of meeting me :)[/quote]

 According to this stuff by Doreen Virtue (the angel lady, you might have heard of her?) along with star seeds you could also be a human incarnated Angel, elemental (fairies, gnomes, mermaids etc), a walk-in, a Lightworker (aka Rainbow warrior/ Light warrior) or a wizard. Or, you know. the average human. All of which have their own special kind of personality, appearance and character sheet etc. 

 Or on another ‘Otherkin’ site, if you’re not an alien, you could be a vampire (ageless, sanguinarian, psi or inheritor), vampyre, demon, angelic, elven, fae, Were/ Therianthrope or draconic.

 So really Ian, you could be just about anything!

 [quote=Ian Topham]Seriously though this must be some kind of mental condition, where they struggle socialising.  Surely feeding an illusion that they may be from another world cannot help these individuals.[/quote]

Call me a suspicious alloitious, but i find the fact that it’s super prevalant and popular, as well as the huge variety of things you can be, somewhat smelly. Human beings have something of a biological imperative to be better than others. It makes simple genetic sense. If you are better and can convince others that you’re different from the rest in a good way, you’ve got a better chance of being a successful genetic doner, or have more support with it. In other words, we all have something of an egocentric drive to fulfill our hierarchy of needs, and this is especially skewed in western society were most people don’t have to invest literally all of their time on physical needs. Sure people may work hard, but lets face it, genuine threat of starvation in the west is rare, and because of that we all pretty much turn out attention to the ‘higher’ needs, such as emotional satisfaction. Particularly because society tells us we should. Ok, fair enough, but then there is this massive problem in which hyperbole about romance, career and so forth leads us into dissapointment and the ‘If only I had…’ clause. “If only I had a partner, I’d be happy,” “If only I were rich, my life would be instantly better,”.Sadly for the striving, most of those ‘if only’s’ have been pretty darn sneered at as delusional and the haves try to well-meaningly convince the have-nots that whatever they say they want, they really don’t.
Lets us move on to spiritualism. In order to fill this cataclysmic but horribly vague void in their lives, people often turn to some form of creed or religion. Take the Victorians for example.  Being a ‘good Christian’ gave you a social out if you weren’t rich and popular. You could still claim with some authority something that made you different and respectable to others, and perhaps also explained ones failings. “I didn’t marry the person I loved because I felt it would be immoral at that time.” And that helps deal with regrets.

 Fast-forward a couple of hundred years and the church, the main source of spiritual comfort in the west has been largely shunned, and yet the urge to find something like it still remains. Now, I’m not de-bunking new-ageism. If if makes your life complete and you can be a nicer, more productive person because of it, by all means go ahead, and I’m certainly not trying to imply that this is all some kind of scam, BUT

 Doesn’t it seem a little too perfect?

 When spiritual healing first got into the popular swing, there were dozens of people (friends and self included) who were reading the templates and crying, “I want it to be me, because it sounds so amazing, but it’s just NOT, am I useless then?”. Well now it’s ok, because you could associate with any one of these superhuman templates and get that kick you want. I’m short and loud and I feel the same about things as my friend who’s tall and quiet, so it’s ok if we’re not type A, because I could actually be subtype Ab and she could be subtype Ac. See what I mean?

I don’t think it’s a mental condition behind these drives; a lot of people feel awkward in society and unhappy with their lives. I think it’s more of an idea people want to fight their own mundanity, and yet not exclude anyone else at the same time. “It’s alright! I’m superhuman and so are you! So is everyone here; we’ve found our people!”