1. One night I gave my friend Chris the "dæmon lecture", trying to explain all the basics to him within like.. an hour. XD After he left, I started pondering what his dæmon might be settled as, and decided on a crow. A few days later on the bus Chris said to me, "You know what? If I could be any animal in the world, I'd be a crow." He also gave me some reasons why. (Mainly 'cause he could fly and poop on peoples' cars. XD;) And I also found out The Crow is his favorite movie. To me this demonstrates that even for people who don't yet know their dæmon, there is a right answer - so right that anyone can see it with enough thought.

2. We all know that when a person in Lyra's world dies, their dæmon vanishes into thin air - but what you probably didn't know is that this might be reflected in our own dimension as well.

A doctor in Düsseldolf, Germany claims that a human soul has weight.  Dr. Duncan MacDougall (a Massachusetts doctor) insists that this soul weighs 21 grams (about 3/4 of an ounce).  He placed the death-beds of terminal patients on extremely sensitive scales.  As they died and their soul left the body, the needle dropped 21 grams.  Even with all the air in the lungs, urine, and waste being accounted for, there was still the 21 grams of "mysterious weight" that was lifted.  MacDougall also tried this experiment on a dying dog, but no weight was lost at the time of death.  (The assumption being that a dog doesn't have a dæmon to lose.)

A chemist named Joseph Priestley tried a similar experiment, but came to the conclusion that "if there is soul-stuff, it evidently weights nothing," because he weighed a mouse before and after it died, and 21 grams were not lost.  Silly chemist.  He shouldn't have weighed a mouse, now, should 'e?

The first question that came to my mind was, 'Why would it be 21 grams no matter what person?  After all, everyone's dæmon is a different size.'  Well, after a minute of thinking I found my answer.  I'm so used to seeing Rookie outside of me that.. it slipped my mind that he is completely inside me.  There is a dæmon settled as a coyote within my mind - yes - but not literally.  I don't have a furball canine curled up in my brain that weights fifty pounds.  o.o  Our dæmon is our core, and it makes sense that this core would take up the same amount of space in everyone, even if their projected forms are different sizes.  When you imagine your dæmon's form beside you, the image is true, but any pressure you think you feel isn't.

Anyway, this is a very interesting fact.  It's the first one I've come across that could be scientific proof that dæmons exist - or at least the human spirit.

Note: While an interesting story, MacDougall's experiment was very flawed. Him and his colleagues were not always sure as to the exact time of death, the sample size was extremely small, the results weren't uniform, etc.

3. First, an introduction to explain why I consider these facts:  The dæmon's form is not dependent on what animals their human knows or has seen.  If the possibilities of its settled shape were limited by their human's knowledge, the dæmon can't always become the most suitable form - its true form that it should settle as.  But they are real entities, and not something created by the person on a whim, so nature will take its course without assistance -- just like someone doesn't have to tell a wild plant "grow" for it to grow.  In this same way, the dæmon can settle as any living creature, even if the human wasn't aware it existed.

In Emily's LiveJournal she explained how her dæmon was commonly a furry predator of some sort.  She could see what his form looked like, but she didn't know what animal he was.  After looking through an animal encyclopedia, she discovered that Chayan was a wolverine.  (Sadly the X-Men character is more well-known than the mustelid.)  But the fact that Chayan settled as an animal Emily had never seen a photo of before...  How can you explain that other than dæmons being real?

Something like this has happened to more than one person.  Maia's dæmon Mox is commonly a red panda, and it may be what he'll settle as.  His human didn't know what a red panda was until he randomly became one, so she just called it a ginger raccoon/panda/sloth thing.  XD  I'm sorry, but no one can simply imagine a creature that looks exactly like a red panda.  They're too unique.  Going with the hybrid theme, they're like a raccoon-panda-fox-weasel.

This third case sealed the deal for me.  I was so elated I could hardly hold it in (probably because I assisted the person).  Josh described his dæmon, Elafros, as being settled as a pine marten.  Thing was, her coloring was way different from any pine marten.  She has a goldish body, with a dark brown head, tail, and limbs.  I know my animals pretty well, and that sounded bizarre to me.  I couldn't even imagine it in my mind's eye.  If someone were to make up a weasel imaginary friend, it would likely be one color, but with a lighter underbelly, or be one color with darker paws and ears... but the whole extremities one color and the body another?  Nah.

Well, when Josh asked me for an analysis, I wanted to be positive that El was a pine marten, because she only had the build of one.  Plus, dæmons don't usually take the form of a real animal, but with a completely different fur coat.  I first suggested a long-tailed weasel, but while researching red pandas for Maia....  I saw the words 'yellow-throated marten' in the list of predators.  I stared at it in disbelief before racing to my computer and doing a Google search.  The first image to appear was of a golden weasel with a dark brown head.  A second picture proved it has the exact same markings as Elafros!  It was a real animal, and neither Josh or I knew of it!!  (Actually, he had seen a photo of a yellow-throated marten just the day before, but me and others know for a fact that El has been the gold marten for months.)  And it's not as if anyone would have a reason to lie about this.  When someone knows their soul's true form, they want to show it off - they don't pretend to not know what it is.

The short of things?  I consider this |\/|4|) pr00f of dæmons' existence.

Update:  I found out that two other dæmians have had similar experiences.  For simplicity's sake, I'll simply quote them.

"Hey I just read the newest fact in the Fact sections, and I think that, if it hadn't happened to me I wouldn't have thought it to be a solid fact, but it did, a couple months ago. Wei were kind of wondering about the whole 'your dæmon's form can be anything' idea, so I was like,  'Ok then I'll just make some form up.' So I thought of a red monkey, with a longish kind of black nose and vivid green eyes, and black paws and tail. So that was cool and I was just looking on junglewalk.com recently and I saw an actual picture of the animal I made up! Well, clearly I didn't make it up, but I mean, that's news to me. It's a.. ah.. oh frig a.. lemur! A red ruffed lemur." -- Swing

"Hm, I think that's happened to me. One day Pocket randomly became a golden mouse with a black stripe through each eye that I was certain I'd never seen before. It quickly became one of his three favourite forms (first two being mongoose and snow leopard) because he could duck people's hands as the little mouse. When trying to describe it to a friend she said, "Sounds a little like a dormouse to me." I googled "dormouse pictures" and discovered that the species Eliomys quercinus, or Garden Dormouse, was exactly what Pocket was turning into all the time ... Hmm ..." -- Cat

Update #2: As with Maia, a girl who goes by Togepi told me, "When I thought about my daemon today, suddenly an image of a raccoon-like animal appeared in front of me. The fur was rather red/orange/brown but I can't find it in my animal book. I tried searching for pictures but I couldn't find a lot of pictures of different raccoon species - but it's NOT a tanuki/raccoon dog or a kinkajou [which also seems to be a kind of raccoon o.o]. Do you happen to know of any picture sites?" Later I got an email from her saying, "I have been searching for the animal in books (couldn't find it ^^;), till I suddenly thought that I could do a search for "red raccoon", since that was what it looked like... I found out it was a red panda ^_^. In the past, red pandas were classified as raccoons, so it isn't such a surprise I thought it looked like one..." She didn't seem so surprised by this discovery, but I still think it's fascinating when a dæmon becomes an animal the person's never heard of!

Update #3:  Also of note, IMO, is that an old member of my forum used to describe his settled dæmon as a red fox-coyote hybrid, because she looked like a fox, but had the gray-ish, multi-colored coat of a coyote.  It took me far too long to point out to him that his dæmon was probably a gray fox.  I linked him to some photos online.  Not long after he agreed that she was a gray fox.  Because it fit best?  No.  That's what she always was.

And my own experience, even.  I near drove myself crazy trying to figure out what Rookie was.  Nothing I came up with seemed to perfectly explain his black canine form.  It wasn't a fox, it wasn't a wolf, it wasn't really a jackal, it wasn't a German shepherd...  Coyote never crossed my mind because I was certain they couldn't be naturally black.  Well, I was wrong.  I typed in 'black coyote' into Google, and the first photos I came across looked more like Rookie than anything I'd ever seen.  It took quite a bit of reflection, but eventually I learned a coyote described me better than anything else I'd considered.  A year or so later Rookie settled as this.

Update #4:  Alex had the same kind of experience and posted about it on the forum. She said her dæmon, Neo, used to be a weird canine she just referred to as a 'Indian wolf' or 'wolf-jackal hybrid.' She even thought Neo settled as this, but wasn't comfortable with the fact that they didn't even know was the form was. Neither her analysis of a wolf nor a jackal fitted Alex. Plus the animal didn't look like any canine she researched. He was slender with a multi-colored coat, strange tail, and a face that didn't seem to fit any wild dog species. Alex had seen a picture of a dhole, but decided that didn't fit because of the thick coat. But she ended up researching them a second time, and quoting Alex directly: "Then it slapped me across the face: There were pictures which looked like my dæmon used to look like. I didn't know dholes could have short fur and be that sleek, but apparently Neo did know there (not consciously though) was a subspecies like this." Here's a picture of the subspecies of dhole: http://www.yathin.com/photos/dholes/dhole.jpg And interestingly enough, Alex's dæmon has taken to this form again. ^^

Then there's Leah and Tal. Leah used to believe her dæmon was settled as a dingo, which a number of us agreed fit her best. But then Tal began changing again... When he became a "black jackal-Bermese Mountain dog," Leah was sure he would settle as this, even if the description didn't fit his unique canine form perfectly. Then she IMed me, saying, "OMG. *hyperventilates* The black/brown jackal. There's black dingos! Black and brown! http://www.bankbeacss.qld.edu.au/Webcomps/Dingos/images/black.jpg It's insane! His fur's longer, but it's closer than either the jackal or bernese mountian dog." As Leah said, what are the chances it would've been a dingo, not something else? This is probably what Tal was meant to be the whole time, but no one knew what the animal was.

Update #5:  A member on the forum named Ashleigh, when still unsettled, had her dæmon take the form of a white bear. But like a white-colored black bear, not a polar bear. Well, with a bit of research it turns out black bears can be albino. They're given the special name "spirit bear." Who knew? Ash sure didn't.

Secondly, on the forum we had a new member named Nia. Her dæmon had pretty much always taken the form of a human, so she was convinced this was his true shape. But eventually she posted a reverse analysis to try and see what his animal form would be. Something about her characteristics said "Ethiopian wolf" to me, so that's what I suggested. Turns out the form fits, and she accepted it as Shahndyl's animal form, even if he still prefers to be human. Not only that, but Ethiopian wolf was the form Shahndyl used to take all along, years ago. In Nia's own words: "Ethiopian wolf is looking really good to me. It even looks more like what he was at first than an actual jackal. o.O I just didn't know these guys existed. Coincidence?

He likes being an Ethiopian wolf, too. He looks just like he used to- I definitely mistook it for jackal. I think that's hilarious."

Jordyn from the forum about her dæmon Jayve: "One thing he's always done, when I had a lot of trouble visualising him and just didn't feel like guessing at his form, is become a grey feline creature with black stripes/spots on its back, a long, bushy, striped tail that doubled his length, and something like a black stripe of quills running down his spine, that could be erected when negative emotions like anger or frustration were present. I always assumed he was something like a hybrid or mythic, because I had never seen or read about anything that was like this form he'd take.

Only recently did he take this form again, but this time it was clear. I pulled out my animal encyclopedia and flipped through the pages until I came upon an obscure mammalian family called viverridae. There were only three different genet species listed in my book, and only two resembled Jigsaw's form. I did an image search on large spotted genets and common genets, and assumed he was a hybrid of the two, since the form looked like a mix bewteen them. I did an image search on linsangs, and eliminated them from the list of possible animals Jigsaw was. I looked back in the encyclopedia, and there was another species listed called the angolan genet. There was no information on it in the book aside from the name, so I did an image search on every different search engine I could think of. Absolutely no images popped up. I searched around different animal sites, and could find no images. Apparently, the only documented information on this creature is its physical description and habitat. I read the description of the angolan genet, and my eyes just about popped from my sockets. Every word describes Jigsaw. The grey fur, the black elongated spots/splotches, the lanky form and somewhat short legs, and even the mane of stiff two-inch hairs along the spine that is raised defensively like quills, which is what I assumed they were before."

When I asked Jordyn if she was absolutely sure she'd never seen a genet, her response was, "Yes, Jayve (that's his name now) became a genet before I had any idea of what a genet was. I had never read about or heard of genets at the time, which was up until very recently. Did I get a glimpse of a genet image earlier somehow? No, I'm positive that I haven't. The closest thing to a genet I'd seen were servals. Also, I have been unable to find any images, photos or hand-drawn pictures, of the specific species of angolan genet. It seems there are none at all. The only information available on this particular species consists of a written physical description and habitat; it was only after a great deal of searching that I was able to come across a written description. So basically, yes; I'd never seen a genet before."

And Ali on a subspecies of tern she didn't know about: "And the mini-revalation I had today......I just found out there's such thing as an Antarctic Tern. They're pretty much the same as the Arctic Tern except for some small details........and all those small details fit Tyb. So I guess he's REALLY a Sterna Vittata (best scientific name ever).....but I'll still call him an Arctic Tern. Bahahaha."

Forum member Katie on her dire wolf dæmon: "Speaking as someone with a daemon that is extinct, I think it's possible. I have always watched a lot of nature shows, and I would have remembered hearing about an ancient kind of wolf. And even if I had, none of the representations of dire wolves in the media have the correct coloration/bone structure/etc. And I had never played any RPGs in which I could have heard about the mythical-monster type."

And a recent member Vow on her dæmon Boo's form: "Well, I don't even really.. like bats. I don't dislike them, but unlike several species, I didn't know a single thing about them. So I was watching T.V., and I.. made myself aware of Boo or whatever.. and I could "see" him as something on my shoulder, but I didn't recognize what exactly. It took me before I realized he was a bat, and it surprised me. A lot. But it felt amazingly right, much more fitting than any other form he had taken. And I could tell he was happier in it. So I went on Okibi's site and looked at the bat analysis. And the flying fox bat fit me exactly. Every last thing. So I went and did a tiny bit of research on the species. He even fit the right size and color."

Update #6: When a forumer named Ashleigh was new to the community, she thought her dæmon Jak was taking the form of an African wild dog-Ethiopian wolf hybrid. Odd hybrids didn't faze us back then, but nowadays it's the kind of form that most would argue 'just isn't gonna work,' and you're mislabeling what is actually a real animal out there. Well months down the road Jak seemed to settle as a white jindo (breed of dog) instead. Then one day while Ash was looking at a jindo website, she discovered that the 'tiger' coat type of jindos looks just like Jak's old hybrid form. Ashleigh had even drawn a picture back then representing how the form looked to her, and they matched perfectly. So Jak had been a jindo all along, not some newbish mutant. X3 And it's highly improbable that Ash could've seen this coat variant on a jindo before. They seem extremely rare, and even photos online are far and few between.

Update #7: A girled named Chloe emailed me with a reverse analysis request. I didn't have a response right away, but suddenly inspiration struck and I just knew she was a Tibetan mastiff. I told her so, and Chloe responds saying, "It's pretty strange because Er had been taking a form that looked like this. o.o I had no idea what the breed was, but he was big and black, with long fur. I guess that fits the Tibetan Mastiff. xD I looked up some information about them and they seem to be pretty much fit me. The only thing is what you said, the fear. But when I was reading, I found this sentence on one website: "Brave and fearless when properly socialized." I am most definitely not 'properly socialized'. xD So that makes perfect sense to me. Er could easily end up settling as a Mastiff, especially considering he already spends most of his time in that form." So her dæmon just happened to take the form of an unknown breed that just so happens to fit her beautifully. If nothing else, I adore 'coincidences' like these.

4. This is what I'd consider "loose evidence," but it's sure interesting.  The quote below is from Cat.

"I haven't actually had an experience like the tripping one, but felt that, for a moment, Pocket became physical, or at least was actually apart from me for just a second. While feeling rather lazy one morning (too lazy to lean out over the edge of the bed to check the time on my digital clock), I jokingly asked Pocket to find out what time it was for me. He leaped up, bounded over, stared at the clock for a second or two and then jumped back over and curled up on my pillow, saying briefly, "It's 7:36." Well, I hadn't expected a reply. As quickly as I could I rolled over to see what time it was. 7:36. Pocket had been right exactly. I hadn't checked the time before that, so I had no sense of time. It was really strange ..."

5. The following quote is from the forum's Kaitlin:
"Last year I asked mom what animal she saw as kind of my companion. That was before she'd ever read HDM or anything, and I always would ask her weird questions like that. Well, she kinda looked at me and said she saw this foxy little face, and a bushy tail. She didn't know really what species, because none of the foxes we looked at matched with what she saw. And just today I showed her that marten, and she said that was the face she saw. She remembered that from all those months back, and kinda laughed and said, 'I saw your dæmon!'  .....  I think the marten thing with mom was very interesting. She thought it was cool. She said she could just see this foxy face on one shoulder, and a fluffy tail hanging down the other. Which is how he loves to sit, when he's not stretched out on the couch by me or moving around on the ground like outside and things."

Note: Kate's dæmon settled as a Tibetan mastiff, but pine marten sure seemed to be the right form for her at the time.

6. After Zen started a thread about her dæmon's handwriting being noticeably different from her own, it became apparent than quite a few others have realized the same thing.  o.o  Some interesting quotes:

"A few nights ago, I noticed something really weird while talking to Falel. I'd been writing out my thoughts, quite fast, and he started to respond to what I was writing. I tried to write his responses down, and I realized that it was difficult to write properly. I was a little out of it, so I just started to let the pen write how it wanted, and what do you know?

My dæmon has different handwriting than I.

It took a while for me to really see it. I'd just been scribbling furiously, and my handwriting isn't fantastic anyways... but once I slowed down to take his dictation my writing evened out, and it became obvious that what I was saying and he was saying looked different. (<--comma overload.) My handwriting is sort of cursivelike, and I put a lot of curly serif things on it. My lowercase y's, g's, and k's loop. My letters are often connected. Falel's, on the other hand, is quite simple block print. The letters didn't connect, the y's were very angular, the letters were spaced out a little more than mine. What it looked like was someone who hadn't had time to develop a writing style yet.

Have any of you ever encountered this while journaling with your dæmon? I don't mean do you write their responses differently - I usually put his in culy brackets, like so -->{ } - I mean is it actually harder for you to write in your own handwriting?"  -- Zen

"I've noticed that with Rinto. I have numerous conversations with Rint in a book that used to be my diary about a year ago, and I've noticed that when I write on behalf of him the writing is somewhat smaller, and the words closer together. It just looks different to my writing, which is quite large and the a's are written like they are on a computer screen (if that makes any sense at all), and the e's are written sort of like a backwards 3." -- Toni

"*gape* I swear you read my mind. How weird XD. I was having a written conversation with Nax the other day and wasn't paying attention to which one of us was saying what, then checked back over my writing and realised that while my letters were cramped and italic, the statements that Nax had made were all in much more spaced out, bolder letters.

Huh. Probably it's because he's naturally much bolder and loudmouthed than I am - I'm all doubtful and tense." -- Key

"I don't think you're crazy either. I used to have written conversations with Neo (now I have an online journal) and his writing was more confident, more neat than my writing. I think it depends on the dæmon. If your dæmon is very different from you in some aspects, it's normal, that he has a different handwriting. I once read a book on graphology and it says that a different writing style indicates a different personality. I'm not sure If your daemon can be that different from you, but on the other hand, it's not a total different writing style, perhaps just in some aspects. Outsiders might even identify it as your handwriting." -- Alex

"I've noticed that when he's writing something TO me that I have no part in, the handwriting is nicer - but then, I have scribbles, so anything's nicer. -_-; If I'm writing down his small comments, then they're the same because he doesn't mean for them to be written, just said. xD" -- Brooke

"I finally kind of get what you're talking about! I was getting all scribbly and shrill with my writing, and he just cut me off and started reassuring me, and when he was writing through me, my letters were all.. more.. I don't know, the loops were tighter and more controlled and it was all sort of pulled in? (I describe things so spectacularly.) I usually write in a mix of cursive and printing, and his was more printing than anything else. But we both insist on writing capital i's in cursive. But his are neater." -- Emily

"My writing style is kinda slanted compared to his. He writes really neatly and in a very upright way. My style is more long strokes and tall letters. A bit more flourishing and sweeping. And not just that; I wanted to write stuff more freely, if you know what I mean." -- Silvix (Darkshadow's dæmon)

"I don't always find it very easy to talk to her, unfortunately. I find the best way is to take a pen and paper and simply let my mind wander and scribble down whatever comes into my head, preferably without looking at the page - it helps a lot. Weirdly, when I write while talking to her, what I like to think of as her handwriting is very different from mine. I know this is a method covered right at the end of the "longer introduction" on the Daemon Page, but wei were doing it for about half a year before I found the site." --Taz

I don't have a quote from him, but Daniel (the first person I knew to communicate with his dæmon through a journal), told me that Parallax's writing was slanted, like italics.  I saw a few pages from their journal, and it's true.  He says, compared to his own writing, hers is neater and "organic but efficient."  She also writes d's differently.  This variation in their handwriting is something Daniel didn't consciously do - it just happened.

This seems like proof to me, because why else would the dæmon have a different style of writing unless it resulted from a different personality/persona?  Or from a neurological standpoint, from them operating within a certain part of our brains, and this distinct style is a result of that. I imagine their handwriting looks similar to what it'd be if they were the human.  Admittedly, I would say my handwriting is identical from Rookie's in our journal, but I think that's because I write his thoughts as they come to me, rather than letting him "take over" and write for himself.  If I let him do this and he rambled on for pages, maybe I'd see differently.

7. For me, the analyses alone are sometimes proof enough to have faith in the existence of dæmons. Too many times to count I'm told by someone that my analysis was creepily accurate, that they're amazed by how well it fits them. If dæmons they weren't real, then the settled forms fitting the human's personality so well would be a fluke - certainly it couldn't happen every single time like it seems to.  But it's apparent to me that the animal isn't just the person's favorite animal (it usually isn't even that).  People like me CAN have intuition about a form, because there IS a right and wrong answer.  A guess isn't always a guess and nothing more.  The dæmon has a true form it takes that the human and other people can sense, given enough experience and skill.  Take these examples:

A girl who goes by Ryushyka emailed me, requesting a reverse analysis.  After reading the description of herself, my gut instinct told me her dæmon was a cottontail rabbit.  Her apparent shyness, nervous nature, solitary lifestyle, and ability to persevere are what led me to this conclusion.  Not much more.  But she replied saying she didn't feel that her dæmon was a rabbit.  She thought maybe it was a dog, because a friend told her she looks like a dog, and Ryu thought she saw her dæmon as a dog out of the corner of her eye.  I replied saying that it could be a dog, but those traits sure didn't sound like any dog breed I knew of.  Domestic dog dæmons are likely to be very tactile, more sociable, not night owls, and not mind loud noises so much.  I wasn't really expecting this, but Ryushyka replied again to say she read a book called Power Animals, (about animal guardians), and when she read about the rabbit...  '"O my gosh! It IS a rabbit." In this description I almost found myself.'

Out of curiosity I looked up my quick analysis of a cottontail dæmon.  My intuition had something to it.  I put these rabbits down as artistic.  Ryushyka said she views the world artistically, and she likes to draw.  Also, cottontail souls have a knack for blending into the background, while Ryu found it relevant to say, "I'm rather somewhere in the middle with ordinary people, there, where nobody really notices you."  And while typically docile, cottontails will be aggressive if cornered.  Ryu said she'll strike back if challenged (like two male rabbits boxing) and only if necessary.

'Active early morning, late afternoon and at night, preferring to take things slow during the day.'  This fits in perfectly with her stating, "I'm a ''night bird." When I was on vacation, my father said, "The more the sun goes down, the more happy you are." That's true. Because of that I'm sleepy by day."  And despite what people might think, cottontails are quite solitary.  Ryu made it clear that she's a big loner, but is often around family.  Cottontails are the same way when they live in a burrow for a time, raising a litter.  I don't remember what triggered this, but a fact I came up with is 'Kind of like dark, cloudy days.'  Ryu is probably the only person to mention she likes stormy clouds.  =P  And of course the shy, nervous feelings are very much tied in with the rabbit that needs to be always alert to survive.  Ryushyka doesn't like loud noises.  For a rabbit, a loud noise is unwelcome because it means danger.  Lastly, at the beginning of the email she said people call her quite persevering.  That's a big rabbit characteristic.  =)  Rabbits are notorious for mating, and they do this to persevere.  Their numbers are often cut in half or worse by predators, so cottontails have that many more litters to keep their population stable.

For another girl, Jenna's, reverse analysis I replied telling her, "The traits you listed definitely sound like a wild cat soul to me."  A lynx was among the three possibilities I mentioned.  Jenna in response said, "It's frightening... I was considering that today, and a lynx was the form that seemed to call to me the most, even before I'd read your e-mail. In fact, I'd even begun considering that possibility way back when I first begun reading the novels. Thank you for the insight. You seem to have an excellent way with perceiving the dæmons of others. While it may seem to be an abrupt response, a lynx seems to fit best."

Another girl, who went by Monsoon, had a description that definitely made me think 'wolf.'  Her reply to this was, "Yes! It feels so right now. And it seems to fit me if you know what I mean? My cousin thought that the analysis had been written for me, and I am so comfortable visualizing a wolf!"

And things like this happen all the time...

Update:  "I finally got my act together, and went and read the coyote analysis Cat did for Okibi. And I got the biggest shock.
It matched my personality.

[explains why it fits]

It's just so weird! And, as far as I'm concerned, extra proof on the existence of dæmons. What are the chances that an analysis written for another person with the same soul would fit me? The person who wrote it - Cat - doesn't even know me! Not that well, anyway. There are small bits that don't fit me, but that's to be expected. It would just be beyond belief if I was exactly the same as Okibi. And it's quite likely that bits mean different thing to each of us. While I take the phrase "you will not be defeated" to mean the way I continue to do my things - albeit secretively - no matter what's been said, it could mean something different to Okibi. Like, she purposely goes about it in an extravagant manner to prove she doesn't care. I don't know. I'm just making it up.

But one thing this analysis has done is further concrete my belief that Killy is a coyote. I was already pretty darn sure, but now I'm almost certain. If dæmons became corporeal overnight, I'd be very surprised to find that he wasn't a coyote. At the very least, I am definitely, positively some kind of wild canine." -- Winger

8. Proof that even skeptical parents who think dæmons are a bad thing at first can have a change of heart:

"I mentioned that I printed off the dæmon book intro for my dad to read ... then I left it in a subtle place (the computer desk) and went to my mum's house for the weekend. So I got home a while ago ... and while starting up the computer I was disappointed to see the pile of papers bore no signs of having been read. =\ A few minutes after, Dad came upstairs and said he'd missed me (and I said, "I knew you would"), and after a pause he gestured vaguely to the intro and said, "I did read some of that."

o.o! That's an "omgwtf" moment. I asked him what he'd thought with bated breath and he said yeah, it is like your inner conscience really and he realizes everyone has that. And he's read stuff like this before but never realized it was the same thing as dæmons. He mentioned that sometimes, when making a decision, that conscience of his tells him to do one thing, and if he does the other it doesn't really work out for him ... and this little voice has a kind of, "I told you so" moment.

It gets better. =0 Dawn read it too. Dad said he's been watching her glance out of the corner of her eye every now and then, all weekend, trying to envision her stag. (And he did refer to it as "her stag", which he's never done before. In fact, I don't think he's ever even acknowledged the stag.) Dawn came upstairs at that point and agreed, adding that she's been trying to talk to him, too, only it's tricky. She thinks he isn't talking out of spite because she ignored him for so long. XD That reminded me of Pan and Lyra. Well, good luck to Dawn and The Stag. =) I didn't expect Dad to start envisioning his dæmon right away, but I'm just glad he finally understands. And who knows? - he didn't say he wouldn't strike up a relationship with his soul. ;)"

"I'm not sure why, but Dad's gone from calling referring to Pocket by his name, to using "your dæmon". I think this means he's really, seriously acknowledging Pocket as everything I said he is. This is good. Anyway, reason I bring this up is, Dad drew me aside today to have a talk about my whole depression thing. He doesn't think I am totally depressed, because he says he's good at self-analysis and analyzing other people, and then he said I'm probably really good at self-analysis, too, considering I talk to my dæmon. And then he said, "What does your dæmon think about you lacking motivation and refusing to do math homework ..?" And I fell silent and then admitted, "He's kinda got your take on it. He doesn't like it." "Exactly," said Dad. "I'm telling you to try, your dæmon is telling you to try ... you're blocking out the key figures in your life." "

"It's so weird to get told off for not doing what Pocket tells me to ... from Dad. o_O "He's looking out for your best interest. Why aren't you listening to him ..?" XD Jeez." -- Cat

9. Quoted straight from Krissy's LiveJournal:

"the other day, i was perusing the neil gaiman comics at borders when a middle-aged man attempted to pass me. i moved by, he said thanks. when he turned around he noticed my very long hair. "hey, check out the hair on you!" he said. i giggled and said thanks. "man, look at that, it really is beautiful!" i giggled and thanked him, again. he walked away, then turned around, lowered his head, looked me in the eyes and said "you are the unicorn in the sunbeam" "

(Yes, her dæmon is indeed a unicorn.  And Krissy swears this really happened.  Even if the guy was carrying around a guitar case and probably on drugs, this is uber neato.)

10. Yet another example of how there is a right animal form, because dæmon forms aren't chosen at will:

A girl I know named Danielle thought her dæmon, Max, would settle as a white tiger.  Now, I hardly knew anything about Danielle, but one of my first impressions was, 'She's not a tiger.'  In my eyes it just didn't fit.  She reminded me more of a domestic dog personality type, so I told her this via MSN.  Danielle seemed skeptical; I believe Max had never been a dog before.  (She instead thought her alternate self, Max's dæmon, would be a German shepherd.)  Well, it turned out the tiger analysis fit Max's personality, while the German shepherd fit her own.  Not long after I find out Max has settled as a German shepherd with blue eyes.  I was right.  And it wasn't my influence that caused this.  She and Max realized on their own the dog form was correct - I've just had enough experience that I could tell beforehand.

11. Following is an interesting little snippit from Jory:

"Okay, so Mew (who was Flash or something stupid at the time) was sitting in the doorway while I was roleplaying with my sister, as a griffin. And my sister and I had just discussed dæmons at length and decided that my character's dæmon was a European badger, named Mew. We played, then, as I was heading for the door, --my sister goes, "Jory!", and I turned around, and she said jokingly, "Don't trip over Mew on your way out," and I swear, I'll remember the shiver that went through me as long as I live -- I turned around, and there was Mew, smirking at me as a badger. (I hadn't even read HDM at this time; Mew was my imaginary friend for years.)"

12. Just a couple quick anecdotes of people sensing another's dæmon, and that person seeming to agree:

"This always struck me as odd... XD I have a friend, Alex, who I met last year in my music class. (She and I were first and second chair trumpet, respectively.) So I got to know 'er and I started figuring she'd have a coyote dæmon. And one day she told me about some cunning idea of hers or something and I remarked, "That's crafty! You're crafty. Crafty like a fox." She replied, "No, you're crafty like a fox. I'm crafty like a coyote." -- Cat

"I've always felt my mum's [dæmon] would be an all-black cat. (She used to have a black cat when she was a teenager that she loved very much, but my grandfather put him down without telling her. This wasn’t why I thought her dæmon was a cat, though.) After I decided this, she was cautioning me about nightclubs and bars and things, and she told me that she would always sit with her back to a wall, always tracking every person in the room because she has to know where danger may be coming from. She then told me that someone had even described her once as being 'like a cat'." -- SierraLou

13. Thanks to emily for this story. She posted it ages ago but I didn't forget:

"..Here is a cool daemony thing that happened that I found exciting: A week ago I took a walk to the beach, which was freezing and completely abandoned and I felt like the last person on earth and it was eerie. So I was writing some things, sitting on this metal lifeguard station, and I scribbled 'everyone, I can leave tiny frozen hoofprints in the sand,' among a lot of other crazy things. Then I wrote some things in sharpie on the back of this cream-coloured very square building that was kind of hidden by shrubbery and signed it 'love emily&&svipur.' It was a VERY successful hermit's day out.

But, so then, I couldn't feel my hands and was walking back across the sand and I saw this set of deer prints that I must've walked past earlier that just started, and just ended. Hey, I didn't previously know GHOST DEER hung out on beaches in Scarborough!? I am going to take this to mean svipur turned into a real thing for a few seconds while my back was turned (sneaky bugger). No I'm not delusional shut up." -- emily