Organisms, creatures, or entities whose biological, chemical, and evolutionary origins are entirely separate from the tree of life on Earth. They are the "strangers in the universe," operating on a fundamentally different biological operating system. This doesn't just mean weird-looking animals; it means life that may use silicon instead of carbon, ammonia instead of water, or information systems we can't even recognize as "alive." They represent the profound answer to "Are we alone?" and challenge every assumption biology is built upon. Encountering them isn't just discovery; it's a paradigm explosion.
Example: The sentient, helium-based "floaters" in Arthur C. Clarke's The Songs of Distant Earth, the silicon-based crystal "chandeliers" from the planet Lithia in Mission of Gravity, or the microbial blobs potentially living in the sulfuric acid clouds of Venus—all are hypothetical Alien Lifeforms. They are not monsters, but alternate solutions to the problem of existence.
church hurt is where you experience a degree of distance, pain, or judgement from your church community. Essentially, you are just unable to “find your place”. This is prevalent in the Christian community, but can be extended to other religions.
Now that I am an adult I am beginning to heal from the church hurt that was inflicted on me as a child.
when you're holding up your phone and making faces at it, as though you are taking a selfie, but you're really taking a picture of the person across from you or the wall or anything else that seems interesting but you don't want to be caught dead taking a picture of.
This action is often made more convincing by wiggling the eyebrows or opening the mouth, to pretend you're trying to get a Snapchat filter to work.