Reality Shifting: A Life Made Just For You

Reality shifting is a fairly new term and could be defined as the belief that you can alter or experience different realities through the use of intention, visualization, and focus methods. Sound familiar at all? Initially, when hearing about this practice, we couldn’t help but wonder if this was the same thing as astral projection but with a fancy new label. Humans love labeling things in an effort to categorize and increase their understanding of something, especially when it is out of the ordinary. When it comes to reality shifting though, the ethos and beliefs behind it seem vastly different than those of astral projection. To better our understanding, we’ve put together what we’ve learned so far when it comes to this ever-changing topic, and how it differs and coincides with what we’ve experienced when it comes to out-of-body experiences.

The Mysterious Origins of Reality Shifting

Every now and then on various discords and posts on Reddit about astral projection, we’d see this term and so we wanted to find out when it started. The difficult part was that nobody seemed to know exactly when the term first came about. From what we’ve been able to tell it could have originated a year or two before covid, starting on a site called Amino, which is a collection of communities dedicated to different subjects and submit posts on their topic – a social media site essentially. There are still thriving communities there devoted to the subject of reality shifting. Other than Amino there was a time during covid when TikTok shorts took off when it came to the subject of out-of-body experiences, reality shifting being one of them - which drew people into astral projection communities asking about it.

Even if the term originated pre-covid it was during covid that this entire range of topics exploded. Everyone was stuck in their homes, alone with their thoughts in an uncertain future – and looked for ways to escape. Young ones were hit hard, especially with the driving need to escape, and even today it’s no different. With a 24-hour news cycle, and doomsday reports about global warming, it’s no wonder that many young ones are drawn to the possibility of going to another reality, especially one that they can design which is another cornerstone of reality shifting. How is that reality designed? Well according to the more hardcore adherents of this belief system, to understand how it works you have to go back, beginning in the 1950s.

Scientific Inspiration

Hugh Everett, as part of his doctoral dissertation, proposed the Many-Worlds Interpretation of quantum mechanics in 1957 (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Many-worlds_interpretation). The basic premise behind this theory is one I’m sure many people will be familiar with since it is a common staple in Hollywood. This theory is where the term “multiverse” comes from, as it implies that there are many parallel, non-interacting universes that come into existence any time a quantum possibility is realized. When you hear in a movie that every branching choice you make spawns another world with you in it making that choice, this is where it is from. The many-worlds interpretation isn’t the only interpretation of quantum mechanics, but from a media sense you’d think that it is the prevailing theory due to how often it is used for entertainment. However, there are several interpretations out there and even among quantum physicists it is not close to the most popular theory, that being the Copenhagen interpretation.

Still, the MWI (Many-Worlds Interpretation) is the cornerstone for a lot of reality-shifting practitioners. It is through the practice that they believe they are shifting into another physical reality that they can explore, staying for a variable amount of time. This target reality is called their DR, or “desired reality”, whereas the reality they came from is considered the CR, or current reality. To get the desired reality they want, they do a process called “scripting” as part of their intention-setting routine. This scripting practice involves writing down what you’re looking for in that desired reality. What changes in your own life did you want to explore? Did you want to explore the life of someone else? There can be an endless amount of different realities to script. One of the reasons the many-worlds interpretation is perfect for this is because it allows the shifter to script anything they want. After all, as long as it was a probability on the quantum level, then it was a potential reality.

But in the MW interpretation each universe is discreet from each other and don’t interact, so how would your consciousness get to the quantum probabilistic desired reality that you tailoring for yourself? That’s right, you guessed it - biophotons.

Theory Soup

From here on the explanations as to how the consciousness is interacting with the desired reality start to get kind of confusing, so we’ll do our best to explain. If you’ve never heard of biophotons don’t despair, we haven’t either until now. To put it simply it is light that is given off by living systems, first discovered in the 1920s. We’re all giving off a kind of glow on the ultra-violet and low visible light spectrum. To tie in with this from a reality-shifting research perspective, several scientists theorize that since biophotons exist, the brain may also use light as a communication device in addition to electro-chemical signals (https://arxiv.org/abs/1708.08887).

So now, we’ve talked about there being many physical realities, our body giving off light, and the possibility that our brain also uses light to communicate. But where is the consciousness stored in the body? Microtubules.

In 1953 microtubules were discovered, hollow tubes of protein that were found in all cells that contained nuclei in animals and plants. How it relates to reality shifting though is from a theory - once again - that these microtubules also play the role of information storage and processing related to the consciousness, developed by Dr Stuart Hameroff and Sir Roger Penrose. For those interested this theory is called "orchestrated objective reduction" (Orch OR).

But wait! There’s more! Now that we have cherry-picked theories that explain how there can be infinite universes, how our consciousness is stored in the body, how the body can give off light, and that this light may also be a communication device with the brain – how does this consciousness get to that desired reality? Wormholes of course.

At least this one most people will be familiar with. The concept of wormholes has been around for a long time, sometimes referred to as Einstein-Rosen bridges, the theory is based on the idea a tunnel could link two points in space-time and be able to potentially transfer matter and quantum information over massive distances. The theory works within general relativity, but we’ve never seen one yet so we have no idea if they really exist outside of science fiction.

Now we have the complicated basis for how reality shifting works.

The consciousness stored and saved within your microtubules can communicate and transfer data via biophotonic light over quantum superposition through a wormhole connected to another you in another multiverse reality that has your desired reality scripting in mind. This is after leaving a few other theories and hypothetical research out of this article to reduce more potential confusion. You may pause here to rub your temples.

Anything Is Possible

Another scientist who is popular among shifters is Max Tegmark, a physicist and as of this writing, professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Tegmark is notable in regards to this topic as he took the many-worlds interpretation of the 50s and ran with it, coming up with the “mathematical universe hypothesis” wherein it is postulated that “all structures that exist mathematically exist also physically". This is huge for the shifting community, with its emphasis on physical experiences, because this allows a belief that you’ll shift into any reality. Do you want to be a sidekick or superhero in the Marvel universe? You can! Do you want to be a wizard at Hogwarts? Go ahead! If it is mathematically probable then it is possible according to the hypothesis. If you want a glimpse into Tegmark’s imagination check out his webpage on the idea: (https://space.mit.edu/home/tegmark/crazy.html)

After all these mind-bending theories you’d think that the techniques would be equally complicated but no, they’re pretty simple and as astral projectors will note, oddly familiar. Let’s take the time to go over one as an example.

The Raven Method

The raven method, named so for the outstretched position you take in bed, is just one of the methods used in the practice of reality shifting. You can find the instructions here: (https://www.wikihow.com/Raven-Method).

This method is supposed to be attempted right before you go to bed and sleep. First, you make sure your sleeping space is comfortable and relaxing, next you need to start scripting. For scripting, you take some time before bed to write out what you want to experience. This could be anything. You may want to look different, have a specific kind of life, special abilities, you name it. You can also expand on the idea by writing a bio of your new persona or generating art that would apply to your new experience.

Next, you take the time to meditate on this new desire. The guide mentions that meditation may make you shift on its own (although this is less likely), and you can also place a raven figurine on your table to stare at and meditate on, believing you’ll fly away to your desired reality. Subliminal media like binaural beats are also suggested, anything to get you into a relaxed state and focused on your goal.

After you have calmed with meditation it is time to lay down for bed, count backward, and focus your thoughts on affirmations relating to your journey – that you are “nearly at your destination”. During this time you’d use your imagination to think about how all of your senses would behave while at your desired reality, and visualize your new location. If you have any strange sensations at this time welcome them as a sign that it’s working. At this time you hopefully shift into your desired reality and after your adventure is over, you wake back up in your current reality.

Relation to Astral Projection

For people who have spent any time in an astral projection community, the methods employed by shifters fall straight into indirect methods also used to AP. Setting intentions before bed, meditating on your intent, saturating your subconscious with your desire to astral project, and whatever goals involved are all similarly involved. Falling asleep with affirmations is also a popular technique for astral projection. Nothing in the shifting community when it comes to technique is new, just adapted from existing techniques for getting out of body and lucid dreaming.

What is new is all of the belief and rationalization behind reality shifting. This brings up the question: are shifters visiting a separate distinct physical reality? Or are they in essence, astral projecting? We tend to think it is the latter. In our experience your senses when out of body can feel exactly the same as here. Although, it can be variable sometimes. Rarely it can feel less distinct than here, with duller senses and visuals, but on the flip side, it could be even more hyper-real than this physical reality, with indescribable qualities of vision and thought.

What could be happening then? One theory is that because of the overwhelming objective desire to go to a specific desired reality, and the subsequent intention work drilled into the subconscious, then the shifter is most likely going to an astral area that fits the desired script. If the script description and intentions would fit a possible stable, already created astral area then they’ll most likely visit that. However, the easiest explanation would be a complex lucid dream, in a sense their own pocket astral dream space. This lucid dream space would conform to all the beliefs set in their script and intentions, and due to the strong belief that they are going to another physical dimension, would conform as best it could with physicality. Due to this underlying belief, it would be more difficult or impossible to manifest at will, since it also doesn’t work that way in the physical. Any physical qualities would be present in conformity to the subconscious belief.

Is it Dangerous?

You could say that reality shifting is dangerous, like astral projection, but not in the way you’d normally believe from misinformation sources on the internet. The real danger is why this practice is being used by a large portion of the shifting community.

Over the past several years many people that have come through the astral projection community seem to be on the younger generational side. One sad undercurrent to many of their requests for help on how to astral project stems from their dissatisfaction with their current lives. Understandably, a young, unhappy teenager may find the prospect of escaping this reality attractive, even if it’s for a short while. In the reality-shifting community, however, this escapism seems to be a large focus for many of the practitioners. For these people, any concept that their higher selves may have chosen to come experience life here is thrown out the window and sometimes met with indignation and anger. So desperate they are to believe that their consciousness can escape to a reality where their lives are better, that any other argument is discarded. Some in the community even look to another supposed possible outcome to reality shifting, the concept of permashifting.

Permashifting

For most practitioners when it comes to reality shifting, shifting into your desired reality and then coming back to your current reality is enough and they’re satisfied with the adventure. Yet, for a subset of shifters, this isn’t enough, there has to be a way to permanently leave this reality and live in the desired reality. This is where permashifting comes in, which at its core isn’t much of a complicated concept when it comes to shifting in general, you just don’t choose to come back to your current reality.

This gets the mind wondering though, what about your current self? Well, there’s an explanation for that too. Due to the theoretical microtubules mentioned earlier that store your consciousness, when you shift and never come back, your old “clone” will still exist and still be you, just not your current objective self. Sound confusing? It is. You’ve basically left your current reality behind and now there’s a clone of you that still behaves like you. For those who adhere to this belief, there are all sorts of conjectures and assumptions as to how it all works, but one thing that stands out is the lack of empathy. If the practitioner was coming from a miserable family life or abuse, etc, that’s one thing. But, if their family was otherwise fine then they’re essentially abandoning them, in favor of a potentially better life and family. The concept of clones helps take away some of the guilt since the family left behind will still have some version of you. 

When you tell a permashifter that you’re still interacting with them, even though they said they’ve permashifted to this reality, they’ll wave it off that you’re a different person than they were interacting with in their last reality. And, if they haven’t permashifted yet, then they’ll say that you’ll be interacting with their clone when they leave, not them anymore and the clone will be the one replying to you.

How they mentally justify that they’ve permashifted can be wild. Something as simple as a small piece of furniture not being broken anymore that was previously broken, can be proof that they are now in their new reality. Many of the reasons they give can fall into the Baader–Meinhof phenomenon, or Frequency Illusion (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frequency_illusion). To put it simply, when you’re actively looking for changes, you may notice a change that was always there but since you weren’t looking for it before - you didn’t realize it existed. Angel numbers are a good example. If I tell you that seeing 111 means something good is going to happen in your life soon, then you are going to notice 111 a lot more often, even though it already appears twice a day on the clock.

Conclusion

All the strange theories and beliefs aside, we are grateful that the subject of reality shifting is around, because it shows that younger people are more open to the concept of there being more than just this physical reality and body, even if it is just other physical realities. It raises good questions as to the nature of existence and spurs the imaginations as to what is possible. The downside is the potential for abuse as a form of escapism. We’re currently here, in this reality, so we at least need to try to put in a solid effort to make this reality better not only for ourselves but for others who may also be struggling with the same escapist thoughts. We’re all here exploring this present together.

When it comes to all the theories behind it, we do feel like the majority are picked just because they could conform to the underlying need to escape to a new life. For it to work as intended all of the theories included would have to be true, which isn’t very likely. Shifters may do well to be open to the idea that they may instead be having an out-of-body experience, even if it is very tailored. This is by no means a lesser experience. Regardless, we wish everyone to have successful adventures that make them happy, and share their experiences when they get back, so we can further study into this field and help everyone with this unique life we have been given.