No One's Guide to Shifting

Part I: Nights 1-3

Regrettably, I'm starting this whole venture pretty late. I think I've been trying for about a week now so I can't really remember my experiences for the first few nights. Not much happened (big surprise!) but then again, I wasn't really in the best conditions to be shifting. Apparently, stress and anxiety aren't conducive to shifting, so being locked up in a strange dorm across campus while laying in a feverish haze all day probably wasn't going to lead to my arrival at Hogwarts! A revelation, truly. Still, I made a few attempts. 

I had a pretty bare-bones script:

          - Personal information, like name, age, what I look like, blood status, year, and house.

          - Who my friends were, but not what they were like/ what our relationship was like.

          - My basic rules for shifting, like time-ratio, safe actions, etc.

          - Other random stuff, like the fact that Voldemort had already been defeated in this reality.

(Since then, my script has changed and I like it much better now, but this was the information I had in it at the time.)

 With this first-draft script, I attempted my first few nights of shifting.

The first night wasn't very exciting. I decided to try the Raven Method (I'll talk more about this later) because it seemed the simplest. I read over my script and laid down in an approximation of the classic "starfish position" most methods require. It wasn't perfect, but the important part is that my limbs weren't touching. I closed my eyes, started visualizing, and began to count to 100. Between each number, I said my affirmations and kept trying to visualize my DR. I think I lost track and fell asleep somewhere around 25.

I didn't feel much, maybe a bit tingly and heavy, but that's not necessarily out of the ordinary for me. I basically felt like I was meditating, except I was lying down instead of sitting up. Obviously, I didn't shift, but it was still a pleasant feeling.

The next night, I decided to listen to put on a subliminal while I tried to shift. I didn't make any substantial edits to my script, I think just adjusting my safe action or something to that effect. Before laying down, I did a quick YouTube search for subliminals and chose one basically at random. I listened to the sub while reading through my script, then proceeded with the same method as the night before. I don't remember what happened this night, but it clearly wasn't anything incredible, then.

Try #3 was really where things started to kick off. That day, I discovered a couple of shifting accounts on TikTok that I really vibed with and started listening to their advice and experiences. I hydrated like mad that day, really fleshed out my script, and had a renewed sense of excitement for what I was trying to do. If other people really can do it, I will too! At least, that was the attitude I was trying to have.

I did the same procedure as the previous night, with the sub playing in the background while I did the Raven Method. This time, I felt a lot heavier and more disconnected from my limbs. My arms and legs almost seemed to melt away, until I was just a torso and head breathing against my blanket. The tingling in my arms was so strong in fact that it became exceedingly uncomfortable, almost painful. I could feel my heartbeats radiating through my entire body, which freaked me out to the point that I turned off the sub, stopped counting, and decided to go to sleep.

There we have it: my first few attempts at shifting. I'd say I was pretty successful considering a lot of people don't feel anything the first few times, but I was still a bit disappointed. I think the reasons I didn't shift could have been because I was in an unfamiliar environment, so I had a hard time feeling completely relaxed. I was also sick (don't you love it when you get COVID because the other girls you live with are irresponsible?) so my body wasn't in the best state. I also had a pretty rough script, and I've come to realize that that's one of if not the most important of this whole thing for me. I need visuals, I need the story, I need the whole Wizarding World to live rent-free in my brain for this to work.

Overall, however, it wasn't a bad experience. It was mostly very calming and pleasant, if not a touch weird when the hand tingling got a little too uncomfy.

After these attempts, I was moved into different quarantine housing and given my own room since I tested positive. This provided me with the time and privacy I needed to do more research, have a better pre-shifting routine, and improve my script.