No One's Guide to Shifting

Welcome to the Basics

Vocabulary and guidelines to get you started!

Before we get into anything about shifting, there's a lot of vocab used throughout the shifting community. If you're already familiar with the basics of shifting, feel free to skip on ahead—but I'd be remiss if I didn't define all the bits and bobs to make sure everyone's on the same page. Let's get started.

Affirmations: Positive and encouraging phrases you tell yourself before and during the shifting process. These might include "I am shifting," or "I will shift," as well as "shifting is easy," or "I can shift." Personally, I tell myself throughout the day that I will shift tonight, then during the shifting process repeat "I am shifting."

CR: Your "current reality," or the place where your consciousness is right now. Essentially your normal life. I'm writing this in my CR.

Clone: The version of you that stays in your CR when you shift to your DR. This isn't a super important thing for most people. If you're shifting at night, when you sleep (which I'd recommend), then you don't need to worry about this too much. It sounds scary, but it's not. When I shift, my clone is the one sleeping in my CR while I'm off casting spells in my DR.

DR: Your "desired reality," or the place you are trying to shift to. The whole goal of shifting is to move your consciousness from your CR to your DR for short periods of time. My DR is Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.

LIFA: You'll most often hear this in the form of the LIFA App or a LIFA Book. This app/book exists only in your DR (so don't try to download it on your phone here in your CR, it doesn't exist) and allows you to make edits to your script while in your DR. Not everyone scripts one in, it's not mandatory, but some people like having that control while in the moment. If you're shifting to somewhere where you won't have a phone (for example, Hogwarts), you could script in a LIFA Book and Quill, which would look less suspicious than a phone in the 90's Wizarding World but offer you the same capability to make changes to your script. I don't have a LIFA Book in my DR.

Method: This word is usually accompanied by another name or phrase before it and describes how you go about shifting. There are tons and tons of methods and people make new ones all the time. The differences in them mostly come from what it is that you're visualizing as you shift as well as what kinds of subliminal or music you're meant to listen to while you visualize. Some of the most popular ones that I've come across are the Raven Method, the Train Method, the Estelle Method, and the Piano Method. I use the Raven Method (though I'm interested in experimenting with others as well), which involves counting from one to one hundred, repeating affirmations between numbers, and visualizing your DR as you count.

Safeword/Safe Action: This is your way to shift back to your CR once you're ready. You include this in your script and say your safeword or perform your safe action when you want to leave your DR. You then wake up in your CR and live your life until you want to shift again. You generally want to make sure this isn't something you'd do on accident. It should be specific and deliberate. My safe action is to fist-bump a mirror (shout out to Natalie from @ hpsrs on TikTok for that incredible and hilarious idea; check her out, she's dope). 

Script: Your script is your outline of what your DR should be like. You'll want to include rules about pain and death, your safeword/action, your time-ratio, where/when you'll be, who's there, what they're like, who you are, how people treat you, any specific events that have happened in the past or that you want to happen in the future—basically your own special version of your DR. You can script as much or as little as you want, this is a very personal thing so don't feel like you're ever doing it "wrong." I'll talk about scripts at length at some point.

Shifting: This is it! This is the thing! Shifting, as I already mentioned in the introduction, is the process of moving your consciousness from one reality to another. Depending on who you ask, it may or may not be super vivid and powerful lucid dreaming. Others say that when you shift you really are experiencing another reality. It feels real because it is real. There's controversy over this, so I won't tell you what to believe. Whatever it is, I want to do it. I want to shift to Hogwarts.

Subliminals: You might also see this as simply "subs," but regardless of which way you see it referred to, subliminals are audios that are designed to help you shift. They might have soft music, quiet talking, specific Hertz frequencies to raise your vibrations, etc. There's not one subliminal that "works" for everyone. Depending on where you're shifting to and what you like, the same video that works best for me might not be what you're looking for. I have a subliminals playlist that I put on when I shift and listen to some throughout the day as well.

Symptoms: You're probably going to be hearing this a lot. If someone asks you what symptoms you got when you shifted/were close to shifting, they're asking you what you felt during the process. Everyone gets different symptoms, but pretty common ones are feeling like you're floating, spinning, or falling, the sensation of tingling, or seeing a white light. You might hear the voices of people in your DR or smell something if you scripted that in. When I feel like I am rocking back and forth, I know I'm symptomatic and close to shifting.

Time-Ratio: This is something you will want to script, for sure. Your time-ratio is you dictating how long one period of time is in your CR as compared to in your DR. For example, my time-ratio is one hour in my CR for every one month in my DR. This means that every month spent in my DR equates to one hour passed in my CR. You generally don't want to make the time difference too big (like one second in your CR being one year in your DR) because that can be a lot for your mind and body to handle. Take it easy, my guy.

WR: Your "waiting room," or the place between your CR and your DR. If you want a waiting room, you have to script one in. It's not an essential part of the process, but if you want one feel free to include it for yourself. I don't have a WR so I don't know a whole lot about it. Again, everything is personal and up to you.

Shifting can get confusing and that's okay. I'll probably think of more things to add here in the future, so if there are any questions you want the answer to regarding any of these terms (or other stuff, too!) ask away! Keep in mind I haven't shifted yet, I'm just a nerd that likes doing research and writing. 

Now that you know what we're talking about, let's get into my own shifting experiences.