Reality shifting: psychological features of an emergent online daydreaming culture

Eli Somer, Etzel Cardeña, Ramiro Figueiredo Catalan, Nirit Soffer-Dudek

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

Reality shifting (RS) is a trendy mental activity that emerged abruptly following the flare-up of the COVID-19 pandemic
in 2020 and seems to be practiced mainly by members of the post-millennial generation. RS, described as the experience of
being able to transcend one’s physical confines and visit alternate, mostly fictional, universes, is discussed by many on Internet
platforms. One RS forum boasts over 40,000 members and RS clips on some social media platforms have been viewed
over 1.7 billion times. The experience of shifting is reportedly facilitated by specific induction methods involving relaxation,
concentration of attention, and autosuggestion. Some practitioners report a strong sense of presence in their desired realities,
reified by some who believe in the concrete reality of the alternate world they shift to. One of the most popular alternate
universes involves environments adopted from the Harry Potter book and film series. We describe the phenomenology of
RS as reported online and then compare it to related phenomena such as hypnosis, tulpamancy, dissociation, immersive and
maladaptive daydreaming, and lucid dreaming. We propose a theoretical model of interactive factors giving rise to RS, and
conclude that it is an important, uninvestigated emerging phenomenon and propose future research directions.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)11415–11427
JournalCurrent Psychology
Issue number42
Early online date2021 Oct 30
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2023

Subject classification (UKÄ)

  • Psychology

Free keywords

  • reality shifting
  • hypnosis
  • dissociation
  • tulpamancy
  • maladaptive daydreaming

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