Understanding Reality Shifting as a New Online-based Spiritual Practice

Abstract

Reality shifting is a popular spiritual practice centered around the wish to shift one’s consciousness to other realities. It became popular online in late 2020 and is practiced mostly by persons falling under the demographic cohort of Generation Z. Generally, reality shifters practice a wide range of methods involving affirmations and visualization to try to project their consciousness into other (often fiction-based) realities, or to change this reality through imagination. This article describes reality shifting from an in-depth emic perspective, based on interviews with practitioners and engagement with the online sources. Reality shifting is then contextualized as a spiritual practice that is inspired by New Thought and its embeddedness within the wider contemporary spiritual milieu. Afterwards, the phenomenon is treated as an online “narrative culture,†as we claim sharing and discussing narratives are the main tools shifters use to further develop the practice. Lastly, the often a-transcendental life-enhancing goals of reality shifters are explored in order to argue for more attention to the ‘mundane’ aspects of contemporary spirituality.