Reality Shifting in 2020: A Form of Self-Hypnosis?

By Yuliya Tarnovetska

In 2020, during the midst of the pandemic, an online trend surfaced across platforms in which teens practiced reality shifting, or visiting an alternate universe in a dream-like state. Some of the most popular destinations included worlds based on Harry Potter and the Marvel Universe. This trend created an online community where people shared tips and tutorials on how to build specific desired worlds through meditation and “scripting,” a practice of writing descriptive storylines and details for what they wanted to happen. These written works included positive affirmations, set intentions, and even safety measures like “safe words” to help them return to their current reality. Limited research has left many unanswered questions regarding this neurological phenomenon, the biggest one being what made this induced dream-like state so hyper-realistic and perceived by so many as an alternate reality? 

For most, this practice originated as a response to stress, isolation, and a hope of escape from the uncertainties during the pandemic. Mallory Grimste, an adolescent therapist and licensed clinical social worker, relates the effects of imagining oneself in a different reality to the therapeutic practice of helping clients create “their own ‘calm, safe place’ to visualize when they need to re-regulate difficult emotional responses and experiences”(Colombo, 2022). On the other hand, some individuals who had previously practiced reality shifting claimed that it worsened their mental wellbeing. Shifting led to aspirations of permanently residing in their dream reality, leading to more detachment from day-to-day life. Phillip Reid, a psychology professor at Cardiff University at Wales, described the dangers of taking on many new identities and slowly becoming “divorced from reality” which could be a predictor of psychosis(Colombo, 2022).

​In trying to explain this reality shifting phenomenon, professionals have likened it to lucid dreaming, a state of awareness during dreaming, or astral projection, an ability to separate one's consciousness from their physical body and travel to other locations (Andrews, 2021). However, some neurological research convincingly points at self-hypnosis, “a self-induced, intentional trance” (Cleveland Clinic, 2023). Self-hypnosis is a technique that has been used to help with anxiety, quitting habits like smoking, and pain management through a similar procedure as entering the dream-like reality shifting state. 

This likeness begins with the meditation period before shifting, which closely resembles hypnotic inductions where attention is focused and external distractions are blocked off. The next similarity includes the creation and further focus on specific “suggestions”(Somer et al., 2021). The scripting process and inclusion of safe words for reality shifting corresponds to detailed hypnotic suggestions which are verbal cues often made by a professional to influence a person's thoughts or actions during a hypnotic state. In self-hypnosis, these suggestions take the form of pre-written commands, targeting changes in behavior or perception (Zahedi et al., 2024). Importantly, the use of hypnotic suggestions have also been proven to lead to visual hypnotic hallucinations, which differ from regular mental imagery in their increased perception, vividness, spontaneity and automaticity. So much so, that they can compromise a sense of reality (Lanfranco et al., 2021). While no concrete conclusion has been made about the neurobiological nature of perceived reality shifting, a possible hypothesis of intense and life-like experiences in this state may be correlated by understanding how pre-written suggestions and commands in the scripting process may serve as hypnotic suggestions that lead to hypnotic hallucinations. 

Furthermore, fMRI brain imaging conducted on participants showed decreased functional connectivity between the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex and structures like the medial prefrontal and posterior cingulate cortex (Williams, 2016). The communication between these brain areas establishes the awareness of one’s actions from the execution of them. In self-hypnosis, this means the brain is able to unconsciously engage with the previously suggested activities or commands (Lanfranco et al., 2021).

More similarities between reality shifting and self-hypnosis appear through the experiences of physical sensations, including shortness of breath and ringing in the ears, before entering a “shifted reality” and hypnotic states (Somer et al., 2021). The success rate in entering a shifted reality was also quantified and compared to known statistics of susceptibility to hypnotization by examining self-reports of online community members. 10% of individuals responded to hypnotic suggestions with “similar behaviors, experiences, and underlying neurophysiological dynamics, another 10% not showing nothing or minimal response, and 80% of individuals fell in between these two extremes”(Somer et al., 2021). This distribution reflected that of individual differences to hypnotization, explaining why some people were never able to experience perceived reality shifting. 

Since experimental data is very limited, only theories are able to be speculated about what led to such an explosion of reality shifting and its true nature. While some may perceive this as an attempt of mental escape from stressful times, it was able to form many online communities, and it is still something practiced and remembered to this day. 

References 

Andrews, T. M. (2021, July 17). Inside “reality shifting,” the trend where TikTokers claim they can enter the world of Harry Potter. Washington Post. https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2021/07/17/reality-shifting-tiktok/

Colombo, C. (2022, January 26). “Reality shifting” where users say they’re transported to another life has exploded on TikTok, but former shifters say it harmed their mental health. Business Insider. https://www.businessinsider.com/shifttok-reality-shifting-respawn-amino-reddit-tumblr-instagram-twitter-tiktok-2021-12

Lanfranco, R. C., Rivera-Rei, Á., Huepe, D., Ibáñez, A., & Canales-Johnson, A. (2021). Beyond imagination: Hypnotic visual hallucination induces greater lateralised brain activity than visual mental imagery. NeuroImage, 239, 118282. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuroimage.2021.118282

Self-Hypnosis 101. (2023, February 17). Cleveland Clinic. https://health.clevelandclinic.org/self-hypnosis

​Somer, E., Cardeña, E., Catelan, R. F., & Soffer-Dudek, N. (2021). Reality shifting: Psychological Features of an Emergent Online Daydreaming Culture. Current Psychology, 42. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-021-02439-3

Williams, S. C. P. (2016). Study identifies brain areas altered during hypnotic trances. News Center. https://med.stanford.edu/news/all-news/2016/07/study-identifies-brain-areas-altered-during-hypnotic-trances.html

Zahedi, A., Steven Jay Lynn, & Sommer, W. (2024). How hypnotic suggestions work – A systematic review of prominent theories of hypnosis. Consciousness and Cognition, 123, 103730–103730. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.concog.2024.103730