“Reality Shifting: Psychological Features of an Emergent Online Daydreaming Culture”, Eli Somer, Etzel Cardeña, Ramiro Figueiredo Catelan, Nirit Soffer-Dudek2021-10-30 (, ; similar)⁠:

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 pertinent hashtag #realityshifting on TikTok has accumulated over 706 million views (TikTok, #realityshifting, n.d.-a) while #shiftingrealities has accrued over 1.8 billion views (TikTok #shiftingrealities, n.d.-b). The term has also received mainstream media coverage, as exemplified by a recent story in the Washington Post (Andrews2021). Here is how a member described her practice online:

Shifting is a very strange experience. It’s like an extremely vivid dream, yet it’s more real than any dream I’ve ever had. Before I plan on shifting, I write myself a script in the notes app on my phone, in which I plan exactly what happens in the desired reality. This makes it easier to visualize exactly what I want to happen—so I might script that I want to go to Hogwarts and for Draco to be my boyfriend, or that he will flirt with me.

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.

…Respawning: Respawning is a radical manifestation of the escapist psychological role RS can play. Some RS practitioners are motivated to permanently sever their ties with the current reality (CR) and live in an alternate desired reality (DR) of choice, opting to leave their “clones” (ie. someone who will continue interacting in the CR) behind and leaving the CR forever (eg. Madame Lovi2003).