Shifting Shouldn’t Feel Like A Chore. A Requirement. It’s Just A Thing, It’s Not Going Anywhere

holding my s/o like this will heal me

me everynight

(Img made by me<3)

can the brain distinguish between what is “real” (in the 3D) and what is imagined (in the 4D)? 🧠✨

the NEUROSCIENCE of REALITY SHIFTING/LAW OF ASSUMPTION

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hi angels! ₊˚⊹♡

i know sometimes when we talk about reality shifting and the law of assumption, it can feel like magic, and it really is!

so i wanted to start a new series where i explore the science behind it, or more specifically the correlations i observe between scientific literature and spiritual manifestation philosophies! 🫶

this first post addresses the idea that YOUR BRAIN CANNOT TELL THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN PHYSICAL REALITY (3D) AND IMAGINED REALITY (4D)!

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☀️✨ your brain’s reality and imagination OVERLAP deeply

research shows that when you vividly imagine something,

your brain activates similar neural patterns as when you actually perceive it in the physical realm (Dijkstra et al., 2021).

♡ this means:

⤷ your brain treats vivid imagination and real perception in a similar way.

if you assume yourself into a new reality strongly enough,

your brain can’t fully distinguish between what is “imagination” and what is “actual experience”. it just responds as if it’s happening.

　 . ★⋆. ࿐࿔　✦　　　.　　. 　 ˚　.ੈ✧̣̇˳·˖

☀️✨ your brain uses “signal strength” to decide what’s real

another study (Dijkstra & Fleming, 2023) found that:

the mind COMBINES both real and imagined signals and decides something is “real” if it feels strong enough.

♡ this means:

⤷ when you assume something with enough emotion, focus, and vividness, your brain accepts it as reality and starts building your experience around it.

so when you shift realities or assume a new self concept,

you’re literally feeding stronger signals into your system, until your whole brain and body accept it as true.

　 . ★⋆. ࿐࿔　✦　　　.　　. 　 ˚　.ੈ✧̣̇˳·˖

recent neuroscience research (Dijkstra et al., 2021) explored how vividly imagining something can activate the brain in ways that closely resemble real perception.

the brain scan figure above shows that certain brain regions — including the pre-supplementary motor area (pre-SMA) and dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (dlPFC) — are significantly modulated by how vivid an individual’s mental imagery is, and how visible a physical stimulus is.

✨₊˚⊹♡ basically:

the stronger and more vivid your imagination, the more your brain treats it as if it were real perception.

interestingly, the early visual cortex (evc), which is a brain region crucial for vision, responded differently:

• vivid imagination produced neural patterns more similar to low-visibility perception

• while “real” (physical) perception during high visibility matched more vivid imagery.

💡✨ this means that even if your imagined experience feels “lighter” than seeing something with your eyes open, your brain is still processing it as real enough to influence your perception of reality (Dijkstra et al., 2021).

AKA…

⤷ if you imagine vividly enough, your brain starts accepting your assumptions as real experiences.

this beautifully correlates with the idea behind manifestation and reality shifting:

the more vividly and consistently you assume something is real, the more your brain and your consciousness work together to make it true. and that truth is ultimately what is reflected back to you in the 3D (physical). in a sense, your brain literally weaves imagination into reality. so use that to your advantage!!

　 . ★⋆. ࿐࿔　✦　　　.　　. 　 ˚　.ੈ✧̣̇˳·˖

☀️✨ is unconscious imagination real too?

research is also exploring how imagination can happen unconsciously (Jaworska, 2024).

the study referenced above suggests that:

your deeper mind is constantly imagining and projecting possibilities without you even realizing it.

so not only are you consciously shifting with affirmations, intention and focus, but your subconscious is also weaving your path in the background.

essentially, you’re ALWAYS creating. even when you’re not actively thinking about it!

　 . ★⋆. ࿐࿔　✦　　　.　　. 　 ˚　.ੈ✧̣̇˳·˖

💫✨ plus: traditional neuroscience findings still correlate with shifting

♡ your brain’s neural pathways change based on belief.

• this is a phenomenon referred to as neuroplasticity.

when you affirm a new assumption over and over (ex. “i am successful”), your brain literally rewires itself to treat that assumption as true.

♡ your reticular activating system (RAS) focuses your perception.

• when you assume something, your RAS filters reality to show you evidence matching that assumption so that you experience more of it.

♡ deep meditation states make shifting easier.

• when you’re relaxed (theta/delta brainwaves), your subconscious is wide open to suggestion. that’s why shifting techniques often make use of deep relaxation, meditation or even falling asleep!

^ i’ll definitely be making more posts discussing the above concepts in FURTHER DETAIL, so keep an eye out! there’s lots of literature available right now about it, so i highly suggest looking into it if you’re interested! 🤍✨

　 . ★⋆. ࿐࿔　✦　　　.　　. 　 ˚　.ੈ✧̣̇˳·˖

🕯️✨ in short:

you are always shifting realities, whether you realize it or not.

you are always shaping your world with your assumptions. reality is yours to choose. <3

　 . ★⋆. ࿐࿔　✦　　　.　　. 　 ˚　.ੈ✧̣̇˳·˖

📄✨ SOURCES

1. Dijkstra N, Fleming SM. Subjective signal strength distinguishes reality from imagination. Nat Commun. 2023 Mar 23;14(1):1627. doi: 10.1038/s41467-023-37322-1. PMID: 36959279; PMCID: PMC10036541.

2. Dijkstra N, Mazor M, Kok P, Fleming S. Mistaking imagination for reality: Congruent mental imagery leads to more liberal perceptual detection. Cognition. 2021 Jul;212:104719. doi: 10.1016/j.cognition.2021.104719. Epub 2021 Apr 18. PMID: 33878636; PMCID: PMC8164160.

3. Jaworska A. Conscious imagination vs. unconscious imagination: a contribution to the discussion with Amy Kind. Front Psychol. 2024 Jul 25;15:1310701. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2024.1310701. PMID: 39118843; PMCID: PMC11306181.

✨ NOTE: i recognize that not everyone reading this may come from a scientific background, or even desire to dive into the full technical details of the neuroscience mechanisms and topics i discussed here. for that reason, the content of this post is intentionally simplified to make the core ideas more accessible, while still staying true to the scientific literature referenced above. if you’re interested in a deeper dive, i HIGHLY recommend giving the original papers a read! 🫶 additionally, while i integrated scientific findings into this post, my overall discussion remains interpretive and spiritually oriented, reflecting the bridge between neuroscience research and manifestation philosophy, as well as expressing the correlations i observed between the two.✨

sending so much love and light! <3

My routine as someone who shifts almost every week. 

There doesn't have to be any pressure on shifting, you don’t have to do it at a specific moment. My routine takes either a moment, a day, or a week. I do specific things in preparation to shift, it isn’t a method, more so a ritual, something to help me align myself with where I want to be.   

I. Bask in who you want to be, spend mornings doing this practice, do it before a nap, before you go to bed, while you eat, etc. Settle in your mind, take this time to be in your desired selfs mind. Think about slow moments, your morning routine, the view outside your window, basking in the sun, anything of the sort; let yourself live in moments from your dr. I've noticed I shift more when I have practiced this throughout the day. 

II. Tell yourself that you are there, that you are indeed experiencing these things. Affirm how many times you feel, you are where you are. Don’t put any pressure on yourself to believe anything, just affirm. Sweep away intrusive thoughts, let them pass and focus on who and where you are. 

III. Each reality has its own soul, familiarize yourself with how your chosen reality feels. Whenever you want to go there invoke this feeling, remember the slow moments, relax and live in your dr. 

IV. I lie in bed and when I'm getting sleepy I visualize myself where I want to be and I’m there, I focus on what I am doing at that moment in that reality. 

V. After I come back I take a couple days to step away from shifting, I don’t think about going anywhere else. I try to live in this reality and when I feel I want to leave again, I begin at step one. 

ೃ⁀➷ So what exactly are we shifting anyway?

A lot of people, when explaining shifting, get the concepts of our BRAIN, SUBCONSCIOUS, CONSCIOUSNESS and AWARENESS all mixed up. Here's a little field guide:

1) Your BRAIN isn't universal. Depending on the reality and the extent of changes in your script, your brain will be a little different in each DR. You know that Marina & the Diamonds song that goes “I am not my body, not my mind or my brain Not my thoughts or feelings, I am not my DNA”? Funnily enough, that explains it pretty well. None of these things are set in stone for shifters.

2) Your SUBCONSCIOUS is the part of your mind which ensures that you end up in the right reality. This is how we can peacefully shift without having to worry about scripting every little detail; your subconscious is not a genie in a bottle, it doesn't work against you. Shifters often use “Your subconscious/The universe already knows what you want” interchangeably. This concept is also often referred to as 'intention'.

3) Your CONSCIOUSNESS is omnipresent throughout the multiverse. This is where a lot of shifters get confused — no, your consciousness is not what you are shifting. It is always present in every single one of your DR selves, no matter which reality you are currently in. When you shift to your DR, you will notice that you have been conscious in this reality all along, you just weren't aware of it before.

4) And finally, your AWARENESS. This is the part of yourself that can be shifted from one reality to another. Your awareness is not universal, it is always focused on one reality at a time.

the hardest pill to swallow . . if you don’t assume, it won’t work

this isn’t tough love. this isn’t a scolding. this is just the mechanics of reality. this isn’t about blame. it’s not your fault, but it is your responsibility (i saw this quote somewhere and i really liked it, anyway). reality is malleable, but only if you stop acting like you’re at its mercy. stop waiting for permission. stop refreshing the page, stop tapping the glass. it’s done. act accordingly.

consider your brain an old, glitchy computer, whirring in the corner of your psyche, choking on its own outdated code. your subconscious doesn’t know what’s real versus imagined, it only knows the instructions you give it. and if those instructions are “this isn’t happening, i don’t see it, i don’t believe it,” well, congratulations, the system registers that as the blueprint. and it prints that out. over and over. like a bureaucratic nightmare, a kafka novel of your own making.

this is not to say that doubt is failure, doubt is human, doubt is a thrum in the background of any great creation. but if doubt is the occasional rainstorm, belief is the structural integrity of the house. belief holds. belief carries. belief is the scaffolding between you and the impossible, and without it, you are just standing in an empty field, waiting for architecture to spontaneously occur.

there’s a reason schrodinger’s cat remains the most infuriating hypothetical in quantum mechanics, because the cat is both alive and dead until you open the box. the observer collapses the wave function. and in this case, you are the observer. if you don’t believe it, you keep the box shut. if you do believe it, the universe is already rearranging itself around your conviction.

this is not new-age drivel. this is not a vision board with a quote about perseverance peeling off in the humidity. this is physics. have you ever thought about someone, and then they text you five minutes later? that’s the speed at which reality moves when you don’t get in your own way. you didn’t sit there clutching your skull, willing them into existence, you just assumed, with ease, with god-tier nonchalance. and because you weren’t scrutinising the timeline like a detective with a corkboard and red string and bloodied eyes, the message came through. the only thing standing between you and everything you want is the way you react to its absence. the hand-wringing, the despair, the creeping doubt, it’s a full-time job, and it pays in absolutely nothing.

which brings me to my next point: trying. trying is the problem. trying implies effort, and effort implies resistance, and resistance is another way of saying “i don’t actually believe i have this.” and you know what people do when they have things? they stop worrying about whether they have them. a person in possession of an apple does not pace the room, clutching their chest, whimpering, “but do i really have it?” they just eat the apple.

and before you say, “but look at my reality, it’s contradicting me,” i will say this once, and you must etch it into your mind like scripture: reality is old news. what you are seeing is just a delayed projection of past assumptions. do not react to it. do not engage with it. it is a rerun of a show you no longer care about. the moment you stop feeding into the contradictions, they wither. the moment you accept that what you want is already done, reality will course-correct. until then, it is an echo chamber of your previous doubts. ignore it like it’s a tabloid headline about a scandal that never actually happened.

flip the switch. decide, assume, move forward. no more “manifesting,” no more “waiting.” you don’t wait for what’s already yours. you don’t question a chair’s ability to hold you up before sitting down. you don’t send a letter and then agonise over whether the mail system still exists. you assume. you know. and so it is.

and before the panic sets in, no, this does not mean you must be a perfect disciple of unwavering belief. doubt will creep in, as it always does. you will have moments of existential dread, of scrutinising, of muttering “but what if” into your hands at 2 a.m. this is fine. this is human. just don’t let it become the dominant narrative. there will be moments where you feel like you're nowhere, like your manifestations have abandoned you and you're left with nothing but the weight of your own effort. do not, under any circumstances, entertain this lie. i will personally resurrect the fear of god just to drill this into you: do not. what you do instead is cry a little, wipe your face, and then lock the fuck in, because i swear on everything, sometimes, all it takes is a stretch of nothing to summon an abundance of everything. let the doubt pass through like an intrusive thought you refuse to entertain, like a pigeon that landed in your cafe but is not, in fact, your problem.

maybe this reminds you of when the soviets tried to scientifically disprove intuition, only to realise they had unintentionally proved it instead. maybe this reminds you of every ghost story you’ve ever heard, how the only ones who see them are the ones who expect to.

anyways. it’s all already happening. your only job is to get out of the way.

The most powerful affirmation you can use while shifting is I allow myself to shift, no matter how many doubts you have, you let go in that moment and just allow yourself.

by Dawa 🎑 + translation

　　　　things that won't stop you from shifting

　꒰ putting your dr on a pedestal , does not exist. it is not some glass castle suspended in the ether. it is a place like any other, as accessible as a room you haven’t walked into yet.　　

　꒰ fantasising about your dr , does not matter. your brain is not a courtroom and you are not on trial for thought crimes. imagining a place does not exile you from it.　　

　꒰ not knowing everything about your dr , won't impact. you do not need to be a historian of your own life. you do not need to have memorised the census records and economic structures of a world you are simply in.　

　꒰ being too attached to your dr , does not ruin it. urgency does not dismantle possibility. the sky does not fold in on itself every time someone desperately wants rain.　　

　꒰ not being "calm enough" , no one is breathing monkishly through their nose 24/7. you are not required to be an unmoved river stone. people shift after a long day at work. people shift mid-existential crisis. it is not yoga, it is not meditation, it is a thing that happens when it happens.　　

　꒰ doubting yourself from time to time , irrelevant. you do not need to pass a faith test. you do not need to be baptised in unwavering conviction. you just need to assume. doubt is a background noise, not a locked door.　　

　꒰ external validation , unnecessary. your reality is not waiting for someone else to confirm its legitimacy. you do not need a jury of peers nodding solemnly at your experiences. this is not an academic dissertation. you do not need footnotes and sources and a professor’s approval.　　

　꒰ "trying too hard" , not a thing. effort does not push it further away. want does not make it shy away. this is not an uncatchable fish. this is not a paradox where wanting something too much means you will never have it.　　

　꒰ failing to shift multiple times , irrelevant. past attempts do not predict future outcomes. you are not an athlete counting losses. you are not a gambler on a losing streak. every attempt is new. every moment is unburdened by the weight of the last one. 　

　꒰ an inconsistent sleep schedule , doesn’t matter. you are not being graded on your circadian rhythm. shifting does not belong exclusively to people with 8 hours of uninterrupted rem. 　

　꒰ using multiple shifting methods , neutral. you are not hexing yourself by switching it up. they are not magic spells, they are just tools. they are ways to organise your approach, not laws of the universe.　

　꒰ shifting while sick or in pain , possible. you do not need to be in peak physical condition. you are not signing up for a marathon, you are existing. bodies exist in all states. you are allowed to exist in all states.　

　꒰ not “feeling close” to shifting , doesn’t mean anything. shifting is not a feeling to be unlocked. you do not need to sense it coming like a change in the weather. it does not always announce itself.　

　꒰ having trouble visualising , won’t stop you. not everyone sees things like a movie in their head. imagination is not just images. it’s thoughts, impressions, instincts. a blind person can shift. a person with aphantasia can shift.　

　꒰ not affirming constantly , does not matter. you do not need to chant like a monk or plead sweet nothings into the void 24/7.　

　꒰ being distracted mid-shifting attempt , not fatal. you are not required to have monk-like focus. people shift thinking about their homework. people shift thinking about dinner. people shift thinking about absolutely nothing at all.　

　꒰ not having a specific shifting method , does not stop you. people shift lying down. people shift sitting up. people shift standing. people shift in moving cars. you do not need a formula to do something natural.