Reality shifting: psychological features of an emergent online daydreaming culture
Somer, Eli ; Cardeña, Etzel LU
; Figueiredo Catalan, Ramiro
and Soffer-Dudek, Nirit
(2023)
In Current Psychology
p.11415-11427
- 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... (More) - 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. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
https://lup.lub.lu.se/record/481506d7-bb79-4a53-b21d-391ff2a196de
- author
- Somer, Eli
; Cardeña, Etzel
LU
; Figueiredo Catalan, Ramiro
and Soffer-Dudek, Nirit
- organization
- publishing date
- 2023
- type
- Contribution to journal
- publication status
- published
- subject
- keywords
- reality shifting, hypnosis, dissociation, tulpamancy, maladaptive daydreaming
- in
- Current Psychology
- issue
- 42
- pages
- 11415 - 11427
- publisher
- Springer
- external identifiers
-
- scopus:85118300629
- pmid:34744401
- ISSN
- 1046-1310
- DOI
- 10.1007/s12144-021-02439-3
- language
- English
- LU publication?
- yes
- id
- 481506d7-bb79-4a53-b21d-391ff2a196de
- date added to LUP
- 2021-11-01 08:18:17
- date last changed
- 2023-12-19 15:31:47
@article{481506d7-bb79-4a53-b21d-391ff2a196de,
abstract = {{Reality shifting (RS) is a trendy mental activity that emerged abruptly following the flare-up of the COVID-19 pandemic<br/>in 2020 and seems to be practiced mainly by members of the post-millennial generation. RS, described as the experience of<br/>being able to transcend one’s physical confines and visit alternate, mostly fictional, universes, is discussed by many on Internet<br/>platforms. One RS forum boasts over 40,000 members and RS clips on some social media platforms have been viewed<br/>over 1.7 billion times. The experience of shifting is reportedly facilitated by specific induction methods involving relaxation,<br/>concentration of attention, and autosuggestion. Some practitioners report a strong sense of presence in their desired realities,<br/>reified by some who believe in the concrete reality of the alternate world they shift to. One of the most popular alternate<br/>universes involves environments adopted from the Harry Potter book and film series. We describe the phenomenology of<br/>RS as reported online and then compare it to related phenomena such as hypnosis, tulpamancy, dissociation, immersive and<br/>maladaptive daydreaming, and lucid dreaming. We propose a theoretical model of interactive factors giving rise to RS, and<br/>conclude that it is an important, uninvestigated emerging phenomenon and propose future research directions.}},
author = {{Somer, Eli and Cardeña, Etzel and Figueiredo Catalan, Ramiro and Soffer-Dudek, Nirit}},
issn = {{1046-1310}},
keywords = {{reality shifting; hypnosis; dissociation; tulpamancy; maladaptive daydreaming}},
language = {{eng}},
number = {{42}},
pages = {{11415--11427}},
publisher = {{Springer}},
series = {{Current Psychology}},
title = {{Reality shifting: psychological features of an emergent online daydreaming culture}},
url = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s12144-021-02439-3}},
doi = {{10.1007/s12144-021-02439-3}},
year = {{2023}},
}