OPINION: Where do you want to wake up? Shifting realities let you choose

By Jamie Lee Cataldi, Arts & Culture Section Editor

Thalia Ruiz

Gen Z will dive head first into shifting realities without breaking a sweat, yet will hesitate to order a pizza by themselves. That’s because, generally speaking, responsibility isn’t our forte and recklessness absolutely is. We’re the hottest mess you can dream of. Defying authority, questioning the world’s existence, laughing at witless jokes that we deem have plenty of comedic value, that’s what defines Gen Z. We’re just so dumb, yet so smart. 

Older generations recognize our potential as a generation, yet have a habit of talking down to us because of our lack of common sense. They commonly overlook the fact that we were born into such a strictly structured society that subtly stripped us of our creativity. According to our society, all students are required to go to school for an education and after that, it is theoretical yet likely that they then go to college, grow up, get a job, get married, have a family and live a happy life they were promised by no one other than society itself. Once it’s understood that our minds are what actually determine our happiness in life, it’s plausible that life is malleable. This concept has become evident to Gen Z’s lifestyle, for they now have an adequate understanding of the possibilities our mind has to offer, thanks to TikTok.

But a new theory of perceiving the world around us is sending ripples through social media spaces, specifically TikTok. 15-second videos are surfacing the app spreading insight on how it is possible that we may be granted permission to experience a whole new world. 

Teenagers everywhere are just now realizing that you can wake up in a different world with surroundings you program yourself, using nothing but your mind. 

This mind-boggling concept is called shifting realities. Right now, the reality you are reading this story in, the only reality you have ever known, is your “current reality”. Then there is your desired reality, the reality you want to experience. Whether it’s Hogwarts, an anime realm, or a video game, if you can imagine it, you can experience it. In a September 2020 poll, half of 35 students have come across a reality shifting video on their TikTok fyp. Ironically, less than 15 percent of those students have actually tried to shift.

Survey of 35 students conducted October 2020

“I get that people can lucid dream but consciously shifting to a different universe — it sounds made up,”  junior Sara Amadeo said. 

Teens are skeptical about the idea as it seems impossible to just exit your current reality. Ironically, shifting realities is actually no modern discovery. Regardless of the surfacing skepticism, it is a fact that shifting realities has been possible for as long as the universe has existed. 

Survey of 35 students conducted October 2020

The basics of shifting realities and why it’s possible has everything to do with science. According to the Gale Encyclopedia of Science, in chemistry, the first law of thermodynamics, more commonly known as the Law of Conservation of Energy, states that energy cannot be created nor destroyed. That means any object you see or anything you can think of, is pure energy. Thoughts and feelings are energy as well, therefore, everything you can ever think of is coexisting in this universe because everything has always existed. If everything already exists, any possibility you can think of, is possible, no matter the impracticality of the thought. The only thing you have to do is shift your consciousness to that particular possibility.

To shift your consciousness, you don’t need any preparation. We shift realities all the time without actually realizing it. Life is like a motion picture in the sense that everything we do is like frames of the motion picture. A certain decision affects the following frame’s outcome. These mini shifts mirror what it means to consciously shift to a completely different world. All it takes is a split second for the next frame of your motion picture to look completely different than the previous frame. With that analogy being understood, it’s entirely possible to shift without any prior preparation, since it happens so fast. 

However, if you want to enforce specific conditions for your reality, which you most likely do, it is recommended that you prepare a script. A script is somewhere you write everything about your desired reality. There is no particular format and the more you specify the more accurately you program your desired reality. Appearance, friendships with other people, superpowers- it is all under your control. After you’ve taken note of everything you want to experience, there are guided meditations on YouTube along with shifting subliminals that you can use to actually shift your consciousness. The more you indulge in the process, the easier you will realize you can shift realities.

Some accounts on TikTok accurately describe this concept of there being no limitations when it comes to shifting realities. However, rumors are being spread as fast as the knowledge we have gained from these accounts. A lot of the videos on TikTok enforce untrue beliefs about shifting realities. Various accounts claim that lucid dreaming and shifting realities are the same things. This is the biggest lie you could bring yourself to believe because lucid dreaming is becoming conscious of the fact that you are dreaming and controlling what happens in the dream and they end when you wake up. As real as it may feel, it’s not shifting realities. The distinction between the two is that when you shift realities, all five senses are activated and it is as real as you currently and consciously reading this sentence. Shifting realities also lasts for as long as you script it to. You can even alter the time conversions in your desired reality. For example, if you want one minute in your current reality to be equivalent to one year, it is entirely possible. 

Many people on TikTok that claim to know everything about shifting realities usually implement some sort of limiting factor due to fear of the unknown. People want to feel safe and so of course they feel the need to limit the facets of the situation because the vastness of the universe is so unbelievably mind-blowing that they find it easier to close things off.  

For more accurate information on shifting, Amino is a great place to be. Amino is an ecosystem of communities with shared interests, with up to thousands of users ready to answer your question and chat about reality shifting. There are communities for shifting with people that will answer your questions within minutes. Of course, there will still be some uneducated people that will try to limit the possibilities of the universe, but for the most part the information on Amino is incredibly accurate. YouTube also provides videos on how shifting realities works, but those creators focus more so on the scientific aspect of shifting rather than the details of it. There are also several videos made by teenagers who have successfully shifted sharing whatever they may know about the concept.

The only reason this all sounds utterly absurd to the average person is due to societal brainwashing — the world around us telling us to forget what we’re capable of. It’s no one’s fault in particular, that’s just the reason for why we all believe we are only capable of the “realistic”. However, realistic is more than an understatement when the fact of the matter is that we are capable of anything we can imagine. See and experience it for yourself. There’s no reason to waste your time somewhere you don’t want to be when you can use your mind to consciously go elsewhere.