Reality shifters are a group of people who believe they can transport themselves to different realities by using techniques learned from posts on the internet. Some of these techniques are ancient—like breathwork, affirmations, and visualization. But one of the most important techniques is very contemporary: an app on your phone.
Reality shifting started in the late 2010s on Amino, a small fandom-centric social media platform. But it first got mainstream attention on TikTok in 2020, a time when many people—in particular young people who grew up immersed in fantasy and online worlds—had reason to find their current realities lacking. The unique combination of spirituality, technology, and social community is what draws in the hundreds of thousands of people subscribed to online reality shifter communities on Reddit, Discord, and TikTok.
Using specific rituals, shifters could go to their “desired reality” (DR) and travel to places like Hogwarts or Westeros, or they could even shift to an alternate reality of their actual life. There are as many opinions on shifting as there are shifters, but in general, the community believes we live in a multiverse, and so all these realities are equally real. Going from your original reality (OR) to a DR is all about unlocking the power of your mind.
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According to a 2021 study published in Current Psychology, some report “sensations of spinning, rocking, falling” as the body enters a trance state and the new reality takes hold. Ears buzz and ring, voices are heard, and phantom sensations are felt. The specifics of every experience, like the realities entered, are different.
But one thing seems true across the board: Shifting is difficult. The community’s online spaces are full of people complaining about how they’ve been trying to shift for ages but can’t, and asking for help.
Of course, skeptics point out that much of it is essentially having a very vivid, lucid dream—but some shifters will vehemently disagree. For those who are “successful,” a reality shifting session might start with the “raven” or “starfish” method, which involves lying on the ground, counting to a hundred, and saying an affirmation like “I am in my desired reality and can feel it” between each number. Some use “subliminals,” which are specially chosen audio tracks, to help them shift. Core to the practice of many shifters is “scripting:” writing out in intricate detail before you shift what the DR is like.
Or, you could just use the app.
An App to Leave Reality
The app is called Lifa, and it’s intended to help users “script” what happens when they get to a new reality. While the app was released in the Apple and Google app stores in 2023, Lifa was first conceptualized by a former member of the Amino community in 2019. In their description, the app didn’t exist in this reality—but rather as an app in your desired reality.
Think of it as a kind of WeChat for the multiverse. The DR Lifa app lets you create a portal to move between realities like you would call an Uber in real life. It also lets you manifest any object or outfit, and allows you to remotely watch your original while in your desired reality as if it were a show on Netflix.
As shifting spread beyond Amino, it moved into “ShiftTok,” the loose community surrounding the practice on TikTok, and a constellation of subreddits and Discord servers. At each step along the way, different users shared new versions of their own Lifa app.
OR Lifa offers a variety of tools for scripting, and through it you can access imitation versions of a bank account app or a social media platform and write in your own balance and follower count. It might be understood as “a tool for belief,” in the words of one shifter who spoke with The Daily Beast on the condition of anonymity.
Screenshot via Aidan WalkerDR Lifa is imagined as a tech company complete with a logo and UX. It exists to give you absolute freedom and access within the reality it renders—but if you don’t know what you want, DR Lifa knows you well enough to render something that is “a trillion times better” than you could have wished, one anonymous shifter told The Daily Beast.
TikTok, Meta, and Apple can only hope for this sort of power—but the mythology of DR Lifa mirrors their real-life brand identities and advertising promises. Just as these tech companies increasingly broker our relationships with objects and people inside this reality, Lifa does the same for a desired reality. It combines all functions and centralizes all action on one interface.
“People have been doing this with technology for decades,” Heidi Campbell, a professor of digital religion at Texas A&M University, told The Daily Beast. “Whatever your understanding of the spiritual world or the divine world, you usually translate that and put it on the technology.”
“Infinity and Freedom”
The Lifa app in this reality is more humble than the DR version. It is available for free on the Google and Apple app stores, where it has nearly a million downloads and around 100,000 monthly active users. However, the app’s developer Arthur (whose last name has been withheld to protect his anonymity) told The Daily Beast that he’s not a shifter himself, but “more of just a creator.”
Arthur first encountered shifting through a TikTok post from a user who shared their image-board design for a Lifa app. Arthur saw there was no Lifa in this reality but it was an important part of shifting, and stepped in to “fill a need for the community.”
Every feature of OR Lifa derives from something the community suggested. “I do care very strongly about the individuals in the community,” Arthur said. “And I want them to enjoy to the fullest extent possible their journeys into these worlds and the comfort and security these travels give them.”
OR Lifa offers a variety of tools for scripting, and through it you can access imitation versions of a bank account app or a social media platform and write in your own balance and follower count.
Screenshot of Lifa. The Lifa app in this reality is more humble than the DR version.
Screenshot via Aidan WalkerOR Lifa might be understood as “a tool for belief,” in the words of one shifter who spoke with The Daily Beast on the condition of anonymity. Scripting a facsimile of what your phone in a DR might look like helps direct you towards that goal. The same shifter said the Lifa app demonstrates “a good manifesto of shifting beliefs: infinity and freedom.”
Arthur agrees saying “the allure [of shifting] comes from the fact that you can design any world, any character you would like, and you can make that world a reality—one where you're free of inhibitions, free of the judgements and pressures of our ORs.” He is now working on a new app for a more general audience of “casual creatives” who want to make immersive fictional worlds “without the learning curve of book writing.”
A Digital Cheers Bar
In some ways, it’s more accurate to speak of “shifting communities” than a “shifting community.” The various subreddits and Discords differ from each other and occasionally squabble. ShiftTok, ungoverned by mods, is a chaotic space that is difficult to track. But in general, each community is devoted to helping others along their shifting journey, sharing tips and lore. Shifting may be all about leaving this reality, but through these communities, it seems to have an impact on lives in this reality.
The most extensive psychological research on shifting is a 2021 study published in Current Psychology, which compared it to other “immersive daydreaming practices,” and points out that if not controlled and done responsibly, reality shifting could turn into a form of “maladaptive daydreaming.” There are reports in shifter communities of people who can’t stop shifting, are stressed out by what they meet in a DR, or are using it as an escape from problems in their original realities. But most shifters seem to be in control of their practice.
When you enter a Discord devoted to reality shifting (and there are several) you’ll see channels about what you’d expect, like scripting desired realities. But you’ll also see channels devoted to board games and conversations about workout routines. There’s no data on the subject, but the community seems to involve people from around the world: most posts are in English or in Spanish, and there’s a lot of users practicing a second language in the online communities.
A practice that some have criticized as a way of escaping reality actually serves as a way to change how people experience this reality, helping them find connection. “Everyone wants their digital Cheers bar,” Campbell told The Daily Beast. “A place where everybody knows your name, and is glad you came.”
