Current psychology (New Brunswick, N.J.)
October 30, 2021
Eli Somer, Etzel Cardeña, Ramiro Figueiredo Catelan et al.
19 citations
Reality shifting (RS) is a mental activity that gained popularity after the COVID-19 pandemic, primarily among post-millennials. Practitioners report using relaxation, focused attention, and autosuggestion to feel they transcend their physical surroundings and enter alternate, often fictional, universes—such as those from Harry Potter. Online forums have over 40,000 members, and RS-related clips have been viewed over 1.7 billion times. Some shifters report a strong sense of presence in these realities, with some believing the alternate world is concretely real. The paper describes RS's phenomenology from online reports, compares it to hypnosis, tulpamancy, dissociation, maladaptive daydreaming, and lucid dreaming, and proposes a theoretical model of interactive factors. It concludes RS is an important, uninvestigated phenomenon and suggests future research.
Neurosci Biobehav Rev
January 14, 2025
Sofia Tzioridou, Teresa Campillo-Ferrer, Jorge Cañas-Martín et al.
5 citations
Lucid dreaming, where the dreamer becomes aware of being in a dream and often gains control over it, can occur spontaneously or be induced by behavioral, cognitive, or technological methods. This review examines evidence linking lucid dreaming to conditions such as nightmare disorder, depression, anxiety, psychosis, and dissociative states, and discusses possible neurobiological bases for these associations. It also explores contemplative sleep practices like Dream/Sleep Yoga and Yoga Nidrâ that train lucid states during sleep. Potential drawbacks of lucid dreaming interventions are outlined, along with impacts on individuals without clinical conditions, contributing to understanding its therapeutic possibilities and implications.
Journal of personality
April 1, 2019
Nirit Soffer-Dudek, Doron Todder, Leah Shelef et al.
Dissociative absorption—a tendency to become deeply immersed in an experience while losing awareness of one's surroundings—is linked to reduced electrical connectivity in the brain. In 84 healthy Israeli soldiers, resting-state EEG showed that those with higher dissociative absorption had decreased coherence (a measure of connectivity) between frontal and occipital regions, and between central and parietal regions. These effects were strongest in the left hemisphere and in slow-wave brain rhythms (theta and delta). The findings suggest that dissociative absorption reflects less integrated cortical activity, offering insight into the neural basis of consciousness and personality.