DARK WEB: Reality Shifting

A strange trend has been spreading across TikTok and social media known as “Reality Shifting”. Thousands of people claim they’ve discovered a way to leave this world and transport their consciousness into alternate realities through meditation, scripted rituals, and sleep techniques. Believers insist the experiences are real. Skeptics dismiss it as a mass internet-fueled fantasy. But the question remains: is this psychology at work… or something science can’t yet explain?

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:00Speaker 00

  When an intruder approaches a home, they expect a camera. What they don't expect.

• 0:04Speaker 01

  Stop, this is SimpliSafe. Police are on the way.

• 0:06Speaker 00

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• 0:32Yvette Gentile?

  The older and wiser you get, the more you realize just how precious every second of life is. But some moments, even the tiniest ones, may feel a bit more important than others. I want you to just stop and think for a second about a tiny little moment that changed the course of your life. Maybe it's a time you missed a flight and you spent hours in the airport and met a stranger who ended up becoming your best friend. Or maybe you got stopped at a traffic light right before a huge accident happened. Maybe you spilled some coffee on someone who later offered you the opportunity of a lifetime.

• 1:17Yvette Gentile?

  Or maybe you're like me and your job brought you to a new city where they rented a place for you and your roommate became your husband. And yes, that was over 20 years ago. But what I'm saying is, the world unfolds around us in mysterious ways, guiding us towards what feels like our destiny. But do you ever sit back and think about how different your life would be if those little things never happened?

• 1:52Rasha Pecoraro?

  I think about this all the time. I believe every single moment in my life, good, bad, big or small, has led me to this precise moment. We all know how much I love Marvel and DC, especially Loki, Spider-Man, Doctor Strange and Superman and Lois, which have all dabbled in the multiverse. I sometimes wonder if there's a very different version of me living a totally different life in an alternate universe like one of my favorite superheroes. Would other Rasha be gay like me? Would she be a podcaster? Or would she be a professional softball player? Or maybe she's hooping it up in the WNBA?

• 2:34Rasha Pecoraro?

  Is our beautiful mother still alive in that other universe? Although I love my life and everything I've built for myself and our family, our ohana, I'd be lying if I said I wasn't curious about what that other Rasha was up to. If only we could take a peek.

• 2:51Yvette Gentile?

  Well, according to the internet, you can. Today, we're talking about a growing online movement of people who say that they can visit alternate dimensions. They can spend days, weeks, or even years there and then seamlessly return to their own. They call themselves "reality shifters." And according to them, anyone can travel through the multiverse. All you need is to tap into a power that we all have hiding inside ourselves. I'm Yvette Gentile.

• 3:27Rasha Pecoraro?

  And I'm her sister, Rasha Pecoraro. This is So Supernatural.

• 4:02Yvette Gentile?

  Well, I mean, you can't believe everything you read on the internet. The web and social media are full of misinformation. Fake news, AI-generated content, and then there are the rabbit holes, the deep, long rabbit holes that pull you in at 2:00 AM and do not let you go. Well, reality shifting is one of them. Thousands of people online claim they've consciously moved their awareness to an entirely different reality. Some say they've spent what felt like years in a world they built themselves, only to wake up in their beds minutes later. Is it real or just mass delusion?

• 4:47Yvette Gentile?

  Today, that is what we want to uncover. Because mixed in with all the online hoaxes and misinformation, sometimes you find something that doesn't have a clean explanation. Something that a lot of people are experiencing independently all over the world. And reality shifting might be one of those things.

• 5:11Rasha Pecoraro?

  Let us introduce you to a Canadian woman named Kristin Dattou. In 2020, she was 19 years old and, like most of us, feeling restless at the height of the COVID-19 lockdowns. Kristin couldn't see her friends in person, attend real-world classes, or do much of anything for that matter. And like many of us, her biggest connection to the outside world was the internet. So she spent her hours scrolling on TikTok. And that's when Kristin saw a post that caught her eye. It was talking about reality shifting. Kristin had seen the term on social media a few years before. And back then, the post had implied it was some kind of witchcraft or dark magic.

• 5:52Rasha Pecoraro?

  And since Kristin had never been interested in the occult, she'd never paid much attention to it. But this TikToker described reality shifting in terms that had nothing to do with spells or rituals. Instead, it almost seemed more scientific. They explained that infinite alternate universes weren't just a theory, they really existed. And it was possible to send your consciousness to any dimension you wanted. They claimed everyone had this ability inside themselves already. All you had to do was get into the right mindset. But only your mind would travel. Your physical body would remain safe and sound right in your home universe, which was good because, according to the TikTok post,

• 6:37Rasha Pecoraro?

  you could get physically hurt or even die while traveling between realities. But your body would remain safe and sound right here. In some cases, you'd also find that time passed very differently in the other universes. Some people have claimed to spend months or even years in these alternate realities. But when they got home, only a few hours or minutes had passed.

• 7:02Yvette Gentile?

  Okay, we know it sounds wild, and Kristin thought so too. But the post also included some instructions on how to get into the right mindset to do it herself. And she figured, what was the harm in trying? Worst-case scenario, reality shifting was a hoax. Nothing would happen and she'd manage to kill a few hours, get a good nap, right? Best-case scenario, Kristin would experience, I don't know, something incredible.

• 7:33Rasha Pecoraro?

  To start, she had to enter a meditative state where she was very relaxed and very calm. So she put on some gentle music, laid down in bed, and did her best to clear her mind. According to the videos, it was that easy. But several minutes went by and nothing happened. Eventually, Kristin sat back up again, probably feeling a little bit ridiculous for falling for the entire thing.

• 7:58Yvette Gentile?

  A few days went by, and then one afternoon, Kristin was lying in bed, trying to catch a midday nap. And she began doing all the same things she'd done during her previous attempt. She was breathing deeply and lying in bed with her eyes closed. And she felt relaxed and basically at peace with the world. And that's when she suddenly felt a cool, gentle breeze blowing across her face. The thing was, Kristin had closed her bedroom window before lying down for her nap. There shouldn't have been a breeze inside, I mean, at all. So she opened her eyes, and that's when she realized she wasn't in her room anymore. She was somewhere she'd never been before.

• 8:40Yvette Gentile?

  It looked like a fancy bedroom in a British mansion, and there was an open window letting in the breeze. And all of the furniture was very old. It appeared to be from the 1800s. And that's when Kristin remembered something from the videos. She was in a place known as "the waiting room."

• 9:02Rasha Pecoraro?

  That's the term reality shifters use for the stopping point between universes. It's where they go after they've left our dimension, but haven't made it to a new one yet. Kristin remembered hearing that each waiting room was unique. Some people waited in forests, or temples, or remote cabins. But there was one feature every waiting room had in common. They were all quiet and peaceful. People went there to unwind and get into the right mindset during the shift.

• 9:31Yvette Gentile?

  Kristin said she still didn't believe she'd actually gone into a new reality. It seemed too incredible. So she pinched herself to check if she was dreaming. And guess what? The pinch hurt. This seemed real. At that point, she tried to remember everything she'd seen and read in that post days before. The user had claimed there were infinite alternate universes. Anything you can imagine is real somewhere. And reality shifters need to choose what kind of dimension they want to travel to before they can actually get there. So Kristin figured she was in this waiting room because she hadn't picked a destination yet.

• 10:15Yvette Gentile?

  She took a moment to think about what kind of world she wanted to visit. And she remembered her favorite anime series called My Hero Academia. It was set in a world where superheroes and villains were real. The main character was a student at a school for heroes, learning how to master his powers. And he regularly went on action-packed adventures with his friends and classmates. Kristin liked the idea of being in a world similar to that one. So she did some deep breathing exercises to keep herself calm. And she repeated phrases like, "I'm going to shift," over and over again.

• 10:59Yvette Gentile?

  Eventually, she became so relaxed, she actually dozed off.

• 11:04Rasha Pecoraro?

  When she woke up again, she said she was in the universe she'd imagined. One full of superheroes and magic powers, a girl after my own heart. From there, Kristin claimed to have an amazing adventure, but she didn't go into detail. We do know that when she woke up, she wasn't lying in her bed anymore. While her consciousness had been in the other universe, her body had gotten up, gone through her usual daily routine, all on its own. Which proved to her, she hadn't just been dreaming.

• 11:40Speaker 00

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• 11:47Speaker 01

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• 11:50Speaker 00

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• 12:05Speaker 01

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• 12:12Speaker 04

  Hi, I'm Ashley Flowers.

• 12:13Speaker 05

  And I'm Britt. And if you're on the edge of your seat listening to this show, Crime Junkie needs to be your next listen.

• 12:19Speaker 04

  Every Monday, I dive into a new true crime case that our reporting team has been on the ground looking into. From lesser-known disappearances to the most chilling cases hitting the headlines. And I'm going to walk you through it the way I tell my best friend, because, well, that's what I'm doing.

• 12:35Speaker 05

  Yeah, that's me. And I'm right there with you as we listen together, react to every wild detail, and of course, I ask all the questions.

• 12:43Speaker 04

  And I'm going to have the answers, because we have case files. We're talking to detectives and family members, and we're going to stay focused on the facts.

• 12:50Speaker 05

  So if you're not already listening to Crime Junkie, what are you waiting for? There are over 300 episodes available right now.

• 12:56Speaker 04

  And you can listen to new episodes of Crime Junkie every Monday, wherever you get your podcasts.

• 13:08Rasha Pecoraro?

  Kristin began doing meditation and deep breathing exercises consistently until she got really good at putting herself into the right mental state. She said she gained the ability to transport her mind at will anytime she wanted to. Sometimes she went straight to her superhero universe, skipping the waiting room entirely. Other times, she explored the 19th century manor just to see what it was like. And Kristin realized the manor was much bigger than just that one house. It was full of other buildings and people. Some lived there working as butlers and maids, others were members of that universe's noble elite.

• 13:49Rasha Pecoraro?

  They all had their own dreams and goals and were willing to scheme or betray one another to get exactly what they wanted. Kristin said she spent hours in the waiting room universe, getting all caught up in its politics.

• 14:03Yvette Gentile?

  And back here in this reality, she stayed in touch with TikTok's reality shifter community. She looked at other people's posts to see if their experiences were similar to hers, and she shared details of her own travels. What she found was, she was not alone. Her experiences were very typical. Lots of people struggled to shift the first time they tried, but got better with practice. And it was common to shift to realities that resembled existing movies and TV shows. While Kristin's experiences weren't unique, she still became a very well-known reality shifter in that online circle.

• 14:45Yvette Gentile?

  Eventually, she even made a how-to video full of tips and tricks new reality shifters could use to travel to other dimensions. Within a year or so, it racked up more than 1 million views.

• 15:02Rasha Pecoraro?

  She also gave interviews about her experiences to the BBC and The Washington Post. She spoke openly about her experiences and made one thing very clear. She hadn't imagined her experiences. She wasn't lying or making this up. In their articles, the reporters dismissed Kristin's adventures as fantasies or dreams. No matter what she said, they would not accept that her story was real. But people on social media believed her. Posts reading hashtag shifting realities racked up almost 10 billion views on TikTok during and after the pandemic. And a Reddit community called Dimension Jumping attracted over 42,000 members.

• 15:45Rasha Pecoraro?

  Many of these posts discussed methods and tactics that could reliably trigger reality shifting. So we figured, why not share them with all of you?

• 15:54Yvette Gentile?

  Okay, well, imagine you want to visit another universe. The good news is, you don't need any high-tech equipment or rare magic powers. Almost anyone can do it. Usually, you start by deciding what kind of universe you want to jump to. This is called a desired reality, or DR for short. The DR can be almost anything. It can be very similar to our dimension, with just one or two little details changed. Maybe it's a world where you landed a dream job that you didn't get here. Or where your childhood crush actually became your lifelong partner. Brad Pitt?

• 16:39Speaker 05

  Oh, oh, oh.

• 16:40Speaker 04

  Sheryl Rodriguez.

• 16:44Yvette Gentile?

  Or it might be wildly different, because it exists in a different time. It could have different laws of physics. The more clearly you can picture the DR, the easier it is to get there. Some people even go so far as to design specific rooms or buildings to shift to. Or they'll specify other individuals they want to meet in the DR, and what their relationship looks like. This process of specifying every aspect of the DR in advance is called scripting. Once your script is written, you can move on to the next stage, and that is meditation.

• 17:26Rasha Pecoraro?

  Reality shifters have strategies to make the meditation stage as effective as possible. One of the most popular is called the Raven Method. The Raven Method involves lying flat on your back with your legs and arms spread out around you. Ideally, you don't want to be touching anything. You close your eyes and slowly count to 100. But between each number, you'll whisper an affirmation about reality shifting to yourself. So it might sound something like this. One, I'm going to shift. Two, I'll make it to my desired reality. Three, nothing will keep me away from my DR.

• 18:09Rasha Pecoraro?

  And of course, it goes on and on until you reach 100.

• 18:12Yvette Gentile?

  It seems very similar to Shavasana in yoga. Like when you're lying on your back, yes, with your, your hands and legs spread apart. I mean, this is at the end of your vinyasa, you know, where you drift away, and then you count back to come back to your mat. So, yeah, this is fascinating. Well, some people have found that the Raven Method doesn't work well for them. Instead, they find it helpful to picture a moving space, like a train or an elevator. In their imaginations, they're in their current reality, or CR as they call it, when they start their journey. But once they've reached their stop, it's in the DR. Others will sit in a private area,

• 18:56Yvette Gentile?

  like under a tree in their yard, and then they'll picture a scene right out of Alice in Wonderland. A person from their DR runs by them, and they get up to chase that person. Then they fall into a rabbit hole, which is an interdimensional portal.

• 19:13Rasha Pecoraro?

  There are dozens of methods reality shifters use to get to their DR. And there are just as many methods to return to the CR. Some people simply decide to go to the CR and find themselves back in their original universe, like waking themselves up from a dream. We first learned about reality shifting from a member of our family who has actually tried to shift. And they find it helpful to come up with a particular code or phrase while they're scripting. When they say it out loud, they instantly transport back to their CR. Others lay down and close their eyes when they're ready to return. They meditate and whisper affirmations just like they did when they entered the DR. But this time,

• 19:58Rasha Pecoraro?

  the affirmations are phrases like, "I'm going home," or "It's time to go back." But some people warn that if you don't have a reliable way to get back, you could get stuck in your DR permanently.

• 20:12Yvette Gentile?

  What's shocking is there are tons of stories about people who have reality shifted using these methods. But others discovered these abilities before they ever heard of reality shifting or joined TikTok. I mean, just take this story from a woman named Joen. She was born and raised in the Netherlands, and today Joen is very active on TikTok and posts a lot about reality shifting. Joen says the first time she left the CR, she didn't even realize it. She was playing with her stuffed animals only for them to come alive. And as she got older, she was utterly confused by her memories of living walking, talking toys. But in 2020,

• 20:57Yvette Gentile?

  she found something that helped her basically make sense of it all.

• 21:02Rasha Pecoraro?

  Like a lot of other young people, Joen felt restricted by the shelter-at-home orders. She spent a lot of time scrolling TikTok and saw countless stories from other reality shifters. As Joen watched their accounts, it was like something clicked into place. She suddenly understood it was possible to send her consciousness to another universe. And that must have been what had happened to her as a child. She'd slipped into a dimension where her toys were alive. After this, Joen became very involved with reality shifting. She studied the different methods people use to get from one universe to the next, and she learned how to visit any DR at will. Along the way,

• 21:46Rasha Pecoraro?

  she developed a deeper understanding of how parallel dimensions work. And Joen came to believe that everyone on Earth reality shifts every single day.

• 22:03Speaker 00

  The real cost of a break-in isn't your valuables. It's the feeling that your home stopped being safe. SimpliSafe keeps danger away from your family with three layers of protection. One, smart AI cameras and live US-based agents help stop intruders before they break in. Two, we sound the alarm at points of entry. Three, our agents request emergency response. Plans starting around $1 a day. Right now, get 60% off your new system with professional monitoring at simplisafe.com/truecrime. Outdoor deterrence plans start at $49.99 a month. Visit simplisafe.com/licenses for alarm license information.

• 22:34Speaker 04

  Hi, I'm Ashley Flowers.

• 22:35Speaker 05

  And I'm Britt. And if you're on the edge of your seat listening to this show, Crime Junkie needs to be your next listen.

• 22:41Speaker 04

  Every Monday, I dive into a new true crime case that our reporting team has been on the ground looking into. From lesser-known disappearances to the most chilling cases hitting the headlines. And I'm going to walk you through it the way I tell my best friend, because, well, that's what I'm doing.

• 22:57Speaker 05

  Yeah, that's me. And I'm right there with you as we listen together, react to every wild detail, and of course, I ask all the questions.

• 23:05Speaker 04

  And I'm going to have the answers, because we have case files. We're talking to detectives and family members, and we're going to stay focused on the facts.

• 23:12Speaker 05

  So if you're not already listening to Crime Junkie, what are you waiting for? There are over 300 episodes available right now.

• 23:18Speaker 04

  And you can listen to new episodes of Crime Junkie every Monday, wherever you get your podcasts.

• 23:30Rasha Pecoraro?

  Reality shifting works almost like manifestation. For those who don't know, the idea behind manifestation is that you can make your dreams a reality just by believing in them. Those who practice it say it's like making your mind a magnet for your desires. It's the law of attraction. We grew up with a mother who 100% believed in manifestation and visualization. If you believe something strongly enough and imagine that it is real, it will become your reality. A dream job you always wanted, a check in your mailbox, having a hit podcast. If you believe strongly enough that it will come to you,

• 24:13Rasha Pecoraro?

  people practicing manifestation say it will happen. Except Joen sees it slightly differently. She believes you hop to a universe where you already have that skill or where you're slightly better at it just by thinking about it a lot. And most people don't even realize that they've traveled to this other reality because their new DR is so similar to their original CR.

• 24:41Yvette Gentile?

  So my question is, what is the difference? Well, Joen says she's visited a lot of parallel dimensions over the years, some that are barely different from her own. There are so few differences that she hardly noticed a change, like the DR with the talking toys. But also others that are very different from her original CR. In fact, her favorite is one of Ratchet 2, the Marvel Cinematic Universe. In Joen's DR, Spider-Man, Iron Man, The Incredible Hulk, and Doctor Strange are all real. The plot points from their films have all happened. With one exception,

• 25:26Yvette Gentile?

  Joen is in a committed romantic relationship with Loki, the trickster god and brother of Thor. Joen claims she's been going to that universe for eight years. And she and Loki have been together long enough to have three children together.

• 25:46Rasha Pecoraro?

  All right, Joen, I'm not mad at you going after my favorite bisexual superhero. But those claims make a lot of skeptics' spidey senses tingle. After all, it's one thing to say you've traveled to an alternate universe where toys are alive, but to live in a dimension akin to the MCU? That's even harder for skeptics to believe. And as much as I do want to believe it, it seems very unlikely that the Marvel Cinematic Universe actually exists. It's a work of fiction created by writers, directors, actors, and comic book artists. And yet, countless reality shifters say they've gone to the worlds

• 26:29Rasha Pecoraro?

  of their favorite books, movies, and TV shows. There are even multiple people who say they're romantically involved with the same fictional character, Harry Potter's Draco Malfoy. Now, we don't support JK Rowling here at So Soup, but I get wanting to date your favorite fictional character, which is why skeptics say there's no way reality shifting is actually a supernatural phenomenon. Instead, they believe it's psychological.

• 27:01Yvette Gentile?

  According to a clinical psychologist named Ehab Youssef, accounts of reality shifting sound an awful lot like lucid dreaming. And that's a dream in which you know you're asleep and you can take control of the narrative. And scientists aren't entirely sure why we have lucid dreams, but Dr. Youssef notes that many reality shifters claim they go to their DR after lying still, closing their eyes, breathing deeply, and just relaxing. It's very possible they fall asleep while meditating. And since they're expecting to travel to another universe, they may have a lucid dream

• 27:44Yvette Gentile?

  about going to that reality. If the dream is vivid enough, the reality shifter might wake up believing they actually jumped universes.

• 27:56Rasha Pecoraro?

  The explanation could be even simpler, like all of these reality shifters are merely daydreaming. For the most part, there's nothing wrong with having an active imagination. We all like fantasizing about being richer, more famous, or more influential.

• 28:14Rasha Pecoraro?

  But psychologist Ellie Sommer says in certain situations fantasies can become psychologically harmful. This is called maladaptive daydreaming. It can happen when people use their imaginations to avoid upsetting or stressful things in their real lives. For example, someone going through a difficult breakup or divorce may want to pretend a nicer, more attentive partner is passionately in love with them. Or someone could lose their job and then get lost in imaginary scenarios where they win the lottery and never need to work again. The danger is that people could become more invested in the daydream than in real life. They might stop trying to fix the problems that made them start fantasizing in the first

• 28:59Rasha Pecoraro?

  place. When the fantasies start interfering with real life, the daydreams become maladaptive, according to Dr. Sommer.

• 29:08Yvette Gentile?

  And it's notable that reality shifting began trending online during the COVID-19 pandemic, a time when a lot of people were very stressed and looking to disassociate. And of course, daydreams about being able to leave your home and travel to other universes would be very appealing. And some reality shifters did become more invested in their DRs than their CRs, just like Dr. Sommer warned. It's difficult to get into hard numbers because the phenomenon is so new, but some people report their DRs feel more real than the CR. They want to invest more in their alternate universe friendships because their relationships

• 29:53Yvette Gentile?

  in this world don't feel as deep or as meaningful.

• 29:57Rasha Pecoraro?

  Okay, so I can see how it's possible that some alleged reality shifters are just daydreaming or having lucid dreams, but many people say their experiences are very real. And they know they're not fantasizing because they can tell the difference. And some reality shifters say they are able to travel while they're wide awake without needing to lie down or close their eyes. And there's a small number of reality shifters who say they've gained skills in their DR, abilities you'd only develop through real world experience, not through daydreaming or fantasizing.

• 30:38Rasha Pecoraro?

  For example, Kristin Dattu told a CNN reporter she spent a lot of time in her 19th century aristocratic waiting room. She got caught up in its interpersonal politics and shifting alliances. And along the way, she became very good at reading people, advocating for what she wanted, and seeing through empty flattery. She became an expert at navigating complicated political situations. It's worth noting that she was a freshman in college when she first got into reality shifting. And by the time she was an upperclassman, she knew how to put her newfound skills to work. She decided to major in international relations and affairs.

• 31:21Rasha Pecoraro?

  After she graduated, she started studying for her master's in global affairs.

• 31:26Yvette Gentile?

  But some shifters don't want to use the knowledge from their DRs to make their CR better. Instead, it seems much easier to stay in the alternate universe as permanent residents rather than as visitors. Take this story from the early 2020s, when a 19-year-old named Naj had a huge falling out with their friends. Naj was a non-binary college student who lived in Ohio. And after their social circle collapsed, they felt very alone with no one to support them. Eventually, they found solace in a video game called Doki Doki Literature Club.

• 32:08Yvette Gentile?

  There was a character in the game named Monica, who Naj developed a crush on. Now Naj understood Monica didn't actually exist, and they would never get to meet Monica in real life. But somewhere along the way, they discovered the reality shifter community on TikTok. And they saw a bunch of creators saying there were infinite parallel universes. Anything you could imagine was real somewhere, and you could go to any dimension you wanted to. As soon as Naj heard about reality shifting, they began studying the phenomenon. They scripted a universe where Monica was real.

• 32:51Yvette Gentile?

  And when they tried to cross over, well, it didn't work. But Naj wasn't discouraged. In an interview, they acknowledged that first-time shifters often make multiple attempts before they successfully cross over. Their struggles were common, except there was one thing that made Naj different from other shifters. They didn't just want to visit Monica's world, they wanted to move there permanently. On TikTok, they had seen numerous posts referencing a phenomenon called perma-shifting. It's impossible to say if anyone has successfully perma-shifted, because remember, when you

• 33:33Yvette Gentile?

  reality shift, your body doesn't travel to an alternate universe with you, only your mind does. And allegedly, when your consciousness leaves your body, it keeps functioning without you.

• 33:48Rasha Pecoraro?

  Reality shifters say that while they're in their DRs, their physical forms still wake up, walk around, talk to people, go to work or school, and live normal lives. They're just running on autopilot without their minds to guide them. Much like Kristin experienced when she returned from her DR, some people claim they've spent weeks or even months away from their CR just to come home and realize, nobody noticed they were gone. Their bodies and their lives kept on going without them. One TikToker, who goes by Gina, shifted long enough to miss several days of class. She let her body handle her homework while her consciousness was elsewhere. When she got back, her GPA had plummeted.

• 34:32Rasha Pecoraro?

  Without her mind around to do the work correctly, her body had failed multiple assignments.

• 34:37Yvette Gentile?

  It may sound impossible for our bodies to function without our consciousness around, or even for us to travel to other universes just by thinking about it. But there is evidence that suggests other dimensions do exist. The science here is very technical, way above my pay grade, and I'm simplifying a lot. But in basic terms, our universe is constantly expanding. If it's getting bigger, that must mean it's moving into new space that wasn't part of our reality before. No one knows what's in that unoccupied space, but it could be another universe.

• 35:19Yvette Gentile?

  Astronomers have also detected a lot of radiation at the far reaches of the universe, except it doesn't behave like radiation is supposed to. It's hard to get into the specifics of what it's doing wrong, because that would involve some very advanced concepts. But some researchers think there's one obvious explanation for why the radiation is acting so weird. It didn't originate in our reality. It's from somewhere else, where the laws of physics work very differently. Some research suggests there's at least one dimension where time flows backward rather

• 36:00Yvette Gentile?

  than forward, and other realities might have even stranger setups. However, it's also possible that some universes look very similar to our own reality.

• 36:14Rasha Pecoraro?

  Some believe we're constantly creating alternate realities every second of every day. The idea is that if you flip a coin, two universes are created, one where it lands on heads and another where it lands on tails. If you're debating about whether to call an old friend to catch up, there's one reality where you do it and another where you don't. That means there are millions of realities that are very similar to our own. So if alternate universes do exist, what's to say we can't travel between them, even with the powers of our own minds? Especially because, according to some recent scientific studies, thoughts can be more powerful than we ever realized.

• 36:59Yvette Gentile?

  And you've probably heard of the placebo effect, because we've talked a lot about it on So Supernatural. It's a phenomenon in which people can heal or beat infections just because they believe they'll get better. But there's a related concept called mental rehearsal, a process where athletes imagine themselves winning races, or lifting heavy weights, or shooting game-winning free throws. Studies show people who have regular mental rehearsals alongside physical workouts tend to be faster, stronger, and better at sports than people who only exercise in the real world. And I 100% believe this to be true, because when I-

• 37:42Rasha Pecoraro?

  I didn't realize, I've done that my entire life with softball.

• 37:45Yvette Gentile?

  Yeah, and when I do marathons, I visualize myself crossing that finish line and people yelling and screaming and, you know, and I'm just like-

• 37:53Rasha Pecoraro?

  Go, Yvette!

• 37:54Yvette Gentile?

  In my bliss, right? So yes, I believe that to be true for sure. It just goes to show that if you can visualize it, you can create your reality, and our minds are pretty powerful tools, after all.

• 38:09Rasha Pecoraro?

  Whether it's real or not, I'm not surprised people are drawn to the idea of reality shifting. Life in this world isn't always fun, glamorous, or exciting. Sometimes we have to deal with setbacks, strained relationships, health scares, unnerving political developments, the list can go on and on. It's tempting to think we could simply write a script, do some meditation, and then travel to another universe where things will work out.

• 38:40Yvette Gentile?

  But if these other universes are real, they're probably not as perfect as we'd like to imagine. Suffering and adversity are, and always will be, part of the human condition. And overcoming obstacles is truly what makes us all stronger, which is why it's worth investing in our PR, our present reality. Because there's beauty, value, and infinite potential in the here and now.

• 39:22Rasha Pecoraro?

  This is So Supernatural, an AudioChuck original produced by Crime House. You can connect with us on Instagram at So Supernatural Pod and visit our website at sosupernaturalpodcast.com. Join Yvette and me next Friday for an all-new episode. I think Chuck would approve.

• 39:45Speaker 06

  When the nights grow longer, the shadows start to stir, and that can only mean one thing: Full Body Chills is back. This season, step inside original tales where every doorway leads somewhere darker, every stranger carries a secret, and nothing is ever quite what it seems. Each story takes you somewhere new, but be careful, you never know what might follow you home. So gather round, listen close, and stream Full Body Chills wherever you get your podcasts.