Greek philosophers believed in shifting
Platons (an important greek philosopher) analogy of the cave in comparison to the loa/shifting.
What is the analogy of the cave?
In short, it compares our world and us living in it to a cave.
Basically, we don’t see the “actual” reality. We only see what we want to see/believe in. We are fettered by our own beliefs.
In his text, he writes that people are tied up in a cave with their back to a wall, unable to move. On top of that wall is a fire, and behind that fire are “people” who hold up stick figures/objects that cast shadows to the other side. The only thing that the tied-up people can see are the shadows cast by the fire on the wall. They don’t know that there even is a fire, neither that what they see are shadows and not the real objects themselves. They have never seen the "actual reality" in their life, therefore (for them) the shadows are the real reality. They think this is everything there is.
Platon then goes on to explain that even when they are untied and allowed to leave, most of them wouldn’t because they believe that what they see it the truth. They don’t see a reason to check if there is more. The one person who does leave (a philosopher in this analogy) has pain in doing so because they realize that all the things they believed in before were fake. They see the fire and the people walking past it, what makes the shadows. They see the real objects, and when they finally manage to make it outside and see the sun, they don’t believe it at first. Furthermore, they think that the “new” things aren’t real. Because it goes against everything they once believed in. They catch sight of the real world, free from their own beliefs and how they see things (3d). But it takes time to adjust, get used to, and understand that there is more than what they once saw. When the person finally goes back to tell the others what they saw, and how the stuff in the cave isn’t everything. They don’t believe him and think he’s crazy.
Platons meaning behind that is, that the cave is just like our world it shows us illustrations of things, but our “senses” can fool us, we live in our own “bubble” and don’t look above it. To see the “real” reality, you must have the courage to free yourself from the chains and question your existence. That’s how you understand the world and gather cognition (in other texts of his, this also leads to "what is a good person," but this isn't relevant here)
In connection to the loa and shifting
In Platons text, we would be the philosopher who leaves the cave. We leave our old belief system that has been taught to us by our surroundings and try to see above that. The cave is the 3d, and what comes after is the 4d. We realize that the real reality is our mind, and if we only look at the 3d, we will only ever see “shadows” of the things already true in the 4d. We know that the shadows aren’t the real reality. But just like in the text, it takes time to adjust to the changes. I don’t mean that you must spend some time until you can shift or manifest something in general. Rather that, for a lot of people, their old beliefs system is so engraved in their brain that it can be hard to change that.
So don’t give up, just because your senses only see the 3d doesn’t mean that the 4d isn’t real. The people who don’t believe in that (not saying that everybody must, do what you want) are those still in the cave. It’s hard to convince people of something that they haven’t experienced yet, and that goes against the stuff that they can see and have always seen. But just like the one philosopher leaving the cave. We all can leave it, too. We are the creator of our reality, and therefore, manifesting that you have something is just what is already true outside the cave. Outside the cave is the 4d, our imagination, our mind. That’s the real mastermind behind all of that. We must accept that there can be more and that the shadows aren’t everything.
Really old philosophers like Platon show us that even in the past, people believed in that kind of stuff. Of course, they didn’t call it manifesting, shifting, law of assumption, or anything like that. But some things are similar. It might not be the exact same, and sometimes they had other reasons behind their thinking or meanings, but in the end it’s what we do/ believe in too. It shows us that this isn’t something made up in 2020 by teens. It's something that occurs in texts as old as them from Platon and is also part of some religions. Of course, Platons intention wasn't to show his peers to believe in the law of assumption. Rather that we are born ignorant and to see the real reality, we must learn and educate ourselves. But isn’t that exactly what we are doing? Don’t sit in the cave and accept the shadows of what you could be. Try to reach the outside.