My first alterhuman experience was something that would now be called a spontaneous, unintentional case of reality shifting.
For a period of several months when I was 10 years old, in 1996, I was isekai'd back and forth to another reality.
There was a cartoon that was airing at the time. Samurai Pizza Cats. I didn't even like it to begin with, I thought it was stupid. My dad and brother were the ones watching it. But after a while, even though the feeling that it was stupid didn't go away, I was compelled to watch it for some reason.
And then the isekai started.
It wasn't dreams, even though I was most often pulled into that reality when I was in bed. It was whenever my attention wandered. I wasn't asleep. It was, if a dream, then a waking dream. Continuous, without looping, or changing. When I was there, I was there, when I was in our reality, time continued there, and I'd return to find that things had happened in my absence.
I laugh, every time I see the isekai boom in anime, because that wasn't nearly as much of a thing in 1996, but it happened to me.
The villain of the series had built a machine to summon a warrior from another universe who could defeat his enemies.
And he got me. A ten year old. And all the stupid bullshit that came with it.
They ended up training me, since they couldn't try again, and there was supposed to be some 'destined champion' thing going on.
I spent months of time training and fighting battles.
And then, after we achieved our goals, I went home. I had to go home, or they told me I wouldn't be able to. I was adapting to that universe, my body was changing.
And I will tell you when I was in our reality, I didn't quite believe what was happening to me when I was pulled into the other reality. It couldn't be happening, right?
But it wasn't a fun daydream! It wasn't intentional! I wasn't doing it on purpose and that stressed me out! It scared me.
So I said my goodbyes, and I came back.
And sadly, despite all my reaching out in the years afterward, despite all the other alterhuman experiences that I've had, I've never heard from anyone from that reality again. I've never been able to go back there. That door that was open to me has been forever closed.
And somehow that's one of the biggest things that makes me sure it was all real.











