Shifting is half mindset, half being in an altered state
A conclusion I came to is that: the advice I’d give people who’ve tried everything but still haven’t shifted is to drop everything and focus entirely on inducing mind-awake, body-asleep and an altered state. I thought “if that’s what I think, then what the heck is shifting actually comprised of?” Other than two raccoons in a trench coat.
So yeah, I think shifting is half your mindset, half being in an altered state. But “half” is extremely flexible. For some people, mindset (I’m talking law of assumption, using affirmations, knowing it’s done, acting as if, all that stuff) can be 90%, maybe even 99%, while the altered state is just the tiniest sliver, like 1%. For others, maybe it’s 70% mindset and 30% altered state. And then for someone else, it might be 90% altered state and only 10% mindset. It can be 80/20, 60/40, 50/50. The ratio changes depending on the person.
I believe this so firmly because one manifests the other. For example: The intention you hold (to shift) manifests you getting into an altered state and then shifting from there. On the flip side, getting into an altered state can completely change your worldview, shift your pov, and change your mindset (think, someone having a sleep paralysis episode where they almost shift, and from then on they realize how malleable their awareness is from that state, so they use it to their benefit).
“Does that mean people who blink and suddenly find themselves in their DR used an altered state?”
I think yes, but not because they reached hypnagogia or the void without noticing (though that does happen), but because the instant you become aware of another reality, your state has altered, it isn’t fixed to one reality anymore.
So if you used law of assumption to shift, assumed you were already in your DR, blinked and you were there instantly,,, that blink was the altered state. That’s why for some people the ratio looks like 1% altered state, 99% mindset, but the altered state is still present; it can just show up as an almost-instant switch because the mindset did the heavy lifting. The point is, they go hand in hand.
“So wtf do I do” Welll wtf have you been doing? Let’s see
Mindset-heavy shifting looks like: law of assumption (believing it’s already done), affirmations and mantras, acting as if you’re already in your DR, trying to feel emotions from your DR, visualizing or scripting and then “living from it”, and mental diets.
Altered state-heavy shifting looks like: trying to enter the void, inducing sleep paralysis, working with hypnagogia (images, sounds, sensations), watching for symptoms (tingles, floating, vibrations, etc.), lucid dreaming, wbtb, breathwork, or MABA.
My theory right now is that someone who’s struggling to shift might be honing in on the half that doesn’t serve them. Think about it. Some people thrive with the law of assumption, “acting as if,” rampaging affirmations, living in the mindset of being a master shifter. That’s what works for them, and then they shift. But then there’s the other group, where people shift through sleep paralysis, the void, hypnagogia, wbtb, and so on. So there’s three paths to take
If you’ve been trying with mindset, you drop all of that completely. You stop fussing over whether your mindset is “perfect” or not, stop worrying about trying to maintain constant positivity, assumptions, the identity of being a master shifter, and acting as if.
Your mindset literally doesn’t matter here. You could spiral, be depressed, feel like crap, acknowledge your circumstances, whatever. It has nothing to do with your ability to shift. Instead, you focus only on inducing altered states. Of course this could mean the void state, lucid dreaming, meditation, hypnagogia, whatever makes sense to you. BUT the most simple thing to start with that’s the foundation of all of these, is mind awake, body asleep (MABA).
But MABA is notttt meditating for hours while staying still. It can be, but in my experience, the trick is to not try to force what will happen. Your only job for MABA is: keep the mind engaged, and let the body relax all the way. I’m going to link my wbtb hack, that eyelid method, and ways to not fall asleep, because those are all “hack” MABA.
But there’s so many little ways to do this such as playing a song you love while letting yourself stay awake (because you won’t notice your body fall asleep). Or sleeping with light in the room (at any degree). Or even using a physical anchor, like falling asleep with a clothespin pinching you. I could do a whole list, but the point is: start experimenting with what makes your body fall asleep while your mind hangs on to awareness, and just forget everything about your mindset, affirmations, etc.
Say you were mindset-heavy, but dropped the mindset grind and simplified the process by focusing on MABA. Once you started getting experiences from those altered states, like symptoms, little wins, shifts — it rewired your belief. You saw results and realized this shit is real, and your mindset changed naturally. Now you’re that person who both knows they can shift and can induce the altered state to shift when they want.
Now let’s say you’ve been doing the opposite. You’ve been trying to induce the void, working with hypnagogia, grinding at altered states night after night, and nothing ever happens. For you, it’s time to abandon altered states completely. Forget the void, forget lucid dreams, forget all of it. Shift your focus 100% to mindset.
NOTT the obsessive, micromanaging kind where you’re terrified of the 3D or counting every negative thought. I mean how it alll falls back on how the intention manifests the HOW, and not the other way around.
In practice, that means you’ll end up using your mindset to generate the altered state. A lot of the altered states people chase rely on relaxation and not forcing an outcome. So when you lean entirely into the leaned-back “this is mine, I’m done trying tonight, fuck it” — and stop micromanaging the method (no frantic meditation, no wrestling to keep your mind awake while your body falls asleep), you often get better results. You’ve probably noticed that when you don’t try, or barely try, is when it actually usually happens — and that’s the point! That’s why doing something completely different takes the pressure off and allows whatever the fuck you want to arrive more easily.
Say you were altered-state heavy, so you flipped it. You stopped forcing hypnagogia, void, WBTB, whatever you’d been chasing. By focusing on your intention, and not forcing anything, the altered state just showed up on its own. Now you’re someone who has the mindset and the ability to fall into that state without trying so damn hard.
Then we have the in-between people, the ones doing both. You’re affirming, living as if, repeating “I’m already in my DR,” and at the same time trying to induce altered states, the void, hypnagogia, whatever. Wellllll, you’re actually doing one or the other ;-; and I’ll tell you why.
Because you have a fallback that you’re going to do tonight no matter what. You’ll either try a mindset-heavy attempt (“I’m already in my DR, I can feel it, I’m there”), or you’ll try an altered-state-heavy attempt (inducing the void, MABA, etc.). The trick to know what you’re doing is: if you’re affirming and telling yourself that you’re in your DR while trying to induce an altered state, then you’re not really doing an altered state attempt. You’re using mindset to carry you into one. **If your whole attempt would collapse without affirmations or acting as if, tying to feel your DR, then you’re still mindset-first.
But if your whole attempt relies on NEEDING the symptoms, NEEDING to feel hypnagogia coming, then you’re secretly relying on the altered state. Once you realize what you’re actually doing, go back and choose path 1 or 2.
The point is to get rid of whatever part of this is making you miserable, and choosing the path of least resistance.
INSUM / TL;DR: If you’re doing mindset-heavy stuff (law of assumption, affirmations, acting as if, etc.), then drop it and focus entirely on altered states. Start with mind-awake/body-asleep since it’s the easiest and you can hack it however you like.
If you’re doing altered state-heavy stuff (the void, hypnagogia, symptoms, lucid dreaming, etc.), then drop that and focus entirely on mindset. And mindset doesn’t have to mean obsessive affirming or acting as if—it can literally just be acknowledging your intention, knowing it’s yours, and letting whatever happens, happen.
If you think you’re doing both, you’re actually leaning on one or the other. To find out which, check what you do at night when you ignore all advice. If your fallback is a method built on affirmations, feelings, or pretending you’re already in your DR, that’s mindset-heavy. If your fallback is expectant of symptoms, hypnagogia, etc,, that’s altered state-heavy.
I feel like I need to throw a big disclaimer: if this doesn’t resonate with you, if you don’t get it, please just ignore it. You don’t have to follow it, and it’s not some universal law you need to care about. I just post for fun, block me if you must.