The Three Step Process of Reality Shifting

From the research I’ve done and the experiences I’ve had, I recognize a consistent three stage process in the practice of reality shifting. Each of these stages is important and the nuance and subtly involved needs to be worked with and mastered. In this essay I explain each of them in turn.

Step One: Identifying the New Reality
In order to consciously shift into a new reality, we need to identify what that reality is. There are a few important things to consider.

First, you cannot know beforehand every detail of the new reality, but you can have a sense of it and identify some of its likely features. It is important to recognize aspects of the new reality that feel essential without trying to define all of the details you can imagine.

Second, there are different ways that new realities can reveal themselves to us. One way is that we intuit a possibility and decide to step into it. Sometimes these intuitions arise spontaneously, almost by chance, but sometimes they reveal themselves through our own deliberate search.

We may decide that we want to live in a different reality and begin to imagine it. Reality shifting approached in this way is very similar to what is often called manifestation, as long as we are clear that we are not manifesting something within our existing life, but stepping into a reality where that possibility already exists and is already ours.

A third way reality shifts reveal themselves is through the recognition that the shift has already happened. In this case, the sense we have is not that there is a reality for us to step into, but of one that we have already entered and that is ready to be stabilized around us.

It is my belief that we live in multiple realities and that we move into and out of closely adjacent realities all the time. These realities are often so similar that we do not recognize them as we pass through them. Occasionally, a more dramatic shift takes place and the difference is significant enough to notice.

One way or another, the first step in the practice of reality shifting is to identify a new reality.

Step Two: Attuning to the New Reality
Once a new reality has revealed itself to us, it is time to shift into it. I speak about this process as attunement. We are attuning our energy to the energy of the new reality. There are different methods for attunement, but at their core they all involve spending time in a vividly imagined, lived experience of yourself fully present in the new reality.

Neville Goddard, a pioneer of reality shifting, claimed that “feeling is the secret.” What he meant was that our ability to step into a new reality depends on how deeply we can feel that new reality as our present reality.

Attuning to a new reality can be done at any time and for any length of time. It simply means consciously feeling yourself in that reality now. Neville Goddard has suggested that if you live in New York City and want to go on a trip to a tropical island, you can walk around all day feeling as though you are in a tropical paradise.

I have also created practices involving a totem. When I wanted to buy a new house, I would sit each morning and drink coffee from a special cup while imagining myself drinking from that same cup in my new house.

When the new reality involves a shift into a spiritually transformed state, it may be helpful to create a meditation or yoga nidra practice around it. You set aside a specific time to allow yourself to become intensely aware of being in the reality of your transformed self.

However you organize your attunement practice, the important thing is to sustain that inner experience as fully and vividly as you can for the duration of the practice. This requires a strong capacity to engage the creative imagination. The more time we spend in this state, the more natural the shift becomes.

Step Three: Stabilizing within the New Reality
The practices of attunement we have just discussed will only work if, in your heart, you know that you are already in the new reality now. It is not enough to imagine that you are in that reality if you do not know that you are already there. Attunement practices are not designed to move you into a new reality. They are meant to allow the experience of the new reality to become more obvious in your present experience.

What is crucial is that you know you are in the new reality already, even before it becomes obvious to you. This means you must be willing to hold yourself in the knowledge of who you truly are and which reality you are actually in, even if you do not yet have direct evidence.

Stabilizing within the new reality is the most challenging part of the process because it is very difficult for any of us to stand completely alone in a truth without agreement, confirmation, or evidence to support us. If we believe something that no one else agrees with, it is difficult to feel confident, and easy to feel that we must be wrong. If we begin to doubt ourselves, all but the most resolute will eventually let go of their convictions.

In order for our attunement practice to be effective, we must have the courage and strength of mind to persevere without evidence for as long as it takes to stabilize in the new reality. Reality shifting as an inner stand takes place in the instant that we embrace it, but the evidence appears gradually, through changing habits and the eventual confirmation of the world around us.