This special panel to be held in the Area for Esotericism, Occultism, and Magic of the Southwest Popular/American Culture Association seeks 15-20 minute conference presentations from all disciplinary and interdisciplinary perspectives examining any and all aspects of the emerging trend of “reality shifting” in relation to popular culture, particularly that of Generation Z.

When the Cambridge Dictionary recognized “manifest” as its 2024 Word of the Year, it signaled the fruition of a trend most recently perpetuated by The Secret almost two decades prior – the mainstreaming, universalization, and gradual democratization of the conceived capability to influence, instigate, shape, and even create circumstances and events through conscious intention: or, if taken literally, within the context of esoteric and occult worldviews --- magic.  While previous eras saw the subcultural and genrefied entrenchment of Spiritualist-inspired and psychic mediumism, the mainstream availability and popularity of New Age (and, earlier, New Thought) influenced personal development and psychology, and the popular adaptation of astrological concepts into an accessible lexicon of stereotypes, the dramatic best-selling success and celebrity endorsement of The Secret marked the beginning of a decades-long mainstreaming of operative application of the contemporary equivalent of a magical worldview, culminating in the “manifestation” of the “manifesting” trend on an even more massive, global, and accessible scale, driven through social media and fueled by generational appeal.

This unprecedented development provides the background for a new trend that has already achieved universally accessible mainstream representation and a generational enthusiasm for its application that continues to grow with astonishing speed: the practice of reality shifting.  While definitions and descriptions vary, the term is consistently applied by “shifters” to the practice of attempting to immersively and subjectively experience alternate timelines and realities including fictional universes and storyworlds, but also in some cases to the practice of shifting one’s own experience of, or the actual expression of, current reality.  Since its initial popularization during the recent coronavirus pandemic, reality-shifting-related videos have garnered billions of TikTok views, spawned multiple subreddits, and begun to provide a basis of practitioner (and nascent associated community) identification.  This remarkable trend has already inspired numerous questions of interest to this panel, including those relating to its demographic significance, origins and development, course and spread, and its relationship (or lack thereof) to spirituality, mysticism, altered states of consciousness, and previously established esoteric, occult, and magical worldviews and practices.  Additionally, metafictional participatory engagement with storyworlds and their representation, including storyworlds that themselves contain metafictional, reflexive self-representation, has been a popular feature of shifting from its inception.  This complicates examination and analysis of its inspirations, their reception, and its own reception and representation, and this panel would particularly welcome presentations investigating this aspect of the intersection between popular culture, reality shifting, and esoteric, occult, and magical belief, practice, and representation.  Given the novelty and rapid growth and development of the reality shifting trend, however, this panel is intended to remain open to all inquiries and perspectives relevant to reality shifting in its intersections with popular culture, as well as representation and reception, along with and proposed and/or demonstrated relationship with esoteric, occult, and magical belief, practice, and worldview.  This can include deeper analysis of popular fiction frequently suggested as potentially relevant, due either to the popularity of its storyworlds as a shifter destination (the “Potterverse,” My Hero Academia, Attack on Titan, Avatar, the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Twilight, and the Star Wars universe), the possibility of its having influenced the shifting trend (I Saw the TV Glow, Dark Matter, Everything Everywhere All at Once), fiction that might be influenced by the shifting trend, and also fiction interpretable as representing shifting (I Saw the TV Glow, Dark Matter, Everything Everywhere All At Once, The Midnight Library, Bioshock Infinite, the Persona series of games, and The Man in the High Castle).  Beyond these accessible and generally recent works, it seems likely that a wealth of more obscure connections wait to be uncovered and explored, and so this panel is equally suitable for deeper inquiry into already recognized references as well as entirely novel foci and approaches.

Please direct all questions, suggestions, and proposals for this special panel (as well as requests for the main Esotericism, Occultism, and Magic CFP) to Dr. George J. Sieg, georgejsieg@gmail.com (505-440-2105), by Friday, November 14.  Note that all suitable proposals will be included in the panel or a related suitably focused and specific panel, and if sufficient proposals are received as to require a series of special panels these will be created.  No proposal will be rejected on the basis of arbitrarily evaluated compatibility with other prospective submissions.