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clumpywoods(CW: Mentions of trauma and anxiety in the second to last paragraph, nothing graphic, but be careful of course.)
So, I'd thought I'd write an entry about shifting in the alterhuman sense, what they actually are, and my experiences with it. This is also designed to act as a decent introduction to the concept if you're new to the alterhuman community, however everyone's experiences are different, so don't take mine as a rulebook. For context, sources for what I write are written in square brackets, and will be provided beneath this article. Anyway, what actually is a shift, then?
A shift is defined as when "some aspect of oneself changes to closer reflect ones nonhuman or fictional type [identity]", [1] or in other words when you become more like your alterhuman identity. There are several types of shifts, including:
So, that's what shifts are, now, what are my experiences with them? Overall, I experience mental shifts the most often, with what I believe may be envisage shifts alongside them. During these shifts, I feel like my fictotype a lot more then I usually do, and I tend to find my inner voice thinks a lot more like him, for example I may refer to my memories as 'save data'. As well, I tend to refer to myself as Parado, which is where I believe the envisage shifts come in, however I don't get the experience of expecting to see yourself as your identity in a mirror. I tend to get a flood of scenes from my source enter my head when I shift, and I mainly think about my experiences in the show, what I did and how it might parallel my own life. This partially comes from me having a special interest for Ex-Aid, and partially the source of my alterhumanity, which I will talk briefly here about, but deserves its own article. I also feel comfortable in these scenes saying that I was in them, which I believe are noemata (inherent knowledge you have about your type such as memories or feelings). [4] In alterhumanity of spiritual origins, things like this may be considered exomemories (memories that you believe happened to you, or your soul, from outside this body), for example if someone believes their identity was caused by a past life [2], however exomemories are not exclusive to alterhumans, and often also occur in introjects in plural systems. I have also had a couple dream shifts, mostly where I was my fictotype in my dreams, however they don't happen that often, and I don't remember them very well. None of them were moments from the show though or noemata, so I'm pretty sure they were my subconscious expressing my identity.
My shifts happen for a variety of reasons, and they tend to be a mix of involuntary and voluntary. Voluntary shifts tend to happen when I'm listening to my kintype playlist, however I may get the feeling beforehand that I want to shift, and then listen to the playlist to let it happen. I also can quoivoluntarily kinshift when talking about my alterhuman identity or talking to other alterhumans. These shifts tend to have more positive triggers, which can also include karate, watching my source, and karting, occasionally. However, some of my shifts tend to be involuntarily caused as well. I often get triggered into shifting through the environment, both in the positive ways mentioned before, and in more negative ways, such as anxiety, panic, or reminders of my trauma. I won't go into big detail here, but this links to the origins of my alterhumanity. To make it short, I suffered from an anxiety disorder due to trauma when I was first watching my source, and I connected to Parado as early as 2018, as he experiences panic attacks and a phobia of death in arc 3 of Ex-Aid. This similarity caused my brain to connect to his identity over both of us having been through similar things, and over time, I became him, basically. In the past, I used my identity to process events that were going on in my life, and when I returned to Kamen Rider in late 2021 due to a bereavement and my identity returned, I used it again to help process my grief, and my past trauma. This is why anxiety causes shifts for me, as it reminds me of what I went through both here and in my source, and I can still feel my heart tremble. This kind of quoivoluntary origin for my alterhumanity, along with being caused by trauma, is why I am trying to find whether copinglink or fictionkin fits me the best, but as my identity has stuck around, I am leaning more towards being fictionkin. Labels are complicated, sometimes.
So, that is what shifting is, and some of my experiences with it. I hope this article helps non-alterhumans learn a bit about this concept in the community, and I hope it helps someone who's questioning find themselves, or it just gives another experience for people to read about. I hope you enjoyed it, if you have any questions, please comment below. Thanks for reading.
Sources -
[1] Rani (@a-dragons-journal) / Othercon 2022, "Alterhumanity 101", Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RUsvtArF1C8&t=2678s (accessed: 30th August 2022)
[2] The Alterhumanity Resource, "Terminology List", Available at: https://alterhuman.square.site/terminology-list (accessed: 30th August 2022)
[3] NHS Bristol Centre For Enablement, "Phantom Limb Pain", Available at:https://www.nbt.nhs.uk/sites/default/files/attachments/Phantom%20Limb%20Pain_NBT003176.pdf (accessed: 30th August 2022)
So, I'd thought I'd write an entry about shifting in the alterhuman sense, what they actually are, and my experiences with it. This is also designed to act as a decent introduction to the concept if you're new to the alterhuman community, however everyone's experiences are different, so don't take mine as a rulebook. For context, sources for what I write are written in square brackets, and will be provided beneath this article. Anyway, what actually is a shift, then?
A shift is defined as when "some aspect of oneself changes to closer reflect ones nonhuman or fictional type [identity]", [1] or in other words when you become more like your alterhuman identity. There are several types of shifts, including:
- Mental shifts, when your mentality becomes more like that of your identities. For a therian, this may be becoming more animalistic or instinctual, while for a fictionkin person, this may involve thinking more like their identity. [2] I experience these most often.
- Dream shifts, when you become the being you identify as in a dream. [2] I've had a couple of these, but as I don't remember my dreams much, I don't get these very often.
- Phantom shifts, when you feel phantom limbs, or body parts that don't actually exist, that matches your identities', such as tails, ears or similar. Phantom limbs are not exclusive to alterhumans, for example also being experienced by amputees, who still feel the removed body part, and may still feel pain in that area. [3] As my fictotype (fictional kintype) is very human like in appearance, I personally don't get these shifts.
- Self Image/envisage shifts, where the image of yourself changes to your identity, for example expecting to see yourself as your identity in a mirror. [1] I think I experience these alongside mental shifts, but I'm still not entirely sure.
So, that's what shifts are, now, what are my experiences with them? Overall, I experience mental shifts the most often, with what I believe may be envisage shifts alongside them. During these shifts, I feel like my fictotype a lot more then I usually do, and I tend to find my inner voice thinks a lot more like him, for example I may refer to my memories as 'save data'. As well, I tend to refer to myself as Parado, which is where I believe the envisage shifts come in, however I don't get the experience of expecting to see yourself as your identity in a mirror. I tend to get a flood of scenes from my source enter my head when I shift, and I mainly think about my experiences in the show, what I did and how it might parallel my own life. This partially comes from me having a special interest for Ex-Aid, and partially the source of my alterhumanity, which I will talk briefly here about, but deserves its own article. I also feel comfortable in these scenes saying that I was in them, which I believe are noemata (inherent knowledge you have about your type such as memories or feelings). [4] In alterhumanity of spiritual origins, things like this may be considered exomemories (memories that you believe happened to you, or your soul, from outside this body), for example if someone believes their identity was caused by a past life [2], however exomemories are not exclusive to alterhumans, and often also occur in introjects in plural systems. I have also had a couple dream shifts, mostly where I was my fictotype in my dreams, however they don't happen that often, and I don't remember them very well. None of them were moments from the show though or noemata, so I'm pretty sure they were my subconscious expressing my identity.
My shifts happen for a variety of reasons, and they tend to be a mix of involuntary and voluntary. Voluntary shifts tend to happen when I'm listening to my kintype playlist, however I may get the feeling beforehand that I want to shift, and then listen to the playlist to let it happen. I also can quoivoluntarily kinshift when talking about my alterhuman identity or talking to other alterhumans. These shifts tend to have more positive triggers, which can also include karate, watching my source, and karting, occasionally. However, some of my shifts tend to be involuntarily caused as well. I often get triggered into shifting through the environment, both in the positive ways mentioned before, and in more negative ways, such as anxiety, panic, or reminders of my trauma. I won't go into big detail here, but this links to the origins of my alterhumanity. To make it short, I suffered from an anxiety disorder due to trauma when I was first watching my source, and I connected to Parado as early as 2018, as he experiences panic attacks and a phobia of death in arc 3 of Ex-Aid. This similarity caused my brain to connect to his identity over both of us having been through similar things, and over time, I became him, basically. In the past, I used my identity to process events that were going on in my life, and when I returned to Kamen Rider in late 2021 due to a bereavement and my identity returned, I used it again to help process my grief, and my past trauma. This is why anxiety causes shifts for me, as it reminds me of what I went through both here and in my source, and I can still feel my heart tremble. This kind of quoivoluntary origin for my alterhumanity, along with being caused by trauma, is why I am trying to find whether copinglink or fictionkin fits me the best, but as my identity has stuck around, I am leaning more towards being fictionkin. Labels are complicated, sometimes.
So, that is what shifting is, and some of my experiences with it. I hope this article helps non-alterhumans learn a bit about this concept in the community, and I hope it helps someone who's questioning find themselves, or it just gives another experience for people to read about. I hope you enjoyed it, if you have any questions, please comment below. Thanks for reading.
Sources -
[1] Rani (@a-dragons-journal) / Othercon 2022, "Alterhumanity 101", Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RUsvtArF1C8&t=2678s (accessed: 30th August 2022)
[2] The Alterhumanity Resource, "Terminology List", Available at: https://alterhuman.square.site/terminology-list (accessed: 30th August 2022)
[3] NHS Bristol Centre For Enablement, "Phantom Limb Pain", Available at:https://www.nbt.nhs.uk/sites/default/files/attachments/Phantom%20Limb%20Pain_NBT003176.pdf (accessed: 30th August 2022)
[4] Aestherians, "I realised some people have misunderstood what noema/noemata means...", Available at: https://aestherians.tumblr.com/post/190929635719/i-realized-some-people-have-misunderstood-what (accessed: 30th August 2022)