The Coraline method shifting technique has you picture a key, a small door in your bedroom wall and a tunnel to crawl through, just like Coraline did, with your desired reality (DR) behind the far door. It is a shifting method for people who think in pictures, and you can end it awake or fall asleep.
Shifters have shared it in TikTok, YouTube and Wattpad guides since late 2020, and the name comes straight from the film.
This post explains how to do the Coraline Method step-by-step to reach your desired reality. But first, let’s introduce a little more on the background of this method for those unfamiliar with Coraline.
Travel to Another World Like Neil Gaiman’s Coraline
Coraline is a 2002 Hugo and Nebula award-winning fantasy novella by Neil Gaiman. Even if you did not read the book, you may have seen the 2009 stop-animated movie adaptation.
In the story, Coraline opens a door that leads her to another universe. This alternate world is similar to her own but (at least on the surface) more idealized.
As some users on Reddit point out, Coraline’s journey reminds them of reality shifting. So, naturally, it makes sense to try and shift with a method based on Coraline.
Step-by-Step Guide to the Coraline Method Shifting
Here are the steps to shift using the Coraline Method.
- Lie down and close your eyes. If you want, you can meditate first to get into the right frame of mind. Otherwise, you can just proceed immediately to the steps below.
- Visualize your current reality bedroom, but keep your eyes closed. Imagine a key on your nightstand.
- Picture yourself picking up the key. When you do, imagine a small door appears on a wall in your bedroom and cracks open.
- Visualize your current reality (CR) self approaching the door, kneeling down, and opening it. Behind it is a tunnel. Picture yourself crawling through it. Another door is at the far end of the tunnel.
- Tell yourself that your desired reality (DR) is on the other side of that door. You can overlay visualizations of what is behind the door on top of the visualization of the tunnel if you like. If that is too much for you to manage, just keep picturing the tunnel but thinking affirming thoughts about what is behind the door, such as “My DR is on the other side of this door” or “I am shifting now.” If picturing the tunnel at all is hard, our guide to shifting methods without visualization has routines built on words and feelings instead.
- As you progress closer and closer to the door, you may start feeling shifting symptoms.
- When you reach the tunnel’s far end, push open the door and crawl through it into your DR bedroom.
- Some versions of this method end at this point. You open your eyes, expecting to see your DR. Shifters who open them too soon often say they did not stick the landing, so take your time, and once you feel you have arrived, ground yourself by noticing what you can touch and hear.
If you are not comfortable using this as an awake shifting method, then you can comfortably use it as a sleep method.
But to use it as a sleep method, you should continue your visualization. Stand up in your DR bedroom, and approach your DR bed. See your DR self lying there, sleeping. Lie down, feeling yourself merge into your DR self as you do.
Then let yourself fall asleep, intending to wake up in your DR.
○ Other Versions of the Coraline Method
Other guides change a few details. You can borrow any of them:
- Count to 100 as you crawl, one number per step, with an affirmation in between.
- Someone from your DR waits at the end of the tunnel, takes your hand and says something like “We are going home.”
- White light shines through the cracks of the second door, and you step into it.
- Some guides say to start when you are already half asleep.
How to Make the Coraline Method Even More Like the Movie
If you want to make your visualization in the Coraline Method closer to what is in the movie, you can picture a mouse leading you to and through the small door. You can watch this clip from the film for inspiration:
This clip also shows you what the tunnel looks like in the movie. You could picture your tunnel similarly, or you could make it different.
You have complete freedom with how you use this method, so change anything that helps you focus.
Frequently Asked Questions About the Coraline Shifting Method
Let’s answer a couple of questions about the Coraline method for reality shifting to wrap up this guide.
Did Coraline reality shift in the book/movie?
No. Comments on Reddit point out that the universe Coraline entered was a deliberate creation, whereas shifters believe the realities they shift to already exist. Also, Coraline faced real dangers in the universe to which she traveled, because the other world turned out to be a trap. Shifting is not risk-free either, so read Is reality shifting dangerous? before you try.
What other shifting methods are inspired by movies, books, etc.?
If you like the Coraline Method for shifting, you may also enjoy the Alice in Wonderland shifting method based on the books by Lewis Carroll, and our guide to shifting to Hogwarts, based on the Harry Potter books.
Can you shift to Coraline’s world?
Some shifters script Coraline’s world as their DR. If you do, use our shifting script template to write a safe version, with no Other Mother and a safe word that brings you back.
What if I fall asleep in the tunnel?
That is fine. The Coraline method already has a sleep ending, so drifting off in the tunnel is not a failure, even though many shifters think it is.
How long does the Coraline method take?
There is no set time. In the count-to-100 version, by our own rough estimate, one number per slow breath (5 to 10 breaths a minute) makes the crawl about 10 to 20 minutes, plus any meditation first.
