Raven Method Shifting: How to Do the Count, Step by Step

If your thoughts start racing the moment you switch off the light, the Raven method gives them one small job. Raven method shifting means lying on your back in the starfish position and counting slowly to a hundred, with a short affirmation between the numbers, while you picture your desired reality (DR). Shifters say you arrive by the end of the count, and if you do not, you simply drift off to sleep with your DR in mind.

It is one of the first methods most people try, and you can learn it in a minute. You will find it next to the others in our list of reality shifting methods for beginners.

New to the words DR and CR (your current reality)? Our explainer on what reality shifting is starts from the beginning, and our guide to whether reality shifting is dangerous is worth five minutes before your first night.

What Is the Raven Method in Shifting?

The Raven method is a sleep method, done in bed as you fall asleep.

The psychologist Eli Somer and his co-authors looked at how shifters describe the practice online. Their 2021 paper in the journal Current Psychology calls the Raven method perhaps the most common method of all. Their description matches almost every guide you will find today: lie in a starfish position, count to 100 with subliminals playing, and say positive affirmations between the numbers.

Nobody knows who invented it.

Wikipedia dates reality shifting as a social media trend to mid-2020. Raven guides were already all over Reddit, YouTube and Wattpad by that autumn.

One popular guide says the name comes from the pose (spread arms like a raven’s wings), another says it honors the creator, and neither gives a source, so we treat both as stories.

So what is really happening while you count? Wikipedia puts the science plainly: moving your consciousness into another reality is not possible, so shifting is best understood as a personal experience.

That is worth knowing, and it takes nothing away from a calm, vivid ritual that many people love. If you like bedtime routines, our guide to sleep shifting methods has more of them.

○ Why a Count Calms a Busy Mind

A busy mind at bedtime usually needs something to hold. Counting gives it that, because it is simple enough to do half asleep.

But the picture you hold matters more than the numbers.

In a small study at the University of Oxford, Allison Harvey and Suzanna Payne gave 41 people with insomnia different instructions for one night. Those asked to picture an interesting, engaging scene had fewer unwanted thoughts and fell asleep sooner than people given no instructions, and the researchers said the scene took up enough “cognitive space” to keep worries out.

We think that is the honest key to the Raven method.

Let the count be the rhythm and your DR be the scene, and do not worry about getting every number right. The Julia method uses a similar count, if you want to compare the two.

How to Do the Raven Method, Step by Step

Before you lie down, know where you are going. A few lines about your desired reality are enough: where you wake up, who is with you and how it feels.

Use the bathroom too (a full bladder halfway through the count will win every time).

1. Go to bed at your usual time. You want to be pleasantly tired, not exhausted, so do not stay up late to try it.
2. Lie on your back in the starfish position. Spread your arms and legs so your limbs do not touch, and let your jaw, shoulders and hands go loose.
3. Breathe slowly and normally. A couple of easy breaths help you settle. Then let your breathing do its own thing, and never hold your breath or breathe hard to speed things up.
4. Count slowly in your head. Say one number, then one affirmation, such as “One. I am shifting. Two. I am in my DR.”
5. Keep your DR in the background. Let small details drift in while you count, like a voice you know, a smell or the light in your DR bedroom.
6. Notice where you are at the end of the count. Shifters say this is when many of them arrive. If you are still in your own bed, count once or twice more at most, then stop counting and let yourself fall asleep with your DR in mind.

Here is how it might go if your DR has you working at a horse stable in the mountains.

“One. I am shifting.” You hear hooves moving on straw.

“Two. I am waking up at the ranch.” The air smells of hay and pine, and somewhere a screen door bangs shut.

By the forties you are only half counting, and the scene does the rest.

That last part is fine.

Many people never finish the count, because they fall asleep on the way, and with a sleep method that is the whole idea. Shifters often say the DR you fall asleep picturing is the one you wake up in.

○ Affirmations to Say Between the Numbers

Keep each line short enough to say between two breaths. You can say them in your head; nobody needs to hear you.

• I am shifting.
• I am waking up in my DR.
• My DR is real, and it is waiting for me.
• I am safe, calm and ready.
• I am already there.
• Every number brings me closer.

Some people say an affirmation after every number, and some say one after every few numbers so the count flows. Try both and keep whichever feels lighter.

For more lines to choose from, see our list of shifting affirmations.

○ Do You Have to Lie in the Starfish Position?

No.

The count and the affirmations are what make it the Raven method, and the pose is only the usual way in.

There is one good reason to skip it.

The NHS describes sleep paralysis (waking up, or drifting off, unable to move or speak) as scary but harmless, and says sleeping on your back can make it more likely. The starfish position is on your back, so if this has ever happened to you, do your count lying on your side.

Ways Shifters Change the Raven Method

The method is simple, so people love to adjust it. None of these versions has been shown to work better than another, so pick the one that suits your bedtime.

○ Counting Down Instead of Up

Some shifters count backwards from a hundred and picture themselves getting closer to their DR with each number, like a rocket launch in slow motion. If counting up makes you feel you are waiting for a finish line, counting down can feel more like arriving.

○ Longer Counts and Guided Recordings

On YouTube you will find Raven guided meditations that count for you, some going far past a hundred, with affirmations read between the numbers. They suit you if you lose your place easily.

Keep the volume low, and choose one that ends or fades out so it does not keep you awake. If you prefer music without a voice, browse our pick of subliminals for shifting.

○ The Raven Method With the Pillow Method

Yes, you can combine them, and many shifters do.

Write your script or a few affirmations, put the page under your pillow, then lie down and do your Raven count as usual. Our guide to the pillow method explains what to write and where to put it.

○ A Raven Count for Hogwarts

If Hogwarts is your DR, the count works the same way, only the details change: the common room fire, the sound of the staircases moving, the smell of the Great Hall at breakfast. Our Hogwarts version of the Raven method walks you through it.

When the Raven Method Doesn’t Work

Plenty of nights end with you waking up in your own room, and that is normal.

It does not mean you did something wrong.

○ “My Mind Wandered and I Lost Count”

Shifters ask about this all the time. One Reddit user wanted to know whether a stray thought meant starting over, and another left a session after suddenly remembering they had not finished counting.

You do not need to start over. Pick up at any number, or let the count go completely if you are already drifting.

The number is not a finish line. It is only there to keep you company until sleep comes.

○ “I Got to a Hundred and Nothing Happened”

That happens a lot, even to people who love this method. Count once or twice more if you still feel calm, then stop and let yourself fall asleep picturing your DR.

Counting round after round can leave you wide awake and frustrated, which is the opposite of what the method needs.

A good night’s sleep is the better result.

○ “My Legs Keep Jolting”

One shifter on Reddit said their leg kept jolting every time they relaxed into the count, and it startled them each time.

NHS Borders explains that these jumps, called hypnic jerks, happen as you move from waking into sleep and that most people have them at some point. They happen more often when you are over-tired or lying in an uncomfortable position.

So a jolt usually means your body is falling asleep, and you can simply relax and go back to your count.

If you are very tired, try earlier in the evening, and if the starfish feels stiff, bend your knees a little or turn onto your side. Our guide to the falling method has more ideas for when the jolt keeps waking you.

Jerks that happen while you are wide awake, or keep going all night, are different. NHS Borders says those need to be checked by a doctor.

○ “I Try Every Night and Never Get There”

Some shifters try the Raven method every night and during the day as well, and then wonder why they feel stuck. Trying that often keeps you watching for signs, and it eats into your rest.

Give it a few relaxed nights, then take a break of a few days before your next try. If no method seems to work for you, read our guide on why you might not be shifting and our shifting tips for beginners.

What You Might Feel During the Raven Method

Shifters describe the moments before a shift in many different ways.

Eli Somer’s paper gathers the common reports: numbness, tingling, feeling heavy or weightless, floating, spinning or falling, twitches, flashing lights, a buzzing sound and a feeling of longing or nostalgia. Some shifters also say they keep seeing the same number patterns, or angel numbers, in the days before a shift.

Many of these are also what falling asleep feels like on an ordinary night. Shifters read them as signs they are close, and our guide to reality shifting symptoms goes through each one.

Eli Somer’s list also includes shortness of breath and a faster heart rate.

We disagree with treating those as good signs. They are signals to stop the count, sit up and look after yourself (the safety section below explains when to get help).

Using the Raven Method for Manifestation

You can use the same count to focus on something you want in this life. Instead of a DR, hold one goal in mind, such as a new friendship, a calmer exam season or a part-time job, and swap your shifting lines for present-tense ones like “It is already mine” or “I start my new job on Monday.”

Picture the moment it comes true as you count.

If the goal is a job, see yourself walking into the café on your first morning, the smell of coffee, your new name badge and a manager who smiles and shows you around.

Manifesting this way is a practice and a belief, not a guarantee, so keep doing the practical things that move the goal forward too. Our guide to manifestation methods has more routines like this one.

Is the Raven Method Safe?

The count itself is gentle. Most of the care is about your breathing, your sleep and how you feel afterwards.

Start with breathing, because some Raven guides tell you to keep breathing deeply.

MedlinePlus explains that rapid, deep breathing (overbreathing) can make you feel lightheaded and dizzy, with tingling in your arms or around your mouth. So breathe normally, and never hold your breath or force it to bring on a shift.

If you do feel dizzy, stop counting and lie still. The NHS advises lying down until the dizziness passes and then getting up slowly, and seeing a GP (a family doctor) if it keeps coming back or comes with fainting.

Some feelings need help straight away.

The NHS says to call 999, or your local emergency number, if you are gasping or cannot get your words out, or your chest feels tight or heavy, and to get urgent advice for a racing heart. None of these is ever a sign of shifting.

Protect your sleep as well.

The American Academy of Sleep Medicine says teenagers aged 13 to 18 need 8 to 10 hours of sleep in every 24. So do your count at your normal bedtime, and never stay up into the night for extra rounds.

Sleep paralysis that keeps happening is worth a doctor’s visit. The NHS suggests seeing a GP if it happens often and leaves you scared to go to sleep or tired all the time.

Watch how you feel during the day, too.

The NHS describes derealization as feeling that the world is unreal, with people and things seeming “lifeless” or “foggy”, and says a GP can check what is causing it.

If that feeling stays after a session, or your DR starts to matter more than school, sleep or your friends, take a break and talk to a parent, a teacher or another adult you trust.

Sounds and pictures right as you drop off are common, and the NHS says hallucinations can happen just as you fall asleep or wake up. If you see or hear things that are not there at other times, tell an adult and ask for an urgent doctor’s appointment. That is the NHS advice for hallucinations.

Decide how you will come back before you lie down.

Eli Somer’s paper notes that shifters often put a safe word in their script to bring them quickly back to their CR. Our guide on how to come back from shifting helps you choose one.

If shifting has become the one thing that makes a painful life feel bearable, or you have had thoughts of ending your life, you do not have to hold that by yourself.

In the US, you can call, text or chat with the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline at any hour, and it is free and confidential. In the UK, Samaritans can be reached free on 116 123 from any phone, at any time. In India, the Government of India’s Tele MANAS helpline is toll-free on 14416. If you feel unsafe right now, your local emergency number is the fastest help.

For the full list of warning signs, read our shifting safety guide.

Count Softly Tonight

Your DR does not need a perfect count. It needs a calm mind, a cozy bed and a scene you love to picture, so lie back, start at one and let the numbers carry you as far as they will.

Happy shifting!

Frequently Asked Questions About the Raven Method