Questions seek Answers

[War Wolf]

I'm have never had a dream when I have turned into another creature so I am curious, when ya'll dream-shift, do you feel your new fur? Are smells dramatically better? Does everything look different? Or sound different?

[Tempest]

I don't d-shift (dream shift) very often, but when I do, nothing really happens. In my dreams, I don't really smell and feel things. Why'd it be different in a d-shift? All that happens is: I see myself as a jaguar rather than a human. I do hear things in my dreams, but that doesn't change when I d-shift. As for sight, I usually dream from a third-person point of view, not from first-person. So, my sight remains the same.

[wolf_moon]

ummm to me sometimes I can feel the fur starting to grow all over me and my tail starting to sprout. and I can also see, smell and hear better but everything else is the same.

[ThrasherCub]

When I d-shift it's a bit odd. I use a form of meditation and go to my happy place (yeah yeah, sounds corny) which then leads to sleep, and so I am fully aware and in control of my 'dream'. Huh, I don't often wag my tail or bark or anything because I still have a human mind, and I don't generaly feel my fur because its usualy just THERE and not doing anything, but if a breeze blows by or something.... sweet. I do get some of the puppy instincts such as when something sneeks up and supprises me I leap around, land low and I'm all bristly (feels creepy) or my ears will flatten... Of course, I kinda do that in reality anyway...
If you dream you shift, and in that dream you move your tail, when you wake up.. try it. It feels super weird.

Es gibt nix
was es nicht gibt

[Xzengrim]

I Dshift often. Shifting itself hurts, but only if you push it or if it comes unnaturally. When it comes from the moon, it feels good. I can feel fur growing, bones changing, claws coming out... everything.

As for the senses... I see colors differently, because wolves don't see in as many colors as humans. I see black and white, tinged with greens, some yellows, and a bit of blue/purple. You can't see as many colors, but you can see in the dark. You can smell everything. The world is like a soup of smells, all stark and different. Scent is the primary sense. The secondary is sound. Everything sounds cavernous and loud. Everything tastes more strongly, and you can tell what it's made of by the taste. That's why it's a good idea to lick everything, should you have the chance.

The interesting thing is though, sometimes I shift, and then don't realize that I have. I TRY to shift, but once I'm wolfen I look down and see fur and claws and stuff, and I says "Damn. Everything's still normal." See, the brain changes too. It thinks of wolfen as the natural state of things.

[War Wolf]

When ya'll dream shift and then wake up, do you feel pain, or is it just seamless or do you shift back before you wake up?

To those of you that haven't talked about the other questions, just think of this as an addendum to the previous questions.

[Xzengrim]

Waking is not painful, but some people may feel phantom pain in some of their limbs or joints the next day. I've had that before. PHantom pain in the ankles or knees, because (I believe) the legs are still partially configured to walk digitigrade as wolves do.

Although, one time I was awakened suddenly from a dream about being a werewolf, and I was full-on biting my own forearm and snarling quite ferociously. That was weird.

[Hellcat]

Waking is not painful, but some people may feel phantom pain in some of their limbs or joints the next day. I've had that before. PHantom pain in the ankles or knees, because (I believe) the legs are still partially configured to walk digitigrade as wolves do.

Although, one time I was awakened suddenly from a dream about being a werewolf, and I was full-on biting my own forearm and snarling quite ferociously. That was weird.


Please don't consider this as a critisism, its another question from an ignorant person (I don't d-shift). How come one would feel pain in the ankles and knees? Yeah fair enough, wolves are configured to walk digitigrade where humans are plantigrade, but surely in the case of hind limbs, in wolf form it would be just the same as walking on your toes as human except your knees would be bent? I can move along on all fours with my feet in digitigrade stance and feel no pain. Surely one would expect pain (phantom or otherwise) to be in the forepaw/hand joints where the human hand is not accustomed to taking the bodily weight on the phalanges alone whereas the wolf (or any digitigrade animal) is. I can't move around on all fours with my hands in digitigrade stance at the same time as having me feet in the same posture, it makes my fingers hurt like hell.

*cough* erm..yes I have actually tried :)

[Xzengrim]

I assume that the pain comes from Bones changing their shape. That's pretty drastic. If you think about it, the bones shift, and then weight is put on them in a balance that the old bone configuration is not used to. That's enough to give anyone some problems!

Of course, in reality, this is not the reason the ankles may hurt. It's a psychosomatic reaction from dreaming of walking the other way the night before. Or at least, that is my current hypothesis.

[Sings to the moon]

i dotn tend to remember dreams often, so if i want to remember a deam i'll meditate and through self hypnosis i suppose yould call it persuade myself to remember it. sometimes i d-shift, but not often. the most common animals that come up are owls, Cats and only once a badger i feel places i know i dont actually have and thats about it, sight smell and my other senses seem o remainthe same.

[Xzengrim]

I've noticed that most of the time, I pretty much block out my sense of smell. There's not really anything in the city worth smelling (that, and it stinks in general). I can smell things VERY well if I'm lucky; I can sort of channel that particular sense. But I tried it yesterday, and then the only thing I could smell was my dinner on my clothes! I could smell other things feintly, but I just couldn't make it past the scents that were in my own clothes.

[lordragoon]

When I dream shift, I don't really pay attention to my fur. When it sprouts, it itches like heck. Other than that, it just feels a lot like normal hair.
Smells are better, easier to notice. Even when one's really strong, I can still smell others. And it's a sinch to tell what's what.
Vision's different. Everything's blurred, like I need glasses, but sometimes it gets really sharp. And sometimes it becomes monochromatic.
Sounds tend to come across the same. But they adjust to sounds very quickly.

[Gabe]

I'm have never had a dream when I have turned into another creature so I am curious, when ya'll dream-shift, do you feel your new fur? Are smells dramatically better? Does everything look different? Or sound different?

Dream shifting is not the same a real shifting the thing about dream shifting is that your dreams are trying to test you to see if you are worth they are going to teach you

[LeenaAngelWing]

I think everyone d-shifts differnetly, ld-shifts are the best (lucid dreams) cause you can feel everytihng completley as if it were real, sometimes it crosses that reality line.