So for the therians here, in what way do you shift most often?

As in do you experience more of dream shifting, mental shifting, etc

I mostly experience dream shifts, and only on occassion mental shifts.

Dream shifts usually occur if particular dream requires animal strength, more than human logic.

Mental shifts usually come with astral travel, and both are impromptu.

dream shift primarily, recently astral shifts when neditating for some reason, not quite sure why.....hmm.....

astral shifts? can you tell me more about that

I always thought astral shifts were mental shifts

Hmm, what's the difference?

I experience a mental shift very often. These are sometimes spontaneous, being triggered by certain sounds such as a wolf's howling, certain music, or by certain sights like the moon or an animal that resembles a wolf. It can also happen when I walk into the forest. The rest of the time, these shifts are consciously controlled.

When you experience spontaneous shifts, can you also control them? Cut them off if they're unwanted for example .. or is that harder to do?

And is there a difference between a spontaneous shift and a self-induced one? In the intensity or experience itself?

i generally tend to mentally shift with the occasional dream shift

for me an astral shift is entering the astral plane as me and shifting while i'm there, dream shifts tend to be when i'm dreaming about being my animal for me

Yes, I can control them too. The only difference between a spontaneous one and a self-induced one is how I get into the shift. I can still control it, regardless.

When I spontaneously shift, there's a very quick jump from seeing things from a human perspective to seeing things as a wolf. The beginning is often more intense than a self-induced shift would be, however if the current circumstances do not allow for an intense shift, such as while out with sheep friends (though that number of friends has been greatly reduced), while driving, etc. I can still control the shift and either tone it down or suppress it altogether. Being able to control my M-shifts has been something I learned relatively early on. I really focused and learned how to after playing around and biting a sheep friend while play fighting one day back not long after my initial awakening in late 2003/early 2004. Nobody was hurt, but he was a bit surprised.

I've had Dream shifts or Mental shifts, but I think this would be the first time did a physical shift.

Now a physical shift isn't exactly like a body grows fur type of thing. Instead a physical shift is more almost like having multiple personality disorder to me. I chose that description, cause it's an honest description of what it felt like only I was still keenly aware of being me, just exhibiting a different side.

For two days straight, felt my instincts riding me hard, like I couldn't escape them. Usually it happens a day or so and goes back to normal me with just the usual outburst. This one night however it seemed as if tiger side of myself wanted to be front and center.

Listening to radio my friends dj as usual and still feeling that strange sensation of instincts that usually don't let run free. All predatory, danger and heat. Then as I talked to my soul sis, started feeling dizzy. Like serious vertigo. Usually I feel this and it was like a point to either throw me out of any impending shifts. Only she mentioned stop fighting the energies around me, which I guess were my own and others and just go with the flow like a surfer riding the wave. So I let go of that bar of control and rode the waves of energy and suddenly it was like a surge of Raw power and then everything flowed right. Hard to describe. Like suddenly find yourself in this disconnected, yet connected sense with yourself. As if all inhibitions you did have have suddenly given way to just being. Confident, flawless, no worries, just a tiger. The odd thing though, is I don't think it was an actual shift into my tiger form, but more just my tigers human counterpart personality from a past life.

Either way it lasted all night and I knew I was touching, reaching, enticing, but I was also like do not go that final step into no return. That's the only thing that stayed constant was boundaries with friends, cause as tiger didn't really care.

So yeah, not really sure on it, just know woke up the next day and couldn't recall the exact feeling of the past three days. It was like suddenly gone, or cured. I couldn't recall it, or not particularly any conversations I'd had the previous night, when usually have memory of an elephant. Bits and fragments of convos eventually came back, but it was like watching myself on autopilot with different personality and yet being conscious of it all, participating. Just weird.

That's all

sounds like an interesting experience...i believe a physical shift is more physical than mental though