I am a shapeshifter, specifically a wolf shifter. I was born this way, no turning required. For me, shifting is both spiritual and physical: Wolf is what I physically become, hyena is a spiritual form, and then there are others I take on spiritually. Spiritual multiplicity also plays into this; many of these spiritual forms I can utilize are other souls that reside within this vessel.
I found the community twelve years ago, a few years after having a few odd happenings and shifts. I thought this might be related to werewolves and soon found others who understood what I was going through on a couple of forums.
My first physical shift occurred when I was sixteen. I actually didn't will it or practice beforehand - it happened on its own, without any provocation. I would go to sleep and wake up, with a full body phantom wolf shift, unable to move at all. As I lay there, I felt what I can only describe as electricity flow down my spine and into my arm, and with a jolt of pain my elbow would begin to move, flowing up my arm until, with another jolt of pain it solidified. I would touch my newly formed arm (it was real!) and note the hardness before I fell back asleep from exhaustion.
Obviously, I'd ruled out everything else (and continue to) - I don't do any recreational drugs and OTC ones weren't in my system at the time, I don't have any mental illnesses that would cause me to lose touch with reality, it's not a muscle cramp, etc. It fit as a real shift, and has held up to scrutiny since.
From there I would continue to practice shifting, using my own version of a shifting method I'd picked up online. I would discover other souls incarnate alongside my own, including a guide for my own shifting. I would engage more with the community, and after hearing skepticism about shifting methods, stop shifting completely for a time.
This would lead to a buildup of energy, and result in a spiritual accident of sorts. It would rectify some of the odd paranormal happenings, however, and I suspect the method I was drawn to using was a way of exercising my spiritual muscles and preventing that buildup. I would soon go my own way with shifting, and do what I felt was healthiest for me.
So, one cool day in 2019, as I was trying to shift, I would receive an odd vision of a hyena. This vision felt different from the ones I normally got; it felt important and relevant to shifting. The hyena I saw in this vision was undeniably me.
I had thought I was a wolf, but being a spotted hyena shifter made more sense at the time. Wolf was a spiritual form, and shifting involves the physical body. I don't completely discount the possibility of the spiritual affecting the physical, but I wanted to go with what I had learned was possible, and what made the most sense to me. I decided to test it out, attempting to shift into hyena and getting somewhere with it in the form of more visions, alongside spiritually journeying in that body at times. This would be enough for me to consider myself a hyena shifter, at least tentatively.
I'm delving into shifting from a different angle now. I'd noticed that a lot of my physical shifts tended to occur when wolf was close by, or when I was in some kind of altered (but otherwise lucid) mental state. After finding out shamans (particularly spiritualists from my family's area and African shamans) experience much of what I do, including shapeshifting, I suspect that this mindset and/or the ability to channel my energy holds the key to shifting.
Using this method and similar experiences, I would try to shift into wolf, and get somewhere. Eventually I would be able to decipher more thoroughly between the spiritual and physical, and identify wolf as the form I physically shift into.
Now, I'm just taking it easy with my spiritual companions and energy work. Even if I don't shift fully, I'm just happy to have gotten to experience this aspect of the supernatural world with them.