In the supernatural world what is shapeshifting?

Lon Chaney Jr. as Wolfman

Shapeshifting is the ability of something--like a human being--to change its shape into another form or being--like a werewolf. The process can be initiated through an outside force, an act of will, or through involuntary means. In my book, Nymphomania Bloodlust, to be published soon, Arnie Barber, a midwesterner from Chicago, is attacked by a werewolf in the Superstition Mountains and later experiences the involuntary transformation.

The change-over to a werewolf is slow and very painful for the human being whose body is converting into an animal. The skin is stretched to accommodate a larger size, the fingernails shift to claws, as well as the toenails. The feet grow to a hideous size as do the hands and the face contorts into a muzzle with a snout. Of course, if the individual is wearing clothes when the shapeshifting begins, by the time it is complete they are literally ripped to shreds.

Shapeshifting has even been used by Hollywood in movies as a plot device. As an example, the Beast's transformation at the end of the movie "Beauty and the Beast. But nothing equals that of the werewolf which most of us can remember as Lon Chaney, Jr. regularly changed into "The Wolfman" in the movie of the same name.