33 research outputs found
Isness:Using Multi-Person VR to Design Peak Mystical-Type Experiences Comparable to Psychedelics
The Sound of Silence in Online Feedback: Estimating Trading Risks in the Presence of Reporting Bias
Age effects, unobserved characteristics and hedonic price indexes: The Spanish car market in the 1990s
Mystical-type experiences occasioned by psilocybin mediate the attribution of personal meaning and spiritual significance 14 months later
Isness: Using Multi-Person VR to Design Peak Mystical Type Experiences Comparable to Psychedelics
Studies combining psychotherapy with psychedelic drugs (PsiDs) have
demonstrated positive outcomes that are often associated with PsiDs' ability to
induce 'mystical-type' experiences (MTEs) - i.e., subjective experiences whose
characteristics include a sense of connectedness, transcendence, and
ineffability. We suggest that both PsiDs and virtual reality can be situated on
a broader spectrum of psychedelic technologies. To test this hypothesis, we
used concepts, methods, and analysis strategies from PsiD research to design
and evaluate 'Isness', a multi-person VR journey where participants experience
the collective emergence, fluctuation, and dissipation of their bodies as
energetic essences. A study (N=57) analyzing participant responses to a
commonly used PsiD experience questionnaire (MEQ30) indicates that Isness
participants had MTEs comparable to those reported in double-blind clinical
studies after high doses of psilocybin & LSD. Within a supportive setting and
conceptual framework, VR phenomenology can create the conditions for MTEs from
which participants derive insight and meaning