Isness: Using Multi-Person VR to Design Peak Mystical Type Experiences Comparable to Psychedelics

2020. David Glowacki, Mark Wonnacott, Rachel Freire, Becca Glowacki, Ella Gale, James Pike, Tiu Haan, Mike Chatziapostolou & Oussama Metatla
Proceedings of the 2020 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems.

Abstract

Studies combining psychotherapy with psychedelic drugs (Ds) have demonstrated positive outcomes that are often associated with 'Ds' 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 D 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 D experience questionnaire (MEQ30) indicates that Isness participants reported MTEs comparable to those reported in double-blind clinical studies after high doses of psilocybin and LSD. Within a supportive setting and conceptual framework, VR phenomenology can create the conditions for MTEs from which participants derive insight and meaning.

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Citation

Glowacki, D. R., Wonnacott, M. D., Freire, R., Glowacki, B. R., Gale, E. M., Pike, J. E., … Metatla, O. (2020). Isness: using multi-person vr to design peak mystical type experiences comparable to psychedelics. Proceedings of the 2020 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (pp. 1–14). New York, NY, USA: Association for Computing Machinery. URL: https://doi.org/10.1145/3313831.3376649, doi:10.1145/3313831.3376649

BibTeX

@inproceedings{10.1145/3313831.3376649,
author = {Glowacki, David R. and Wonnacott, Mark D. and Freire, Rachel and Glowacki, Becca R. and Gale, Ella M. and Pike, James E. and de Haan, Tiu and Chatziapostolou, Mike and Metatla, Oussama},
title = {Isness: Using Multi-Person VR to Design Peak Mystical Type Experiences Comparable to Psychedelics},
year = {2020},
isbn = {9781450367080},
publisher = {Association for Computing Machinery},
address = {New York, NY, USA},
url = {https://doi.org/10.1145/3313831.3376649},
doi = {10.1145/3313831.3376649},
abstract = {Studies combining psychotherapy with psychedelic drugs (Ds) have demonstrated positive outcomes that are often associated with 'Ds' 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 D 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 D experience questionnaire (MEQ30) indicates that Isness participants reported MTEs comparable to those reported in double-blind clinical studies after high doses of psilocybin and LSD. Within a supportive setting and conceptual framework, VR phenomenology can create the conditions for MTEs from which participants derive insight and meaning.},
booktitle = {Proceedings of the 2020 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems},
pages = {1–14},
numpages = {14},
keywords = {altered states, meaning in HCI, mystical-type experiences, psychedelic drugs, user experience, virtual reality},
location = {Honolulu, HI, USA},
series = {CHI '20}
}