Althouse: "Scientists reduce fear of death by using virtual reality to induce an out-of-body experience."

June 10, 2017

"Scientists reduce fear of death by using virtual reality to induce an out-of-body experience."

"The researchers used a virtual reality simulation to induce what is known as the 'full body ownership illusion.'..."

19 comments:

Gahrie said...: Why no men?; 6/10/17, 10:05 AM
Laslo Spatula said...: Going 'Exterior'.

I bet Scientologists are behind this.

I am Laslo.; 6/10/17, 10:13 AM
Rob said...: That's all very nice, if after death one is "out of body" but still sentient. But that's not the way it works. However, if that makes the easily deluded less fearful, swell.; 6/10/17, 10:14 AM
William said...: Isn't fear of death a good thing ? This might be useful for Forumla One drivers and stuntmen, but my fear of death has been a definite plus in my life thus far.; 6/10/17, 10:55 AM
Etienne said...: Soylent Green.

It was a good movie.

In it, they put you to sleep as you watched your chosen scene, and listened to music as you died.; 6/10/17, 11:15 AM
Laslo Spatula said...: I don't like the idea of not knowing I died.

I am Laslo.; 6/10/17, 11:42 AM
Char Char Binks, Esq. said...: Is there a reason to reduce the fear of death?; 6/10/17, 11:57 AM
Drago said...: I'm afraid to use Virtual Reality tools.

Perhaps there is some methodology to overcome that fear so that I could utilize Virtual Reality to reduce my fear of death?

Of course, I might fear that methodology too, thus requiring additional pre-cursor methodologies to overcome all subsequent methodology fears.

I'm getting a visual of a guy looking in the mirror at himself looking in a mirror at himself looking in a ....

You get what I'm saying.; 6/10/17, 12:13 PM
Fernandinande said...: "If this ethereal body is conflated with the idea of ‘soul’ then this provides folk-phenomenological evidence that indeed the self can exist outside of the physical body, that this constitutes the soul—and that therefore, we would add, there is the possibility of survival beyond physical death, since in this view conscious existence may not depend on the physical body."; 6/10/17, 12:18 PM
Darrell said...: Is there a reason [for scientists] to reduce the fear of death?

Yeah. Those fuckheads are trying to kill us.; 6/10/17, 12:24 PM
Laslo Spatula said...: "...there is the possibility of survival beyond physical death, since in this view conscious existence may not depend on the physical body."

Thus: Thetan.

I am Laslo.; 6/10/17, 12:36 PM
The Godfather said...: I wonder how the "scientists" measure the subject's "fear of death".

If you fear death because you don't believe in life after death, I suppose that this experiement might make you slightly more open to believing in life after death, but since you know that what you experienced was "virtual" reality, not real reality, I don't see how there could be a major or long-lasting effect, except perhaps for VERY suggestible people. If you already have a belief system that includes life after death, your "fear of death" might stem from (a) a fear that the life after will be unpleasant, e.g., Hell, or (b) doubt that your belief system is correct. I suppose it's possible that this experiment could reduce either of those factors a little bit for a little time, but again since you know that what you experienced was "virtual" reality, not real reality, I don't see how there could be a major or long-lasting effect, except perhaps for VERY suggestible people. (I am resisting tying the suggestibility factor to the fact that the experiment used only female subjects.); 6/10/17, 12:58 PM
Fernandinande said...: Heh -

Acknowledgments
This research was supported by the Immortality Project at UC Riverside, a John Templeton Foundation project and by the Catalan Government (2014-SGR855).

Laslo Spatula said...
Thus: Thetan.

++

Scientology Vs. Church doctrine

Bodhisatva Troutwaxer wrote:

>That's really weird. Why didn't they put it in the Book of the Subgenius dude?

Copyright, plus their concepts are lame.

They have "body thetans".

We have the NENTAL IFE.

Which will get you laid more? That's right, the Nental Ife, just because it's a horny, ill-behaved little entity.

And it piggybacks on your brain, acting as the devil on your shoulder. Which is why "Bob" should be your angel--he'll know exactly when to go along with the Nental Ife, and when to blow it all off.

The Scienos want to "clear" themselves of excess thetans.

We're stuck with our Nental Ives, but as Doktors we have turned that into a damned good thing.

The Prophet Lilith
--
Her Ladyship Rev. Dkr. St. Popess Lilith von Fraumench, Esquire, Inc. == Prophet--Stage Manager Of The EndTimes--Corrective Phrenologist == =!APOCALEPSY NOW! SEATTLE DEVIVAL APRIL 13 BALLARD FIREHOUSE SEATTLE=
++; 6/10/17, 1:34 PM
Static Ping said...: So if they make a virtual reality program simulating me having sex with Jenna Jameson, will that reduce my fear of intimacy?

Asking for a friend.

Follow-up Question: And is there a VR simulation for living with the clap?; 6/10/17, 1:48 PM
Ann Althouse said...: "Is there a reason to reduce the fear of death?"

Yes, for those whose life is disrupted by the fear. People have anxiety, and I read that women are twice as likely as men to be diagnosed with anxiety disorder.

I don't know why that virtual reality would help, though. I think it might cause anxiety and it's also just creepy to use machinery like that to rejigger the brain. That said, it's much better than drugs. I think!; 6/10/17, 2:40 PM
pious agnostic said...: It seems like an elaborate optical illusion; clever, and interesting, and indicative of how our sensory perceptions can be fooled. And, it might give insight as to how our brains create a sense of self and continuity.

But is there a reason to get metaphysical about it? When a magician pulls a coin out of my ear, it doesn't necessarily have numismatic significance.; 6/10/17, 3:04 PM
pacwest said...: VR has had some limited success in treating fear of heights and fear of spiders so far. I think they are stretching it on this one. The pictures look like a DK1 (first version oculus) was used which still had a lot of lag problems. It would be very hard to get even an in body experience with it.

It will be several years before they have 4K resolution, which is barely starting to resemble reality. Oculus touch is a much better interface system than used by this experiment, and even it is klunky.

While Oculus is definitely a cool experience I have a hard time believing a person could get a true out of body death experience from it. I'll file this under fake news for the time being.; 6/10/17, 4:22 PM
urbane legend said...: William said...
Isn't fear of death a good thing ? This might be useful for Forumla One drivers and stuntmen, but my fear of death has been a definite plus in my life thus far.

A reporter supposedly once asked Alfonso de Portago, a Ferrari Formula One driver in 1956, if he was afraid he would die in a racing car. Portago asked him how he expected to die. The reporter replied, "In my bed." Portago then said, "Then how do you summon the courage to climb into it each night?"

He died in a crash during a sports car race in 1957 when a tire blew at 150 mph.; 6/10/17, 5:24 PM
stlcdr said...: "Yes, for those whose life is disrupted by the fear. "

That would imply that the study used people in such a group. The article was particularly vague on this. I inferred that these were otherwise normal people. It chillingly exemplifies that we have a new avenue to psychically manipulate people. With VR becoming an upcoming common place tool in the entertainment industry, it opens another avenue - an easier way- to get people to do things that a normal person wouldn't.

And my first response to reduction in the fear of death - suicide bombers.; 6/11/17, 6:47 AM