Hi @Lisasals, yes I have ordered an Oculus Quest and expect to receive it this coming Tuesday, May 21. I will post something in this thread about what I think of it once I spend some valuable “face time” with it. Coincidentally, the day I’m expecting to get it is the day after my last final exam for the semester, which is great timing!
I’m also looking forward to being able to spend more time on Nightclub in the near future.
@Lisasals et al., in my opinion the Oculus Quest is like a beautiful lotus flower rising out of the mud & darkness of Facebook to radiate awesomeness into the world.
As much as I loathe and distrust Facebook and consider them one of the most toxic and dangerous corporations that has ever existed, I have to admit they knocked it out of the park with the Oculus Quest. It is affordable ($400), extremely easy to set up and use, portable, and powerful. While it is much less powerful than desktop VR, it is stunning what they have accomplished using a mobile phone level processor. If someone is looking to get into VR it would make an excellent starter system. For more details check out Road to VR’s article Oculus Quest Review – The First Great Standalone VR Headset.
It is definitely one of the best things you could possibly put on your face
Hi Arthur,
I am wondering if you (or any other VR users out there) have found any correlation between VR and lucid dreaming… that is to say, has using VR increased, enhanced or improved your lucid dreaming practice in any way? I’m not familiar with VR at all, but I would be interested in investigating it further if there’s potential for dream/ astral projection application. Sounds quite cool regardless!
Hi @Lisasals, I have occasionally had lucid or semi-lucid dreams correlated with VR, for example a few days after using Birdly VR (which remarkably captures the feeling of flying like a bird) I had a semi-lucid flying dream. Virtual reality has changed the content of my dreams – for example I have a lot more dreams in which I have some awareness that I’m in a simulation, which I often conceptualize as being in VR (although I would not characterize most of those as lucid per se). I think my dreams tend to be somewhat more bizarre or “creative” in some sense due to my day residue consisting of a greater variety of unusual (VR) experiences in waking life.
I’ve read accounts by other people online talking about having more lucid or bizarre dreams due to VR use. It goes the other way too – as when people create VR experiences based on or inspired by dreams (lucid or otherwise). Just being in VR with another person is, in my view, somewhat like being in a shared dream. (Especially true if you are both physically present in the same space while sharing a VR experience. NOTE: this is not typically possible with current home-based VR systems.)
You may also be interested in some of the writings etc. of Jayne Gackenback, who has done groundbreaking research on connections between lucid dreaming and videogames. It is to be expected that virtual reality might have a greater effect because it is much more immersive (i.e. you feel like you are there, not like you are doing something on a screen).
Something I’m very interested in is using VR for dream training – either training to have lucid dreams or “OBE’s,” or training to have certain dream skills (in lucid or non-lucid dreams). Some people are working on this (e.g. @alexk) but nothing is commercially available as of yet. Between dream training and dream recreation I think there is much potential for VR and related technologies to transform dream exploration and possibly the nature of dreaming itself.
You’re welcome, @Lisasals. By the way last night while falling asleep I had a sudden image inspired by the game Superhot VR – turning to see two of the red humanoid figures right behind me, which startled me awake.
Superhot VR is a very strange game in which time only flows when you move. It does interesting things to your brain. SUPERHOT VR on Quest launch trailer (2 minutes)
Involved in teaching, education or learning? The second edition of Wired to Grow, is an excellent analysis of how current brain research about learning and memory can be used to enhance those “Aha” moments we all crave in our students—and ourselves. Of particular interest for this thread is her examination of VR and learning.
I was hooked on the original Tetris. It was how I decompressed as an angsty teen, just picked the chill music and zoned out. It was what I saw as I fell asleep for about a year.
Funny, my step-dad, a Cornell genius engineer type, also needed his Tetris fix. But he also “relaxed” by playing an air traffic control game - the job that takes a huge toll on its workers, he did for fun!
About VR - I’m reminded of a movie “Strange Days”.
In the movie, a man in a wheelchair finally gets a VR of having legs and running on a beach. Something he’s never experienced. If I remember, he was in tears. That’s a pandora’s box though, because having ‘experienced’ legs, will he be further depressed, healed, or hooked - as another character in the movie was?
“Lenny from Strange Days is strung out on simulated memories–a common motif that crops up constantly in cyberpunk media.”
I can see VR helping with phantom limb pain - much like the “mirror trick” does. (it somehow ‘finishes the story’ to the brain, so the brain stops sending pain signals to a limb that doesn’t exist)
Potentially other modalities.
And huge potential for explicit exploitation (comes hand-in-hand with tech, no pun intended). Without users being clear on their intent, might it lead to further non-lucidity for a generation of hungry ghosts (as Thich Nhat Hahn calls the generation-shift).
It sounds like it gives users a ‘hit’ - so BDFN is roused in the brain and neural pathways are primed for forming/re-forming.
Thanks, Barry, I’ll check that out. Continuing to use Tripp almost every day. For anyone with an Oculus Quest or Oculus Go, I strongly recommend the Tribeca Film Festival 360 video pieces being hosted on Oculus TV until April 26. I’ve seen about half a dozen so far, and some of them are very dreamlike/trippy.
Thanks for the heads up. I’ll check them out this weekend.
*UPDATE: So I went through a few of the Tribeca films and the 1ST Step was easily my favorite. I also had a chance to check out Everest VR (Part 3), an exciting expedition that concluded with the summit. An excellent film–yes! I have personal connections to each of those subjects and they were done so well. I will check out the rest of the Tribeca offerings tomorrow.
Thanks for letting us know about the Tribeca Film Fest - I had totally missed that. Spent the last 2 nights catching up on them… I especially liked Black Bag and Saturnism (probably shouldn’t have watched that just before bed!). Rain Fruit was also very powerful.