Conference on Designing Interactive Systems
July 10, 2023
Noah Miller, Ekaterina R. Stepanova, John Desnoyers-Stewart et al.
Access to nature and feeling connection is critical for mental health and well-being. These benefits may be mediated by self-transcendent emotions evoked by nature. We need to explore the capacity of technology to offer such experiences when we lack access to the restorative power of nature. Despite growing research validating this capacity, there is a lack of articulated design knowledge of...
Frontiers in Psychology
June 24, 2022
Alice Chirico, Marta Pizzolante, Alexandra Kitson et al.
58 citations
The concept of transformative experience (TE) has been widely explored by several disciplines from philosophy to neurobiology, and in different domains, from the spiritual to the educational one. This attitude has engendered heterogeneous models to explain this phenomenon. However, a consistent and clear understanding of this construct remains elusive. The aim of this work is to provide an...
Virtual Creativity
June 1, 2022
Noah Miller, John Desnoyers-Stewart, Ekaterina R. Stepanova et al.
2 citations
Self-transcendent experiences are often an integral component of ancient cultural practices that use psychedelic substances during spiritual ceremonies, such as ayahuasca ceremonies. Yet, ayahuasca contains dimethyltryptamine (DMT), which is illegal in many countries. Due to its illegality, ayahuasca experiences are scarce despite potential benefits of increased quality of life and reduced...
International Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems
April 27, 2022
Pinyao Liu, Ekaterina R. Stepanova, Alexandra Kitson et al.
Flying dreams have the potential to evoke a feeling of empowerment (or self-efficacy, confidence in our ability to succeed) and self-transcendent experience (STE), which have been shown to contribute to an individual’s overall well-being. However, these exceptional dreaming experiences remain difficult to induce at will. Inspired by the potential of Virtual Reality (VR) to support profound...
Frontiers in Psychology
2021
Alexandra Kitson, Alice Chirico, Andrea Gaggioli et al.
1 citation
correction
[This corrects the article DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2020.547687.].
Frontiers in Psychology
2020
Alexandra Kitson, Alice Chirico, Andrea Gaggioli et al.
Self-transcendence has been characterized as a decrease in self-saliency (ego disillusionment) and increased connection, and has been growing in research interest in the past decade. Several measures have been developed and published with some degree of psychometric validity and reliability. However, to date, there has been no review systematically describing, contrasting, and evaluating the...
Frontiers in Digital Humanities
May 22, 2019
Ekaterina R. Stepanova, Denise T. Quesnel, Bernhard E. Riecke
57 citations
Immersive technology, such as virtual reality, provides us with novel opportunities to create and explore affective experiences with a transformative potential mediated through awe. The profound emotion of awe, that is experienced in response to witnessing vastness and creates the need for accommodation that can lead to restructuring of one's worldview and an increased feeling of connectedness....
CHI Extended Abstracts
May 2, 2019
Alexandra Kitson, S. DiPaola, Bernhard E. Riecke
Lucid dreaming, knowing one is dreaming while dreaming, is an important tool for exploring consciousness and bringing awareness to different aspects of life. We present a proof-of-concept system called Lucid Loop: a virtual reality experience where one can practice lucid awareness via biofeedback. Visuals are creatively generated before your eyes using a deep learning Artificial Intelligence...