VR models of death and psychedelics: An un-collapsed high-entropy aesthetic paradigm for design beyond day-to-day phenomenology
August 31, 2023 preprint DOI: 10.31234/osf.io/d3xv4 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Theoretical or philosophical paper |
|---|---|
| Topics | Philosophy of mind |
| Keywords | Phenomenology philosophy Perception Epistemology Fear of death Cognition Aesthetics Cognitive science Cognitive psychology Psychoanalysis |
| Key points | Proposes that numadelic aesthetics in virtual reality, characterized by low structural specificity and low symbolic rigidity, create an expansive possibility space for endogenous insights similar to those in near-death and psychedelic experiences. |
Abstract
Near-death experiences (NDEs) and psychedelic drug experiences (YDEs) enable access to dimensions of non-ordinary sensation, perception, and insight beyond typical day-to-day phenomenology. Both are as-sociated with a dissolution of conventional spatio-temporal conceptual distinctions, and a corresponding sense of connectedness and unity which is difficult to describe. Moreover, NDEs and YDEs have shown a remarkable ability to reduce the anxiety that people associate with death. In two recent papers, we showed that multi-person virtual reality experiences (VREs) designed within the ‘numadelic’ aesthetic (where bod-ies are represented as light energy rather than material objects) can elicit psychometric results comparable to YDEs. It nevertheless remains an open question why numadelic aesthetics achieve the observed results, es-pecially given that the vast majority of VREs represent bodies as typically perceived in the ‘real-world’. This article describes the origins of the numadelic aesthetic from subjective accounts of NDE phenomenol-ogy, and attempts to unravel mechanistic aspects of the numadelic aesthetic by embedding it within a more general theoretical framework. Specifically, we elaborate a 2-axis framework grounded in predictive coding models of cognition and matter-energy ideas from physics. One axis tracks 'structural specificity', and the other tracks 'symbolic rigidity'. The majority of VREs, which emphasize photorealistic fidelity to content derived from 'day-to-day' phenomenology, are characterized by high structural specificity and high symbol-ic rigidity. Such approaches collapse imaginative potential into a limited low-entropy space of 'exogenous' possibility, unlike the high-entropy brain states associated with YDEs. In contrast, aesthetic domains char-acterized by low structural specificity and low symbolic rigidity are less concerned with fidelity to phenom-enological priors, offering an expansive, ‘uncollapsed’ high-entropy possibility space for participants to engage in imaginative meaning making and for corresponding endogenous insights (e.g., as occurs in NDEs and YDEs) to arise. Situated within this theoretical framing, the numadelic aesthetic emerges as a practical example of an un-collapsed approach to representation, helping to explain the experimental observations within previous papers. Moreover, the theoretical framing suggests various experimental tests, and lays the groundwork for applying numadelic aesthetics to model NDEs, which may help address the anxiety often associated with death.
Comparable studies
Other theoretical and historical papers on philosophy of mind, most cited first.
| Study | Year | Design | Participants |
|---|---|---|---|
| Psychosis as a state of aberrant salience: a framework linking biology, phenomenology, and pharmacology in schizophrenia. | 2003 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| From dopamine to salience to psychosis--linking biology, pharmacology and phenomenology of psychosis. | 2005 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| How do the brain's time and space mediate consciousness and its different dimensions? Temporo-spatial theory of consciousness (TTC). | 2017 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| The phenomenology of deep brain stimulation-induced changes in OCD: an enactive affordance-based model. | 2013 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| Looking for the Self: Phenomenology, Neurophysiology and Philosophical Significance of Drug-induced Ego Dissolution | 2017 | Theoretical or philosophical paper |
Citations in the library
Cites 33
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- Rapid and sustained symptom reduction following psilocybin treatment for anxiety and depression in patients with life-threatening cancer: a randomized controlled trial Journal of Psychopharmacology November 30, 2016
- REBUS and the Anarchic Brain: Toward a Unified Model of the Brain Action of Psychedelics Pharmacological Reviews June 20, 2019
- Near-death experience in survivors of cardiac arrest: a prospective study in the Netherlands The Lancet December 1, 2001
- Increased spontaneous MEG signal diversity for psychoactive doses of ketamine, LSD and psilocybin Scientific Reports April 19, 2017
and 28 more in the library