Immersive Cave Environments in VR: A Tool for Exploring Altered States of Consciousness and Creativity in Archaeology
Nicola De Pisapia, Gabriele Penazzi, Ignacio Ibarra, Clara Rastelli, Massimo Zancanaro
Applied Sciences December 19, 2024 DOI: 10.3390/app142411916 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Within-subjects experimental comparison Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Population | Participants |
| Intervention | Virtual open-space environment |
| Topics | Altered states of consciousness |
| Keywords | Cave Consciousness Creativity Archaeology |
| Citations | 2 |
| Key findings | The virtual cave environment elicited higher emotional arousal, spiritual engagement, and improvements in creativity and flexible thinking compared to a virtual open-space environment. |
Abstract
This study explores the use of immersive Virtual Reality (VR) cave environments to investigate hypotheses concerning altered states of consciousness, creativity, and flexible thinking in archaeological contexts. Building on the premise that ancient humans used caves as sites for rituals involving altered consciousness, we recreated a virtual cave environment to simulate these experiences and examine their impact on participants’ cognitive processes. Participants engaged in pareidolic tasks within both a virtual cave and a virtual open-space environment, allowing for comparative analysis of semantic network organization and subjective experiences. Our findings show that the cave environment elicited higher emotional arousal and spiritual engagement, as well as an improvement in the aspects of creativity and flexible thinking. These results suggest that VR can serve as a powerful tool in archaeology for reconstructing early humans’ experiences and investigating their psychological and cognitive states, thus providing new insights into their use of caves for mind-altering or ritualistic purposes. This interdisciplinary approach contributes to both cognitive archaeology and the development of immersive VR technologies in scientific research.
Comparable studies
Other experimental studies on altered states of consciousness, most cited first.
| Study | Year | Design | Participants |
|---|---|---|---|
| The Standardized Psychometric Assessment of Altered States of Consciousness (ASCs) in Humans Healthy subjects in six countries | 1998 | Experimental and field study | n = 1,133 |
| TMS-EEG and resting-state EEG applied to altered states of consciousness: oscillations, complexity, and phenomenology. | 2023 | Experimental study | |
| A Test of the Psychedelic Model of Altered States of Consciousness | 1976 | Experimental study with comparison groups | |
| Neural Correlates of Non-ordinary States of Consciousness in Pranayama Practitioners: The Role of Slow Nasal Breathing Experienced meditators | 2022 | Within-subjects comparison | n = 12 |
| Increased spontaneous EEG signal diversity during stroboscopically-induced altered states of consciousness Healthy adults | 2019 | Experimental study |
Citations in the library
Cites 8
- The Standardized Psychometric Assessment of Altered States of Consciousness (ASCs) in Humans Pharmacopsychiatry July 1, 1998
- Pivotal mental states Journal of Psychopharmacology April 1, 2021
- A Deep-Dream Virtual Reality Platform for Studying Altered Perceptual Phenomenology Scientific Reports November 16, 2017
- Introduction: Evidence for entheogen use in prehistory and world religions Journal of Psychedelic Studies June 1, 2019
- Altered states phenomena induced by visual flicker light stimulation PLoS One July 1, 2021
and 3 more in the library