How Psychedelic VR Experience Alters Body Ownership: An Exploratory Study

Abstract

Sense of ownership is defined as the feeling that a body part belongs to oneself. While altered states of consciousness have been extensively studied, their effects on bodily self-perception and susceptibility to perceptual illusions remain largely unexplored. This study investigated how psychedelic-like VR experience alters sense of ownership, using a tool “Oscilleditor” by Qualia Research Institute to generate psychedelic visual effects within VR.In Experiment 1, third-year high school students (n=20) were randomly assigned to a psychedelic VR group or a control group and completed the 5D-ASC questionnaire. The psychedelic group showed higher scores on most subscales, with the exception of the Disembodiment subscale, where the psychedelic group scored lower than the control group. In Experiment 2, a separate group of participants (n=9 psychedelic, n=10 control) underwent a VR-based rubber hand illusion paradigm, during which skin conductance response (SCR) was recorded. A Mann-Whitney U test revealed that the psychedelic group showed a significantly stronger SCR response than the control group (p=0.011).These findings provide preliminary evidence that psychedelic-like VR experience may alter bodily self-perception, with effects potentially reflected in physiological responses during the rubber hand illusion paradigm. Future research with larger and more diverse samples is warranted.