Imagine stepping into an elevator and slowly making your way towards the top of a skyscraper. But as the doors open, something is immediately awry. Instead of stepping into a hallway or office, there is just a short plank, hanging miles above the ground.
Would you step out?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TEv5dpXspCA
On Friday, I found myself staring at a virtual reality plank, telling myself I was being stupid. I wasn’t standing miles above the ground in a skyscraper. I was in a small classroom and I knew it.
This shouldn’t have been so terrifying, right?
The moderator then asked me to step onto the plank and my heart sank. I had to do it. In my head I knew I was just in a classroom and if I didn’t do it, what would this moderator have said? Would she have just reminded me the same thing I had already been reminding myself?
“There’s a solid floor beneath your feet, Sarah. Suck it up.” Is what I imagined her saying.
So, with resolve, and slight trepidation, I stepped onto the plank. Suddenly everything around me was shooting upwards, my heart quickened, my legs started shaking, and I couldn’t catch my breath. Before I knew it, everything turned white and I still stood there. In a classroom. Shaking uncontrollably.
It didn’t matter how much I told myself I was standing on solid ground. Virtual reality felt like reality. My brain and body registered full-on fear.
Moments later, I found myself flying through the same city, passing the skyscraper with the plank and thinking, it’s a good thing I can’t fall this time. Knowing I couldn’t fall, I flew as high as I could over the city, weaved in and out of the buildings, looking down the whole time; my brain no longer registering real fear, though it did register real motion sickness.
And then, just when I was about to move on and try a new experience, I thought, “I want to try that fall again.” My brain was suddenly convinced I could handle it better. The trembling still coursing through my core prevented me from another attempt, but this feeling that I could overcome was a powerful one.
I spent the next few days thinking about the psychological benefits of virtual reality. Sure, everyone talks about VR being a great opportunity to try something new, or to have an experience you can’t have anywhere else.
Free falling is my biggest fear. I lived it. And suddenly, I wanted to live it again. I weirdly wanted to prove to myself I could handle it. Is this what people who aren’t afraid of free falls feel on roller coaters? Is this normal to want to live out my worst nightmare a second time, just because I didn’t think it would be as bad as the first? Would I really want to train my brain to acclimate to free falling? What practicality is there to that?
Suddenly a whole new world has opened to me. Virtual reality is not just about gaming and education. There is so much more. Imagine exposing someone with arachnophobia to two hours of a spider experience. Imagine allowing someone with a fear of the dentist to acclimate to the environment just using virtual reality. Imagine someone with social anxiety, practicing social behaviors in a VR experience first.
I just had a small glimpse of the possibilities, but I look forward to learning more about VR, finding research that explores how it relates to real fear responses, and discovering just how useful it can be in education, medicine, sociology and human behavior.