My friend had a strong psychological effect after trying.

NegativeCamber
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Re: My friend had a strong psychological effect after trying

Post by NegativeCamber »

Shrooms? That's the exact same feelings I got.
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Re: My friend had a strong psychological effect after trying

Post by Infinite »

I don't mean to sound negative but everyone is different and experience pain or illness in a different way. Some are over the top, some are stoic and can handle things silently.

This sounds to me like http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Occam%27s_razor

I think quite simply, he was feeling ill. His description sounded just like my first experience, except I don't believe in anything supernatural or otherworldly. After my first try I felt dizzy, nauseated, my eyes hurt and knots in my stomach.. I was feeling "ill"

It passed.

I'm sure he will be OK.
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Re: My friend had a strong psychological effect after trying

Post by npole »

It happened because you removed the rift from his eyes while he was into Tuscany. We had a similar problem with Neo in the past when that damn traitor disconnected the device from the back of his head while he was in the Matrix. Don't worry his consciousness will rejoin his body in some days.
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Re: My friend had a strong psychological effect after trying

Post by kirottu »

I had a similar experience with the rift. Although the first couple times were fine, there was one time after a session of rifting that it felt like the VR world was real, and this one was the fake. It was a very odd and unpleasant feeling to say the least. After a nights rest, though, the feeling was gone. I was, however, under the influence during that session. Since then, I've made it a point to be clear headed when using the rift and have had a far more pleasant experience in general.

Hope your friend is doing OK :)
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KBK
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Re: My friend had a strong psychological effect after trying

Post by KBK »

MatrixGravity wrote:
MSat wrote:@ Isolasjon & MatrixGravity

Insightful first posts! Thanks, and welcome to the forums :)
Absolutely. Glad to help. As soon as I read this thread I felt an immediate sense of obligation to help because it's definitely something I have first-hand experience with, and the symptoms the OP explained are definitely undeniable to me. My main concern is, once the Oculus Rift, and VR in general start becoming more prevalent, and the public gets their hands on it, what if more and more cases of DPDR start to happen? I can't help but worry because, a lot of people are susceptible to things like this, and I'm afraid this is going to turn into a problem in the future.

MOST of the time, DPDR is induced from Marijuana. Most cases are, at least. But VR is definitely in a league of it's own, but what they all have in common is the psychological component. They all alter your state of mind and thus, Depersonalization is born as a result. I'm just afraid this is going to become a widespread problem later on once VR goes viral, and it upsets me because there aren't many effective treatments available right now to treat this condition. The most important thing is for more people to be aware, that's what I hope to help with.
We must try to avoid symptomatic analysis and head for source analysis. The science seems to be good at looking through the rear view mirror and describing a minimal mapping scheme, but I'm not seeing much more than that.

To not judge the territory via a science induced sketch of an incomplete map. Correlation and minimal relation not being causation and all that. The data and the results being useful, but not (from this cursory look) addressing causation beyond the first tier of objective sensory analysis. :)

Nevertheless, I am seeing your data and detail as very interesting. Thresholds and trigger points. for example, some people can't get into cars without suffering disconnects, and some folks have things like LSD be their break points, and their lives shift from that point onward. The death of a relative, loss of a limb or more, change in job or family conditions, etc, can invoke similar conditions. In this case we are speaking of a disconnect, a change in a specific area, connected to a specific set/group of the sensory system, where the results can be akin to having similar final effects. Re LSD, Peter Green and Syd Barrett come to mind as known examples. Both changed dramatically (over time) after high dosage exposure.

To me, this is not unexpected. And I get a chance to post a Peter Green tune.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cQhHvfBTH1o
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Re: My friend had a strong psychological effect after trying

Post by 2EyeGuy »

Lookforyourhands wrote:I wrote about this in another post somewhere but I don't think anyone replied. I believe what happened to your friend is he experienced an energetic shift in the alignment of his personal energy field. The Rift more or less altered his consciousness.
They were probably trying to be polite. But since you want a reply:
You are wrong. There is no such thing as an "energetic shift" or a "personal energy field", and there is nothing to align.
Lookforyourhands wrote:There are some Shamans that believe that our conscious perception is not a result of something taking place in our brain, but that there is a spot within our personal energy field, (aura as it's commonly known) that's about the size of a tennis ball.
Those Shamans generally have an IQ of about 70 or so. And even they don't actually believe what they claim to believe, they know on some level that they are conning people, and they use simple magic tricks for psychic surgery like pulling a rock out from behind your ear. Also Shamans don't talk like that. That's how stupid western pseudoscientists talk.

The brain, and how it perceives things, has been well studied. When scientists say something is taking place in your brain, they are not making it up. Scientists actually look and see what is happening in your brain.
Lookforyourhands wrote:They call it the 'Assemblage Point', because perception is assembled there.
No, they call it the "Assemblage Point" because they just made up something that doesn't really exist. Parts of your brain that are real have names (in Latin or Greek) like "grey stuff", "black stuff", "white stuff", "sea-horse shaped thing", "the lump at the front", "the lump on the side", etc. Because real parts of the brain were really seen by real people and have names based on what everyone could actually identify and recognise if they looked at a real brain. That's one of the differences between reality and made up stuff.
Lookforyourhands wrote:If you need more information Google it, or maybe you're already familiar with it if you've read any Carlos Castaneda books.
No, if you need more detail, Google something real like neuroanatomy. You can even do an image search and see actual pictures of brains (with no tennis balls). Or you can read actual books by thousands of actual scientists that all agree about how the brain really works, based on actual research.
Lookforyourhands wrote:Anyway, the assemblage point takes sensory data from the universe at large in the form of filaments and they converge on that spot.
No, it doesn't. Do you even know what a filament is?
Lookforyourhands wrote:The sensory data is then interpreted by our brains, and our resulting perception depends on our culture, upbringing, language, tradition, etc.
No it isn't, and no it doesn't. People sense the same things regardless of their culture, upbringing, language, tradition, etc. It's been tested.
Lookforyourhands wrote:Everyone in the world shares the same basic assemblage point location.
Only in the sense that it is equally nonexistant in everyone.
Lookforyourhands wrote:It shifts slightly depending on the current modality, but right now it's common location is approximately 2 feet behind the right shoulder blade.
Do you even know what "modality" means.
Lookforyourhands wrote:A number of things can force it to shift (drugs, ritual, meditation, conscious intention) to a new location -which results in a new perception, but it always/usually goes back to it's original location.
You do know that drugs are actual chemical molecules composed of atoms, with a specific shape and pattern of charges, which react with, or fit into, chemical receptors in your brain that change how the neurons function. It's not magic like you think.
Lookforyourhands wrote:Dreaming is actually the result of the assemblage point moving to the left side of our personal energy fields during the night while we sleep, and the reason our dreams are so chaotic and random all the time is because its always moving around.
No it isn't.
Lookforyourhands wrote:In order to perceive something coherently our APs must be stabilized on one spot.
No, people perceive things just fine without any magical mumbo jumbo.
Lookforyourhands wrote:So what happened to your friend? The Rift forced his assemblage point to move.
No, it didn't.
Lookforyourhands wrote:His entire idea of reality was turned on it's head in a single moment. I think his brain has probably rewired itself a little bit. It's a good thing. I bet you he'll go back in the Rift again one day, and he'll never forget the moment his entire world changed. To all the non believers, the Rift really is that good to make you believe you're in another place/space and it's a very very trippy feeling. I truly believe the Matrix is just around the corner.
Perhaps. You do realise that has nothing to do with anything you just said about magical nonsense though.
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Re: My friend had a strong psychological effect after trying

Post by geekmaster »

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j_rEBKxW3qE

Like watching life (and your own hands) on a video screen...

And it is not necessarity VR that can be blamed. Video games alone may be enough:
http://www.ronniefreedmanphd.com/blog/?p=781

This is all very subjective, and it is up to each person to set and respect his own personal limits, and not try to force those limits on others who have more adaptable and novelty-robust mental constitutions. Right, Mr. "M.I./1999"?

And there are other things at play here too. Having your ENTIRE FoV subject to a uniform flickering display, with no peripheral smooth constant visual cues, may have subjective physchological and/or biological effects. Even facial pressure from the Rift fact mask may have subtle effects. There are too many subjective unknowns to draw firm conclusions, although there may indeed be concerns for a select few who may need to find a different hobby.
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Re: My friend had a strong psychological effect after trying

Post by 2EyeGuy »

If I don't get enough sleep for a long time, I sometimes feel like the real world doesn't quite seem real, or that it's real but I'm not really there. It's easily fixed by a good night's sleep, then everything's back to normal. Just get some sleep, don't worry about it, and it will fix itself. :)
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Re: My friend had a strong psychological effect after trying

Post by KBK »

2EyeGuy wrote:If I don't get enough sleep for a long time, I sometimes feel like the real world doesn't quite seem real, or that it's real but I'm not really there. It's easily fixed by a good night's sleep, then everything's back to normal. Just get some sleep, don't worry about it, and it will fix itself. :)
I've tired hard to be kind to you, due to your fundamental illiteracy and your self filtered mindset. Do not mistake kindness and gentleness for weakness or lack of knowledge and understanding.

The reality is that, for all your projections, you don't know fecal matter from shoe polish.
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Re: My friend had a strong psychological effect after trying

Post by Octavion »

Probably a latent form of anxiety, triggered whenever things feel off or odd... uncanny, he probably reached his threshold. It could be something as simple as the optics/demo/calibration choice or a combination of factors. I'll dub it Uncanny Immersion.
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Re: My friend had a strong psychological effect after trying

Post by 2EyeGuy »

KBK wrote:
2EyeGuy wrote:If I don't get enough sleep for a long time, I sometimes feel like the real world doesn't quite seem real, or that it's real but I'm not really there. It's easily fixed by a good night's sleep, then everything's back to normal. Just get some sleep, don't worry about it, and it will fix itself. :)
I've tried hard to be kind to you, due to your fundamental illiteracy and your self filtered mindset. Do not mistake kindness and gentleness for weakness or lack of knowledge and understanding.

The reality is that, for all your projections, you don't know fecal matter from shoe polish.
You try hard to be kind to everyone, does that mean you think everyone is fundamentally illiterate and self-filtering?
It's not your kindness and gentleness that makes people think you lack knowledge and understanding. It's the crazy things you sometimes say that make people think that.
I'm sorry I'm not as familiar with fecal matter as you are.
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Re: My friend had a strong psychological effect after trying

Post by MichaelH »

I had the same reaction on the first day. Disturbed visuals and a feeling of unreality. I didn't feel correct until part way through the next day. I attributed it to having never experienced motion sickness before. I have stopped using the device due to these feelings and the nausea.
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Re: My friend had a strong psychological effect after trying

Post by Nexious »

Probably feels like what I felt back in 2009 when I had my hemorrhagic stroke. I felt completely disconnected after I woke up from a coma. Loosing time and just plain weird stuff going through my head.
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Re: My friend had a strong psychological effect after trying

Post by Hornet »

Hi to all.
My first experience with Rift was too uncommon. I am flying with gliders, with my glider sim (in 3d) for hours problem less. But after 15 minutes with Rift (in nighttime before i go sleep) i was feeling somethig unpleasant.. Little bit similar than kinethosis. Too dreams this night were about Rift trying - all was bigger, blurred....really not good morning after that.
After two days without rift i try it second time...it is far better. The main problem for me was after bright demos as Tuscany, or architecture. Ad it is far better with strong computer, dvi output and full hd output resolution.
I think that combination of bad slow PC with low framerate with rift is problem. And i think the main problem is vestibular no correspondence with visual input and resulting autonomous system disturbance - similar than kinetosis or unpleasant feelings after earobatics flying as copilot. And yes 60 hz flickering in complete FOV - too not ideal - flickering can provocate epilepsia.
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Re: My friend had a strong psychological effect after trying

Post by Hornet »

But i use my rift and i love it! :-) last days i am without significant problems...but this (problems with kinetosis) will be serious problem for mainstream VR.
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Re: My friend had a strong psychological effect after trying

Post by Direlight »

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Re: My friend had a strong psychological effect after trying

Post by Direlight »

Don't confuse it with the vertigo etc., that's caused by (at least) latency, no positional tracking, non-moving chair, and the refresh rate.
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Re: My friend had a strong psychological effect after trying

Post by zacherynuk »

I have a friend that falls over just watching other people play FPS games.
Nothing to worry about.
We all have foibles. If it hurts don't do it.
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Re: My friend had a strong psychological effect after trying

Post by nateight »

To the surprising amount of people here saying this is factitious, "acting out", or otherwise imaginary: You sound to me like a medieval physician telling an ailing patient his unknown disease is probably just temporary dyscrasia. Every single thing in the DSM was, in a less enlightened time, dismissed as nonexistent, a personal weakness, "all in the mind", or a symptom of demonic possession. Perhaps you would prefer to return to such a time? VR is an almost entirely new mode of human experience, and if you think we won't discover some surprising new corners of our mental processes along this journey, your callousness and close-mindedness make you poor companions to have along for it.
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Re: My friend had a strong psychological effect after trying

Post by Dr.Minky »

Very interesting. As everyone's already said, it sounds like DPD. Symptoms of this are things that are highly present in the rift, but also present in a lot of other things (including normal games) and apparently even just triggered by nothing sometimes. Very likely that it triggered this to happen, but that doesn't mean it "caused" it to happen - jumping to conclusions about psychological impacts of a device like this with no evidence is a dangerous thing to be doing.

However the rift will OBVIOUSLY have some mental implications on people, which is scary. When it kicks off the funny days of ignoring "Don't play your PS2 for more than 1 hour" warnings will be replaced with "Don't wear your rift for more than 1 hour", however if everyone ignores THESE warnings this will actually be potentially screwing people up. While everyone shouldn't let this hinder the fast pace at which this technology is developing, perhaps it would be good to integrate this consideration into our game designs for when significant study has been done into this. Aiming for 100% immersion is the goal of everyone, but perhaps there NEEDS to be breaks in this. If testing did prove there to be prominent long term damages caused by the rift, as much as I hate to say it, perhaps mandatory removal of the rift at certain intervals to allow time to come back to reality should be a feature.. But like I said, until then probably best to leave it to just post any changes people notice, try not to speculate too much and leave it to some professionals.

Perhaps it would be very beneficial to have a moderated thread where people could concisely post a log of effects they have experienced from using the Rift, both positive and negative. Might be a good way to get a long term picture of consistent effects of VR against one off things like this may be. Just an idea.

As for your friend: Whack him on a roller coaster, see if that sorts him out ;)
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Re: My friend had a strong psychological effect after trying

Post by boone188 »

I would love to see your friend try LSD or psilocybin mushrooms. Now that would be a life-changing experience!
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Re: My friend had a strong psychological effect after trying

Post by Tirregius »

geekmaster wrote:
Like watching life (and your own hands) on a video screen...

And it is not necessarity VR that can be blamed. Video games alone may be enough:
http://www.ronniefreedmanphd.com/blog/?p=781

This is all very subjective, and it is up to each person to set and respect his own personal limits, and not try to force those limits on others who have more adaptable and novelty-robust mental constitutions. Right, Mr. "M.I./1999"?

And there are other things at play here too. Having your ENTIRE FoV subject to a uniform flickering display, with no peripheral smooth constant visual cues, may have subjective physchological and/or biological effects. Even facial pressure from the Rift fact mask may have subtle effects. There are too many subjective unknowns to draw firm conclusions, although there may indeed be concerns for a select few who may need to find a different hobby.
There is certainly a wide range of neurological "qualities" from person to person, some of which would certainly preclude certain individuals from enjoying VR. Hijacking vestibular response and the entire visual system is a stressful and intensive exercise for the brain. Just read experience after experience from "normal" brains struggling to grapple with novel inputs from VR. For someone with a weakness in one area or another of their perceptual systems, VR could cause a cascade of "over-compensations" that would range from sensory disconnect to fight-or-flight response, maybe even a psychotic episode in folks that already have latent propensity. That said, ANYTHING that is novel and unexpected information for any of the sensory systems has that potential for some folks. There is nothing controversial about GM's statement IMO. It is simple truth due to the wonderful range of human potential and capacities.

edit: To those who are seemingly dismissive of the authenticity of the event described in the OP - there is a lack of empathy there, clearly due to incomplete or entirely absent understanding of neurology. I don't for a moment claim to be encyclopedic on the subject, but I didn't think to dismiss his symptoms as psychosomatic and/or a trivial and temporary issue.
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Re: My friend had a strong psychological effect after trying

Post by Parallaxis »

2EyeGuy wrote: You try hard to be kind to everyone, does that mean you think everyone is fundamentally illiterate and self-filtering?
It's not your kindness and gentleness that makes people think you lack knowledge and understanding. It's the crazy things you sometimes say that make people think that.
I'm sorry I'm not as familiar with fecal matter as you are.
Don't bother. You will never ever be able to reason with someone talking about personal energy fields and shamans. It's like reasoning with religious extremists.
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Re: My friend had a strong psychological effect after trying

Post by LNQ »

There has already been a lot of very good responses on the issue. I suffered from DPD when under a serious clinical depression back in 2001. The world just seemed to be off, it was hard to describe. Things that happened didn't seem real, seemed like I could predict everything that happened, that it was all somehow artificial. It was very strange and uncomfortable, I couldn't really function well in normal life or social situations. The way your friend acted reminded me a lot about how I felt. I couldn't shake the symptoms for a month, then they disappeared only to return for a period of few days every month or so for half a year.

I have been completely fine after, but I strongly recommend your friend to go see a psychiatrist or some other medical expert that can help him go through what he's suffering right now. Others here have tied their experiences to depression as well, so it's very important to make sure your friend doesn't succumb to more serious mental health problems.

This matter is no joke. He shouldn't be too afraid, it will pass but he should go see a doctor.
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Re: My friend had a strong psychological effect after trying

Post by jeremyc9 »

nateight wrote:To the surprising amount of people here saying this is factitious, "acting out", or otherwise imaginary: You sound to me like a medieval physician telling an ailing patient his unknown disease is probably just temporary dyscrasia. Every single thing in the DSM was, in a less enlightened time, dismissed as nonexistent, a personal weakness, "all in the mind", or a symptom of demonic possession. Perhaps you would prefer to return to such a time? VR is an almost entirely new mode of human experience, and if you think we won't discover some surprising new corners of our mental processes along this journey, your callousness and close-mindedness make you poor companions to have along for it.
I couldn't agree more.
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Re: My friend had a strong psychological effect after trying

Post by yoshithedog »

As I had experienced derealisation yesterday myself (and successfully dealt with it), I'll do my best to help. I think what happened is: your friend was onto the true nature of reality and he denied it. Enlightement, greater awareness, whatever you call it - was around the corner, but he decided to go the other way, propably because he felt he wasn't ready or just took the truth as false (which is somewhat expected, because the truth is way different than our common sense tells us). So what is happening now, he is in the state of "no" to the truth and everything seems off. Having a random false view of the reality (like all of us) is one thing, but negating the truth is a different matter. The knowledge of what is happening to him and why he feels like this should be enough for him to overcome his condition. He propably won't become instantly enlighted when he does, but at least he'll be back on track and the life will be fun again.
Even if you don't understand this, please pass this to him, as he will - assuming he is experiencing the same thing as I did.
Last edited by yoshithedog on Wed Jun 05, 2013 5:29 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: My friend had a strong psychological effect after trying

Post by Sartor »

wow.

Im sorry for your friend's bad experience. I dont want to sound like I am without
empathy, but this thread makes me even more impatient to get a hold of my Rift.
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Re: My friend had a strong psychological effect after trying

Post by Infinite »

nateight wrote:To the surprising amount of people here saying this is factitious, "acting out", or otherwise imaginary: You sound to me like a medieval physician telling an ailing patient his unknown disease is probably just temporary dyscrasia. Every single thing in the DSM was, in a less enlightened time, dismissed as nonexistent, a personal weakness, "all in the mind", or a symptom of demonic possession. Perhaps you would prefer to return to such a time? VR is an almost entirely new mode of human experience, and if you think we won't discover some surprising new corners of our mental processes along this journey, your callousness and close-mindedness make you poor companions to have along for it.
It's worth factoring in reason to such a discussion. Some people thrive on dramatics and unexplained events, ufo's, ghosts and such. More often than not the most obvious simple explanation, is the best. There should be two sides to the coin. Not just jumping to wild speculative notions or pandering to such personal phenomena.

Good example would be pain threshold. For example a bee sting to one person is like the pain of a thousand suns! yet a bee sting to another person is just an annoying itch. We all interpret our life experiences differently. Some more reasoned than others.
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Re: My friend had a strong psychological effect after trying

Post by Tirregius »

An interesting phenomenon that I experienced a few years ago as a result of something related to photophobia. Photophobia is not "fear of light." It is a condition causing an individual to have a low tolerance for high gain levels of visual stimuli.

Anyway, I have the condition and it reveals itself under certain circumstances. I think this is a good example of a poorlu understood condition that can manifest itself in ways that would illicit similar responses as are seen in this thread. If I may, here's an anecdote from my own life regarding this neurological condition.

After a very long day of work, training tennis players outdoors, I joined a group of friends for dinner and drinks later that night. We ended up staying until they closed the restaurant. When they staff decided to signal to the last few customers that they wanted us out, they threw on all the lights at once, going from a very dimly lit ambiance to a very well lit room instantly. At that moment, I experienced a massive increase in physical arousal - what would best be described as a panic attack. Although I remained reasonable and rational there was this feeling that I had just experienced being attacked by a lion or having been shot at. It is worth noting that I was physically exhausted and mentally very tired as well.

After some time spent researching the subject an consulting a friend who is persuing his pHD in neurology, I've come to the conclusion that the sudden increase in visual stimuli, coupled with a very fatigued visual system caused a systemic "crash" if you will.

in the moments prior to the panic event I was, as I said, very fatigued, but I was content, happy, and of sound mind.

Just an example of what can occur when the brain is asked to perform outside of its specifications. Everyone's brain has different threshholds. VR pushes our visual systems pretty hard. There are going to be folks that have issues.
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Re: My friend had a strong psychological effect after trying

Post by LNQ »

Infinite wrote:
nateight wrote:It's worth factoring in reason to such a discussion. Some people thrive on dramatics and unexplained events, ufo's, ghosts and such. More often than not the most obvious simple explanation, is the best. There should be two sides to the coin. Not just jumping to wild speculative notions or pandering to such personal phenomena.

Good example would be pain threshold. ... We all interpret our life experiences differently. Some more reasoned than others.
Actually, pain threshold is a bad example. Pain threshold varies from person to person, and it has nothing to do with reason. It's not conciuous, and it has nothing to do with your personality or preferences or attitude. It's your somatosensory system, and it is unique to you alone. Whether they complain or not is a different story.
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Re: My friend had a strong psychological effect after trying

Post by Infinite »

LNQ wrote:
Infinite wrote:
nateight wrote:It's worth factoring in reason to such a discussion. Some people thrive on dramatics and unexplained events, ufo's, ghosts and such. More often than not the most obvious simple explanation, is the best. There should be two sides to the coin. Not just jumping to wild speculative notions or pandering to such personal phenomena.

Good example would be pain threshold. ... We all interpret our life experiences differently. Some more reasoned than others.
Actually, pain threshold is a bad example. Pain threshold varies from person to person, and it has nothing to do with reason. It's not conciuous, and it has nothing to do with your personality or preferences or attitude. It's your somatosensory system, and it is unique to you alone. Whether they complain or not is a different story.
Actually you miss the point. It was an example to explain how each of us interpret our experiences differently.

rea·son

A cause, explanation, or justification for an action or event.

It's relevant because this person obviously had an uncomfortable experience, that maybe to someone else would reason that it was just a ill feeling of nausea or motion sickness.. Nothing more.
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Re: My friend had a strong psychological effect after trying

Post by garagebattle »

Solution is to smoke a little session with some friends, eat some food, and welcome to un magical real world that we live in.

Which we only connect to, and feel awesome, because we do amazing things to make it awesome.


BTW was this fellow religious? Gamer?
LNQ
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Re: My friend had a strong psychological effect after trying

Post by LNQ »

How's your friend doing? Did it pass?
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Re: My friend had a strong psychological effect after trying

Post by 5upernaut »

I experienced something similar 10 years ago, while being with my friends. Suddenly everything seemed artificial, including them. They were like dolls, and every emotional connection I had with them, and everybody else, was gone. It was like being in a wax-museum. I felt extremely lonely, even around my best friends. It went on like that for a couple of weeks. Eventually it disappeared, but for another strange psychological reason. I have never believed in a god, and still don't (I don't deny it either), but I was tired of feeling alone, so I sort of 'prayed' to a higher existence to get me out of it, and it was gone 10minutes later. I don't know why this happened, but it might be some placebo effect that I wanted to work so much, that it actually worked.

Sounds weird, and it was. And may not be of any help. But I would just like to say that, although I can feel like that once in a while still, it is not a problem at all. If anything, I feel that I had an eye-opener which has changed me for the better. I am a very analytical person, have a high IQ, and I'm a a "sensitive person". My guess is that your friend share some of those features as well, and will begin to appreciate the experience when he has got past it sooner or later. He shouldn't worry, but help from a psychiatrist would probably be a good thing, to help him understand and move on.
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Re: My friend had a strong psychological effect after trying

Post by Gooberverse »

I think I can identify with some of these experiences. I bought the Virtual Boy (insert jokes here) the day it was released. Although it lacked in many respects (no tracking, red-only LED display, weak library, etc.) it did a very good job of providing isolation (if not immersion). Combined with the 3D graphics, it was enough to have some strange effects.

One of these was the sense of being in a different place and then feeling snapped back into the real world. After long play sessions (beating all 100 levels of the 3d platform puzzler Mario Clash http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mario_Clash took hours), I would pull my head out of the Virtual Boy and going from a dark black/red world back into the real world was surreal. It was as if someone flipped a lightswitch and re-activated the real world or teleported me back to reality. I'm sure the Rift will reproduce this feeling in an even more pronounced way. That sensation seemed to happen every time I transition from the VR world to the real world, but it did not persist.

The other strange effect was similar to things posted in this thread. It was something that lingered. Not a feeling of being disconnected, but a feeling that I had memories that were somehow different. Not a dream, not a flashback, but not quite real or normal. It's hard to describe.

My theory is that when you are in VR experiencing things in a new way, new neural pathways are created and memories are associated with these new pathways. My brain seemed able to separate these memories and experiences from those of dreams, normal games and even normal life. Hard to describe.

In any case, I'm looking forward to more mind bending experiences with the Rift. Mine is in the pre-order batch. I hope it ships soon!

:)
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Re: My friend had a strong psychological effect after trying

Post by usb247 »

There's no question in my mind that VR has the potential to drive people mad.
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Re: My friend had a strong psychological effect after trying

Post by Sinsinful »

@2EyeGuy
Jesus H Christ! that email in response to Lookforyourhands is the funniest thing I have ever read on a forum anywhere.
Laughed so much tears came outa my eyes.

No offence Lookforyourhands but you have been watching too much Matrix and no offence to the guy this post refers to but there is always one drama queen who blows everything out of proportion. They are normally the type of people who never shut up but everything they say is extremely boring, people who crave attention and long for something interesting to happen to them.

The guy most likely got motion sickness, end off.

Funny how all theses trusted scientists at the top of our society laugh at the mere mention of "personal energy fields" as they drive of in Bentleys blowing dust into the face of your shaman & his mud hut.

I'd say if you had bet a month's wage on it your chips would fall on motion sickness and not "personal energy fields realignment" eh Lookforyourhands?
This technology has peeled back a layer to reveal another universe. Virtual reality will grow, just as the telegraph grew to the telephone - as the radio to the TV - it will be everywhere.
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Sinsinful
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Re: My friend had a strong psychological effect after trying

Post by Sinsinful »

jeremyc9 wrote:
nateight wrote:To the surprising amount of people here saying this is factitious, "acting out", or otherwise imaginary: You sound to me like a medieval physician telling an ailing patient his unknown disease is probably just temporary dyscrasia. Every single thing in the DSM was, in a less enlightened time, dismissed as nonexistent, a personal weakness, "all in the mind", or a symptom of demonic possession. Perhaps you would prefer to return to such a time? VR is an almost entirely new mode of human experience, and if you think we won't discover some surprising new corners of our mental processes along this journey, your callousness and close-mindedness make you poor companions to have along for it.
I couldn't agree more.
Holy good god. That whole statement is contradictory! So you expect us to outright believe in your theories but cannot entertain the fact that the guy may just be "acting out". You can't just rule out the "drama queen" factor but include all this "personal energy field" stuff. Yes I accept there is a very small chance that some sort of depression was inflamed by an already volatile mental condition. But your reference to "medieval physician" is completely backwards. Back then scientific fact was demonised by religious nuts talking nonsense akin to your "personal energy field" crap. Fact is the Rift is an improvement on a goddam TV screen, we are not about to ascend, we are not entering "new mode of human experience", ffs calm yourself.

We are entering the next phase of gaming. Don't allow unfounded nonsense to derail the process.....
This technology has peeled back a layer to reveal another universe. Virtual reality will grow, just as the telegraph grew to the telephone - as the radio to the TV - it will be everywhere.
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Re: My friend had a strong psychological effect after trying

Post by zalo »

Reading this thread, I see there is a point that hasn't been fully explored.

Is there an inverse relationship between nausea and depersonalization? It appears everyone who gets depersonalization doesn't get nauseous, and everyone who gets nauseous doesn't get the depersonalization side-effects. Marijuana eliminates nausea and stimulates depersonalization. Coincidence?

I'm not saying that if you don't get nauseous you could have depersonalization disorder, but the connection seems likely for a number of reasons.

EDIT: I should probably mention that the rift does not make me nauseous in the least, and after reading about depersonalization, I feel some of it applies to me. Or it's confirmation bias.
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Re: My friend had a strong psychological effect after trying

Post by Direlight »

We all have foibles. If it hurts don't do it.
People (a few) on this forum we're saying that's not acceptable because children will be too stupid to take it off.

Never mind the fact Virtual Boy failure proves that theory wrong.
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