Psychedelics and virtual reality: parallels and applications
This theory-building article (2020) constructs a bridge between psychedelics and virtual reality (VR). It highlights how both alter sensory experiences and can invoke awe. Via different modalities, both can break people free from rigid thought patterns and both are finding their way into therapeutic use. VR could possibly also be used to ease people into a psychedelic experience.
Authors
- Jordan Aday
- Emily Bloesch
- Christopher Davoli
Published
Abstract
Psychedelic drugs and virtual reality (VR) each have the capacity to disrupt the rigidity and limitations of typical conscious experience. This article delineates the parallels among psychedelic and VR states as well as their potential synergistic applications in clinical and recreational settings. Findings indicate that, individually, psychedelics and VR are used in analogous ways to alter sensory experience and evoke awe. They are also both used in tandem with traditional therapies to treat a variety of mood disorders; their shared capacity to transiently alter perspective and disrupt rigid patterns of mental experience may underly their analogous and transdiagnostic therapeutic uses. In terms of their combined applications, a number of recreational users currently utilize psychedelics and VR together to enhance their experience. We propose that VR may be a useful tool for preparing hallucinogen-naïve participants in clinical trials for the sensory distortions experienced in psychedelic states. Given the critical role of “setting” in psychedelic treatment outcomes, we also detail how VR could be used to optimize the environment in psychedelic sessions. Finally, we provide considerations for future studies and detail how advancements in psychedelic and VR research can inform one another. Collectively, this article outlines a number of connections between psychedelics and VR, and, more broadly, is representative of growing scientific interest into the interactions among technology, psychopharmacology, and mental health.
Research Summary of 'Psychedelics and virtual reality: parallels and applications'
Introduction
Psychedelic drugs and virtual reality (VR) are both presented as technologies that can disrupt habitual sensory experience and alter perspective, and the paper situates this shared capacity as the starting point for exploring overlaps in phenomenology and application. Classic psychedelics such as LSD, psilocybin, mescaline, and ayahuasca/DMT are noted to act primarily via serotonin 5-HT2A receptor mechanisms and to produce vivid alterations in perception, while VR is defined as interactive three-dimensional environments navigated via avatars; historically both domains have been linked culturally, though scholarly attention to their intersection has been limited. Aday and colleagues set out to fill that gap by synthesising parallels between psychedelic and VR experiences, describing how each has been and might be used clinically and recreationally, and outlining experimental and ethical considerations for future work combining the two. The paper aims to identify shared mechanisms that might explain their transdiagnostic therapeutic uses and to propose ways VR could be employed to prepare, optimise, or extend psychedelic-assisted interventions.
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Study Details
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Aday, J. S., Davoli, C. C., & Bloesch, E. K. (2020). Psychedelics and virtual reality: parallels and applications. Therapeutic Advances in Psychopharmacology, 10. https://doi.org/10.1177/2045125320948356
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Glowacki, D. R., Wonnacott, M. D., Freire, R. et al. · Scientific Reports (2022)
Ciauncia, A., Safron, A. · Psyarxiv (2022)
Sekula, A. D., Downey, L., Puspanathan, P. · Frontiers in Psychology (2022)
Dursun, S. M., Kelly, J. R., Gillan, C. M. et al. · Frontiers in Psychiatry (2021)
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Aday, J. S., Davis, A. K., Mitzkovitz, C. M. et al. · ACS Pharmacology and Translational Science (2021)
Ortiz, M. I., Gómez-Busto, F. J. · Clinical Neuropsychiatry (2020)
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