This award-winning VR experience can change how you see the world

Where Thoughts Go: Prologue just launched and it shows the true power of social, empathy-driven VR

Can a virtual reality experience change how you see the world?

Last year I was asking myself that question. I wanted to do something new — to create a VR experience that stayed with you long after you’ve finished it. That gave you a new way of seeing the world — perhaps even a new way to see yourself.

This was the spark that created the now released Where Thoughts Go: Prologue — and I think it’s much more than a content piece: it represents what VR can be when it’s designed to enable a new kind of human connection.

Using virtual realities to understand our own reality

Where Thoughts Go: Prologue is an social experience set in a world where human thoughts exist as sleeping creatures — each holding a voice message left by another player who was there before you.

You can wake up these creatures to listen to the stories left by others — and to progress you must leave your own behind for others to find.

Touch a creature to wake up — and listen to the story within

The experience has 5 chapters, all of which ask you a personal question. The answers left by other players are revealing, complex and inspiring, encouraging introspection — but they’re often surprisingly relatable. In this virtual world, people share vulnerable parts of themselves that don’t often appear in reality, but are just as real as anything else in the physical world.

In a strange way, it’s a virtual world designed to connect us more deeply with reality, shining a light on aspects of humanity that we don’t get to see in day to day life. It’s a virtual world that lets us see reality more clearly.

“It’s a virtual world that lets us see reality more clearly”

Each chapter asks you a personal question — w hat will you find? What will you say?

The experience also challenges you to reflect on your own life — you have to answer those questions out-loud to continue, which puts you in a deep state of introspection. Ultimately, the experience is as much about discovery of others as it is about self-discovery, and Where Thoughts Go gives you many opportunities to grow as an individual through these thoughtful interactions.

A different type of empathy… and crying

The project premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival to major critical acclaim and has won several awards since — but it also has a strange stat. 20% of its viewers cry — and the most surprising bit is how it got people to cry.

Testimonials from the first users of Where Thoughts Go

These people weren’t an audience sitting down, watching a pre-made film and and getting emotional. These were people entering a VR world and making each other cry with their raw stories… all without knowing or seeing each other.“We can use VR to create entirely new kinds of relationships that don’t exist int the real world”

This is empathy-driven VR at the highest level, showcasing how we can harness the power of the medium to create new relationships between people that are unlike anything that exists in the real world.

Each chapter surrounds you with a number of thoughts you can play

By orchestrating senses and connecting humans, Where Thoughts Go creates the most intense 30-second connection you can ever have with a stranger — powered by technology, wonder and real stories left by real people. And by doing so, it potentially changes how you see other human beings.

A tool for a better future

Many who have tried Where Thoughts Go have reported feeling deeply affected weeks after their session, saying that the experience has changed how they look at other people.

I believe that this is the true power of VR. The power to take us to fantastic realities that can change how we think about the world. That allows us to re-examine our own lives from a different angle. That lets us connect and grow together — in new, magical ways.

If you haven’t tried Where Thoughts Go, I urge you to buy it and to join our community on Discord so you can help us mold its future. If you don’t have VR, support me on Patreon so I can continue this work.

Where Thoughts Go is continuously changing and continuously growing

But if you can’t do any of these things, just walk away with this:

The internet has succeeded at connecting us with information. Now it’s time for it to succeed at connecting people to people.

Let’s get to work.

Thanks for reading!

Lucas Rizzotto is an award-winning Immersive Experience Designer, Artist and Creator.

You can follow him on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook,or contact him through his website.

Also, sign up to my mailing listand support me on Patreon so I can make more stuff like this!