Darling Ghost

In conventional reality, they say “ghosting” to describe someone who quietly and intentionally disappears from your life. A friend, a lover — when they stop texting, stop communicating, fade out, it is ghosting.

In Virtual Reality, however, the meaning is different. Ghosting is the experience of being immersed in VR-space, while someone in conventional reality touches you.

It’s the strangest thing. You can’t see or hear the person in conventional reality, but on the other side, in VR-space, you feel them. Your brain can’t make sense of it, because the VR world is so complete and designed so thoughtfully.

So the mind reaches for an explanation that makes sense within the constructed world. Some games refer to it as a phantom, spirit, angel, or any other word that fits the theme of the story-world.

But industry parlance is Ghost.

Some users report feeling the presence of a Ghost even when there hasn’t been physical contact. I completely believe this, as I’ve experienced it in conventional reality — that feeling when the energy of the room shifts, becomes brighter or more anxious, depending on who just walked in the room.

But if you want to be more scientific about it, consider a few things. Every heartbeat produces an electromagnetic field that extends far beyond the body. The body is richly innervated throughout — not just skin on the surface, but also every muscle and organ. So the body is a huge receptor, and it receives information from the outside world which it then feeds up to the brain.

There have also been a few stories of users having Ghost experiences even after they return to conventional reality. It’s like those stories of “phantom vibrations” when people keep checking their phone, thinking it’s vibrating, but it isn’t. Same basic concept. Your nervous system becomes sensitized and is looking for that sensation.

The mind tends to find what it looks for.

The most popular application, of course, is in the porn industry. A person can be at the beach and suddenly feel the hands of a mermaid or water nymph — without seeing them. Or they can be in a Victorian-era bordello, watching beautiful men and women of every shape engaging in all kinds of sex play, when they feel unseen hands touch their own body.

Some players like to enhance the experience with DUST, a specialty psychotropic formulated and dosed for exactly this purpose. When done right, it’s like a muscle relaxant plus adrenaline boost and MDMA with an aya-DMT twist, in a sweet cascading effect. So your body relaxes, but your heart rate increases, and your brain is awash in serotonin and dopamine, while the very fabric of the universe feels like it’s evaporating and you become one with the spirit of the planet itself.

It’s been wildly popular.

There are a few formulations depending on the kind of experience you’re looking for — SunsetDUST, StarDUST, StormDUST, SunriseDUST, are some of the well-known blends. The very best salons will do a small blood-draw when you arrive for your session, and formulate a custom blend based on your current biochemistry and weight. It’s pricey, yes, but the client gets a mind-blowing experience that is far more edgy and safe than a stock blend can provide.

Someone explained it to me this way:

The young ones love it. They’ve been primed for it, their attention split and fragmented since before they could talk.

The older ones, the jaded experience junkies who chase every new possibility, they can’t get enough of it. They say it makes them calm and creative. They feel it gives them an edge, and life-changing insights. Conventional reality was never enough for them, so we created an alternative to sell them, and then designed an upgrade to augment even that. Fucking genius, if you ask me. She built something that would be easy to fall in love with, and hard to quit. That was no small feat, by the way. You know how quickly their attention fades. To hook them and keep them coming back, it takes some work.

That’s why we do the limited runs, and are constantly adjusting the formula, dosing, and packaging. We’ve got to keep their interest.

So, the VR-Ghost application in the porn industry came pretty quickly (no pun intended). It actually shares some similarities with that classic favorite, the glory hole.

First, there’s the anonymity: the user in VR-space doesn’t see or know the identity of the Ghost (or Ghosts, if you play that level). That alone creates both a thrill and a sense of safety or relaxation.

Second, there are clear roles: the one who is being pleasured, and the one doing the pleasuring. You don’t have to take care of anyone, and you don’t feel judged or any pressure to perform. Just make yourself available, and someone else will take care of it.

Third, the simplicity and transactional nature make it a very easy sell.

So, instead of placing your penis through a hole in a wall and being stimulated by a stranger, the barrier in this case is created by your mind — which is enveloped in VR-space. This makes your entire body available for stimulation, and you still get the satisfaction of being ignorant to who is on the other side of that virtual wall.

It started as a casual house-party game, kind of like Blind Man’s Bluff. But soon a few people stepped up to properly design and commercialize the experience. Now there are quite a few private clubs and salons that offer VR-Ghosting.

Not every Ghost is female. There are plenty of male Ghosts, especially in this town. When a client reserved a session, they could request a female or male Ghost, or they could request the Special of the Day. That meant it would be a surprise. It was another way to relinquish control, and not make decisions. It was very popular, though most ended up with their favorite Ghosts and would request them specifically.

The user never engaged with a Ghost outside of VR-space. The story and anonymity remained intact.

Not every user was a man. There were a fair number of women users, and some salons reserved certain days of the week for their exclusive use.

Of course there were some regular spas that incorporated VR into their menu of massage enhancements. Aromatherapy, hot stones, sounds of waterfalls and primitive flute, and a VR designed to deeply relax the mind.

At the salon where I conducted my research, women could request more sexually explicit care than a spa would provide. Some wanted their breasts massaged and their nipples stimulated with fingertips or mouth and tongue. Others wanted their pussy massaged or licked. In VR-space, there wasn’t anyone to perform for or worry about. There were no head games. Just relaxation, and pleasure by skillful attendants.

It might seem shocking, but it really wasn’t. Women would book sessions the same way they’d schedule a manicure or blowout. There was even a salon that served women only, and it was called The Fainting Room — a reference to those rooms in old Victorian homes where women would receive pelvic massage in course of treatment for what was then termed “hysteria” or “nerves,” but was probably the natural response of a human living under such unceasing constraint. Social, yes, but also: those corsets. Good women were not socially permitted to be sexual, they were seen as angels of purity who served the household, husband, and children. Such a life would reasonably drive anyone to a restless, agitated state.

So, a doctor — a man, naturally — would come to the home and stimulate a woman’s genitals with his hand and fingers or specialty object. All of that was conventional at the time, even though it now seems absurd.

So the porn industry led the way in consumer VR-application and commercial success.

In the world of VR and story development, Ghosting became a thing and it was my job to learn about it.

Every Ghost chooses a handle. Mine was Darling. I got it from a Disney movie, Lady and the Tramp, the love story between a cocker spaniel and a mutt. You never see the faces of the humans who own the spaniel; they’re just known as “Jim-dear” and “Darling.”

Did you know there’s an entire niche of fetish dedicated to explicitly sexualized Disney stories? You probably did. I think nothing surprises you anymore.

Such is the world of wonder that we have created.