Acid Test: How Psychedelic Virtual Reality Can Help End Society’s Mass Bad Trip
Cyberdelic VR is being used to treat trauma and even simulate near-death experiences
By Jenny Valentish
Human beings have become nothing more than data in flesh suits. That’s the gist of Team Human, the 2018 TED Talk from media theorist Douglas Rushkoff. Certainly, there could be few people who use social media now who don’t feel a sense of captivity.
That makes cybernauts the freedom fighters. The VR artists, academics and scientists gathered in this Brunswick warehouse have contributed to Melbourne’s first “cyberdelic incubator”, hosted by the Australian Psychedelic Society.
In line with Rushkoff’s call for technology built on pre-digital era values of connection, creativity and respect, cyberdelia promotes a renaissance of a more conscious approach to technology — one of self-transformation and a connection to other people more genuine than you might find on Instagram.
There’s often a gentle spiritual component to such initiatives; take the simple example that the Australian Psychedelic Society’s Melissa Warner gives Guardian Australia, of a meditation app that creates a flower that grows ever-more beautiful and complex, based on biofeedback that…
