The BBC News ran a fascinating news item on Friday about new research showing a way to induce out-of-body experiences (OBE) under controlled circumstances. However What is sorely lacking in the article are the incredible new possibilities offered by this new research.
In short, this induced OBE is performed by disconnected vision and touch sensory of a person. For example, While looking at your own back projected on a screen in front of you, you and your projection are simultaneously touched by a pen. People tend to feel the pen at their projected body on screen instead of their physical one. Amazing, but what to do with it?
BBC News solemnly copies the idea of the researchers that this can be applied in video games and remote surgery. But which industry instantly benefit for people to feel physically touched and involved by a remote person? You guessed, the adult industry. But of course, no self respecting research facility would hammer that one down. And seriously, though it is probably the first and most instant gratifying business model for induced OBE, it is not the one with the most effect we reckon.
Therapy, Education, Business….
If controlled virtual environments can be made real to your sensory input and create the idea of actually being there, we could help people overcome fear. By changing the environment step by step from a safe into a more realistic one, the person can get used to an otherwise fearful situation. You could change modalities like the weather (sun or rain), color (dark or light), sound (a scene from a horror movie or soothing classical peace) and change how someone experiences a situation in real life. Neurolinguistic programmers and therapeutic hypnotists already use similar techniques but they have to take someone back into a situation by word and suggestion, which takes considerable effort and skill. We are just wondering about the possibilities of doing these things using a virtual situation and OBEs.
Then there is education. How well you remember something is strongly related to the impact it has on you. What better way to learn something than from an actual (simulated) situation. You could learn history by being there, or even learn a foreign language in a virtual foreign country among other people. You can be at school and in an internship at the same time. Young people can be more prepared for the real(!) world. Accomplished professionals can continue and speed up their learning, without going to role-playing business workshops and seminars.
Talking about business, how about virtual conferencing. Or how about walking through a building project to see what changes actually imply for people. Or, invite lots of people to come and move in new planned city area, just to see how they will actually behave and adjust your plans accordingly.
And then the most scary one, how about religion? What if churches, synagogues, temples or what have you, can create complete fulfilling and inspiring gatherings and experiences for their followers? What can this kind of mass-hypnotizing do in the real world that follows the religiously and virtually induced one? We’d better stop there.
Let’s get back to a more down-to-earth application, easy to contemplate with definite effect in the real world: Crime. What will happen if you kill a man who is induced in an OBE? Or what will happen to the physical man when his virtual induced persona is killed? Will he die, or will a part of him die?
Will the time come when (religious) believes combined with high technology can create or destroy everything you dream of? This can be your Third Life or the Nineth, for that matter. But it can be your First Death as well.
We see karma going digital and in a whole new direction.
But seriously, when can we buy the first gadget for self-induced OBE. We don’t want any other people in the room when we OBE, you know!
