Harnessing virtual reality to practice meditation?

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Med­i­tat­ing in vir­tu­al real­i­ty (Penin­su­la Press):

“Imag­ine you are on a beach in Bali prac­tic­ing yoga at dawn, watch­ing the sun rise beyond the lagoon. The image is so vivid that you almost for­get you are actu­al­ly sit­ting in an office in San Fran­cis­co, wear­ing a vir­tu­al real­i­ty (VR) headset.

MoodMe, a new VR appli­ca­tion, gives users sim­i­lar expe­ri­ences with the aim to change moods in a pos­i­tive way, specif­i­cal­ly through yoga and med­i­ta­tion. Co-founders Oksana Zavoyko, a psy­chol­o­gist and author of “Dream­book,” and Nisa Ahmado­va, a soft­ware engi­neer, devel­oped MoodMe, an app in which a user can step onto the beach in Bali, to see, hear and “join” the prac­tice of a yoga expert…

But while VR can help peo­ple be mind­ful by vir­tu­al means, some argue that if you need your vir­tu­al real­i­ty head­set to be mind­ful, you are rely­ing too much on the tech­nol­o­gy. MoodMe’s Zavoyko and Ahmado­va hope their users will be able to take what they prac­tice inside of vir­tu­al real­i­ty back to the real world, where mind­ful­ness can be applied.”

Learn more:

• 10 Neu­rotech­nolo­gies About to Trans­form Brain Enhance­ment and Brain Health
• Study: Long-term med­i­ta­tion can help slow down aging-relat­ed brain vol­ume decline
• Med­i­ta­tion apps help spread the practice