{"id":263352,"date":"2024-10-28T19:42:12","date_gmt":"2024-10-28T19:42:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/michigandigitalnews.com\/index.php\/2024\/10\/28\/how-psychedelics-and-vr-could-reveal-how-we-become-immersed-in-reality\/"},"modified":"2025-06-25T17:10:41","modified_gmt":"2025-06-25T17:10:41","slug":"how-psychedelics-and-vr-could-reveal-how-we-become-immersed-in-reality","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/michigandigitalnews.com\/index.php\/2024\/10\/28\/how-psychedelics-and-vr-could-reveal-how-we-become-immersed-in-reality\/","title":{"rendered":"How psychedelics and VR could reveal how we become immersed in reality"},"content":{"rendered":"

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In certain circles, the potent psychedelic N,N-dimethyltryptamine (DMT) is known as the \u201cspirit molecule\u201d for its peculiar ability to transport people into other worlds. Those who take it commonly experience vibrant colours, abstract geometric patterns \u2013 and even meet elves and aliens \u2013 all in a way that feels completely real.<\/p>\n

That might all sound about as far from the realm of empirical science as you can get \u2013 but not for neuroscientist Zeus Tipado<\/a>. In his lab in\u00a0Maastricht, the Netherlands, he is planning an outlandish experiment in which he will monitor the brains of people dosed with DMT while they wear a virtual reality headset. The hope is that by observing what happens when we slip into another form of reality, we can fathom how our minds construct the one we experience in everyday life. \u201cOur brain is easily deceived as to what reality is,\u201d says Tipado.<\/p>\n

Already, he has found tantalising hints of a new brain network that he thinks might underlie the feeling we have of being immersed in a world \u2013 be that real life, VR or a\u00a0drug-induced trip. He hopes to identify and perhaps even learn to control this hypothetical \u201cimmersion circuit\u201d. If he can, it might enable us to dial up or down how believable an experience is, create more effective therapies for mental ill-health and produce more visceral\u00a0training worlds for surgeons or firefighters. It would also, of course, be a\u00a0huge\u00a0breakthrough in neuroscience.<\/p>\n

Prediction machines<\/h2>\n

We don\u2019t fully understand how our minds create the seamless experience of\u2026<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

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[ad_1] In certain circles, the potent psychedelic N,N-dimethyltryptamine (DMT) is known as the \u201cspirit molecule\u201d for its peculiar ability to transport people into other worlds.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":263353,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[177],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/michigandigitalnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/263352"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/michigandigitalnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/michigandigitalnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michigandigitalnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michigandigitalnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=263352"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/michigandigitalnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/263352\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michigandigitalnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/263353"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/michigandigitalnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=263352"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michigandigitalnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=263352"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michigandigitalnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=263352"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}