Meditating in Virtual Reality 2: Phenomenology of Vividness, Egocentricity and Absorption-Immersion

Abstract

The current study was designed to replicate and extend previous findings that demonstrate the efficacy of virtual reality (VR) technology to facilitate salient experiences of positive affect and wellbeing in response to meditative tasks, by (1) evaluating the phenomenological variables vividness, egocentricity, and immersiveness, as mediators of variability in positive affective response, and by (2) evaluating individual differences in trait absorption as a predictor of variability in positive affective response. The current experiment included 48 undergraduate students, all of whom completed both a brief VR and non-VR guided meditation session. Participants self-reported affective and meditative responses after each session using a battery of questionnaires. Participants experienced greater positive affect in response to VR versus non-VR guided meditation. Further, higher positive affect in response to VR meditation was (1) partially mediated by the experience of higher immersiveness, which was partially mediated by the experience of higher egocentricity in turn, and (2) predicted by higher trait absorption. Guided meditation in VR is associated with increased positive affect in comparison to non-VR meditation partly due to its effects on egocentricity and immersiveness, especially among participants high in trait absorption.