Abstract
Mortality is an obvious if uncomfortable part of the human condition, yet it is impossible to study its impact on anyone who experiences it. Reports of phenomena associated with death such as out-of-the-body (OBE) and near death experiences (NDE) can only be studied post-hoc, since it is impossible to design a scientific study where an experimental group experiences death (and returns) and a control group does not. Yet NDEs seem to have a profound influence on the subsequent lives of people and are therefore worthy of study. Terror Management Theory, which argues that death anxiety contributes to in-group solidarity and hostility to out-groups, relies on studies that manipulate opinions and cannot be based on experiential evidence. Here we introduce a potential methodology that uses immersive virtual reality (VR) for the study of mortality and NDEs. Participants are embodied in alternate bodies in a beautiful island along with two companions. They explore the island and carry out tasks together. The mechanism of embodiment produces strong illusions of ownership over their life-sized virtual bodies. Over time each participant witnesses the death of the two companions and then her own death—which includes the reported features of an NDE (OBE, life review, the tunnel leading to white light) followed by a period of observation of the continuing activities in the virtual world on an external screen. Fifteen female participants experienced 6 sessions in the island, each starting as a child and gradually maturing, and eventually ageing and dying. Sixteen control subjects formed a waiting group. We introduce this as a methodology for the study of these issues, and present promising results, suggesting that those who experienced the island report life attitude changes, becoming more concerned with others and more interested in global rather than material issues compared to the control group. The results are based on a small sample size, and should be considered as indicative of the possibilities of this new methodology as a way forward for future studies in this field.
Highlights
Understanding the experience and impact of death from a scientific point of view is problematic since the people who experience it are, no longer around to report about what happened
We have argued elsewhere [17], and shown in many experiments—for example, [18,19,20]—that under these conditions, and when the virtual reality (VR) is programmed to respond appropriately to the reactions of participants, they tend to behave as if their experience were real
Two advertisements addressed to Psychology undergraduate students were posted in the webpage of the Department of Basic Psychology of the University of Barcelona, one referring to a 3 sessions experiment and the other referring to a 7 sessions experiment for the (Experimental group)
Summary
Understanding the experience and impact of death from a scientific point of view is problematic since the people who experience it are, no longer around to report about what happened The closest to this possibility are so-called Near Death Experiences (NDEs), where, typically due to coronary arrest, the patient dies, but is revived in a relatively short time period [1]. After revival patients may experience euphoria, a positive life renewal, where they become happier, more caring of others, and more concerned with universal issues rather than material ones [3,4,5,6,7,8] This cannot be studied experimentally, since there can be no group that experienced an experimentally induced NDE with results compared to a control group that did not. We describe a study that shows how Virtual Reality (VR) can provide a methodology for the study of the effects of a (simulated) death on attitudes and behaviours of those who experienced it, compared to a waiting control group
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