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I was a lizard fleeing a dinosaur.

I was a dancing robot surrounded by apes. I was a cell that witnessed the cosmos exploding to life. I was a London rioter fighting the police and losing.

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These computer-generated hallucinations are part of theLucid Realities exposition at Montreal’s Phi Centre. The expo is a collection of pieces that blur the lines between art, film, video games and, well, reality itself.

To experience most of the installations, visitors have to wear a pair of virtual reality goggles. Having never experienced VR myself, I assumed that once they locked me into the device it would trigger a series of horrors straight out of a David Cronenberg film.

The whole setup seemed like vintage Cronenberg — a nondescript room full of strangers about to hook their brains up to a piece of futuristic, mind-altering technology. What could possibly go wrong?

And while I love a good head explosion as much as the next reporter, I must admit the thought of my consciousness being swallowed by a machine felt a little heavy for a weekday morning. My fate seemed especially grim after I informed the Phi Centre’s head of communications that this was my first time inside this virtual reality.

“It’s your first time?” said Myriam Achard, grinning. “You’re in for quite the experience.”

Oh, dear.