VR Meditation – what is it, and why would you put those two things in the same sentence?

It’s 2020, and the world is busy. We all have this conceived idea of what meditation is. When you ask the average person on the street what comes to mind when they hear the word “meditation”, you are likely to hear stories so far away from your day-to-day life that it becomes unfathomably difficult for you to relate to it. Visions of Buddhist monks on mountainsides in quiet contemplation is very far from a hectic millennials big-city life.

Still, meditation has proved to have a plethora of health-based benefits to the average Joe and Jane. Meditation helps us face the challenges of our daily lives in many different ways such as:

Reducing our levels of anxiety (Source)

Improving our capacity to focus (Source)

Virtual reality, and headsets like the Samsung GearVR and the Oculus Go are currently more popular than ever. With them, you have the powers to put aside the world as you know it, and go anywhere you want to go.

This opportunity begs the question: Is it possible to build a bridge between mindfulness and technology?

This seems to be a valid question. There are several meditation-based applications out there that have tried, and the genre as a whole looks popular. Today we are going to be addressing 5 such meditation apps that all have received high praises for their ability to do just that.

5. House of Meditation

House of Meditation is first up on today’s list of the best VR meditation apps for the Samsung GearVR. This is one of the more experimental apps on today’s list. Unlike the two others, this one utilizes more complex animations and feels a bit more cartoon-like at times. With that being said, it is incredibly beautiful and incredibly immersive. If you are new to meditation, and the completely still bores you a bit, this is probably the one for you. The experience packs 8 stunning environments to meditate in, and according to its creators, help cope with anxiety, stress, exhaustion, insomnia., frustration and lack of focus.

Developer: Cerevrum

Platform: Samsung GearVR, HTC Vive, Oculus Rift

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4. Spirit of Meditation

Spirit of Meditation captures the essence of what quiet, peaceful meditation should be. The environment built here is realistic, relaxing and in-sync with what most people would love if what they are after is a beautiful environment to escape the arms race of work and daily stress.The experience comes out-of-the-box with a beautiful yoga room and quiet soothing waters. The project is a 21 Day Mantra meditation experience led by Spirit of Mantra authors Deva Premal and Miten.

Developer: TheArtery VFX

Platform: Samsung GearVR, Oculus Go

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3. Chakra VR

Chakra is an immersive VR meditation app that will help you ease down a bit, and learn about all the different chakras while doing so. Released back in July 2018, few apps of its kind has received this much positive feedback, and is definetely worth going over, if you’re looking to get away from the usual hack-and-slashery of the average VR game.

Developer: Heal VR

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2. Liminal

Liminal is a soothing and inspirational VR meditation experience for anyone who wants to tap out and take a break from the pressure of daily life. In it, you get to experience tried and tested techniques whose goal is to induce and augment your emotional and cognitive states. Take up either the Calm or Energy mode, and feel either relaxing and tranquil experiences, or fun and invigorating ones, all in the span of one session, from one hell of an app.

Developer: Liminal VR

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1. Guided Meditation

Guided Meditation VR broke out of the niche-app reputation of apps of the Samsung Gear VR pretty quickly after its initial release. It was one of the very first VR meditation apps on the market, and has expanded its features ever since day one. The app, praised for its groundbreaking visuals and convincing escape from reality has been the talk of the town since early 2014. It rocks still, and rightly deserves our spot of the best meditation app of all time for the Samsung Gear VR. There’s a reason it’s currently being utilized by more than 100,000 users across the world.

Cubicle Ninjas has managed to solidify to the market, the most captivating VR mediation experiences of all time, and with such confidence that it seems unlikely that we will see a contender to the throne anytime soon.

Developer: Cubicle Ninjas

Platform: Samsung GearVR, HTC Vive, Oculus Rift, Oculus Go

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Honorable Mentions

While the list had to be short today, we took a look at the the entire content library over at the Oculus app store and a shout out goes out to all the content creators out there, pushing the envelope of unifying mindfulness and technology. Here’s a list of awesome apps that while being up there in terms of quality, didn’t quite make it to the list this round:

Summary: Top 5 Best VR Meditation Apps of 2020

That’s it folks. With that we reach the end of our list, and you can safely pack away your VR headset for now. VR meditation, as we can see, takes many different shapes and forms, and we will likely see a surge in these as the release of the Oculus Go and other standalone VR headsets starts hitting the mainstream market. Mindfulness is important in this constantly fluctuating industry of technology, and we need to zone out every now and then. It is an interesting time to be alive for sure.

Reaching the end of the list, we are once again reminded that virtual reality is able to help us with so much more than just cinema experiences and gaming. Healthcare, journalism and education all has been improved and innovated with a little VR, and it seems like there is no sense of slowing down this industry of ours.