Relearning the body: Oculus Rift and physical dissociation

I’ve been exploring the Oculus Rift developer forums with a view to examining the dissociative and self-shaping effects of virtual reality (VR) reported by Jaron Lanier and other users of VR.

As I’ve argued before, various technologies can amplify a sense of the physical self that extends outside of the body, and incorporates both other humans and ‘inanimate’ objects into your sense of personhood. VR, in immersing users in an alternate world over which they have an unusual amount of control, has the potential to create a sense of the physical self that is very different to that which we experience in the ‘real’ world.

One particular piece of hardware looks set to bring immersive VR to the masses. Oculus Rift is a VR headset which stormed through a Kickstarter campaign, raising ten times their goal of $250,000. With rave reviews and heartwarming viral videos, the Rift, with a name that itself hints at a dramatic shift from the world most of us have experienced so far, looks set to spread like wildfire once the first consumer kits are released. For now, though, relatively few ‘developer kits’ have been distributed globally, with users commenting on their experiences on Reddit and in the Oculus Rift forums.

Among a variety of discussions in the forums (including a very popular thread concerning ‘Sex or porn VR games’), there are a number which have been started by users who have felt unexpected effects during and after use of the system: situations in which they’ve been led to reconsider their own physical shape and movement. Many users report feeling nauseous or experiencing ‘simulator sickness’ when first using the headset, especially if playing games in which they have no avatar or a fixed object to focus on. Some have mentioned that the most immersive experiences come from playing simulations which present their avatars in a similar position to their physical bodies (such as in a cockpit), though as this redditor describes, inhabiting a body that’s not your own can feel quite strange:

“Looking down and seeing my body is actually very comforting. Not sure why, but it feels good to see my body. Normally I don’t give a shit in first person games I play. The shoulders of the character in game seem to be lower than my own actual shoulders. The legs seem to be longer but are oddly shaped. As if they become very thin. The feet on this character are incredibly tiny. The character model sitting in the seat behind me seems to be too close, it just doesn’t look quite right positional wise.”

Comparing views from outside and inside Rift Source: chiggenwingz, http://imgur.com/a/48i0s

For me, the most interesting threads concern the long-term or delayed responses to using the Rift. One user gives an account of a strange experience after playing with the ‘flying sandbox’ demo:

“After the session was over and I was driving home I noticed an odd sensation. When I made turns in my vehicle, the turning sensation felt strange. My guess is that during VR my brain was like “hey, we’re not getting any feedback from your body during this left turn, but that’s okay. I’ll consider that normal now.” Then, my brain was thrown for a loop when it actually DID get feedback for a left turn, so the response felt doubled. I hope that makes sense… it felt like any movements I made in my car were exaggerated.”

This post was followed up by analogous anecdotes from other members:

“I’ve had similar experiences. I haven’t played games much in the Rift, but after playing HL2 for an hour or so, as late as the day after I had fleeting feelings of turning when I wasn’t, it felt weird when I turned, and I had headaches (which I can’t say for sure were from the Rift but all signs point to it).”

Now, many of us have experienced what it feels like to walk on dry land after having spent some time on a boat – the apparent swaying which can last for hours, and even seep into our dreams. When you’re at sea, your body and mind adjust to overstimulation (the swaying of the boat) in order to give an illusion of stability. This enables you not only to overcome seasickness, but also to move your limbs more accurately in this unusual situation. All the while, you remain aware of your body and fight to maintain control of it.

When you get back onto terra firma, it may a take while for your mind and body to re-attune to more solid and predictable surroundings, but your experience of inhabiting your body remains essentially the same. In both land and at sea, your senses align so that you can see and feel the physical actions in the body you’re trying to control.

When you enter VR, however, your body is effectively left behind. Even if you can see some sort of avatar on the screen, your use of it is mediated through interactions with a controller that you cannot see, and which does not provide the sensory feedback that corresponds to what you see and experience. The body you perceive through your eyes and even your ears is radically severed from the body you can feel. At first, as the quotes above suggest, this can just seem a bit weird, and even funny: “The legs seem to be longer but are oddly shaped. As if they become very thin. The feet on this character are incredibly tiny”.

However, user reports of strange sensations in the real world after they have been using the Rift are more worrying. Movements that feel ‘exaggerated’, ‘fleeting feelings of turning when I wasn’t’ and even a ‘feeling of being in another distinct reality’ hint at a shift in self-perception that, at the very least, requires that users take time to relearn how to use their bodies, and in worst-case-scenarios, may lead to a more profound and lasting disconnection from their physical selves.