Robin Arnott had a peak experience from a LSD trip at Burning Man, and wanted to see if he could replicate this type of peak psychedelic experience within virtual reality. The result of four years of work is a transcendent experience called SoundSelf that creates a diffuse feedback loop between your toning and a variety of generative abstract art visuals. So I had a chance to catch up with Robin to talk about using VR to cultivate a synthetic peak experience, using VR as a transformative technology, and the role of contemplative spiritual practices.

LISTEN TO THE VOICES OF VR PODCAST

http://voicesofvr.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/Voices-of-VR-484-Robin-Arnott.mp3

SoundSelf is the closest experience I’ve had where I felt like I had taken a digital drug, and it’s the type of experience that is really difficult to describe. Pendleton Ward was raving about his peak experience with SoundSelf VR back in episode #410, and I expect that this could be one of many unique lived “erlebnis” experiences that you just have to try to understand.

There’s a beta release available at SoundSelf.com, but the full release of the experience should be launching sometime in 2017.

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