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Inside the Mind of a Schizophrenic Through Virtual Reality
blottsie writes Viscira produces videos and technology simulations for the healthcare industry, and the project I tested called "Mindscape" was created for a pharmaceutical company that wanted to give potential clients insight into what some schizophrenic patients might feel like in a real-life scenario. Unlike audio tests or videos that show you a first-person perspective of schizophrenic experiences, Viscira's demonstration uses the Oculus Rift headset and is entirely immersive. You can look around at each individual's face, and up and down the hallway. Walk through the elevator, and hear voices that appear to be coming from both strangers and your own head.
No matter how hard you try, you cannot "get into the mind" of anyone*.
*ftfy. - I think it is what they call the qualia problem.
However it still might be useful in a similar sense as lenses that hamper your eyesight to resemble a cataract. It gives the researcher an idea how senses of such an individual are altering his/her perception of the world.
Timothy Leary and other researchers used LSD when it was still legal, to induce temporary psychosis in themselves and other clinicians.
They did so to better understand the mindscape of psychotic patients. A schizophrenic is not psychotic all the time, but the brain's full tilt mode is reportedly really close to what can be achieved by consumption of LSD. Recreational consumers of LSD call this state a bad trip.
Sadly, since LSD is one of the "bad" drugs that needs to have "war" waged against it, clinical experiments with it have all but ceased. Now, if you want to explore its potential as a pharmaceutical substance, you have to join the CIA (or other shady organization). I doubt they're working on helping schizophrenics though.
What if schizophrenic people weren't "hallucinating", so to speak, but were able to actually "perceive" these energies or beings?
More often than not, the "messages" are coming from God/Jesus or Satan, according to the patient. Mind you, my sample population is almost completely Judeo-Christian in orientation. It should be completely unsurprising that such perceptions are often ascribed to powerful supernatural entities from the patient's own psyche. If you want to argue that it's really Jesus calling, you're going to have to explain why He never calls the Muslim or Hindu schizophrenics.
Mind you, I'm not trying to discount the possibility of the paranormal in general, but when it comes to the sensory experiences of those who suffer from certain disorders, this is well plowed ground. Peddle it someplace else.