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Mindfulness Meditators Are Less Affected By Virtual Reality (sciencedirect.com)
vrml writes: People often enroll in mindfulness meditation courses to pursue better health, but can such practices have unintended consequences on how they are engaged by emerging technologies such as virtual reality (VR)? That's what comes out from a new study published by the Computers in Human Behavior. A group of people with no experience in meditation tried scary VR experiences with an head-mounted display, while researchers measured their emotional reactions through physiological parameters such as heart activity and facial muscles activity. Then, half the participants followed a typical 8-week mindfulness course, while the other half did not (control group). At the end of the 8 weeks, they tried VR again. Participants who had practiced mindfulness during the 8 weeks were much less affected by VR: the scary VR experiences were not able to increase their heart rate as 8 weeks earlier, facial muscles activity was reduced, and their subjective perception of VR was consistent with this lack of engagement. On the contrary, the control group did not show such changes, and was still affected by VR. The paper interprets this emotional deactivation of meditators in terms of self-regulation of attention and detachment that can be gained through mindfulness, and can persist also when people (as these participants trying VR) are not meditating.
...is that one is not affected by hipster bullshit shallow flashy distractions.
Fuck, I used to think mindfulness was eastern woowoo, but it's evolved into something that's actually useful for keeping oneself focused and rational, and I'm pleased to benefit from it. This is just another reason to recommend it.
"Mindfulness meditation" is how one would describe someone actively practicing not living in the moment. In other words, they're saying that people who exist higher on the consciousness scale (there are several terms for what boils down to heightened awareness) are better able to distinguish reality from virtual reality.
"Mindfulness meditation" is how one would describe someone actively practicing not living in the moment. In other words, they're saying that people who exist higher on the consciousness scale (there are several terms for what boils down to heightened awareness) are better able to distinguish reality from virtual reality.
Actually, you have that backwards. "Mindfulness" is very much about living in the moment. It's nothing new, just a Western term for what is basically zen meditation. Think of it in terms of being "mindful," as in, just paying attention and not having your head up your ass.
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Many CBT practitioners teach or advise mindfulness, though.
John_Chalisque