Numadelic VR Experiences for Improving Mental Health Outcomes in Patients Facing Life-Threatening Illness
Perhaps more than any other human experience, death has a fundamental significance owing to its inevitability. This is a reality of which we are becoming increasingly aware, given rapidly aging populations in many countries and large numbers of people facing life-threatening illnesses (LTIs). Over the last few decades, there has been increasing interest aimed at understanding what it is like to die. Emerging research has focused on NDE-ers – i.e., those who have come back from Near Death Experiences (NDEs). Many NDE-ers report a profound sense that awareness has the potential to persist beyond the physical body – i.e., the death of the physical body is not in fact the end. Interestingly, NDEs appear to dramatically diminish the anxiety associated with death. The ability of NDEs to transform attitudes toward death have inspired researchers to explore other types of experiences that can simulate what it’s like to have an NDE.
Glowacki et al recently outlined a ‘numadelic’ (spirit-manifesting) approach for designing virtual reality (VR) experiences. Numadelic design is grounded in reports of NDE-ers, including that which Glowacki himself experienced. (1) This project will undertake development and optimization of a multi-session numadelic VR program called ‘Clear Light’ (CL) which enables those facing LTIs to come together in VR and experience aspects of NDEs, giving them the opportunity to contemplate the possibility that awareness persists beyond the physical body. By simulating an NDE, CL aims to alleviate the fear, depression, anxiety, social isolation, and loneliness often faced by patients with LTIs, along with their family and loved ones. To optimize Clear Light to help people, we will undertake a series of lab-based studies and design research iterations which are informed by psychometrics, interviews, and physiological measurements. Liaising with a network of palliative care doctors and death doulas, we will carry out a randomized controlled trial (RCT) to evaluate whether CL improves the mental health of patients facing LTIs. Clear Light has the potential to initiate a new cultural conversation around what it’s like to live, and what it’s like to die.
