Facilitating real-life creative insight through psychedelic virtual reality

Abstract

The goal of the present work was to study the potential of facilitating creative insight in a real-life setting. To that end, participants were recruited who were struggling with a creative problem and had reached an impasse. Based on previous research, we hypothesized that solutions might be facilitated through virtual reality that replicates visual content experienced under the influence of psychedelics. Psychedelic visual experiences might support creative insight by relaxing the priors and constraints the person has about their creative problem. To test this idea, we tested a psychedelic virtual reality (VR) and developed a novel VR control environment. We observed that qualitatively psychedelic VR was more useful for eliciting creative insights than the control. We provide a thematic analysis demonstrating that psychedelic VR supported several aspects of creative insight. Taken together, we tested a novel method of psychedelic virtual reality to enhance creativity in real-life settings and observed encouraging results, which need to be investigated in larger studies.

Exploring the Therapeutic Potential of Virtual Reality: A Review on the Simulation of Psychedelic Effects for Treating Psychological Disorders

“…Results demonstrate that this tool elicits intersubjective STEs, attenuating egoic identity and promoting a sense of connection, through the design of phenomenological experiences similar to those obtained from psychedelic substances [56,77]. Furthermore, these new techniques enable the enhancement of constructs such as Cognitive Flexibility [57,58] and creativity [64,65]. Additionally, they promote positive emotions, a sense of relaxation, and altered perceptions [29,30].…”

“…Furthermore, the simulation of hallucinations via VR has also been used to promote creativity and positive emotions in general [64,65]. Participants who tested this technique often reported experiencing positive emotions, alterations in sense of self, feelings of joy/pleasure, feelings of calmness/peace, relaxation, freedom, comfortableness, and embodied interactions [29,30]; but also negative emotions, tiredness/sleepiness, lack of novel insights, feelings of being trapped, and boredom [29,30].…”