Numadelic VR Experiences for Improving Mental Health Outcomes in Patients Facing Life-Threatening Illness

Overview:

Researchers are using virtual reality to simulate near-death experiences in order to study their potential to reduce death anxiety and improve mental health in terminally ill patients and their loved ones.

Abstract:

Perhaps more than any other experience, death has a fundamental significance owing to its inevitability. Theoretical frameworks for thinking about death often invoke ‘terror management theory’ (TMT), which proposes that high anxiety results from the conflict between humans’ evolutionary self-preservation instinct and awareness of their inevitable mortality. TMT frames human behavior as a way of managing this fundamental anxiety – e.g., through constructing cultural beliefs, systems, and communities that counter biological mortality with more significant and enduring forms of meaning and value. Broadly speaking, trauma tends to amplify fear. Seen through the lens of TMT, the experience of ‘nearly dying’ should therefore amplify death anxiety. NDEs however, offer a fascinating exception to TMT: they appear to quickly and dramatically diminish the anxiety associated with death. Many who have experienced NDEs report a sense that awareness persists beyond the physical body. The dramatic benefits associated with NDEs in transforming attitudes toward death have inspired researchers to explore other types of experiences that mimic NDEs. For example, the psychedelic therapy pioneer Walter Pahnke proposed that self-transcendent states of consciousness which arise during psychedelic drug experiences (PsyDEs) helped patients facing life-threatening illnesses (LTIs) address their fear of the unknown.

In recent work, Glowacki et al described a ‘numadelic’ aesthetic – i.e., an approach for constructing immersive digital experiences which is based on the phenomenology reported by those who have undergone NDEs. (1) Numadelic VR has previously shown the ability to elicit non-ordinary states, achieving scores comparable to moderate doses of PsYDs on several psychometric scales. (2) This project will undertake to develop and optimize and a multi-session numadelic VR program called ‘Clear Light’ (CL) which invites groups of people to experience aspects of NDEs and contemplate whether awareness persists beyond the physical body. By simulating aspects of NDEs, CL aims directly addresses 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, we will undertake a series of lab-based studies and design research iterations which are informed by psychometrics, phenomenological interviews, and physiological measurements. Liaising with a network of palliative care doctors and death doulas, we will carry out a randomized controlled trial (RCT) comparing CL to treatment-as-usual control conditions, tracking pre and post outcome measures (both short-term and long-term) which evaluate the efficacy of mental health treatments in patients facing LTIs.

References

1. D. R. Glowacki, VR models of death and psychedelics: an aesthetic paradigm for design beyond day-to-day phenomenology. Frontiers in Virtual Reality 4, (2024).

2. D. R. Glowacki et al., Group VR experiences can produce ego attenuation and connectedness comparable to psychedelics. Scientific Reports 12, 8995 (2022).

Broader Impact:

This project is developing a virtual reality experience that simulates near-death states to help terminally ill patients and their loved ones cope with fear, depression, and isolation. By offering a sense of peace and connection through immersive, numadelic journeys, the program could ease emotional suffering in the face of mortality. If successful, it may provide a powerful new tool for improving end-of-life mental health and well-being.